Memories of $wine flu....
“The virus seemed to be spreading in ways never seen before, and it has demonstrated its ability to spread via air.... Federal officials are working to put development of a vaccine on a fast track and hope to begin human trials in September.... There are about a half dozen Ebola drugs and vaccines in development, several of which have received funding from the federal government. One drug developed by the US Army has shown promising results while a Canadian company, Tekmira, has a $140 million contract with the US government to develop a Ebola vaccine.”
That is when I $topped worrying. This a repeat of the $wine flu $windle from five years ago.
Btw, where did they develop that drug?
"Spread of Ebola virus outpaces control efforts; Death toll stands at 729; aid plan to cost $100m" by Adam Nossiter and Alan Cowell | New York Times August 02, 2014
ABUJA, Nigeria — As fatalities mounted in West Africa from the worst known outbreak of the Ebola virus, the head of the World Health Organization said Friday that the disease was moving faster than efforts to curb it, with potentially catastrophic consequences including a “high risk” that it will spread.
The assessment was among the most dire since the outbreak was identified in March. The outbreak has been blamed for the deaths of 729 people, according to WHO figures, and left more than 1,300 people with confirmed or suspected infections.
Dr. Margaret Chan, the WHO director general, was speaking as she met with the leaders of the three most affected countries — Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone — in Conakry, the Guinean capital, for the introduction of a $100 million plan to deploy hundreds more medical professionals in support of overstretched regional and international health workers.
Three days earlier they were minimizing it all.
“This meeting must mark a turning point in the outbreak response,” Chan said, according to a WHO transcript of her remarks. “If the situation continues to deteriorate, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries.”
She said the outbreak was “caused by the most lethal strain in the family of Ebola viruses.”
The gathering in Conakry came a day after West African leaders seemed to quicken the pace of efforts to combat the disease, in what some analysts depicted as a belated acknowledgment that the response had been inadequate.
Indeed, before the meeting started, there were indications of discord.
The leader of Guinea’s Ebola task force said that emergency measures in Liberia, where schools have been closed, and Sierra Leone could set back efforts to control the worst outbreak of the virus since it was identified almost four decades ago.
“Currently, some measures taken by our neighbors could make the fight against Ebola even harder,” Aboubacar Sidiki Diakité, the Ebola task force leader, told Reuters.
“When children are not supervised, they can go anywhere and make the problem worse. It is part of what we will be talking about.”
Sierra Leone’s emergency measures include house-to-house searches for infected people and the deployment of the army and the police.
Is that why Obummer is bringing infected ebola patients here as well as hauling up all the illegal kids sick with diseases? An excuse for martial law in a country that is increasingly disenchanted with this president?
One person, traveling from Liberia, died in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, which introduced airport screening of travelers from the stricken region Thursday.
Two American health workers in Liberia have been infected. Plans were underway to bring the workers — Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly — back to the United States. A specially equipped private jet based in Atlanta has been dispatched to Liberia.
Chan said the virus seemed to be spreading in ways never seen before.
And Obummer is bringing it here!
“It is taking place in areas with fluid population movements over porous borders, and it has demonstrated its ability to spread via air travel,” she said.
Making matters worse, health workers have been hit particularly hard. Top doctors in Sierra Leona and Liberia have died. The two American aid workers who have contracted Ebola were to be taken to Emory University in Atlanta for treatment.
According to the WHO, the $100 million plan “identifies the need for several hundred more personnel to be deployed in affected countries to supplement overstretched treatment facilities.”
Hundreds of international aid workers and WHO specialists “are already supporting national and regional response efforts,” the statement said. “But more are urgently required. Of greatest need are clinical doctors and nurses, epidemiologists, social mobilization experts, logisticians, and data managers.”
As the alarms about the outbreak grew, so, too, have concerns that the disease will be carried farther afield by travelers from the stricken countries, despite official efforts to tamp down such fears.
They stoke the fear, then turn to you and say calm down.
The African Union, for instance, announced Friday that it was postponing a routine rotation of its peacekeeping force in Somalia for fear that new soldiers arriving from Sierra Leone could be infected.
But remain calm.
If this all is a $care to boost pharmaceutical profits it is now having an impact on their plans for control of Africa. Once again, the propaganda has backfired!
The Philippines said Friday that it was introducing health screening for travelers from Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, who would be screened when they arrived and monitored for a month.
Lebanon was reported to have suspended work permits for residents of the same three countries, news reports said.
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Related: We will run from Ebola patients – Doctor
Some are running toward it:
"2 Ebola patients headed to Ga." Associated Press August 02, 2014
ATLANTA — Two American aid workers seriously ill with Ebola will be brought from West Africa to Atlanta next week for treatment in one of the most tightly sealed isolation units in the country, officials said Friday.
One will arrive Monday in a small private jet outfitted with a special, portable tent designed for transporting patients with highly infectious diseases. The second will arrive a few days later, said doctors at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, where they will be treated.
It will be the first time anyone infected with the disease is brought into the country.
