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ebola outbreak
Canada has decided to suspend visa applications from residents and passport-holders from West African countries in the grip of the Ebola outbreak.
The decision follows a similar decision by Australia, which drew criticism from the World Health Organization (WHO).
The ban would apply to countries with “widespread and persistent-intense transmission”, Canada said.
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are battling to contain Ebola, which has killed almost 5,000 people.
The WHO said on October 31 that 4,951 people had died during the current outbreak, with 13,567 reported cases up to October 29.
Although Canada currently has no cases of Ebola, the country’s federal citizenship ministry said “the introduction or spread of the disease would pose an imminent and severe risk to public health”.
A government spokesman said the move was less restrictive than Australia’s plan, with the ability to grant visas on a case-by-case basis retained.
Canada has decided to suspend visa applications from residents and passport-holders from West African countries in the grip of the Ebola outbreak
The ban would also not apply to Canadians travelling from the Ebola zone – allowing health workers and volunteers to return home.
There are no direct flights to Canada from the three worst-affected countries, and the numbers of annual visitors from those states is understood to be small.
The WHO opposes travel bans as a method of containing Ebola.
David Fidler, a professor at Indiana University in the US, told Canadian media that the government’s move undermined international regulations drawn up after the SARS outbreak of 2003.
“The whole thing that so many years and so many efforts and so much money was spent on just seems to be disintegrating in this Ebola panic,” he told CBC News.
Canada’s visa ban comes as trials get under way in Switzerland on the latest round of testing of an experimental vaccine.
The vaccine, jointly developed by US disease authorities and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), is already being tested on volunteers in the US, UK and Mali.
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Doctors Without Borders has warned some mandatory Ebola quarantine measures in the US are having a “chilling effect” on its work.
The charity group has said it may shorten some assignments to West Africa as a result of recent state restrictions.
One of the charity’s volunteers, nurse Kaci Hickox, has defied orders by the state of Maine that she remain quarantined in her house after being in Sierra Leone.
There have been nearly 14,000 cases worldwide, but only nine in the US.
Doctors Without Borders – also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – has 270 international and 3,000 locally hired staff in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
But the foreign workers now have additional concerns when heading home, said executive director Sophie Delaunay.
“There is rising anxiety and confusion among staff members in the field over what they may face when they return home upon completion of their assignments in West Africa,” she told Reuters news agency.
Some health workers are delaying returning to the US and staying in Europe for 21 days, she added, “in order to avoid facing rising stigmatization at home and possible quarantine”.
Some people are being discouraged by their families from returning to the field, she added.
Doctors Without Borders has 270 international and 3,000 locally hired staff in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone
Lawyers for Kaci Hickox, a nurse recently returned to the US from treating Ebola patients in Africa, have vowed to fight a court order that would enforce a 21-day quarantine.
Maine Governor Paul LePage said the state was willing to agree to arrangements that would have allowed Hickox to go for walks, runs and bicycle rides, but not allow her to go to public places.
The governor said discussions with Kaci Hickox, 33, had failed.
She says her freedom should not be limited when she is perfectly healthy.
People are not infectious until they show symptoms, usually a fever.
Another worker, Dr. Craig Spencer, travelled around New York City before he fell ill. He is currently in isolation in hospital.
After his case was announced, New York, New Jersey and other states ordered the mandatory quarantine of healthcare workers who had been exposed to Ebola patients.
President Barack Obama has warned that overly restrictive measures could discourage volunteering in West Africa.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the actions of US states ordering medics to be isolated.
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Nurse Kaci Hickox has defied the Ebola quarantine order, leaving her house in Maine for a brief bike ride.
She returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone on October 24.
Kaci Hickox maintains isolation is unnecessary, as she has no symptoms and has tested negative for Ebola.
Maine officials have vowed to go to court to try to enforce the quarantine.
About 5,000 people have died of the disease in West Africa, but only nine patients have been treated for the virus on US soil.
More than 13,700 people have been sickened in the Ebola outbreak, the vast majority in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Ebola, which is only spread through close contact with the bodily fluids of a sick patient, has a 21-day incubation period.
Kaci Hickox returned to the US from Liberia on October 24, landing at Newark International Airport
US officials are at odds over whether American healthcare workers who return from treating Ebola patients in West Africa should be forced into quarantine until that period has expired.
New Jersey and other states had put quarantine rules into place after a New York doctor who treated Ebola patients in West Africa came down with the disease.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) merely recommends daily monitoring of returned health workers, rather than enforced isolation.
