Ebola

[Arcachon]

First US Ebola case Thomas Duncan 'critical'



The first person to be diagnosed with Ebola within the US has deteriorated from a serious to a critical condition, doctors in the state of Texas say.

Thomas Duncan, who caught the virus in his native Liberia, is being treated at a Dallas hospital in isolation.

Earlier it emerged that the flat where he lived is being cleaned by hazardous materials specialists and its remaining four occupants moved to a private home.

Some 3,431 people have died in West Africa in the worst Ebola outbreak yet.

On Friday, a senior US military figure said the US could deploy as many as 4,000 troops to the region to help contain the outbreak, which has hit hardest in West African four nations.

While Mr Duncan is the first person to be diagnosed within the US, three American aid workers and a photojournalist contracted the virus in Liberia.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital issued a six-word statement about Thomas Duncan on Saturday, saying only that "Mr Duncan is in critical condition."

Earlier his condition had been described as serious but stable.

Experimental treatment
Ebola spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who has the virus and the only way to stop an outbreak is to isolate those who are infected.

There have been nearly 7,500 confirmed infections worldwide, with officials saying the figure is likely to be much higher in reality.

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have been hardest hit.

Celebrations in West Africa for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha are being badly affected by the Ebola outbreak, with many public places deserted this weekend.

Meanwhile, a French nurse who got the virus in Liberia has recovered after having experimental treatment in Paris, it has emerged.

And a Senegalese medical expert who was infected in Sierra Leone has also been discharged from a hospital in the German city of Hamburg.

Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva
Fatality rate can reach 90% - but current outbreak has mortality rate of about 70%
Incubation period is two to 21 days
There is no proven vaccine or cure
Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery
Fruit bats, a delicacy for some West Africans, are considered to be virus's natural host

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29493759

[Arcachon]

[Arcachon]

http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-prosec...170917507.html

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — The Liberian man infected with Ebola who brought the disease to the United States will be prosecuted when he returns home for lying on his airport screening questionnaire, Liberian authorities said Thursday.

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With an Ebola epidemic raging in West Africa, passengers leaving Liberia are being screened for fever and are asked if they have had contact with anyone infected.

On the form obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by a government official, Thomas Eric Duncan answered "no" to questions about whether he had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of someone who had died in an area affected by Ebola.

Duncan left for the U.S. on Sept. 19 to visit family and became sick a few days after he arrived.

He is currently in isolation at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, and is listed as being in serious but stable condition.

Days before he left Liberia, Duncan had helped carry to a taxi a pregnant woman who later died of Ebola, according to neighbors. Her illness at the time was believed to be pregnancy-related.

View galleryEbola outbreak in West Africa
A sign is seen at the border with Guinea in Kouremale, October 2, 2014. The worst Ebola outbreak on …
At the time Duncan left for the U.S., it's not clear if he knew of the woman's diagnosis.

Officials have said Duncan was showing no symptoms when he boarded the plane and he was therefore not contagious.

Ebola can only be spread through the bodily fluids of people showing signs of the disease.

"He will be prosecuted" when he returns to Liberia, Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the board of directors of the Liberia Airport Authority, told reporters.

He said that people like Duncan and Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American with Ebola who traveled to Nigeria and infected people there, have brought a "stigma" upon Liberians living abroad.

http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-prosec...170917507.html

[Arcachon]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/04/he...-us/index.html

[Arcachon]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/01/he...rticle_sidebar