The private aircraft based in Atlanta was dispatched to Liberia where the two Americans — Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol — worked for US missionary groups. The State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are assisting the groups in the transfer.
‘‘The safety and security of US citizens is our paramount concern,’’ said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.
Then why are you brining them back here?
A Department of Defense spokesman said Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga., will be used for the aircraft.
The government is working to ensure that any Ebola-related evacuations ‘‘are carried out safely, thereby protecting the patient and the American public,’’ Harf said.
Given their track record, you will pardon me if I'm not assuaged.
Ebola is spread only through direct contact with blood or other bodily fluids from an infected person.
I was told it is spreading in different ways and through the air now.
The aircraft is a Gulfstream jet fitted with what essentially is a specialized, collapsible clear tent designed to house a single patient and stop any infectious germs from escaping. It was built to transfer CDC employees exposed to contagious diseases for treatment. The CDC said the private jet can only accommodate one patient at a time.
Brantly and Writebol are in serious condition and were still in Liberia on Friday, according to the North Carolina-based charity Samaritan’s Purse, which is paying for their evacuation and medical care.
Why don't they just stay there?
An Emory emergency medical team arrived in Liberia on the chartered jet and evaluated the patients, and deemed both stable enough for the trip to Atlanta, said Emory’s Dr. Bruce Ribner.
Brantly, who works for Samaritan’s Purse, was treating Ebola patients at a Liberia hospital. Writebol also worked there for another US mission group called SIM.
The Emory isolation unit has two beds, a hospital spokeswoman said. It opened 12 years ago and was designed to handle CDC workers if they became infected while working on dangerous, infectious diseases.
It is one of about four such units around the country for testing and treating people who may have been exposed to very dangerous viruses, said Dr. Eileen Farnon, a Temple University doctor who formerly worked at the CDC and led teams investigating past Ebola outbreaks in Africa.
There is no specific treatment for Ebola, although Writebol has received an experimental treatment, according to the mission groups.
Then why was I told at first there was no cure?
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"Vaccines not available for Ebola, but some being developed; US officials hope to fast-track trials for vaccine" by Maria Cheng | Associated Press August 02, 2014
LONDON — In the four decades since the Ebola virus was first identified in Africa, treatment has not changed much. There are no licensed drugs or vaccines for the deadly disease.
Some are being developed, but none have been rigorously tested in humans. One experimental treatment, though, was tried this week in an American aid worker sick with the disease, according to the US-based group that she works for in Liberia.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said this week that federal officials are working to put development of a vaccine on a fast track and hope to begin human trials in September, if the Food and Drug Administration agrees.
Without a specific treatment, doctors and nurses focus on easing the disease’s symptoms — fever, headache, vomiting and diarrhea — and on keeping patients hydrated and comfortable.
And that could have been done in Africa, not Atlanta.
WTF is REALLY going on here?
The outbreak in three West African countries — Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone — has sickened more than 1,300 people and more than 700 have died since March.
There are several reasons no treatment has been developed.
For one thing, the virus is hard to work with. It does not grow well in petri dishes and experiments can only be done in the relatively few labs with the highest security measures.
And while Ebola is lethal, it’s rare. Outbreaks are unpredictable, giving doctors few chances to test new treatments. While the current epidemic is the largest recorded, the number of people sickened by Ebola is small compared to the number killed by diseases such as malaria or dengue.
Someone pointed out that out, too.
Much of the funding for Ebola research is from governments that worry about the virus being used in a bioterror attack.
I knew there was a war connection somewhere.
‘‘It’s not economically viable for any company to do this kind of research because they have stockholders to think about,’’ said Ben Neuman, a virologist at the University of Reading in Britain.
Now it will be!
There are about a half dozen Ebola drugs and vaccines in development, several of which have received funding from the federal government. One drug developed by the US Army has shown promising results when tested in monkeys.
‘‘We think this may work because of the animal models but until you do the studies in humans, you just don’t know,’’ said Fred Hayden, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Virginia, who was not involved in the research.
While animal studies for vaccine candidates have been encouraging, it’s unclear what dose humans would need.
A Canadian company, Tekmira, has a $140 million contract with the US government to develop a Ebola vaccine. An early test in healthy humans was stopped recently after the Food and Drug Administration asked for more safety information.
Scientists are split on whether it is a good idea to try experimental drugs and vaccines before they are approved but the prospect is being informally discussed.
‘‘Given the prolonged and unprecedented nature of the epidemic, we need to carefully consider this,’’ said Dr. Peter Piot, the co-discoverer of Ebola in 1976 and director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The World Health Organization has no plans to facilitate any clinical trials during this outbreak, spokesman Gregory Hartl said. Other specialists say it’s unethical to use treatments or vaccines that haven’t been properly tested, and warn the results could be disastrous.
‘‘None of these drugs or vaccines are ready to be used in humans from a legal point of view,’’ said Dr. Heinz Feldmann, chief of virology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
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Maybe you think there is some sort of con$piracy at work here?
