21st Century Plague: Ebola

The 2014 Ebola epidemic is the largest in history, affecting multiple countries in West Africa. A small number of cases in Lagos and Port Harcourt, Nigeria, have been associated with a man from Liberia who traveled to Lagos and died from Ebola, but the virus does not appear to have been widely spread in Nigeria. The case in Senegal is related to a man who traveled there from Guinea.

On 9/30/2014, CDC confirmed, the first travel-associated case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the United States. CDC and partners are taking precautions to prevent the spread of Ebola within the United States. CDC is working with other U.S. government agencies, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other domestic and international partners and has activated its Emergency Operations Center to help coordinate technical assistance and control activities with partners. CDC has also deployed teams of public health experts to West Africa and will continue to send experts to the affected countries.

Recently:

October 5, 2014: Ebola Contact Tracing, Dallas, Texas
October 5, 2014: What You Need To Know About Ebola
October 4, 2014: Update: Sick airline passenger, Newark

Outbreak Update

    On 9/30/2014, CDC confirmed, the first travel-associated case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the United States.

    New cases have been reported from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Nigeria and Senegal have not reported any new cases since September 5, 2014, and August 29, 2014, respectively. In Senegal, all contacts have now completed their 21-day follow up, with no further cases of Ebola reported.
    On August 29, 2014, Senegal’s Ministry of Public Health and Social Affairs announced a case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Senegal. The case is in a man from Guinea who traveled to Senegal.

    The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reported cases of Ebola. These cases are not related to the ongoing outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. For information on the outbreak in DRC, see the 2014 Ebola Outbreak in DRC page.

    HHS has contracted with Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. to develop and manufacture ZMapp. Mapp Biopharmaceutical will manufacture a small amount of the drug for early stage clinical safety studies and nonclinical studies.

    NIH will begin initial human testing of an investigational vaccine to prevent EVD in early September and is working with a company to develop an antiviral drug to treat Ebola.

    U.S. Department of Defense has funded two companies that are developing drug therapies for Ebola and is working with another company to develop an Ebola vaccine.

    CDC returned a staff member from West Africa by charter flight after the employee had low-risk contact with an international health worker who recently tested positive for Ebola. The CDC staff member was not sick with Ebola, did not show symptoms of the disease, and therefore posed no risk to friends, family, co-workers, or the public.

The above has several excerpts from the CDC.

Basically we have thousands infected in Africa at the moment.

Disease modelers project a rapidly rising toll from Ebola

 

A. Vespignani

If spread continues at the current rate, a model by Alessandro Vespignani and colleagues projects close to 10,000 Ebola infections by 24 September. (The shaded area provides the projection’s variability range.)

By

Kai Kupferschmidt

31 August 2014 10:00 am

Alessandro Vespignani hopes that his latest work will turn out to be wrong. In July, the physicist from Northeastern University in Boston started modeling how the deadly Ebola virus may spread in West Africa. Extrapolating existing trends, the number of the sick and dying mounts rapidly from the current toll—more than 3000 cases and 1500 deaths—to about 10,000 cases by 24 September, and hundreds of thousands in the months after that. “The numbers are really scary,” he says—although he stresses that the model assumes control efforts aren’t stepped up. “We all hope to see this NOT happening,” Vespigani writes in an e-mail.

Vespignani is not the only one trying to predict how the unprecedented outbreak will progress. Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the number of cases could ultimately exceed 20,000. And scientists across the world are scrambling to create computer models that accurately describe the spread of the deadly virus. Not all of them look quite as bleak as Vespignani’s. But the modelers all agree that current efforts to control the epidemic are not enough to stop the deadly pathogen in its tracks.  http://news.sciencemag.org/health/2014/08/disease-modelers-project-rapidly-rising-toll-ebola

The World Health Organization – a United Nations group – sees it pretty badly as well.

World Health Organization researchers issued a dire new forecast for the Ebola epidemic Tuesday, one that sees 20,000 cases by November, much sooner than previous estimates. And 70 percent of patients are dying.

That’s a big increase over the previous estimates of a 50 percent fatality rate.