President Barack Obama has warned that overly restrictive measures imposed upon returning healthcare workers could discourage them from volunteering in Africa.
“We know that the best way to protect Americans ultimately is going to stop this outbreak at the source,” he said on October 29 .
Kaci Hickox returned to the US on October 24, landing at Newark International Airport.
Officials say she had a minor fever, necessitating a quarantine at a Newark, New Jersey, hospital.
Kaci Hickox contested the quarantine regimen, ultimately threatening legal action.
After showing no fever or other symptoms for a 24-hour period, Kaci Hickox was discharged and brought to her home state of Maine.
“I’m not willing to stand here and let my civil rights be violated when it’s not science-based,” she told reporters on Wednesday evening.
On Thursday morning, Kaci Hickox left her home on a bicycle, followed by police officers who monitoring her movements and public interactions. She returned home shortly after.
Without a court order, the police were barred from detaining her.
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Liberia, the country hardest hit in the Ebola outbreak, is seeing a decline in the spread of infections, the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced.
WHO Assistant Director-General – Polio and Emergencies Bruce Aylward said it was confident the response to the virus was now gaining the upper hand.
Dr. Bruce Aylward warned against any suggestion that the crisis was over.
The WHO later said the number of cases globally had risen more than 3,000 to 13,703 since its last report, but that this was due to reporting reasons.
The number of deaths was put at 4,920, roughly the same as the last report four days ago. All but 10 of the deaths have been in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
The latest WHO figure of 13,703 cases is a significant leap on its previous situation report on Saturday, which showed cases rising above 10,000 for the first time – to 10,141.
Dr. Bruce Aylward said that this increase was due to data being updated with old cases, rather than new cases being reported.
Saturday’s situation report put the death toll at 4,922.
Liberia is the country hardest hit in the Ebola outbreak
The similar death toll in the latest report was mainly a result of a revision of the Liberian statistics.
Cases there rose from 4,655 to 6,535 but reported deaths dropped from 2,705 to 2,413.
Deaths in Guinea rose from 926 to 997 and in Sierra Leone from 1,281 to 1,500.
Liberia’s Red Cross said its teams collected 117 bodies last week, down from a high of 315 in September. Treatment centers also have empty beds available for patients.
Bruce Aylward said: “It appears that the trend is real in Liberia and there may indeed be a slowing.
“Do we feel confident that the response is now getting an upper hand on the virus? Yes, we are seeing a slowing rate of new cases, very definitely.”
He said there had been “a huge effort to inform the population about the disease, to change the behaviors that put them at risk”.
However, Dr. Bruce Aylward said the data was still being examined and cautioned against thinking the crisis was over.
He said: “A slight decline in cases in a few days versus getting this thing closed out is a completely different ball game.
“It’s like saying your pet tiger is under control.”
President Barack Obama praised the progress made in Liberia, but also warned: “This is still a severe, significant outbreak… We’ve got a long way to go.”
He said again that the disease had to be tackled at its source in West Africa, adding: “If we don’t deal with the problem there, it will come here.”
Until Ebola was contained, Barack Obama said, there could be more individual cases in the US.
South Africa’s first black billionaire, Patrice Motsepe, donated $1 million to Guinea to help the country fight Ebola.
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World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has made an emotional appeal for thousands of medical workers to volunteer and help contain the growing Ebola outbreak.
Jim Yong Kim said at least 5,000 medics and support staff are needed to beat the disease.
Many potential recruits were too scared to travel to West Africa, he added.
The current Ebola outbreak has infected more than 10,000 people and killed nearly 5,000.
Jim Yong Kim was speaking during a visit to Ethiopia, where he accompanied UN Secretary General Ban-ki Moon and African Union Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.
“Right now, I’m very much worried about where we will find those health care workers,” he said.
“With the fear factor going out of control in so many places, I hope health care professionals will understand that when they took their oath to become a health care worker it was precisely for moments like this.”
Ban-ki Moon said that transmission rates in West Africa continued to outstrip the pace of the international response.
At least 5,000 medics and support staff are needed in West Africa to beat the Ebola disease (photo Reuters)
He added that imposing travel restrictions to affected countries would severely curtail efforts to beat the disease.
Meanwhile in the US, Dallas nurse Amber Vinson, who contracted Ebola on American soil, was due to be discharged from hospital on October 28 after being declared virus-free.
