"Sierra Leone burial crews end strike" by Clarence Roy-Macaulayand Jonathan Paye-Layleh | Associated Press October 09, 2014
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Burial teams went back to work one day after organizing a strike over pay and abandoning the dead bodies of Ebola victims in Sierra Leone’s capital.
In neighboring Liberia, however, health workers said Wednesday that they planned to strike if their demands for more money and safety equipment were not met this week.
The expressions of frustration by beleaguered West African health workers came as Spanish officials investigated whether a nursing assistant with Ebola had become infected by touching her face with tainted protective gloves. The case of Teresa Romero is the first known incident of someone contracting the deadly disease outside the West African outbreak zone.
The Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corp. reported this week that the highly contagious dead bodies of Ebola victims were being left in homes and on the streets of Freetown because of the strike by burial teams.
But in a radio interview Wednesday morning, Sierra Leone’s deputy health minister, Madina Rahman, said the strike had been ‘‘resolved.’’ Later in the day, a team could be seen loading bodies outside a government hospital for burial in the west of Freetown. The team’s leader declined to be interviewed, but said they had been promised hazard pay by the end of the day.
Rahman said the dispute centered on a one-week backlog for hazard pay that had been deposited in the bank but was not given to burial teams.
Health ministry spokesman Sidie Yahya Tunis described the situation as ‘‘very embarrassing.’’ The government was already facing criticism over a shipping container filled with medical gear and mattresses that has been held up at the port for more than a month.
In Liberia, health workers are demanding monthly salaries of $700 and personal protective equipment, said George Williams, secretary general of the National Health Workers Association.
‘‘We give the government up to the weekend to address all these or else we will stop work,’’ Williams said.
The average health worker’s monthly pay is below $500, even for the most highly trained staff. Finance Minister Amara Konneh has defended the compensation for health workers, saying last week that it was more than Sierra Leone and Guinea were offering.
Health workers are especially vulnerable to Ebola, which is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of infected people.
Actually, evidence has indicated it can be transmitted by air but that is being played down in the propaganda pre$$ so no one panics and stops spending money.
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia said Wednesday that a second member of its international medical team had contracted Ebola; the first died on Sept. 25.
The mission is identifying and isolating others who may have been exposed and reviewing procedures to mitigate risk, said Karin Landgren, special representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
More than 3,400 people have died this year in the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, with the heaviest tolls in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
In Spain, the case involving the infected nursing assistant has highlighted the dangers that Ebola poses for health workers, even in sophisticated medical centers in Europe.
Dr. German Ramirez of the Carlos III hospital in Madrid said Romero remembers she once touched her face with protective gloves after leaving a patient’s quarantine room.
‘‘It appears we have found the origin’’ of Romero’s infection, Ramirez said, but he cautioned the investigation was not complete.
Romero was said to be in stable condition Wednesday.
Health authorities in Madrid have faced accusations of not following protocol and poorly preparing health care workers for dealing with Ebola.
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"Ebola evades European defenses; pet dog must die" by Jorge Sainzand Alan Clendenning | Associated Press October 08, 2014
MADRID — The first case of Ebola transmitted outside Africa, where a months-long outbreak has killed more than 3,400 people, is raising questions about how prepared wealthier countries really are.
Related: U.S. Government Has Ebola Epidemic Under Control
That settles that.
Or does it?
Health workers complained Tuesday that they lack the training and equipment to handle the virus, and the all-important tourism industry was showing its anxiety.
How can you think of money at a time like this?
**************
In Africa, the US military was preparing to open a 25-bed mobile hospital catering to health care workers with Ebola, and as the disease moved from a seemingly distant continent to the doorsteps of the world’s largest economies, government leaders faced growing pressure to ramp up responses.
21st-century M*A*S*H.
Spanish opposition parties called for the resignation of Health Minister Ana Mato, and the European Union demanded answers to what went wrong....
Madrid’s regional government even got a court order to euthanize and incinerate the couple’s mixed-breed dog, Excalibur, against their objections, without even testing the animal. A government statement said ‘‘available scientific information’’ doesn’t guarantee that infected dogs can’t transmit the virus to humans.
That is something the ma$$ media has not barked about. I heard about it weeks ago.
Some reports in medical journals suggest that dogs can be infected with Ebola without showing symptoms, but whether they can spread the disease to people is unclear.