“These data indicate that without drastic improvements in control measures, the numbers of cases of and deaths from Ebola virus disease are expected to continue increasing from hundreds to thousands per week in the coming months,” the WHO Ebola Response Team, led by Dr. Christopher Dye, wrote in a report rushed into print by the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-death-rate-70-percent-who-says-dire-new-forecast-n209226

This morning (or late last night) a nurse in Spain was diagnosed with Ebola.  She was a caregiver to two priests whom had contracted the disease, and subsequently died from the infection.  As of an hour ago, her husband has been placed in isolation by the Spanish government, along with at least two other individuals believed to have been working with the nurse at some point.  It is unclear whether they are medical workers or other people that were just in contact with her.

In recent days, a person in Hawaii was placed into isolation and tested for Ebola.  That turned out to be negative.

Yesterday a cameraman was brought to Omaha Nebraska for treatment.

At least 100 people are said to have been in direct contact with Mr. Duncan, the traveler from Liberia who showed up in Dallas the other day with Ebola.  He has taken a turn for the worse and is in critical condition as of today.  His “family” – a girlfriend (apparently) and her children we believe have been moved to a nice, new home and placed in isolation (under government orders), complete with armed guards.  The apartment was cleaned yesterday.  The cleaning company owner stated he didn’t “know what would happen with the contaminated materials” and that was up to the “government”.

Obama has consistently refused to deny entry to the United States by people traveling from Ebola-stricken countries.  Congress has yet to be heard from.

Various Department of Homeland Security Agencies are acting up, acting out, or simply asleep at the wheel.

Epidemics spread because people don’t wash their hands or take other precautions.  Ebola allegedly spreads by “close contact” with individuals who are infected, because of bodily fluids.

It’s funny how the government, in trying to prevent a panic has not stopped lying about passing viruses.  First it was “not air borne” and then it was “You have to have contact with bodily fluids:.  Then we see where Mr. Duncan vomited all over a street outside the apartment complex, inside the complex, in his bed, the bathroom, on the floor.  And then inside an ambulance.  And the EMT personnel had NO IDEA IT WAS EBOLA.  They are in isolation.  The people who rode around in the ambulance (a homeless man for instance) walked away without knowing. (He has been found and apparently he too is in isolation).

Now, if you have a cold, the cold VIRUS eventually destroys the cells it takes over and you spew out virus inside of droplets you cough or sneeze out.

One of the symptoms of ebola is a “cough” (look it up for yourself, don’t believe me).  Ebola is a virus.  Ebola takes over cells in your body to replicate itself.  Ebola then destorys the cell.  How do you think that ebola is passed from person to person?

Through “bodily fluids”. Most LIKELY from droplets coughed/sneezed out of the body.  Viruses, like all other forms of life are difficult to kill off.  Usually viruses will remain viable for years because they are wrapped in a shell that protects them from the environment, until they can get inside a receptive host.

Ebola… is, pardon the pun, nothing to sneeze about.  This could be the final plague of the planet.

And no, I am not attempting to scaremonger.  The information in this article is factual, all check-able, and not opinion (except my statement about the “Final Plague” of course.  In truth, a plague, like the Black Plague (Bubonic Plague) passed through the population due to poor hygienic conditions, fleas and dirty people.

Colds routinely pass rapidly through a population in America, and people carry viruses aboard aircraft from coast to coast daily.

 Influenza (flu) also passed through the population in the US rather quickly.

Along with Ebola, America has a serious threat already here, already spreading and affecting dozens of children.  Enterovirus D-68.  This virus has already killed one child and affected many others.  According to other news articles at least five people have actually died, while the media makes a huge point of saying “one”.  So… more lies? (http://sharylattkisson.com/polio-like-outbreak-claims-fifth-life-in-u-s?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SharylAttkisson+%28Sharyl+Attkisson%29)

There are more than 100 known varieties of non-polio enteroviruses in the world, and they cause 10 to 15 million infections every year, ranging from the common cold (rhinovirus), to hand, foot, and mouth disease (coxsackie), to meningitis and gastrointestinal illness. Enteroviruses are harbored in the GI tract, but they can cause symptoms all over the body depending on strain. (http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/03/6-things-all-parents-should-know-about-enterovirus-d68/)

Poliovirus (aka Polio) is also an enterovirus.