Amber Vinson was one of two nurses who cared for a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, in a Texas hospital. Thomas Eric Duncan, who had travelled to the US from West Africa, died on October 8.
The second nurse, Nina Pham, was declared virus-free last week.
On October 27, the CDC introduced new Ebola treatment guidelines.
The rules say that US medics returning from affected areas will be actively monitored but not placed in quarantine.
It came following criticism over the treatment of nurse Kaci Hickox was placed in isolation after returning from West Africa.
Kaci Hickox, who had no symptoms, said she was made to feel like a criminal when she arrived back in the US on October 24.
Responding to her quarantining, the UN Secretary General’s spokesman said Ebola health workers were “exceptional people” and “should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science”.
However, the new guidelines were immediately rejected by the governor of New Jersey.
In the US quarantine decisions are ultimately made at a state level.
Meanwhile in Mali, 82 people who had contact with a toddler who died from Ebola are now being monitored, according to Reuters.
Mali recently became the sixth West African nation to report an outbreak.
Officials are concerned that the disease, which has so far been largely restricted to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, may spread.
Since the boy died last week there have been no new reported cases.
There have been 4,922 deaths from the Ebola virus, according to the World Health Organization’s latest figures.
All but 27 of the cases have occurred inside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
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Medical staff returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa will be actively monitored but not placed in quarantine under new US health rules.
The federal guidelines came after nurse Kaci Hickox was put in isolation in a tent in New Jersey, a decision condemned by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Meanwhile, Australia has been criticized for a West Africa visa ban.
The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has infected more than 10,000 people and killed almost 5,000.
People are not contagious until they develop Ebola symptoms and the UN Secretary-General’s spokesman said “returning health workers are exceptional people who are giving of themselves for humanity”.
“They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science.”
Medical staff returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa will be actively monitored but not placed in quarantine under new US health rules
Quarantine decisions in the US are made in each state, and the new guidelines from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were immediately rejected by the governor of New Jersey.
The CDC said it was “concerned about some policies” being put into place.
New Jersey is one of three states with a 21-day quarantine for all health workers who have had contact with Ebola patients.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie defended the mandatory isolation imposed on Kaci Hickox, who was quarantined when she returned home from Sierra Leone.
Chris Christie added: “That’s what we will continue to do.”
Kaci Hickox, who had no symptoms, has now left hospital in New Jersey for her home in Maine, where health officials say she’ll be quarantined for 21 days.
The nurse said she was made to feel like a criminal when she arrived back in the US on October 24.
Separately, Australia, which has had several scares but no recorded case of Ebola, has been criticized by Amnesty International for taking a “narrow approach”.
A spokesman told Reuters that the ban made no sense from a health perspective but ensured that vulnerable people were trapped in a crisis area.
CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said workers considered to be at high risk or some risk would be required to be “actively” monitored for symptoms for 21 days.
Those at highest risk are anyone who’s had direct contact with an Ebola patient’s body fluids.
Even if they have no symptoms, they should avoid commercial travel and large public events, Dr. Tom Frieden said, adding that voluntary quarantine was enough.
More than 10,000 people have contracted the Ebola virus, with 4,922 deaths, according to the World Health Organization’s latest figures.
All but 27 of the cases have occurred inside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The Ebola virus spreads through close contact.
Health officials say stopping the spread of the disease in the areas hardest hit by the outbreak will prevent Ebola’s spread to other countries.
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Nurse Kaci Hickox, who was quarantined in New Jersey after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, will be discharged after threatening legal action over her confinement.
Kaci Hickox said she was made to feel like a criminal after returning to the US on October 24.
She is free of symptoms and will be flown privately to her home state of Maine, New Jersey officials said.
The White House and mayor of New York have expressed concerns over new strict quarantine orders in several US states.
The new rules in New York, New Jersey and Illinois require a mandatory 21-day quarantine for all health workers who have had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa upon their return to the US.
The measures were announced after a New York doctor who had treated patients in Guinea fell ill with Ebola last week.
Amid criticism the quarantine rules were overly strict, but New York Governor Andrew Cuomo eased the state’s restrictions on October 26.
Nurse Kaci Hickox was quarantined in New Jersey after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone
Now, returning health workers who have displayed no symptoms will be allowed to pass the quarantine period in their homes, will be allowed contact with their families and friends, and will be monitored twice daily. Compensation will be offered for lost earnings.
