Ebola Update: 2 Americans Infected, 2nd Senior Doctor Dies

Health workers treating Ebola patients have been dropping like flies over the past 3-4 months - including 25 out of 28 nurses in a single hospital. The epidemic has spread to at least 4 countries and well over 1000 people have been infected - over 670 are dead. But now that "senior doctors" are dying and Americans are getting infected, it's news.

Frightened doctors, nurses and health workers working without protective gear are walking off the job - families are trying to rescue abandoned sick relatives from unstaffed hospitals - but Western reports focus on "cultural" practices as the reason for it.

Pay attention folks, 'cuz this is how isolation and quarantine play in chaos.

The WHO and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) both say the outbreak is out of control. It killed 25 out of 28 nurses in a single hospital in Sierra Leone and patients are disappearing into the forest rather than seek treatment.

Ebola has Killed Some 40 Health Workers in Eastern Sierra Leone

….health workers like cleaners, dispensers and nurses have died of Ebola.

….at Monday 14th July 2014, no less than 21 health workers had died from Ebola in Kailahun since the outbreak and for Kenema District, almost 20 more had been recorded as having passed away from Ebola.

Suspected Ebola Patient Dies At JFK - Several Nurses, Others Abandon Work

Normal working and medical activities at the John F. Kennedy Medical Center were on Friday, July 11, 2014 halted for several hours as a result of the death of a suspected Ebola patient at the hospital.

…..Some patients admitted at the hospital alleged that both medical doctors and nurses abandoned them when the news broke out that a patient suspected of contracting the deadly Ebola virus had died.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the patients said most of the nurses that were on duty during the night were seen without safety gears.

They further alleged that the nurses abandoned their duties and responsibilities for fear of coming in contact with the deadly virus.

According to them, the alleged abandonment by both the medical doctors and nurses made their condition to worsen.

"You are asking me if I am working; just go to the ER, the woman that died from Ebola yesterday is there. You can go and see for yourself because press people like to make sure," a nurse who was walking out of the JFK compound asserted when quizzed by our reporter who had gone to the hospital upon getting the scoop.

……"Only the patients are in the hospital. They send for the MOHSW people to come and take the body from here; up to now they are not here. We are also afraid because, we don't know what is happening to them inside there.

So, we want them to release our patients so we can take them elsewhere because, the doctors and nurses too are running away," averred one Mr. Moses Laftey.

2 Americans Contract Ebola in Liberia

Ebola virus kills senior doctor in Liberia

MONROVIA, Liberia – A health official says a senior doctor working at Liberia's largest hospital has died of Ebola.

Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister, said Dr. Samuel Brisbane died Saturday at an Ebola treatment center on the outskirts of the capital, Monrovia.

He is the first Liberian doctor to die in an outbreak the World Health Organization says has killed 129 people in the country.

The WHO says the outbreak, the largest ever recorded, has also killed 319 people in Guinea and 224 in Sierra Leone.

Health workers are at serious risk of contracting the disease, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids.

Sierra Leone's top Ebola doctor fell ill with the disease last week, and the aid group Samaritan's Purse said Saturday that an American doctor in Liberia was also sick.

This is what happens when the patients overwhelm the medical system. We better hope that if it gets here, it never rises to that level. Whether or not it does will depend on how much education the workers have. Panic serves no one. What will be required is rapid isolation and strict treatment, but it's been so long since anyone is this country has actually dealt with a situation like this that it's all academic. We've never been tested in the fire.

Not sure about some of those links however, I did see that an American doctor from MA. died of ebola.

I don't think it's cultural. I think it's more poor versus rich. And also since the poor can't afford as much education they also tend to be more ignorant about finding answers. But that doesn't make the dangers less frightening. I've read articles about the Aids virus in Africa. For them it's a deaht sentence. There's lots of mysteyr about it too. One lady who had Aids thought she was getting better but it turned out the virus was still in her and she got worse. She said something like "The ghosts won't leave. I have hopes like everyone. But they won't leave." The point? The people might not understand what's happening, but they're still fearful.

To me reading that I feel terribel.

Feel helpless. Can't stop it. Science can, but it takes time and money. Lots of money. People die quietly because there's no money. And it's not always something yo ucan blame on the rich. It can be practicality. It can be a situation where it's too much to expect. And sometimes money can't do anything. We don't or never wil have all hte answers.

It alos underliens to me that we can't accept extreme poor nations because what goes around comes around. Eventually those poor nations will be a breeding groudn for viruses and diseases and extremes and either we close our borders entirely or we set out to remove the poverty. The humanitarians and lots of relief organizations and international groups are trying to do that, but I think it's a long road to go from a nation crippled by poverty to a nation that's no longer unde its grasp. No easy answers.

I have a hard time blaming the nurses or doctors. They don't sign up to die from this. Had it been any other illness I doubt they would leave. They are far from being equipped to handle this situation. It would take full bio teams and level 4 bio hazard facilities to handle this. I would walk off the job too. Its suicide. Why would we ask them to commit suicide?

The people sick with Ebola are already dead. Nothing can be done for them accept giving them a lot of morphine to help with the suffering. I don't know who handles this kind of thing but without full gear I wouldn't. I still probably wouldn't get involved even with full gear.

Don't worry, I'd be getting the hell out of there also.. Screw that.