 On Fox News, right now as this is being written, a doctor is telling us that indeed viruses, including ebola can live for SEVERAL hours allowing others to contact it, and perhaps contract the disease.

As a point of reference refer back to Mr. Duncan, the Liberian, who came here deliberately with the disease knowing full well he had contracted it and lied to authorities in an effort to ensure his survival, vomiting all over the apartment, the bedding, the outside street, the inside of the ambulance and quite probably the inside of the hospital.

Potentially thousands have been exposed to Ebola.  All it will take is ONE PERSON to remain undiagnosed out on the streets, in contact with others.  One person.

While a cold or the flu can kill, usually it doesn’t.  Flu can kill people in weakened condition, the young, the elderly.

Ebola kills 90% of the people it infects, in horrible ways.  Young, Old, middle aged, everyone.  90%.

Ebola isn’t called “Hemorrhagic Fever” for nothing.

Never mind “The Stand”, this stuff is Stephen King’s Nightmare.

 

Ebola: KY, GA, DC and TX

In addition to Texas (Dallas), reports are coming in from Kentucky, Georgia and DC of patients in isolation with signs/symptoms of Ebola.

http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/26697806/dc-hospital-treating-patient-presenting-with-symptoms-that-could-be-associated-with-ebola (DC)

http://www.inquisitr.com/1515054/ebola-two-people-in-kentucky-may-also-have-contracted-the-deadly-virus/ (KY)

http://www.ibtimes.com/us-ebola-outbreak-possible-ebola-patients-being-monitored-dc-hospital-georgia-jail-1699182 (GA)

 

Folks…. this is important.  Read it.  No, I’m not scaremongering, I want people to understand the gravity of the situation.  The fact is the government is now saying things like “Fear is dangerous” and “don’t panic”.  If you have a clue you won’t PANIC anyway, you will PREPARE.  That’s all I want to do, convince folks to PREPARE.  Don’t go nuts, don’t buy everything in the store, don’t mortgage your house for food and water, BUT PREPARE to stay inside awhile.

The government isn’t GOING TO HELP YOU IF YOU GET SICK.  There are four people who we KNOW have been exposed, locked  in an apartment complex, they aren’t getting treatment, and the place is JUST NOW being cleaned today.  That’s BAD NEWS.  They’ve spent several days exposed to the germs inside the apartment.  BAD NEWS.  Dead people walking.

So read the rest of what I wrote awhile ago for another site:

BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People CAN BE INFECTED, HAVE NO SYMPTOMS and BE CONTAGIOUS.

Several diseases are like that.

Signs and symptoms of Ebola usually begin suddenly with an influenza-like stage characterized by fatigue, fever, headaches, joint, muscle, and abdominal pain

Vomiting, diarrhea, and loss of appetite are also common.

Less common symptoms include the following: sore throat, chest pain, hiccups, shortness of breath, and trouble swallowing.

The average time between contracting the infection and the start of symptoms (incubation period) is 8 to 10 days, but it can vary between 2 and 21 days.

Skin manifestations may include a maculopapular rash (in about 50% of cases).

Early symptoms of EVD may be similar to those of malaria, dengue fever, or other tropical fevers, before the disease progresses to the bleeding phase.

Now, read this part VERY CLOSELY:

Transmission

Human-to-human transmission can occur via direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from an infected person (including embalming of an infected dead person) or by contact with objects contaminated by the virus, particularly needles and syringes.

Other body fluids with ebola virus include saliva, mucus, vomit, feces, sweat, tears, breast milk, urine, and semen. Entry points include the nose, mouth, eyes, or open wounds, cuts and abrasions.

The potential for widespread EVD infections is considered low as the disease is only spread by direct contact with the secretions from someone who is showing signs of infection.

The symptoms limit a person’s ability to spread the disease as they are often too sick to travel.

Because dead bodies are still infectious, local traditional burial rituals may spread the disease.

Nearly two thirds of the cases of Ebola in Guinea during the 2014 outbreak are believed to be due to burial practices.

Semen may be infectious in survivors for up to 3 months.

It is not entirely clear how an outbreak is initially started.

The initial infection is believed to occur after ebola virus is transmitted to a human by contact with an infected animal’s body fluids.

