adminThe Ebola epidemic is fast threatening to cause unimaginable havoc as the death toll rises horrifically and the number of affected countries keeps on increasing. The world has been given 60 days, which are less now to combat the outbreak or just lose control.
As a country we have already felt the effects as our national travel expo became a dismal failure after buyers decided to cancel visiting our country as a precautionary measure. Revellers have also had to forego the pleasure of some musicians after two Jamaicans decided not to pitch up for scheduled shows for the same reason.
So starting this week we will be keeping an Ebola Watch and we start off with two stories illustrating how the disease is spreading so fast and wide.
Second nurse with Ebola called CDC before boarding flight
In the case of Amber Vinson, the Dallas nurse who flew commercially as she was becoming ill with Ebola, one health official said “somebody dropped the ball.”
Infected Ebola healthcare worker flew on commercial flight
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said that Vinson called the agency several times before flying, saying that she had a fever with a temperature of 99.5 degrees. But because her fever wasn’t 100.4 degrees or higher, she didn’t officially fall into the group of “high risk” and was allowed to fly.
Officials in the US have been trying to calm fears over the Ebola crisis, but time and again events have overtaken their assurances.
In August, before the first US infection, CDC Director Dr Tom Frieden said: “We’re confident that we have the facilities here to isolate patients, not only at the highly advanced ones like the one at Emory, but really at virtually every major hospital in the US”
On September 30, Thomas Duncan tested positive in Dallas.
“This case is serious,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said in reaction. “Rest assured that our system is working as it should.”
And there was reassurance from the White House.
“Every hospital in this county has the capability to isolate a patient, take the measures, put them in place to ensure that any suspected case is immediately isolated and the follow-up steps that have been mentioned are immediately taken,” Lisa Monaco, a homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to President Obama.
But health care workers weren’t so sure.
Ebola safety protocols slowly reaching hospitals
“We want to make sure that we have the correct equipment — the protective equipment — to protect both our patients and ourselves,” Katy Roemer, who has worked as a nurse in California for 20 years, told CBS News correspondent John Blackstone last week.
Blackstone asked her whether hazmat suits were available to her.
“Not that I know of,” Roemer said.
US Ebola death exposes flaws in healthcare system
Duncan died on October 8. Four days later, nurse Nina Pham got sick. Federal officials were now discovering what health workers had warned about.
“The proof of the pudding, the training, was not adequate,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health.
“It was not adequate. The training was not adequate. We’ve got to make sure the training is adequate.”
The director of the CDC, who in August said he was “confident,” said this Tuesday:
“We could’ve sent a more robust hospital infection control team and been more hands-on with the hospital from day one,” Frieden said. “. . . I wish we had put a team like this on the ground the day the patient — the first patient — was diagnosed. That might have prevented this infection.”
The CDC is reacting to the mistakes made in Dallas by turning up the heat on every hospital in the country, saying to be prepared. — cbsnews.com
Ebola hits Sierra Leone’s last unaffected district
Koinadugu, in Sierra Leone, had been the country’s one area without Ebola — until yesterday. But as John F Sillah reports, locals are resolved to regain the district’s status as an Ebola-free zone.
Anti-Ebola worker in Sierra Leone (Reuters)
Two people died yesterday of Ebola in Koinadugu district, my region in the north of Sierra Leone, which had been fighting to retain its status as the last of the country’s 14 districts to stave off the Ebola virus, writes John F Sillah, a reporter for On Our Radar based in Kabala, Koinadugu.
Mariama Jalloh, a local resident resident, explained: “There is panic in Koinadugu right now… The Nieni chiefdom has been placed under quarantine. I lost my aunt yesterday. . . They said she was positive with Ebola and now we have lost her. My heart is broken. I don’t know what to do.” Traffic in the region is very hard to control as there are so many roads coming in and out, and a river that brings many tradesmen.
The spread of Ebola to my region is worrying and tragic, though perhaps inevitable. Despite the many safety precautions we have taken and the best efforts of the health workers, traffic in the region is very hard to control as there are so many roads coming in and out of Koinadugu, and a river that brings many tradesmen and their goods in and out of the region.
Furthermore, whilst schools have remained closed and business has slowed down a lot since the beginning of the Ebola outbreak, many people in the region are hungry and desperate, so have had no choice but to continue to travel for trade.
Business as usual
In Kabala, the capital of Koinadugu district, business is continuing as usual despite the the acute sense of concern. Amadu Bah told me that “people in Kabala are out doing their business but we are so worried… We are in trouble now… Everybody is praying for survival… The disabled people are the most in danger due to the quarantine because they are the most vulnerable.”
Ebola was transmitted to the district by an infected man who is believed to have travelled from the Kono district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Rumours are spreading that the man had visited Kono to attend a burial, thinking that the ceremony was to commemorate the life of a victim of cholera. Cholera is a common problem and the symptoms are similar to those of Ebola, which has caused confusion.
Cholera is a common problem in the region and the symptoms are similar to those of Ebola, which has caused confusion in communities who are trying to identify Ebola victims.
Many people are hungry, and we are all extremely worried that Ebola has started taking lives in our district. But we are determined to fight to win back our status as an Ebola-free district as soon as possible. — channel4.com
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