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A woman in Monrovia carries the belongings of her husband, who died after he was infected by the Ebola virus.
"It's the single greatest concern I've ever had in my 40-year public health career," said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota."I can't imagine anything in my career -- and this includes HIV -- that would be more devastating to the world than a respiratory transmissible Ebola virus."
Osterholm and other experts couldn't think of another virus that has made the transition from non-airborne to airborne in humans. They say the chances are relatively small that Ebola will make thatjump. But as the virus spreads, they warned, the likelihood increases.
Comment: There is some evidence that Ebola has already become airborne. The fact is, a number of health workers and researchers who have not had any direct contact with Ebola victims, have themselves become infected.
Every time a new person gets Ebola, the virus gets another chance to mutate and develop new capabilities. Osterholm calls it "genetic roulette."
As of Friday, there have been 4,784 cases of Ebola, with 2,400 deaths, according to the World Health Organization, which says the virus is spreading at a much faster rate now than it was earlier in the outbreak.
Comment: Ebola is certainly out of control in western Africa and the rest of the world is in great peril. For a better understanding of this global threat see:
- New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection
- Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus
© www.liberianobserver.comLiberian nurses tend to one of a thousand patients with Ebola.
His statement might alarm many people.
But Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told DW that he and his colleagues are losing hope for Sierra Leone and Liberia, two of the countries worst hit by the recent Ebola epidemic.
"The right time to get this epidemic under control in these countries has been missed," he said. That time was May and June. "Now it is too late."Schmidt-Chanasit expects the virus will "burn itself out" in this part of the world.
With other words: It will more or less infect everybody and half of the population - in total about five million people - could die.
Stop the virus from spilling over to other countries
Schmidt-Chanasit knows that it is a hard thing to say. He stresses that he doesn't want international help to stop. Quite the contrary: He demands "massive help." For Sierra Leone and Liberia, though, he thinks "it is far from reality to bring enough help there to get a grip on the epidemic."
According to the virologist, the most important thing to do now is to prevent the virus from spreading to other countries, "and to help where it is still possible, in Nigeria and Senegal for example." Moreover, much more money has to be put into evaluating suitable vaccines, he added.
Comment: While previous outbreaks have been largely confined to rural areas, the current epidemic, the largest ever, has reached densely populated, impoverished cities - including Monrovia, the capital of Liberia - gravely complicating efforts to control the spread of the disease. Unlike Senegal, which has closed its border to Guinea because of the outbreak, Liberia has no plans to do so and has stated that they are not legally allowed to do so by international treaty. It is estimated that the country will require approximately $1.2 million dollars in order to properly educate its citizens, treat the virus, isolate those who contract it, and work to contain the deadly outbreak. Perhaps in this instance, breaking the international treaty would have been a good safety measure. Mr. Schmidt-Chanasit has made a bold statement. Let's hope he is erring to the high side, but prepare for the worst. So far, humanity is not winning this war...exponentially.
While the WHO predicted an "exponential increase" in infections across West Africa, it warned that Liberia, which has reaped the lion's share of misery with half of all fatalities, could initially only hope to slow contagion, not stop it.
The UN's health arm upped the Ebola death toll Tuesday in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria to 2,288 out of 4,269 cases, noting nearly half of all infections had occurred in the past 21 days.
The WHO also evacuated its second infected medical expert, a doctor had been working at an Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone.
Emory University Hospital in Georgia on Tuesday admitted an American who had contracted Ebola in West Africa, but the hospital has declined to confirm it was the WHO employee.
© AFP, Wikipedia
Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, a presidential adviser on the country's Ebola task force, told The Guardian that the planned quarantine, between Sept. 19 and Sept. 21, will allow health workers to isolate new cases of the disease and keep it from spreading.
During those three days, 7,000 teams of health workers will go door to door to find people who are suffering from the disease but have not reported it to authorities. Spokesman for the Sierra Leone government, Abdulai Bayraytay, said the quarantine will be enforced by the military and police.
"It's clear that we have pockets of resistance, in terms of denial," Bayraytay told The New York Times. "People are still harboring loved ones at home."
He added that neighbors are calling local authorities and giving away information about people rumored to have contracted the disease.
"That gave us the clear indication that people are still harboring patients," he said.
But some health organizations, like Doctors Without Borders, say that enforced quarantines and lockdowns will only drive those reluctant to report illnesses even deeper into hiding. Quarantines, some argue, are too punitive in nature and don't work in encouraging people to seek help.
"It has been our experience that lockdowns and quarantines do not help control Ebola, as they end up driving people underground and jeopardizing the trust between people and health providers," Doctors Without Borders said in a statement over the weekend.