The cameraman and the crew all followed standard procedures to prevent infection. It didn’t help him. He’s sick and infected. How did he become infected? Dirty water? Touching something?

Whether they want to admit it or not, the family in quarantine are dead people walking.

Finally, we have this:

Airborne transmission has not been documented during EVD outbreaks. They are, however, infectious as breathable 0.8– to 1.2-μm laboratory-generated droplets. The virus has been shown to travel, without contact, from pigs to primates, although the same study failed to demonstrate similar transmission between non-human primates.

So, they are lying about ebola not being passed in the air.  The following article is NOT about ebola, but passing of viruses via coughing and sneezing.  Ebola has coughing and sneezing, just like colds.  It’s a VIRUS.  Viruses can’t be killed with antibiotics and aspirin.

Infectious Droplets From Coughs And Sneezes Travel Much Farther Than Previously Believed; Germs Spread By ‘Gas Clouds’

By Lecia Bushak | Apr 8, 2014 06:40 PM EDT

Researchers have now found that covering your mouth during a sneeze may not do much to prevent droplets from spreading: they are suspended by a gas cloud that allows them to travel farther than previously estimated.

Casually covering a sneeze with your hand may not really stop the germs from spreading.

A new study conducted by researchers at Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that coughs and sneezes actually have “gas clouds,” also dubbed “multiphase turbulent buoyant clouds,” that spread infectious droplets out much farther than previously believed.

Suspended in a gas cloud, droplets from a cough or sneeze billow farther out as opposed to staying in one enclosed area, near the sneezing person’s mouth. It’s similar to smoke emerging from a smokestack, the researchers note.

“When you cough or sneeze, you see the droplets, or feel them if someone sneezes on you,” John Bush, a professor of applied mathematics at MIT and a co-author of the study, said in a press release. “But you don’t see the cloud, the invisible gas phase. The influence of this gas cloud is to extend the range of the individual droplets, particularly the small ones.”

The study found smaller droplets that are produced by sneezes or coughs can actually travel 5 to 200 times further than if they moved as “groups of unconnected particles,” which researchers had previously assumed. These so-called gas clouds are able to keep smaller particles suspended in the air, and more likely to float around rather than get caught behind your hand.

In the study, researchers used high-speed imaging to capture droplets and gas clouds of coughs and sneezes. They paired that with laboratory stimulations and mathematical modeling to better analyze how these droplets move after being projected into the air. They will now continue research in order to better understand how the pathogens being carried by the droplets move — and where exactly they go.

“The cloud entrains ambient air into it and continues to grow and mix,” Lydia Bourouiba, assistant professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a co-author of the study, said in the press release. “But as the cloud grows, it slows down, and so is less able to suspend the droplets within it. You thus cannot model this as isolated droplets moving ballistically.”

The authors conclude that contamination in the air is possible in a much more direct route than previously assumed. Who knew that examining fluid-mechanics was so important in analyzing a sneeze.

The Government KNEW Ebola was coming – and did nothing to prevent it

Ah HA!  The government DID see this coming.  Our government is SO concerned with internal conditions and the control of the American population that they can’t actually take the time to consider incoming problems, like too many illegal immigrants (one is too many, they are ILLEGAL!), the spread of diseases from said immigrants (children suffering from debilitating entroviruses that are now causing paralysis and even death) and the stopping of air travel in and out of Ebola-stricken countries.  Instead, it’s the damned Right Wing Nutjobs with guns, Bibles and the Constitution that irks them the most.

If a few Americans are exposed to Ebola, then – well, in the words of Rahm Emanuel:

“You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Things like, say, Martial Law?  Things like “banning guns”?  Things like “Control Americans”

Read Carefully:

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2014/10/02/ebola-causes-concerns-michigan/16595549/

Ebola’s U.S. arrival comes with concerns for Michigan

Cassandra Spratling and Eric D. Lawrence; Detroit Free Press staff Writers 3:05 p.m. EDT October 2, 2014

(Photo: AFP/Getty Images )

Story Highlights

• Davis said health care workers know what to do if they encounter someone suspected of having Ebola.
• Symptoms include a fever of more than 105 degrees, severe headaches, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and bleeding.
• The person also must have arrived from West Africa or been in contact with someone who came from there.

