“The most egregious failure was by WHO in the delay in sounding the alarm,” said Ashish K. Jha, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “People at WHO were aware that there was an Ebola outbreak that was getting out of control by spring…and yet, it took until August to declare a public health emergency. The cost of the delay was enormous,” Jha said.
[…]
The Ebola outbreak created “immense human suffering, fear and chaos, largely unchecked by high-level political leadership or reliable and rapid institutional responses,” the panel said in a poignantly worded report published in the renowned medical journal “The Lancet.”
That’s just strange. It also shows how much we still don’t know about this bug.
(CNN)American doctor Ian Crozier was treated for Ebola in Atlanta last year and declared free of the virus in his blood. But he had no way of knowing it still lurked in his eye.
About two months after being released from the hospital,he experienced a piercing pain in his left eye, he told The New York Times. The pressure in his eye elevated while his vision decreased.
After repeated tests, doctors discovered the virus was still living in his eye.
by Owen | 1834, 26 Oct 1414 | Politics | 1 Comment
This nurse is being put through a great deal of hassle that is surely difficult, but it is a sensible measure in light of the spread of a very deadly disease.
Hickox arrived in Newark Liberty Airport on Friday afternoon and after a seven-hour wait at the hospital. She was put in an isolation tent inside University Hospital in Newark. She’s twice tested negative for Ebola, including a test at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Hickox says she has asked repeatedly but hasn’t been told how long she’ll be held at the hospital.
“To put me in prison,” she said, “is just inhumane.”
On Fox News Sunday morning, Christie said he had “no second thoughts” about New Jersey’s mandatory quarantine for health care workers.
“I believe that folks who want to take that step and are willing to volunteer also understand that it’s in their interest and the public health interest to have a 21-day period thereafter if they’ve been directly exposed to people with the virus,” he said.
She is likely not infected, but given the penchant of people who have been exposed to Ebola to wander around potentially infecting people, a forced quarantine is necessary to stop this disease from infecting any more people.
The vessel is heading back to Galveston, Texas, with the passenger on board. But that’s not what the U.S. government wanted.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the plan was for the passenger to get on land in Belize, then be flown back to the United States. The Belize government refused to let the passenger leave the ship, given the potential Ebola exposure, despite a plea from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow.
by Owen | 2213, 16 Oct 1414 | Politics | 0 Comments
I guess 25% is “extremely low.” Or Obama isn’t actually reading and listening to, much less leading, what his own administration is doing.
The analysis found a nearly 25 percent “probability of Ebola virus disease case importation” to the United States within 3 to 6 weeks.
Nevertheless, President Obama falsely said on September 16 that experts “across our government” agree that America”s Ebola vulnerability was extremely low. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also repeatedly assured the American people that the Ebola risk was low, even after the alarming government study was completed.
President Obama this evening suggested for the first time he is open to appointing a single person to oversee the federal response to Ebola, bowing to numerous demands from Capitol Hill and elsewhere.
With all of the people in government already responsible for public health, why do we need to appoint (and pay) someone else? Can’t the rest of them just do their jobs? Or is that too much to ask?
The chances of an Ebola outbreak in the United States are “extremely low,” Obama said. U.S. are working with officials in Africa “to increase screening at airports so that someone with the virus doesn’t get on a plane for the United States.” And then this:
In the unlikely event that someone with Ebola does reach our shores, we’ve taken new measures so that we’re prepared here at home. We’re working to help flight crews identify people who are sick, and more labs across our country now have the capacity to quickly test for the virus. We’re working with hospitals to make sure that they are prepared, and to ensure that our doctors, our nurses and our medical staff are trained, are ready, and are able to deal with a possible case safely.
Obama added that in the unlikely event an Ebola case appeared in the United States, “we have world-class facilities and professionals ready to respond. And we have effective surveillance mechanisms in place.”
Now two weeks later, the president’s reassurances have turned out to be false.
As far as we can tell, it was easy for a person with Ebola to fly to America from Liberia and our medical facilities were woefully unprepared to handle the consequences.
DALLAS — Parents rushed to get their children from school Wednesday after learning that five students may have had contact with the Ebola patient in a Dallas hospital, as Gov. Rick Perry and other leaders reassured the public that there is no cause for alarm.
The patient, identified by The Associated Press as Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia, arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 20 to visit family. Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Zachary Thompson said county officials suspect that 12 to 18 people may have had contact with Duncan.
“Right now, the base number is 18 people, and that could increase,” he said. Thompson said more details are expected by Thursday afternoon. The number includes five students at four schools, Dallas school district Superintendent Mike Miles said.
I don’t think so. Given how much we are learning already about how the system failed, I can completely see keeping my kids out of school until we know who might have been exposed and if they were infected.
Ummm… yeah, that’s a problem. The U.S. should begin guaranteeing anyone entering the country who has been on one of the Ebola hot zones within the last month.
DALLAS — A man who recently arrived in Texas from Liberia has been confirmed as having the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the U.S.
Authorities with the Centers for Disease Control revealed the finding late on Tuesday, two days after the unidentified patient was admitted to a Dallas hospital with suspicious symptoms.
Officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas put the man into “strict isolation” and sent a blood specimen to state and federal labs for testing.
President Barack Obama has called the West Africa Ebola outbreak “a threat to global security” as he announced a larger US role in fighting the virus.
“The world is looking to the United States,” Mr Obama said, but added the outbreak required a “global response”.
The measures announced included ordering 3,000 US troops to the region and building new healthcare facilities.
Ebola is a nasty disease and I think it is appropriate for the United States to commit CDC resources and attention to helping fight it. I do have a problem with committing the military to it. Obama won’t commit our troops to fighting ISIS, but will to fight Ebola? That ain’t right.
On another note, this is the second time that Obama has had a foreign policy blunder get bumped off the front page for Ebola. It’s a little too convenient.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Friday sent Congress a request for $30 million to pay for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s efforts to help contain the Ebola outbreak in western Africa.
The administration wants the money added to a spending bill to keep government agencies running until mid-December and comes on top of $58 million it requested above current levels to speed the production of promising drugs to fight the deadly disease.
What bothers me is that the federal government spends nearly $4 trillion per year. It is awash in spending despite not passing a budget in years. But whenever anything comes up, the Obama Administration is there with its hand out asking for more money. Just like when Obama asked Congress for more money for the immigration crisis, he’s asking for more money here. With all of the money in Washington, why is the CDC not already funded to fight disease outbreaks already? Is it poorly managed or is this just part of Obama’s continuing effort to increase spending wherever and whenever he can?