(CNN) -- Thomas Eric Duncan left Africa for the United States, by official accounts, a healthy man. But within days after his arrival in Texas, things changed for him, for the worst.
So who is Duncan, besides the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States? When did he start to feel sick, and what happened to him next? And who did he come in contact with, in the meantime?
Your #EbolaQandA questions answered
Father of quarantined child: 'I'm scared' Ebola victim's half-brother speaks
Who is Thomas Eric Duncan?
Mayor: Victim had contact with 20 people
He is a 42-year-old Liberian citizen, said a friend who knows him well but asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of his case. Duncan's Facebook page indicates that he's from the Liberian capital of Monrovia, where he attended E. Jonathan Goodridge High School.
Why did he come to the United States?
To visit family and friends, according to the friend, who noted this was Duncan's first trip to America. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden has said that Duncan was "staying with family members who live in this country."
Duncan was visiting his son and his son's mother in Dallas, according to Wilfred Smallwood, Duncan's half-brother.
When did Duncan leave Liberia?
He departed the West African nation on September 19, Frieden says.
How did he get Ebola?
Authorities haven't said.
Witnesses say Duncan had been helping Ebola patients in Liberia. Liberian community leader Tugbeh Chieh Tugbeh said Duncan was caring for an Ebola-infected patient at a residence in Paynesville City, just outside Monrovia.
The New York Times reported Thursday that Duncan had direct contact with a pregnant woman stricken with Ebola on September 15, days before he left for the United States. Citing the woman's parents and Duncan's neighbors in Monrovia, Liberia, the newspaper said Duncan had helped carry the ailing woman home after a hospital turned her away because there wasn't enough space in its Ebola treatment ward.
A CDC spokesman told CNN on Wednesday that he hadn't seen the newspaper's report and couldn't comment.
Was he screened for Ebola before getting on the plane?
Yes, according to Binyah Kesselly, board chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority.
"The first screening was at the gate, before you get to the parking lot. The second time is before you enter the terminal building and the third is before you board the flight. At every point your temperature is scanned."
His temperature at those checkpoints was a consistent 97.3 degrees Fahrenheit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Thomas Frieden told reporters Thursday.
Will US ban travel from Ebola hotspots?
On a health screening questionnaire, Duncan answered "no" to questions about whether he had cared for a patient with the deadly virus and whether he had touched the body of someone who died in an area affected by the disease, Kesselly said.
Ebola survivor: Don't give up
Photos: Ebola outbreak in West Africa Photos: Ebola outbreak in West Africa
Complete coverage on Ebola
So where did he go next?
Authorities believe he was on two United Airlines flights -- Flight 951 from Brussels to Washington Dulles and Flight 822 from Washington Dulles to Dallas-Fort Worth -- during his trip, according to a spokesperson for the airline who did not want to be named. Passengers on those flights are not in danger, the spokesperson said.
The airline is voluntarily reaching out to passengers on those flights, an airline source said.
When did his Ebola symptoms appear?
"Four or five days" after his trip, according to the CDC's Frieden.
This doesn't mean that Duncan actually got infected with Ebola in the United States. The incubation period for the virus is two to 21 days, meaning that a person could be infected with the disease for up to three weeks before he or she show any signs of it.
When he did seek medical help?
After 10 p.m. Thursday, September 25. That's when Duncan first walked into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, according to a statement Wednesday. (A hospital official had earlier said that he'd gone to the hospital Friday.)
His friend said that Duncan had a fever and vomiting during this first visit to the Dallas hospital. The hospital, in a statement Wednesday, said he had a "low grade fever and abdominal pain."
He underwent basic blood tests but wasn't screened for Ebola, said Dr. Edward Goodman from the Dallas hospital. Duncan left the medical facility after being given antibiotics and a pain reliever, his friend said.
"His condition did not warrant admission," the hospital said. "He also was not exhibiting symptoms specific to Ebola."
Were flags raised that Duncan might have Ebola?
After being asked by a nurse, Duncan did say that he'd traveled from Africa, said Dr. Mark Lester, executive vice president of Texas Health Presbyterian's parent company.
But that detail -- which might have raised an alarm that Duncan might have Ebola, since Liberia is one of the countries hardest hit by the virus -- was not "fully communicated" to the medical team, according to Lester.
When was he admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital?
On Sunday.
The friend -- frustrated and feeling hospital staff wasn't doing enough -- then reportedly called the CDC about Duncan's case. The CDC told the friend to call Texas' Department of Health, with the message eventually getting to the hospital.
This description, however, runs counter to what Texas Health Presbyterian said in its statement Wednesday. By the time Duncan arrived via ambulance, "EMS had already identified potential need for isolation," the hospital said. "The hospital followed all suggested CDC protocols at that time."
NBC cameraman diagnosed with Ebola Everything you need to know about Ebola in TX Dallas mayor: Safety is first priority
Who did the patient come into contact with in the meantime?
Given the timetable outlined by Frieden, that leaves a few days between when Duncan began to show signs of Ebola and when he was hospitalized. This is significant because someone with Ebola is only contagious when they are symptomatic. And, obviously, there are more safeguards to prevent infection in a medical environment than outside of it.
Health officials are reaching out to as many as 100 people who may have had contact with Duncan, a spokeswoman with the Texas Department of State Health Services said Thursday. These are people who are still being questioned because they may have crossed paths with the patient either at the hospital, at his apartment complex or in the community.
"Out of an abundance of caution, we're starting with this very wide net, including people who have had even brief encounters with the patient or the patient's home," spokeswoman Carrie Williams said. "The number will drop as we focus in on those whose contact may represent a potential risk of infection."
The number of direct contacts who have been identified and are being monitored right now is "more than 12," a federal official told CNN on Thursday. "By the end of the day, we should have a pretty good idea of how many contacts there are," the official said.
That number includes five students who attended four different schools in the area, according to Dallas Superintendent Mike Miles.
Three students were also pulled from an elementary school in the Richardson Independent School District on Thursday after health officials determined they may have been in contact with Duncan.
They have no symptoms, but "have been removed from school in order to be monitored," the school district said.
It's not known yet whether they or anyone else got Ebola, which only spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids, because of Duncan. This includes members of the ambulance crew that transported him to the hospital; none of had shown symptoms, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said Tuesday.
How is Duncan doing?
"All right," according to his friend, who has spoken with Duncan frequently. "He is in pain."
The friend, who talked with Duncan as recently as Wednesday afternoon, said that Duncan hasn't eaten in a week. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital spokeswoman Candace White said that Duncan is in serious condition at her Dallas hospital.
CNN's Jennifer Bixler, Elwyn Lopez, Aaron Morris, Jason Morris, Danelle Garcia, Gary Tuchman, Jason Morris and Rene Marsh contributed to this report.