Michigan health care professionals are informed and ready to deal with the threat of the Ebola virus that is now on American shores. But there is no need to worry about it spreading rapidly, as it has done in some West African countries where it has killed thousands of people.

That’s the message from several health care professionals and infectious disease specialists in Michigan.

“What the public should know is that the public health system across the state has been preparing for the possibility of a person being diagnosed here for several weeks now,” said Dr. Matthew Davis, chief medical executive at the Michigan Department of Community Health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed earlier this week that the first case of Ebola in the United States had been diagnosed, involving a person who had traveled to Dallas from West Africa. The man developed symptoms about five days after arriving in the United States and sought medical care. He was isolated and local health care officials have started identifying people who might have come into contact with him for further monitoring.

Davis said there have been numerous conversations between local, state and federal healthcare officials to ensure that health care workers know what to do if they encounter someone suspected of having the Ebola virus.

Symptoms include a fever of more than 105 degrees, severe headaches, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and bleeding.

“There also has to be a situation where a person has been in contact in the past 21 days with a person known or suspected to have Ebola,” Davis said.

The virus is spread through direct contact with the blood and body fluids of an infected person with Ebola or with objects — such as needles — that have been contaminated with the virus.

Dr. Katherine Reyes, an infectious diseases physician at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, said the United States’ health care system is better prepared to stop the spread of the virus than many other nations.

“There is a big difference between health care and infectious disease control in the United States and in parts of West Africa where Ebola is spreading,” Reyes said.

The doctors said anyone suspected of having Ebola would be isolated from other patients immediately and treated by health care workers wearing protective clothing. State and federal public health officials also would be notified.

Davis said people visiting his practice in Ann Arbor Wednesday wanted to know how real the threat of Ebola is for them and their children.

“My response is our hospitals and health systems are all alert and vigilant and prepared for the possibility of Ebola, but the risk of it spreading in the United States is very, very low,” Davis said. “I encourage families and individuals to focus more on immediate health risks here like the influenza virus which has caused hundreds of thousands of people to be sick and hospitalized each year and caused thousands of deaths. And fortunately, we have an effective vaccine for it and I encourage the public to get vaccinated.”

Detroit Metro Airport is one area where officials regularly prepare for the possibility of someone carrying an infectious disease.

The CDC operates a quarantine center in the federal inspection area at the McNamara Terminal, and the airport’s firefighters drill for such situations, according to airport spokesman Michael Conway.

He directed specific questions about the quarantine center to the CDC, where a message was left seeking comment.

Conway said the drills help maintain good relationships with area hospitals and medical professionals, and he said authorities “are vigilant and prepared to respond” if needed.

“Our firefighters are all trained paramedics with the proper training and protective equipment to assist and transport a patient to the hospital,” Conway said.

Airport officials are notified when there’s a report of a sick airline passenger, Conway said, noting that there have been no such situations today at Metro and he is unaware of any cases where a passenger was considered contagious.

The reports that a person has the Ebola virus in the United States ”certainly has gotten everybody’s attention, but the protocol for alerting the local authorities of a sick passenger on a plane has existed for years and years,” Conway said.

Detroit Metro currently has no direct flights from West Africa, although it does have flights to major international hubs that do.

Important EBOLA Information; It CAN be transmitted through the air

This has been posted several places on the internet.  But I grabbed the entire article and am posting it here.  The fact is that you’re being told this is “not an airborne disease” and that fact is a lie.  This information comes from doctors, not from conspiracy theorists.

Read it and understand that as soon as the virus is in your system and gets to your lungs, and you cough, you will project droplets into the air that can be breathed by others – thus possibly infecting them.

Also, note that Mr. Duncan is severely ill, LIED on his medical form coming back saying he had NOT been in contact with anyone with Ebola.  In FACT the media is reporting not only DID he have contact he helped carrying a woman into a home in Liberia who died a few hours later from Ebola.

It is this Bloggers belief this man is a terrorism TEST case.  He was sent here by others after being exposed to try to infect whomever he could – and passing through FOUR airports at least three separate aircraft, numerous terminals, taxis, trams, trains or walking through terminals has placed him into contact with POTENTIALLY THOUSANDS of people, and even as many as several hundred thousand – by secondary contact.