More than 10,000 people have contracted the Ebola virus, with 4,922 deaths, according to the World Health Organization’s latest figures.
All but 27 of the cases have occurred inside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Separately on October 27, a five-year-old boy was being tested for Ebola at Bellevue Hospital in New York City after visiting an Ebola-stricken country and developing a fever, hospital officials said. Test results were expected later in the day.
In a statement, the New Jersey health department said Kaci Hickox had tested negative for Ebola on Saturday and had been free of symptoms for 24 hours.
Kaci Hickox arrived at Newark Airport on October 24 and was placed in isolation after developing a fever, the health department said.
“She was cared for in a monitored area of the hospital with an advanced tenting system that was recently toured and evaluated by the CDC.
“While in isolation, every effort was made to insure that she remained comfortable with access to a computer, cell phone, reading material and nourishment of choice.”
Over the weekend, Kaci Hickox, of medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), said she underwent hours of questioning at the airport before being transferred to a hospital isolation tent outside University Hospital in Newark.
She described the experience as “frightening” and a “frenzy of disorganization”.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie had defended the state’s quarantine requirements.
Kaci Wilcox’s lawyer Norman Siegel said her isolation raised civil liberty issues given that she had displayed no Ebola symptoms and did not test positive for the virus.
“We’re not going to dispute that the government has, under certain circumstances, the right to issue a quarantine,” he said, adding that “the policy is overly broad when applied to her”.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has described Kaci Hickox as a “returning hero”, but said that she had been “treated with disrespect” when put into quarantine.
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Nurse Kaci Hickox, who was quarantined on her return to the US from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, has criticized the way she was dealt with at Newark airport.
Kaci Hickox, 33, said the experience was frightening and could deter other health workers from travelling to West Africa to help tackle the Ebola virus.
Illinois has become the third state after New York and New Jersey to impose stricter quarantine rules.
Meanwhile US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power is to visit West Africa.
Samantha Power will travel to Guinea on October 26, continuing later to Liberia and Sierra Leone – the three worst-hit countries.
“For me the benefits of having first hand knowledge of what is happening in these countries gravely outweighs the almost nonexistent risk of actually travelling to these countries, provided I take the proper precautions,” she said on Saturday.
She said she hoped her trip would “draw attention to the need for increased support for the international response”.
The White House has expressed concern that strict quarantine restrictions such as those imposed in New York, New Jersey and Illinois could put off aid workers and others travelling to West Africa to help mitigate the crisis at its source.
More than 10,000 people have contracted the Ebola virus, with 4,922 deaths, according to the WHO’s latest report.
Only 27 of the cases have occurred outside Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Kaci Hickox, of medical charity Doctors Without Borders, described seeing a “frenzy of disorganization, fear and most frightening, quarantine” on her return from Sierra Leone on October 24.
Writing for The Dallas Morning News, Kaci Hickox asked whether fellow health workers would “face the same ordeal”.
Nurse Kaci Hickox was quarantined on her return to the US from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone (photo My Space)
“Will they be made to feel like criminals and prisoners?” she questioned.
Kaci Hickox said she was kept in isolation at the airport terminal for seven hours and given only a cereal bar to eat.
She also denied that she had had a fever, saying she was merely flushed because of the upset caused by her treatment at the airport.
Though Kaci Hickox tested negative in a preliminary test for the virus, she will remain under quarantine for three weeks and continue to be monitored by health officials.
Stricter quarantine measures were put in place in New York and New Jersey after a doctor, Craig Spencer, tested positive for the virus on his return from Guinea last week.
Dr. Craig Spencer is currently being treated at New York’s Bellevue Hospital in isolation.
The new measures mean that anyone who has had contact with Ebola victims in West Africa now faces a mandatory 21-day quarantine period.
Illinois governor Pat Quinn announced on October 25 that his state would start imposing the same measures, without providing further details.
Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was not consulted over the new rules, which were ordered by the state governors of New York and New Jersey.
“The state has the right to make its decision, just like the CDC does, and we’re going to work with them,” he told reporters on October 25.
President Barack Obama said in his weekly radio and online address that Americans had “to be guided by the facts – not fear”, reiterating that people cannot contract Ebola unless they have come into direct contact with an infected patient’s bodily fluids.
Barack Obama’s comments follow the release of the WHO’s latest report, which warned that the number of Ebola cases in West Africa could be much higher than recorded, as many families were keeping relatives at home rather than taking them to treatment centers.
