Panic As Ebola Hits The United States and Spain

According to news reports, the dreaded EVD(Ebola Viral Disease) has hit both the United States And Spain. Citizens of Both Countries Are In panic as different rumors about the virus are in circulation. One may wonder if the Nigerian salt and water rumour may resurface, Below are the reports extracted from osundefender.org and bbc.com

Osundefender
From Guinea, a country of 11 million people, the EbolaVirus Disease has spread to four other West African nations nations Senegal, Liberia,Nigeria and Sierra Leone killing more than 3,000 people in a matter of days. The latestdestination for this near-genocide is Dallas, a small city in Texas, United States, where the first person diagnosed in the country has been quarantined alongside 80 other possible contacts.
The trip made by Thomas Eric Duncan, a former chauffeur, from Liberia to the United
States on September 20 has now raised controversies on how far the virus can travel
and may force countries to rethink the flight restriction policy against countries where
the disease has been endemic.
Until September 17 when President Barrack Obama sent 3,000 troops to help with the
transportation of medical equipments, the US been sitting on the sidelines.
Speaking at the US Centre for Disease Control, Atlanta, Obama announced a
comprehensive plan, which involves the construction of 17 treatment centres with 100
bed facilities each. Some 500 health care workers will also be trained weekly.
“Faced with this outbreak, the world is looking to us, the United States, and it is a
responsibility that we embrace. We are prepared to take leadership on this, to provide
the type of capabilities that only America has and mobilize our resources in ways that
only America can do,’’ Obama had said.
However, Duncan’s trip to the US has thrown up several issues. First is the inability of
officials at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to isolate Duncan on September 26,
the day he first reported to the hospital.
Reacting to the development, a Consultant Gynecologist, Dr. Rotimi Akinola expressed
hope that the situation would be brought under control soon. He however, remarked
that the failure to isolate Duncan on his first visit to the hospital shows a natural
weakness in any human system.
“There is no human system anywhere in the world that is above mistake. But they
have an effective contract tracing mechanism and better record keeping. I am sure
that system will rise to the occasion,’’ he enthused.
Texas hospital explains
A nurse at the Texas hospital was said to have asked Duncan about his recent travels
while he was in the emergency room, and the patient was said to have told the nurse
that he had been in Africa.
Executive Vice President of Texas Health Resources, Dr. Mark Lester confirmed this
but that the information was not “fully communicated” to the medical team.
The man underwent basic blood tests, but not an Ebola screening, and was sent home
with antibiotics, said Dr. Edward Goodman with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Three days later, the man returned to the facility, where it was determined that he
probably had Ebola. He was then isolated.
“The hospital followed all suggested CDC protocols at that time. Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital Dallas’ staff is thoroughly trained in infection control procedures
and protocols,” the hospital said Wednesday.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which has helped to lead the
international response to Ebola, advises that all medical facilities should ask patients
with symptoms consistent with Ebola for their travel history.
Duncan’s travel history “was not acted upon in an appropriate way,” said Dr. Sanjay
Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent.
“A nurse did ask the question and he did respond that he was in Liberia and that
wasn’t transmitted to people who were in charge of his care,” Gupta said. “There’s no
excuse for this.”
A U.S. official told CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen that the
situation was clearly “a screw-up.” A patient who shows up to a hospital with a fever
and a history of travel to Liberia should be treated as an infection risk, the official
said.
Asked repeatedly by Gupta whether the patient should have been tested for Ebola
during his first visit to the hospital, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said officials
were still looking at details about how the case was handled.
“We know that in busy emergency departments all over the country, people may not
ask travel histories. I don’t know if that was done here,” Frieden said. “But we need
to make sure that it is done going forward.”
Duncan is a 42-year-old Liberian national, according to his friend. This is Duncan’s
first trip to the US, where he was visiting family and friends.
The close associate, who does not want to be identified because of the sensitivity of
the case, contacted the CDC with concerns that the hospital was not moving quickly
enough after Duncan’s second hospital visit.
The associate said Duncan is “all right” now, but is in pain and hasn’t eaten in a week.
He is in serious condition, the hospital told CNN. Neither the hospital nor government
officials have identified Duncan by name.
Tracing contacts
A CDC team is in Dallas helping to find anyone Duncan may have come in contact with,
Frieden said.
Once those people are identified, they will be monitored for 21 days — taking their
temperatures twice a day — in cooperation with local and state health officials,
Frieden said.
Some school-age children have been in contact with the Ebola patient, but the students
haven’t exhibited symptoms of the deadly virus, authorities said.
Five students at four different schools came into contact with the man, Dallas
Superintendent Mike Miles said.
The children are being monitored at home, and the schools they attended remain open,
he said.
Paramedics who transported the patient to the hospital have been isolated, Rawlings’
chief of staff said. They have not shown symptoms of the disease so far, Frieden said.
The ambulance used to carry the patient was still in use for two days after the
transport, city of Dallas spokeswoman Sana Syed said.
But she emphasised that the paramedics decontaminated the ambulance, as they do
after every transport, according to national standards.
Pupils stay at home
Worries over Ebola kept some Dallas schoolchildren home Thursday after school
officials identified five students who might have come into contact with the first
person in the US to be diagnosed with the virus.
The Dallas Independent School District was still gathering morning attendance figures
from four campuses where the affected students were in class earlier this week,
spokesman Andre Riley said. Those students have shown no symptoms and are being
monitored at home, where they are expected to remain for three weeks.
But there are already signs of parents taking no chances.
Yah Zuo left L.L. Hotchkiss Elementary on Thursday morning with her two children,
including a six-year-old daughter. Zuo hoped to enrol her elsewhere.
Zuo is of Liberian origin and said she knows the family of Duncan.
“In situations like this, you cannot stay friends. You have to protect the ones you
love,” ,” Zuo said.
She added, “This virus is not something you play with.”
It was not exactly clear how Duncan knew the students, but his sister said he had
been visiting with family, including two nephews.

For Spain
BBC
The Spanish health minister has confirmed that a
nurse who treated a victim of Ebola in Madrid has
tested positive for the disease.
The nurse is said to be the first person in the current
outbreak known to have contracted Ebola outside
Africa.
Health Minister Ana Mato said the woman was part
of the team that treated Spanish priest Manuel
Garcia Viejo, who died of the virus on 25 September.
Some 3,400 people have died in the outbreak - mostly
in West Africa.
The Spanish nurse is in a stable condition, Reuters
quoted health officials as saying. She started to feel
ill last week when she was on holiday.
The nurse was admitted to hospital in Alcorcon, near
Madrid, on Monday morning with a high fever, Ms
Mato said.
Doctors isolated the emergency treatment room.
The infection was confirmed by two tests, the minister
said. Manuel Garcia Viejo died in the hospital Carlos III de
Madrid after catching Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Another Spanish priest, Miguel Pajares, died in
August after contracting the virus in Liberia.
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.
Earlier health officials said people arriving in the US
from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa could be
subject to extra screening at airports.
But the White House said on Monday it was not
considering a ban on travellers from such countries,
according to Reuters news agency.
It comes as the US tries to limit the spread from its first
confirmed case, a Liberian in Dallas.
Thomas Duncan's condition is critical but stable,
Reuters quoted doctors in the state of Texas as saying
on Monday.

Meanwhile Medical Experts from the United States are in Nigeria to know how the virus was eliminated from the country