From Pigs to Monkeys, Ebola Goes Airborne

Nov 21, 2012 | Jane Huston | Research & Policy

When news broke that the Ebola virus had resurfaced in Uganda, investigators in Canada were making headlines of their own with research indicating the deadly virus may spread between species, through the air.

The team, comprised of researchers from the National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease, the University of Manitoba, and the Public Health Agency of Canada, observed transmission of Ebola from pigs to monkeys. They first inoculated a number of piglets with the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus. Ebola-Zaire is the deadliest strain, with mortality rates up to 90 percent. The piglets were then placed in a room with four cynomolgus macaques, a species of monkey commonly used in laboratories. The animals were separated by wire cages to prevent direct contact between the species.

Within a few days, the inoculated piglets showed clinical signs of infection indicative of Ebola infection. In pigs, Ebola generally causes respiratory illness and increased temperature. Nine days after infection, all piglets appeared to have recovered from the disease.

Within eight days of exposure, two of the four monkeys showed signs of Ebola infection. Four days later, the remaining two monkeys were sick too. It is possible that the first two monkeys infected the other two, but transmission between non-human primates has never before been observed in a lab setting.

While the study provided evidence that transmission of Ebola between species is possible, researchers still cannot say for certain how that transmission actually occurred. There are three likely candidates for the route of transmission: airborne, droplet, or fomites.

Airborne and droplet transmission both technically travel through the air to infect others; the difference lies in the size of the infective particles. Smaller droplets persist in the air longer and are able to travel farther- these droplets are truly “airborne.” Larger droplets can neither travel as far nor persist for very long. Fomites are inanimate objects that can transmit disease if they are contaminated with infectious agents. In this study, a monkey’s cage could have been contaminated when workers were cleaning a nearby pig cage. If the monkey touched the contaminated cage surface and then its mouth or eyes, it could have been infected.

Author Dr. Gary Kobinger suspects that the virus is transmitted through droplets, not fomites, because evidence of infection in the lungs of the monkeys indicated that the virus was inhaled.

What do these findings mean? First and foremost, Ebola is not suddenly an airborne disease. As expert commentators at ProMED stated, the experiments “demonstrate the susceptibility of pigs to Zaire Ebolavirus and that the virus from infected pigs can be transmitted to macaques under experimental conditions… they fall short of establishing that this is a normal route of transmission in the natural environment.” Furthermore, because human Ebola outbreaks have historically been locally contained, it is unlikely that Ebola can spread between humans via airborne transmission.

However, the study does raise the possibility that pigs are a host for Ebola. If this proves to be true in the wild, there are direct ramifications for prevention and control measures. It is still unclear what role pigs play in the chain of transmission. To continue work on answering this question, the team plans to take samples from pigs in areas known to have recently experienced Ebola outbreaks.

The Disease Daily has previously reported on Dr. Kobinger’s work on the Ebola vaccine.

– See more at: http://healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/pigs-monkeys-ebola-goes-airborne-112112#sthash.4rIdSg5J.dpuf

Possible Second Ebola Patient

This article is full of holes.  In other articles the CDC has stated they won’t release the flight information, and in this article it states that “ALL” are being monitored.  How about his plane seat-mate, the ticket clerks, the airport personnel who contacted him, the security personnel who screened him, the people where he ate, the taxi drivers, bus drivers he might have contacted and other passengers on the planes, buses, taxis and trains in the airports (Dallas-Ft. Worth has a train, duh).

 

Officials: Second person being monitored for Ebola

October 1, 2014 / Daniel Crane

DALLAS — Health officials are closely monitoring a possible second Ebola patient who had close contact with the first person to be diagnosed in the U.S., the director of Dallas County’s health department said Wednesday.

All who have been in close contact with the man diagnosed are being monitored as a precaution, Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said in a morning interview with WFAA-TV.

All who have been in close contact with the man diagnosed are being monitored as a precaution, Zachary Thompson, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services, said in a morning interview with WFAA-TV.

Dallas Fire-Rescue ambulance No. 37, which transported a man later determined to be infected with Ebola, is now under quarantine.

“Let me be real frank to the Dallas County residents: The fact that we have one confirmed case, there may be another case that is a close associate with this particular patient,” he said. “So this is real. There should be a concern, but it’s contained to the specific family members and close friends at this moment.”