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO) latest report, the number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has exceeded 10,000, with 4,922 deaths.
Only 27 of the cases have occurred outside the three worst-hit countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
Those three countries account for all but 10 of the fatalities.
Mali became the latest nation to record a death, a two-year-old girl. More than 40 people known to have come into contact with her have been quarantined.
The latest WHO situation report says that Liberia remains the worst affected country, with 2,705 deaths. Sierra Leone has had 1,281 fatalities and there have been 926 in Guinea.
Nigeria has recorded eight deaths and there has been one in Mali and one in the US.
The number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has exceeded 10,000, with 4,922 deaths
The WHO said the number of cases was now 10,141 but that the figure could be much higher, as many families were keeping relatives at home rather than taking them to treatment centers. It said many of the centers were overcrowded.
The latest report also shows no change in the number of cases and deaths in Liberia from the WHO’s previous report, three days ago.
Eight countries have registered cases in the outbreak. In West Africa, Senegal and Nigeria have now been declared virus-free by the WHO.
In the US, the governors of the states of New York and New Jersey have ordered a mandatory 21-day quarantine period for all doctors and other travelers who have had contact with Ebola victims in West Africa.
Anyone arriving from affected West African countries without having had confirmed contact with Ebola victims will be subject to monitoring by public health officials.
The move follows the diagnosis in New York of Dr. Craig Spencer, who had been working in Guinea.
The first person to be quarantined under the rules was a female health worker who arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport on October 24.
She had no symptoms then but later developed a fever. A preliminary test came back negative for Ebola, the New Jersey health department said on October 25, but the woman remains in isolation.
Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson, the two nurses infected with Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas, have been declared free of the virus.
Nina Pham had a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, hours after being discharged.
The news comes one day after Dr. Craig Spencer returning from Guinea tested positive for Ebola in New York City.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola – mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – since March.
On October 24, it was announced that one million doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015.
Amber Joy Vinson and Nina Pham were infected with Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas hospital
It was a day of mixed news in the US, where the first infection in New York was followed by the release from hospital of Nina Pham, 26.
“I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today,” she said.
“I am on my way back to recovery.”
Nina Pham thanked supporters for their prayers during her illness, and asked for privacy as she plans her return to Texas and a reunion with her dog, Bentley.
But first she was flown to Washington, at the request of the White House.
Nina Pham had been treated at a specialist hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, since being flown there from Texas Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas last week.
The other nurse, Amber Vinson, has also been declared virus-free, but she will remain in treatment in Atlanta until further notice.
“Tests no longer detect virus in her blood,” a Georgia hospital official said.
Thomas Eric Duncan died earlier this month and it is still unclear how the nurses contracted the virus while wearing protective clothing.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that one million doses of an Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015.
The WHO said “several hundred thousand” would be produced in the first half of the year.
Vaccines could be offered to health workers on the frontline in West Africa as soon as December 2014.
However, the WHO cautioned that vaccines would not be a “magic bullet” for ending the outbreak.
There is no proven cure or vaccine for Ebola.
In response to the largest epidemic of the disease in history, the WHO is accelerating the process of vaccine development
It normally takes years to produce and test a vaccine, but drug manufacturers are now working on a scale of weeks.
One million doses of an Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015
Two experimental vaccines, produced by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the Public Health Agency of Canada, are already in safety trials.
The GSK vaccine is being tested in Mali, the UK and the US. Research on the Canadian vaccine is also under way in the US with further trials expected to start in Europe and Africa soon.
The results are expected in December. After that, trials will move to countries affected by Ebola, probably starting with Liberia.
That will allow researchers to assess how effective the vaccine is and what dose is needed to provide protection.
Healthcare workers, who place themselves at risk when treating patients, will take part in the first trials in West Africa.
The WHO says we should have the first hints of how effective these experimental vaccines are by April.
There are no plans for mass vaccination before June 2015 but the WHO has not ruled it out.
The WHO says vaccines are likely to be key to ending the outbreak, even if cases fall in the next few months.
Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, a WHO assistant director-general, said: “While we hope that the massive response, which has been put in place will have an impact on the epidemic, it is still prudent to prepare to have as much vaccine available as possible if they are proven effective.
“If the massive effort in response is not sufficient, then vaccine would be a very important tool.
“And even if the epidemic would be already receding by the time we have vaccine available, the modeling seems to say vaccine may still have an impact on controlling the epidemic.”