Ebola’s source in nature hasn’t been pinpointed. The leading suspect is a certain type of fruit bat, but the World Health Organization lists chimpanzees, gorillas, monkeys, forest antelope, and porcupines as possibly playing a role in spread of the disease. Even pigs may amplify infection because of bats on farms in Africa....
Now I know it is a genetically-created organism from a lab. I've seen this script before.
Even so, the potential repercussions of Ebola’s presence in Europe became clear, as shares of Spanish airline and hotel chain companies slumped in Tuesday’s trading. Spain is Europe’s biggest vacation destination after France, and investors were apparently spooked that the deadly virus could scare away travelers....
Well, you propaganda pre$$ promoters can't have it both ways. Either stop engendering fear in us with all the ISIS lies, or stop complaining.
At lea$t we know what the real concern is of the new$paper.
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"West African leaders plead for more help with Ebola" by Jonathan Paye-Layleh and Ciaran Giles | Associated Press October 10, 2014
MONROVIA, Liberia — Presidents of West African countries ravaged by Ebola pleaded for aid at the World Bank on Thursday as the US military ramped up its efforts in Liberia, the hardest-hit country.
Related: Ebola Obama's Excuse to Occupy Africa
‘‘Our people are dying,’’ Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma said by videoconference at a World Bank meeting in Washington on the Ebola response.
See: Stock Market Swings
He called the epidemic ‘‘a tragedy unforeseen in modern times,’’ saying the world is not responding fast enough as children are orphaned and doctors and nurses continue to die.
A Uganda-born doctor, John Taban Dada, died early Thursday of Ebola at a treatment center on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia’s capital. Liberian health minister Tolbert Nyenswah said the gynecologist and surgeon would be buried Thursday in accordance with policy requiring quick interment of victims.
His death brings to four the number of doctors who have died in Liberia since the outbreak. Over 90 health workers, including nurses and physician assistants, have also died.
Two US military flights were due to arrive in Liberia on Thursday, Army Captain R. Carter Langston told the Associated Press in an e-mail.
Critics say Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s handling of the crisis has been heavy-handed and ineffective. Police used batons and rattan whips to disperse 100 protesters Thursday outside the National Assembly, where lawmakers were debating granting her even more powers beyond those contained in a state of emergency declared in August. Liberia’s state radio announced that Senate elections scheduled for next week would be postponed. No new date was given.
Sierra Leone the test case for world dictatorship?
The outbreak has killed more than 3,800 people, according to the latest World Health Organization figures. The vast majority of those deaths have been in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
The US military is working to build medical centers in Liberia and may send up to 4,000 soldiers to help with the Ebola crisis. Medical workers and beds for Ebola patients are sorely lacking, particularly in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Liberia and Sierra Leone only have enough beds to meet about 21 percent and 26 percent of their needs, WHO said Wednesday.
British defense secretary Michael Fallon said his country would provide more than 750 troops to help build treatment centers and an Ebola ‘‘training academy’’ in Sierra Leone. Army medics and helicopters will also provide direct support. Britain will also provide an aviation support ship.
British troops are expected to arrive in Sierra Leone next week, where they will join military engineers and planners who have been there for nearly a month helping to construct medical centers.
The German military has started flying material such as protective clothing from Senegal to the worst-hit countries. A German military advance team is heading to Monrovia on Friday to prepare the way for a wider aid deployment expected to start in mid-November. The military is expected to set up a clinic for 50 patients in Monrovia.
Are you sure the Germans are up to the job?
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone officials finally released a shipping container filled with medical gear and mattresses that had been held up at the port for more than a month. Ibrahim Bangura, an official who handles medical supplies, said the container’s contents were finally in his possession on Thursday. Bureaucracy and political infighting were blamed for delay in distributing the aid.
Hmmmmm.
There was continued concern of Ebola spreading in Spain, where the first person known to have caught the disease outside the outbreak zone in West Africa became sick.
The condition of Spanish nursing assistant Teresa Romero deteriorated on Thursday, said Yolanda Fuentes, deputy director of Madrid’s Carlos III hospital.
I was told she was stable the day before.
Three doctors have been admitted to the Madrid hospital for precautionary observation, bringing to seven the number being monitored at the center, health officials said Thursday.
