The Ebola News Digest

[PyratePrincess]

2/3 of the way down an article about the fear of spreading in Lagos....CNN states "The Mt. Sinai patient has tested negative for Ebola".

I find this a bit....odd

[Godwit]

Mt Sinai --

We would like to report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have determined that the patient kept in isolation since Monday, August 4, 2014 at The Mount Sinai Hospital has tested negative for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). The patient is in stable condition, is improving, and remains in the care of our physicians and nurses.

[Shacknasty Shagrat]

'Ebola Outbreak: 45 Deaths In Three Days
The number of people killed in the West African ebola outbreak has reached 932 after 45 deaths in three days.

Latest figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed the number of suspected cases rose by 108 in the same period, between August 2 and 4.

Most of the new cases were in Liberia.
...
Meanwhile, a Spanish priest, who contracted the virus while working as a chaplain at a hospital in Monrovia, is being flown to Madrid for treatment...
He is one of three missionaries quarantined at San Jose de Monrovia Hospital in Liberia who have tested positive.

Five more ebola cases have been confirmed in Nigeria - bringing the total number to seven in its biggest city, Lagos...
A spokesman for Public Health England told Sky News testing for ebola is not unusual so therefore the organisation does not release figures for tests.

He said they were part of routine checks for the virus and others, including Malaria, when patients who return from West Africa complain of a fever.'
http://news.sky.com/story/1314069/eb...-in-three-days
SS

[Ben Sunday]

Mt Sinai --

We would like to report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have determined that the patient kept in isolation since Monday, August 4, 2014 at The Mount Sinai Hospital has tested negative for Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). The patient is in stable condition, is improving, and remains in the care of our physicians and nurses.

Heard this report on the radio out of NYC about 7:20pm tonight.

Lots of folks waiting for the report.

[PyratePrincess]

Heard this report on the radio out of NYC about 7:20pm tonight.

Lots of folks waiting for the report.

Unofficial poll: Do you believe it? Y or N

[grower]

CDC Issues Highest Emergency Alert Amid Ebola Outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday ramped up its response to the expanding Ebola outbreak, a move that frees up hundreds of employees and signals the agency sees the health emergency as a potentially long and serious one.


The CDC’s “level 1 activation” is reserved for the most serious public health emergencies, and the agency said the move was appropriate considering the outbreak’s “potential to affect many lives.” The CDC took a similar move in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and again in 2009 during the bird-flu threat.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebo...tbreak-n174496

[Lenno]

"The CDC is deploying additional staff to the four affected countries, and said 50 more disease-control experts should arrive there in the next 30 days. It also issued instructions to airlines that may come into contact with passengers from the affected countries designed to minimize the chance of infection"

hardly sounds as if they are terrorfied

[TheSearcher]

"The CDC is deploying additional staff to the four affected countries, and said 50 more disease-control experts should arrive there in the next 30 days. It also issued instructions to airlines that may come into contact with passengers from the affected countries designed to minimize the chance of infection"

hardly sounds as if they are terrorfied

The conspiracy nut in me sees this as a statement written as blandly as humanly possible, but could mean a number of different things. I particularly key on to the "...50 more disease-control experts should arrive there in the next 30 days..." statement. The "30 days" number is a red herring. Sure, it could take 30 days to get the experts in place, which makes it sound comfortingly low-speed and unalarming. Of course, there is nothing keeping the CDC from shoving them all on a plane as we speak and getting them there by tomorrow morning. Similarly, there is no impediment in sending more than 50 experts over any time interval they wish, 50 is just a minimum quantity. They've merely picked numbers that imply a lack of urgency, as a means of misdirection.

[BB]

Ebola Deaths Go Exponential; Nigeria Demands Experimental Drug From US, Saudi Death First In Arab World


Submitted by Tyler Durden on 08/06/2014 15:21 -0400

• Saudi Arabia

inShare6

The official Ebola death toll is now at 932 with over 1,700 reported cases but as the WHO reports, in the last 48 hours, deaths and cases have exploded (48 and 108 respectively). As the charts below show, this epidemic is going exponential. What is perhaps most worrisome is, while playing down the threat in Nigeria (most especially Lagos - which the CDC Director is "deeply concerned" about), officials have formally asked the US for the experimental Ebola drug, which suggest things are far worse than the 3 deaths reported so far in Nigeria would suggest. Finally, as we warned yesterday, Saudi Arabia is suffering too as the main who was hospitalized yesterday with symptoms has died - the first reported casualty in the Arab world.

As The BBC reports,

It is the world's deadliest outbreak to date and has centred on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Eight people are currently in quarantine in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, and two have died there.




The Saudi man died after showing Ebola symptoms when he returned from a business trip to Sierra Leone, the Saudi health ministry said.

The Ebola outbreak has gone exponential...
Cases...


Deaths...


And then there is this...

• *NIGERIA FORMALLY REQUESTS EXPERIMENTAL EBOLA DRUG FROM U.S.
• *NIGERIA HEALTH MINISTER IN TOUCH WITH U.S. CDC DIRECTOR

Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu has sent request to director of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he tells reporters in capital, Abuja.

“We have been in communication in the last 36 hours”

“We are getting reports that the experimental drug seems to be useful”

Which suggests things are far more serious in Nigeria than officials are letting on. As The BBC reports,

But it is not clear if the ZMapp drug, which has only been tested on monkeys, can be credited with their improvement.

Prof Peter Piot, who co-discovered Ebola in 1976, Prof David Heymann, the head of the Centre on Global Health Security, and Wellcome Trust director Prof Jeremy Farrar said there were several drugs and vaccines being studied for possible use against Ebola.

"African governments should be allowed to make informed decisions about whether or not to use these products - for example to protect and treat healthcare workers who run especially high risks of infection," they wrote in a joint statement.

The WHO, "the only body with the necessary international authority" to allow such experimental treatments, "must take on this greater leadership role", they said.

As CDC's Director warned...
As Al Arabiya reports,

A Saudi man, who was hospitalized for suspected Ebola infection, died on Wednesday.

The man, in his 40s, had returned recently to Jeddah from a business trip to Sierra Leone, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday. He was admitted to hospital on Monday and showed symptoms of Ebola virus infection.

His death marks the first reported casualty of the Ebola epidemic in the Arab world and comes as an emergency World Health Organization summit was being held in Geneva to discuss measures to tackle the epidemic.

And finally - some humor from Michael Ramirez at Investors.com


Source: Ecologically Oriented blog

[Lenno]

actually there was an Ebola death in Saud last year we covered it here. it was an old camel kisser, I think his family was ill as well (same tent syndrome)
Sorry that was MERS:
Extremely Deadly Virus will Come from the Muslim World By Shoebat Foundation onMay 10, 2014 inFeatured, General

Exclusive by Walid Shoebat
When it comes to MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) it kills nearly a third of the people it sickened. Most people still haven’t twigged to the existence of MERS but that may be changing, with new MERS infections popping up recently in Malaysia, Greece, the Philippines, Egypt, and late last week, the United States became the 16th country to detect MERS in an American who has been living and working in Saudi Arabia.
Some potential explanations for the sharp rise are a seasonal upswing, some outbreaks in Saudi and UAE hospitals where human-to-human spread has been taking place, and an increase in the number of people coming forward for testing. There has also been a spate of exported cases from Saudi Arabia who contracted MERS during a religious pilgrimage and died after returning home. And another man from Greece flew to Athens after getting sick while living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Jordan and Egypt have also detected new cases in people coming from Saudi Arabia.