As well as the two vaccines already in trials, there are a further five in the pipeline which could yet play a role in the outbreak.
The World Bank and the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres will help finance the vaccine.
There are also suggestions that an “indemnity fund” could be set up in case people have a serious adverse reaction to a vaccine being rushed through.
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New York doctor Craig Spencer, who recently returned from Ebola-hit Guinea in West Africa, has tested positive for the virus.
Dr. Craig Spencer, who treated Ebola patients while working for the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), came down with a fever on October 23, days after his return, officials say.
He is the first Ebola case diagnosed in New York, and the fourth in the US.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola – mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – since March.
Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, left Guinea on October 14, and returned to New York City on October 17 via Europe. On October 21 he began to feel tired and developed a fever and diarrhea on October 23.
He immediately contacted medical services and was taken to the city’s Bellevue Hospital, where he is being kept in isolation.
President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were with Craig Spencer.
New York officials said Dr. Craig Spencer had travelled on the subway and gone out jogging before he started feeling unwell.
Dr. Craig Spencer treated Ebola patients while working for the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in Guinea (photo Facebook)
At a news conference late on Thursday, they sought to ease fears of an outbreak in the densely populated city of 8.4 million people, saying officials had prepared for weeks for an Ebola case.
“There is no reason for New Yorkers to be alarmed,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
“Ebola is an extremely hard disease to contract. New Yorkers who have not been exposed to an infected person’s bodily fluids are not at risk.”
Governor Andrew Cuomo said: “We can’t say that this is an unexpected circumstance.”
President Barack Obama telephoned both the mayor and the governor to discuss the deployment of health officials and to offer “any additional federal support necessary”, the White House said.
Ebola patients are only infectious if they have symptoms, and the disease is only transmittable through bodily fluids, experts say.
Andrew Cuomo said officials had identified four people with whom Dr. Craig Spencer had contact during the period in which he was potentially infectious.
His fiancée and two friends have been placed into quarantine, said Dr. Mary Bassett, New York’s health commissioner.
Dr. Craig Spencer is the fourth person to be diagnosed with the disease in the US.
The first patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, caught Ebola in his native Liberia and travelled to Dallas, Texas, before his symptoms set in. He died on October 8.
Two nurses who treated him in Dallas subsequently came down with the disease and are recovering in hospital.
Meanwhile, on Thursday the West African country of Mali confirmed its first Ebola case – a two-year-old girl recently returned from Guinea.
Mali is now the sixth West African country to be affected by the latest Ebola outbreak – however Senegal and Nigeria have since been declared virus-free by the WHO.
Separately, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already identified at least two experimental vaccines which it believes could be promising.
At a meeting in Geneva, the UN health body said it wanted tests of the vaccines to be completed by the end of December.
The WHO says 443 health workers have contracted Ebola, of whom 244 have died.
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Mali has confirmed the first case of Ebola in the country.
The Malian government said a two-year-old girl had tested positive for the haemorrhagic virus. She recently returned from the neighboring Guinea.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola – mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – since March.
Meanwhile, an international team of scientists has been set up to determine the effectiveness of using the blood of Ebola survivors as a treatment.
It is hoped the antibodies used by the immune system to fight Ebola can be transferred from a survivor to a patient. The study will start in Guinea.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola since March 2014
Speaking on state television on October 23, Malian Health Minister Ousmane Kone said the infected girl was being treated in the western town of Kayes.
The girl was brought to a local hospital on October 22 and her blood sample was Ebola-positive, Ousmane Kone said.
The child and those who have come into contact with her have been put in quarantine.
The girl’s mother died in Guinea a few weeks ago and the child was then brought by relatives to Mali, Reuters news agency quotes a health ministry official as saying.
Mali is now the sixth West African country to be affected by the latest Ebola outbreak – however Senegal and Nigeria have since been declared virus-free by the WHO.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that serum made from the blood of recovered Ebola patients could be available within weeks in Liberia.
Liberia is one of the West African countries worst hit by the Ebola virus.
Speaking in Geneva, Dr. Marie Paule Kieny said work was also advancing quickly to get drugs and a vaccine ready for January 2015.
The Ebola outbreak has already killed more than 4,500 people.
Most of the deaths have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Dr, Marie Paule Kieny, WHO assistant director general for health system and innovation, said: “There are partnerships which are starting to be put in place to have capacity in the three countries to safely extract plasma and make preparation that can be used for the treatment of infective patients.