I cant believe it takes 3 weeks! Before symptoms IF IT IS contagious during this time we could all be already doomed! I am in UK anything here? My girl friends mum works at the hospital wich makes it ten times worse! If this kicks off I may be inclined to steel a camper n get off...

a reply to: BoovDawg

Quite.... It has already been reported that one chap flew in from Liberia to Lagos, the Nigerian capital, infected with Ebola. Apparently they have everyone on the flight under "observation" now. However, if he was contagious, there is a chance he could have passed it to others within the airport and it could spread liek wildfire.

The previous safety net with Ebola was the speed it killed the infected... Now it can be 3 weeks to become symptomatic? When can you start to be infectious? It is worth worrying about now, it could already be here, as we have a lot of connections in the UK to West Africa... In fact, I work with a chap from Ghana....

a reply to: stumason

...The previous safety net with Ebola was the speed it killed the infected... Now it can be 3 weeks to become symptomatic? When can you start to be infectious?

Unfortunately, the original outbreak was ignored even when Doctors Without Boarders (MSF) was begging for help - everyone else assumed it would burn itself out before spreading. Wrong. Up to 3 weeks to show symptoms - at least 2 weeks from symptoms to death, and it looks like "the flu" at first. It's certainly infectious after symptoms start and after death, and the virus does NOT have to be in a host to remain infectious - contaminated environments can sequester the disease for spreading. Kinda like with prion diseases such as Mad Cow Disease and CWD in North America.

Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids.

SURVIVAL OUTSIDE HOST: The virus can survive in liquid or dried material for a number of days (23). Infectivity is found to be stable at room temperature or at 4°C for several days, and indefinitely stable at -70°C (6, 20). Infectivity can be preserved by lyophilisation (freeze-drying).

Not sure if you posted this link but it just came up on my news feed

www.usatoday.com...

Ignore if already posted.

a reply to: fatpastyhead

I had just hear that an american dr died over there from ebola, they said that it is so hot there that you can't wear a hazmat suit for more than 15 minutes...so they are wondering if there is a breakdown in protocol....something wrong with the equipment or they got infected from a contaminated surface...


I don't blame the health care workers for running....

I read that his wife and kids had been visiting him overseas and had recently just returned to the US. I am not sure when they returned to the states.

US Dr in Liberia

originally posted by: research100
a reply to: fatpastyhead

I had just hear that an american dr died over there from ebola, they said that it is so hot there that you can't wear a hazmat suit for more than 15 minutes...so they are wondering if there is a breakdown in protocol....something wrong with the equipment or they got infected from a contaminated surface...


I don't blame the health care workers for running....

In a previous thread when this outbreak started, I wrote that this would burn out quickly. I was mistaken. This is a SERIOUS situation and the U.N. needs to step in.
We will have to supply expensive special gear that can isolate the caregiver (doctor/nurse). This means a system that can keep pathogens out and keep them cool in the hot and humid conditions of the African nations affected while doing their work.
This will be expensive because you have to create a Biological Level 4 environment in negative pressure suits and negative pressure treatment rooms. Since Ebola is now near metropolitan regions where populations are around 20 Million, we are in a some major hurt.
I was ignorant in my previous assumptions about how this infection dies out. It used to be isolated and was a "flash in a pan" as they say. Not this time.

a reply to: soficrow

i hate destruction but this is a case where BURN EVERYTHING comes to mind.

originally posted by: CINY8
I read that his wife and kids had been visiting him overseas and had recently just returned to the US. I am not sure when they returned to the states.

US Dr in Liberia

Brantly's wife and children had been living with him in Liberia but flew home to the U.S. about a week ago, before the doctor started showing any signs of illness, Strickland said.

"They have absolutely shown no symptoms," she said.

A woman who identified herself as Brantly's mother said the family was declining immediate comment when reached by phone in Indiana late Saturday.

Brantly is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine and went to Liberia as part of a two-year fellowship with Samaritan's Purse, shortly after he completed his residency in family medicine at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.

m.hutchnews.com...

It appears his wife and children flew to the US about a week ago and his mother is in Indiana.

originally posted by: Staroth
Not sure about some of those links however, I did see that an American doctor from MA. died of ebola.

Yikes, that is my State's next door neighbor!!!!!!! Scary!!!!!!!

US Dr in Liberia

Brantly's wife and children had been living with him in Liberia but flew home to the U.S. about a week ago, before the doctor started showing any signs of illness, Strickland said.

"They have absolutely shown no symptoms," she said.

A woman who identified herself as Brantly's mother said the family was declining immediate comment when reached by phone in Indiana late Saturday.

Brantly is a graduate of Indiana University School of Medicine and went to Liberia as part of a two-year fellowship with Samaritan's Purse, shortly after he completed his residency in family medicine at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.

m.hutchnews.com...

It appears his wife and children flew to Indiana about a week ago???




What is worrisome is that the incubation period is up to 21 days - so Dr Brantly was most likely already infected when they were still with him. I just can't understand why they were even over there during this outbreak.

originally posted by: TechniXcality
a reply to: soficrow

.....this is a case where BURN EVERYTHING comes to mind.

Won't work - unless you mean nuke the planet. Better we quit mucking with our environment and learn to live more cooperatively with the microbes and bugs and everything who shares their DNA with us.

So, they've been living with him during this months long crisis, and happen to decide to return home JUST BEFORE he becomes ill with it?

I'm not buying it. Surely, his family is now under quarantine. Hopefully.

a reply to: CINY8

What's even more important is that they may be infected and now are back in the US. Anyone worried yet?