Written by Marjorie Owens
Read more at USA Today

CDC Emergency Response Team Deployed

Federal team deploys to Dallas to track anyone who had close contact with Ebola patient

By DAVID WARREN and LAURAN NEERGARD  Associated Press
October 01, 2014 – 11:56 am EDT

DALLAS — A nine-member team of federal health officials is tracking anyone who had close contact with a man being treated for Ebola in a Dallas hospital, the director of the nation’s top disease-fighting agency said Wednesday.

The team from the Centers for Disease Control is in Dallas to work with local and state health agencies to ensure that those people are watched every day for 21 days.

“If anyone develops fever, we’ll immediately isolate them to stop the chain of transmission,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Dallas patient on Tuesday became the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S. The unidentified man has been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital since Sunday. Health authorities have not revealed his nationality or age. He was listed in serious condition Wednesday.

Three members of the ambulance crew that transported the man to the hospital have tested negative for the virus and are restricted to their homes while their conditions are observed.

The man was vomiting when the ambulance got to the hospital, Dallas city spokeswoman Sana Syed said.

The ambulance crew is among 12 to 18 people being monitored after exposure to the man. Some are members of his family, but not all, Syed said.

Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pain, vomiting and bleeding, and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus. The disease is not contagious until symptoms begin, and it takes close contact with bodily fluids to spread.

Officials said there are no other suspected cases in Texas, but the diagnosis sent chills through the area’s West African community, whose leaders urged caution to prevent spreading the virus.

The man left Liberia on Sept. 19, arrived the next day to visit relatives and started feeling ill four or five days later, Frieden said.

Stanley Gaye, president of the Liberian Community Association of Dallas-Fort Worth, said the 10,000-strong Liberian population in North Texas is skeptical of the CDC’s assurances because Ebola has ravaged their country.

“We’ve been telling people to try to stay away from social gatherings,” Gaye said Tuesday at a community meeting.

The CDC has not advised that people avoid large gatherings in this country.

The association’s vice president warned against alarm in the community.

“We don’t want to get a panic going,” said vice president Roseline Sayon. “We embrace those people who are coming forward. Don’t let the stigma keep you from getting tested.”

A man walks up the stairway leading to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014. A patient in the hospital is showing signs of the Ebola virus and is being kept in strict isolation with test results pending, hospital officials said Monday. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Frieden said he didn’t believe anyone on the same flights as the patient was at risk.

“Ebola doesn’t spread before someone gets sick, and he didn’t get sick until four days after he got off the airplane,” Frieden said.

Four American aid workers who became infected in West Africa have been flown back to the U.S. for treatment after they became sick. They were treated in special isolation facilities at hospitals in Atlanta and Nebraska. Three have recovered.

A U.S. doctor exposed to the virus in Sierra Leone is under observation in a similar facility at the National Institutes of Health.

The U.S. has only four such isolation units, but Frieden said there was no need to move the latest patient because virtually any hospital can provide the proper care and infection control.

The man, who arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20, began to develop symptoms last Wednesday and sought care two days later. But he was released.

At the time, hospital officials didn’t know he had been in West Africa. He returned later as his condition worsened.

Blood tests by Texas health officials and the CDC separately confirmed his Ebola diagnosis Tuesday. State health officials described the patient as seriously ill.

Dr. Edward Goodman, an epidemiologist at the hospital, said the patient was able to communicate and was hungry.

The hospital is discussing if experimental treatments would be appropriate, Frieden said.

Passengers leaving Liberia pass through rigorous screening, the country’s airport authority said Wednesday. But those checks are no guarantee that an infected person won’t get through and airport officials would be unlikely to stop someone not showing symptoms, according to Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority’s board of directors.

CDC officials are helping staff at Monrovia’s airport, where passengers are screened for signs of infection, including fever, and asked about their travel history. Plastic buckets filled with chlorinated water for hand-washing are present throughout the airport.

Liberia is one of the three hardest-hit countries in the epidemic, along with Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 6,500 people in West Africa, and more than 3,000 deaths have been linked to the disease, according to the World Health Organization. But even those tolls are probably underestimates, partially because there are not enough labs to test people for Ebola.