“The partnership which is moving the quickest will be in Liberia where we hope that in the coming weeks there will be facilities set up to collect the blood, treat the blood and be able to process it for use.”
Serum made from the blood of recovered Ebola patients could be available within weeks in Liberia
It is still unclear how much will become available and whether it could meet demand.
If a person has successfully fought off the infection, it means their body has learned how to combat the virus and they will have antibodies in their blood that can attack Ebola.
Doctors can then take a sample of their blood and turn it into a treatment called serum – by removing the red blood cells but keeping the important antibodies – for other patients.
Teresa Romero, the Spanish nurse who became the first person to contract Ebola outside West Africa, tested negative for the virus after reportedly receiving human serum containing antibodies from Ebola survivors.
Dr. Marie Paule Kieny said the treatment was not without risks, and WHO has already issued guidelines to ensure safety. Any donor blood will need to be screened for infections such a hepatitis and HIV, for example.
She said trials of two possible Ebola vaccines could produce initial results by the end of the year.
The vaccines will be tested first to see if they are safe for humans, and if they can protect people from the Ebola virus.
Once these questions have been answered, the WHO hopes to extend the trials to a much wider group of people and start giving it to Africa.
“These trials will all start in the coming two weeks… and continue for six months to a year but to have initial results about safety and immunogenicity to have a choice of a dose level by the end of this year in December.”
Dr. Marie Paule Kieny said there were a number of drugs being tested and developed in different countries.
A partnership between Oxford University and the Wellcome Trust is now visiting sites in the three affected African countries to identify which treatment centers would be adequate and willing to start testing drugs soon, she said.
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As the WHO has declared the Ebola outbreak an “international public health emergency” rapper Cam’ron has stepped in to offer his help.
For $19.99, you can buy your own Cam’ron Ebola Mask, which the musician claims can “protect” you from catching the disease.
In an Instagram post, the rapper wrote: “Ebola is no joking matter. So if u have to be safe. Be fashionable. #CamEbolaMask.”
According to the site selling the masks, they are due to be shipped to customers in November.
For $19.99, you can buy your own Cam’ron Ebola Mask (photo Instagram)
“Provides complete protection while remaining light and comfortable,” said the product description.
“Polypropylene outer facing offers a soft, fluid protection barrier while the cellulose inner facing assures comfort and breathability.”
According to the WHO, Ebola is not an airborne virus – instead it is transmitted when people have direct contact through broken skin, or the mouth or nose, with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
Masks can help stop the spread of infection, advises the WHO, but gloves and other protective equipment is also recommended.
Other advice includes covering your eyes as well as your hands and mouth.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially declared Nigeria free of Ebola after six weeks with no new cases.
Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populous country, won praise for its swift response after an infected Liberian diplomat brought the disease there in July.
The WHO officially declared Senegal Ebola-free on Friday, October 17.
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
The WHO has officially declared Nigeria free of Ebola after six weeks with no new cases
An estimated 70% of those infected have died in those countries.
Meanwhile, European Union foreign ministers are meeting in Luxembourg to discuss how to strengthen their response to the threat posed by Ebola.
European countries have committed more than 500 million euros ($600 million).
The money is being sought to help reinforce over-stretched healthcare systems in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and to mitigate the damage Ebola is doing to their economies.
Ahead of the talks, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier suggested the EU could send a civilian EU mission to West Africa that would serve as a platform for sending medical staff.
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President Barack Obama urged Americans not to give in to Ebola hysteria, stressing that the two cases contracted in the US were not an epidemic or an outbreak.
Barack Obama has also ruled out imposing a travel ban on Ebola-hit countries of West Africa.
He said isolating an entire region, a move urged by some Republicans, would make the situation worse.
The Ebola virus has killed about 4,500 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the UN.
Barack Obama said the best way to tackle the disease was at its source, before it spreads.
“Trying to seal off an entire region of the world, if that were even possible, could actually make the situation worse,” he said.
“It would make it harder to move health workers and supplies back and forth.
“Experience shows that it could also cause people in the affected region to change their travel, to evade screening, and make the disease even harder to track.”
President Barack Obama urged Americans not to give in to Ebola hysteria (photo White House)
Barack Obama stressed that the US was not in the middle of an outbreak or an epidemic and urged Americans to stay calm.
However, the New York Times has reported that the president was furious with his aides over an inadequate response to the disease.
The newspaper said medical officials had given information that turned out to be wrong, local guidance was inadequate and categories of threats were unclear.