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"Death toll from Ebola above 4,000, health agency says" by Jonathan Paye-Layleh and Robbie Corey-Boulet | Associated Press October 10, 2014
MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberian lawmakers on Friday rejected a proposal to grant President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf the power to further restrict movement and public gatherings and to confiscate property in the fight against Ebola. One legislator said such a law would have turned Liberia into a police state.
Related:
"In Rhode Island’s vibrant Liberian community, one of the nation’s largest, the Ebola epidemic across the ocean has hit close to home, spurring charity, grief, and — sometimes — fear, even among friends."
Also see: Mass. nonprofit aims to rebuild Liberia health system
Your saviors.
The proposal’s defeat came as the World Health Organization once again raised the death toll attributed to the Ebola outbreak. The Geneva-based UN agency said that 4,033 confirmed, probable or suspected Ebola deaths have now been recorded.
All but nine of them were in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Eight of the rest were in Nigeria, with one patient dying in the United States.
We know who he was.
On Friday, David Nabarro, the UN special envoy for Ebola, warned the UN General Assembly that without the mass mobilization to support the affected countries in West Africa, ‘‘it will be impossible to get this disease quickly under control, and the world will have to live with the Ebola virus forever.’’
Nabarro said the U.N. knows what needs to be done to catch up to and overtake Ebola's rapid advance "and together we're going to do it."
The defeat of Sirleaf's proposal in the House of Representatives came as U.S. military forces worked on building a hospital for stricken health workers in Liberia, the country that has been hit hardest by the epidemic.
Sirleaf's government imposed a three-month state of emergency beginning Aug. 6, but critics have accused the Nobel Peace Prize winner's approach to fighting Ebola since then as ineffective and heavy handed.
The prize is worthless, woman.
"I see a kind of police state creeping in," lawmaker Bhofal Chambers, a one-time Sirleaf supporter, said before the vote.
Maybe that is the point of the whole exercise. How can you argue with authority on this one, right? Matter of life and death.
In August, a quarantine of Monrovia's largest shantytown sparked unrest and was derided as counterproductive before being lifted. The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused Sirleaf's government of trying to silence media outlets criticizing its conduct.
Related: Sierra Leone Slum Locked Down Over Ebola
Must be a pattern with governments.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military was rushing to set up a 25-bed hospital to treat health workers who may contract Ebola. Rear Adm. Scott Giberson, the acting U.S. Deputy Surgeon General, said the facility would be ready within weeks.
The Marines and their aircraft will help with air transportation and ferrying of supplies, overcoming road congestion in Monrovia and bad roads outside the capital, said Capt. R. Carter Langston, spokesman for the U.S. mission. A priority will be transporting building materials to treatment unit sites. The U.S. has said it will oversee construction of 17 treatment units with 100 beds each.
Print version ended there.
The arrival of 100 U.S. Marines on Thursday brings to just over 300 the total number of American troops in Liberia.
The 101st Airborne Division is expected to deploy 700 troops by late October. The U.S. may send up to 4,000 soldiers to help with the Ebola crisis, though officials have stressed that number could change depending on needs.
Meaning it could be even more.
In a call with reporters on Wednesday, USAID assistant administrator Nancy Lindborg said six treatment units were operational in Liberia. She said about 250 beds had come online in the last ten days or so, and that beds would come online in waves until the end of November.
In Mali, a health ministry spokesman said two more people had begun participating in the first phase of a study for a possible Ebola vaccine. Mali has not had any cases of Ebola, but it borders the outbreak zone. University of Maryland researchers announced Thursday that the first study of a possible vaccine was underway, and that three health care workers in Mali had received the experimental shots developed by the U.S. government.
Frightening, but not $hocking.
"Today, we are at five people vaccinated," health ministry spokesman Markatie Daou said. "We envision vaccinating between 20 and 40 people for this first phase and the results are expected next month.
Acknowledging a major “defeat” in the fight against Ebola, international health officials battling the epidemic in Sierra Leone approved plans on Friday to help families tend to patients at home, recognizing that they are overwhelmed and have little chance of getting enough treatment beds in place quickly to meet the surging need. The decision signifies a significant shift in the struggle against the rampaging disease.
But don't be afraid or anything.
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Related: Desperate Sierra Leone backs home care for Ebola patients" by Adam Nossiter | New York Times October 11, 2014