© Reuters / 2TangoHealth workers wearing protective clothing prepare to carry an abandoned dead body presenting with Ebola symptoms at Duwala market in Monrovia August 17, 2014
A 62-bed facility will be built and operated by military engineers and medical staff. The medical center will become operational within 8 weeks. The health facility is in addition to the UK's 25 million pound package of support to contain and control the disease. This includes multilateral support as well as direct funding to aid agencies operating on the ground, the official press release by the UK government said on Monday.
Comment: The Ebola outbreak is spiraling out of control. For more information, check out:
U.S. Military to be deployed
The US military will join the fight against fast-spreading Ebola in Africa, President Barack Obama said, warning it will be months before the epidemic slows. Mr. Obama said that in its current form, he did not believe Ebola would reach the United States, but warned the virus could mutate and become a much greater threat to those outside Africa.
Comment: It looks like the Black Death has returned:
-Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus
-Finally catching up - Could the Black Death actually have been an Ebola-like virus?
-It finally reaches mainstream: Researchers argue 'Black Death' was due to Ebola, not Bubonic plague
-New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection
-New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection
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© APIn this photo taken on Sunday, Sept. 7, 2014, a health worker, left, uses a thermometer to screen a man at a makeshift road block run by Guinean security forces outside the town of Forecariah, Guinea
The Macenta region, right on the Liberian border, had been one of the first places where the outbreak surfaced, but they hadn't seen a new case for weeks. So they packed up, leaving a handful of staff on stand-by. The outbreak was showing signs of slowing elsewhere as well.
Instead, new cases appeared across the border in Liberia and then spread across West Africa, carried by the sick and dying. Now, months later, Macenta is once again a hotspot.
The resurgence of the disease in a place where doctors thought they had it beat shows how history's largest Ebola outbreak has spun out of control.
It began with people leaving homes in Liberia to seek better care or reunite with families back in Guinea, a pattern repeating itself all over.
"Currently in Guinea, all the new cases, all the new epidemic, are linked to people that are coming back from Liberia or from Sierra Leone," said Marc Poncin, the emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in Guinea.
The epidemic also has touched Nigeria and Senegal while killing more than 2,000 people across West Africa. Never before has the disease struck such a densely populated region, where so many people are on the move. For four decades, the virus struck in relatively remote areas, where doctors could quickly isolate communities and stop its spread.
Comment: It's certainly looking like Ebola is is going out of control and medical authorities are not going to be able to handle its wrath:
- An unfolding tragedy in West-Africa: World "losing battle" to contain Ebola
- Ebola outbreak shows no sign of slowing
- Ebola "out of control in West Africa" - deaths surge to 467, a 38% increase in one week - WHO
- West Africa Ebola outbreak 'out of control' and 'unprecedented' says Doctors Without Borders
The disease hasn't been officially identified but officials suspect a rare respiratory virus called human enterovirus 68. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus is related to the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold.
The disease hasn't been officially identified in every state, but in some states a rare respiratory virus called human enterovirus 68 has been found. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus is related to the rhinovirus, which causes the common cold.
According to Mark Pallansch, director of the Division of Viral Diseases at the CDC, similar cases to the ones in Colorado have been cropping up across the U.S. At least 10 states -- Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa, Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Georgia -- have reported suspected outbreaks of human enterovirus 68 and requested CDC support.
© Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver PostWill Cornejo is recovering at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center.
The severe respiratory illness, which in some cases is believed to have been brought on by human enterovirus-68, an uncommon respiratory viral pathogen, is impacting mostly children, including several in Colorado.
Angie Anania, a spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver, said five different children have been checked into their hospital because of this virus this week alone.
One 13-year-old was discovered unconscious and barely breathing on Wednesday. He was placed on a ventilator and has slowly improved, Anania said, but he was still in the hospital's intensive care unit as of Friday.
Comment: See also: Mysterious respiratory illness is spreading in Ohio, causing unusually high number of cases
Learn more about the nature of viruses and the important role diet plays in fighting viruses.
- On Viral "Junk" DNA, a DNA Enhancing Ketogenic Diet, and Cometary Kicks
Comment: All the following articles are from the past June and July and it seems that the epidemic is getting worst:
More in New York, New Jersey infected with chikungunya virus: CDC
Mosquito-borne virus Chikungunya found in Kentucky; 9 possible cases
Puerto Rico declares epidemic of mosquito-borne virus chikungunya; 200 confirmed cases
Florida residents infected with chikungunya virus from domestic mosquitos
Incurable mosquito-borne chikungunya virus now found in six US states