Ebola updates .... October 11

One can't help but agree with Dr  Paul Craig Roberts
We have known since . . . well, when  haven’t we known that our public officials are incompetent. Their incompetence is always expensive, but now it risks a worldwide ebola pandemic.

With so little known about a deadly disease, one would think that with ebola on the rampage in three west Africa countries, air flights to and from these countries would be halted.

When riots or kidnappings present dangers in foreign lands, the State Department issues a travel advisory and warns, and sometimes prevents, Americans from traveling to areas of danger. As the ebola danger goes beyond the person himself, one would think public officials would have halted traffic to and from west Africa. In fact, it is harder for a critic of the US government, especially if the critic is Muslim, to enter the US than for a person infected with ebola. Indeed, there are a number of Russians who cannot enter the US because of unilaterally imposed US sanctions. But there are no sanctions against ebola.

Apparently, public health officials have an outdated and incorrect comprehension of ebola and how it spreads. A sufficient number of medical personnel protected against ebola patients’ body fluids but without respirators have now been infected to indicate that the current strain of ebola can spread by air like flu. This also means surface contact.

Airplane cleaning crews at New York LaGuardia are on strike because there are no precautions or protections for cleaners who could come into contact with ebola from an infected passenger. Neither does the next passenger on an outgoing flight have any assurance that he will not be sitting in the seat occupied by an ebola carrier on the incoming flight.

In fact, something like this might have already occurred. A British citizen who has not been to countries where there are ebola outbreaks has just died in Skopje, Macedonia, apparently from ebola. His companion told authorities that they had travelled straight from the UK. The hotel has been sealed off, and the hotel staff and ambulance crew have been isolated. I assume also the traveling companion, but the report doesn’t say.......



From CNN:
Health screenings to help prevent   the spread of Ebola begin Saturday for some travelers to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Four other airports will add the screenings next week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This won't be a mass event, with long lines of travelers waiting for screening. Only about 150 travelers a day will receive the screenings, according to CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden.
Under the program, passengers originating from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone will be subject to the additional screening, according to the CDC..........

From HuffPo:
A Spanish nurse    who is the first person to contract Ebola outside of Africa may have touched her face with the gloves of her protective suit while caring for a priest who died of the disease, a doctor treating her said on Wednesday.
The nurse, Teresa Romero, was being treated for the deadly infection at a Madrid hospital while Spanish officials launched an investigation into how she was able to contract Ebola despite strict protocols for handling contagious patients.

From AP:
....The infected nursing assistant,   Teresa Romero, was scheduled to start receiving the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp after Spain managed to obtain some of the drug, which is in extremely short supply worldwide, a spokeswoman for Madrid's regional health agency said on condition of anonymity because of agency rules. She could not immediately provide information on where Spain had obtained it.

There is no proof that ZMapp works, and at least one Ebola patient who received the drug produced by a small U.S. company later died......

From RTNews:
A Briton with symptoms of Ebola  has died in Macedonia, local authorities said. The hotel in Skopje where he was staying has been sealed off, while another Briton and hotel staff are being kept inside to prevent possible spreading of infection.

According to Macedonian authorities the man came to Skopje from London on October 2 and was taken to hospital on Thursday where he died several hours later.

The man reportedly suffered from fever, vomiting and internal bleeding. His condition deteriorated rapidly, Dr. Jovanka Kostovska of the ministry's commission for infectious diseases said.

"We could not determine whether a citizen of England suffered from the disease. It is possible to question haemorrhagic fever,” Kostovska told MRT news, as she expects the results from the autopsy in two days’ time.

“The patient had symptoms of mild fever, 37.4 C, which does not correspond to Ebola, taking into account that the characteristic temperature for people with Ebola is above 38.5 C. However, rapid and severe clinical picture, vomiting, internal bleeding, and sudden and rapid death, symptoms of Ebola, raised suspicions,” Kostovska said.......