[mummy]

Getting a bit worried, had a dream I was exposed and got a fever!

Duncan has died and spread to a nurse even though she wore protective gear....

1000 cases a week possible in Africa apparently and not adequately contained there...

Brings back bad memories of SARS, maybe I should retire now in Malaysia....

[Arcachon]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-1...in-dallas.html

Don't worry, be Happy.

[mummy]

I am partline of the frontline and no training provided so far other than some MOH circulars, that is why I am worried even though in the news, they always try to report that healthcare workers are being trained but I can tell u, it is not adequate...

[Arcachon]

I know, I train solider to survive and kill in chemical and biological environment and it is worst to be alive.

SAF will take over once it is out of control.

[teddybear]

I heard some army people talking That when war start they will kill their bloody Sargent and staff sargent first because they have been abused by these sargents, is this a joke?

I know, I train solider to survive and kill in chemical and biological environment and it is worst to be alive.

SAF will take over once it is out of control.

[Arcachon]

I heard some army people talking That when war start they will kill their bloody Sargent and staff sargent first because they have been abused by these sargents, is this a joke?

These are mentally weak solider, most likely get themselves kill during the start of war.

SAF have change a lot since the time we need to shine our boot.

I get constant update on the progress of my son training in 2012 during his BMT from his OIC via email with photo and video.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dearest family members and loved ones,

Firstly, I apologise for the delay in sending out this emailer. Should had sent out earlier but was held up by some technical difficulties with the uploading of photos.

Allow me to indulge in some of the thoughts and reflections I had for xx Company since your son / brother enlisted on xxxx 2012. Fourteen weeks had gone by and indeed your son / brother had gone a long way to reaching this stage with only 3 more so-called high-key events to go, which are namely the 16km Route March and Battle Inoculation Course as well as the throwing of Handgrenade. Both of which I will elaborate further later in this email. We, as a company, had went through the arduous 8 weeks of Physical Training Phase or PTP, which aimed at leveling up the individual fitness level prior to the Basic Military Training or BMT (9 weeks in total, we are now in week 5). Training includes runs, gym sessions, swims, route marches, general military knowledge and more runs and more gym and more swim and yes, more route marches. It was indeed remarkable that they had committed themselves fully and their training paid off.

On the whole, the company had progressed and had achieved (till date) as follows:
1. total of xx% of passes for their Individual Physical Proficiency Test or IPPT
2. xx% passes in the Standard Obstacle Course or SOC
3. xxx% participation rate for their Field Camp
4. about xxx% of marksman in the Basic Trainfire Package (which is the firing of the SAR21 rifle).

Through this all, I am glad to say with your blessings and prayers, there had been no training related injury that resulted in anyone being taken out of course. And through this all (I am sure you would agree with me), they had all grown in both physical strength and in terms of their level of maturity.

As each day passes by, my commanders and I got to know each of them more. While I may not know most of them on a personal level yet, I was encouraged by their determination to continue to do well regardless the situation. I was also encouraged and to a large extent, cheered on by their rowdiness and energy level. There had always been a saying that when morale is high, discipline would be low and that the opposite is true as well. Indeed, as ultimately, as your son / brother and I are operating in a military context hence a need to place a higher emphasis on discipline but I am happy to say that so far, the discipline issues within 1st Company had been well and so is the morale (which explains the rowdiness).

We have now completed the 14th week of training and now that they had completed their 12km Route March and we are progressing well into the last 3 weeks of the BMT. As mentioned earlier, I would share briefly on the 3 high-key activities - the 16km Route March, the Battle Inoculation Course as well as the throwing of the Handgrenade.

Firstly on the 16km Route March, it is part of the acclimatisation of the body to the equipment given to a soldier and to also prepare him both mentally and physically for the 24km Graduation March to the Marina Bay Floating Platform. Since the start of PTP till now, we had covered 3km Route Marches then to 4km Route Marches, 6km, 8km and the just completed 12km Route March. We are closely monitoring those whom had problems (so far almost none) and continue to ensure that while we train realistically, we also train safely.

Secondly on the Battle Inoculation Course, it is as what most of you would had seen in the now famous Ah Boys to Men Part II, in which your son / brother would go through a series of obstacles as part of a summary exercise after all they had gone through since the start of BMT. It would be a good experience for them as they would experience near war-like sound effects and they would be embarking on this tomorrow.

Lastly, the throwing of the Handgrenade. I am sure there are some concerns but allow me to share briefly on the safety precaution that we had undertaken and that my assurance to all is that the Handgrenade would be conducted in the safest possible environment and that should any of your son / brother are not comfortable with the throwing, we would re-assess his condition before deciding if he should be throwing. We have in place, drills that both the commanders as well as your son / brother would be proficient in, which allows them to take the appropriate actions confidently and efficiently. We also have in place measures to ensure that the throws are not conducted in a rush but at a pace situation for a compose and proper throw. The Handgrenade itself are always check prior to issuing and throwing to ensure that it had not been tampered with or damaged during transportation. And finally, every recruit who is throwing the Handgrenade will be closely monitored by one commander (who is more experienced, either their platoon commander or their platoon sergeant). The throwing of the Handgrenade will take place on the 1st of April.

In conclusion to this long emailer, I will strive to update you closely on the progress as well as the highlights of each week and seek your understanding should the emailer come a bit later or that the photos* are missing some elements that you would be expecting. In 3 weeks time, we would all be standing on the Marina Bay Floating Platform with you as our witness for our Graduation. I would like to also express my heartiest appreciation to all whom had been following closely with our emailer and had replied. Your kind words and feedback had been very vital and encouraging. My commanders had been urging me to share more of your replies with them as it had since been something that they had been looking forward to and gaining a deeper meaning towards their everyday job. I apologise too if I hadn't replied to all of your replies but I will strive to do so whenever I can.

I thank you for your time in reading this long emailer and look forward to send the next one.

[Arcachon]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-1...ing-point.html

Ebola Front-Line Doctors at Breaking Point

[Arcachon]

Dallas Exporting New Ebola Cases to Biocontainment Units

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-1...t-centers.html

[Arcachon]

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/10/2...usaolp00001348

Nigeria declared Ebola-free; 'spectacular success'