Some 60 Republicans in the House of Representatives have informally said they would support a travel ban, according to an unofficial count on the Hill website.
They were joined by a handful of Democrat representatives and a small number of Republicans in the Senate.
Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who supports travel restrictions, has hinted that he may propose a vote on the issue.
Several US airports have begun screening for Ebola, despite experts saying such moves were unlikely to have an impact.
Two American nurses contracted the virus after treating Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who subsequently died of the disease at a hospital in Dallas.
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The CDC will issue new guidelines for healthcare workers handling Ebola patients, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is “wrapping up the final details” about the new guidelines, which come in the wake of the first Ebola cases in the US, CDC spokeswoman Melissa Brower has said.
The CDC will issue new guidelines for healthcare workers handling Ebola patients
As of October 17, roughly 1,000 people were being watched for symptoms, asked to monitor themselves or urged to check with a counselor at the CDC. None has exhibited symptoms.
The group includes those who may have flown on a Frontier Airlines jetliner that carried Amber Vinson, the second of two nurses who contracted Ebola after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a major outbreak of Ebola in the US and elsewhere in the West is unlikely given the strong health systems.
President Barack Obama also said the risk of Americans getting the virus was “extremely low”, although he ordered a “much more aggressive response”.
Meanwhile authorities are investigating how Nurse Amber Vinson, who was infected when treating Thomas Eric Duncan in Texas, was allowed to travel on a plane.
Officials are trying to trace the 132 people who flew with Amber Vinson.
The Ebola outbreak has killed about 4,500 people so far, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
President Barack Obama said the risk of Americans getting the virus was extremely low, although he ordered a much more aggressive response (photo Reuters)
EU health ministers will meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the crisis, including the possibility of sending more troops to West Africa to help contain the virus.
Christopher Dye, WHO director of strategy, said the introduction of Ebola into the US or other countries in Western Europe was a matter “for very serious concern”.
“The possibility that once an infection has been introduced that it spreads elsewhere, is something that everybody is going to be concerned about,” he said.
But he added: “We’re confident that in North America and Western Europe where health systems are very strong, that we’re unlikely to see a major outbreak in any of those places.”
Earlier, President Barack Obama said the likelihood of a widespread Ebola outbreak was “very, very low”.
However, he promised a “much more aggressive” monitoring of Ebola cases in the US and reaffirmed plans to send a “SWAT team” of experts to any hospital that reported an infection.
Barack Obama cancelled a political campaign trip to chair a crisis meeting on Ebola on Wednesday and has cleared his diary for Thursday.
The president said it would be more difficult to prevent an outbreak in the US if the epidemic “rages out of control in West Africa”.
US health officials are facing new questions about the response to Ebola infections in Texas.
Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan was treated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital but died of the disease.
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Amber Vinson is the Texas nurse who flew on a plane with more than 130 people on board on the day before she came down with symptoms of Ebola.
Amber Vinson, 29, who is the second person infected in the US, fell ill on Tuesday, October 14.
Both she and nurse Nina Pham, 26, had treated Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who died a week ago in Dallas.
A nurses’ union has said those treating Thomas Eric Duncan were not given full protection and had parts of their skin exposed
More than 70 healthcare workers who may have come in contact with him at the hospital are being monitored for symptoms, the hospital’s director has said.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Ebola mission chief says the world is falling behind in the race to contain the virus, which has killed more than 4,000 in West Africa.
On October 15, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it wanted to interview the passengers on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland, Ohio, to Dallas, Texas on October 13.
It said it was taking the measure “because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning”.
Amber Vinson flew to Cleveland on October 10, even though she was being monitored for signs of Ebola
Both Amber Vinson and Nina Pham treated Thomas Eric Duncan early in his stay at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas when he had “extensive production of body fluids”, said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden.
A national nurse union told reporters on October 15 the health workers treating Thomas Eric Duncan had not been properly protected and called for all health workers treating Ebola patients to receive full protective suits and training from hospitals.
Union director RoseAnn DeMoro said staff treated Thomas Eric Duncan for days without the necessary protective gear, and hazardous waste was allowed to pile up to the ceiling.
The CDC has appointed a “site manager” in Dallas to standardize the protective equipment and supervise the method of putting it off and on.
Amber Vinson flew to Cleveland on October 10, even though she was being monitored for signs of Ebola and therefore should not have flown on a commercial plane, Dr. Tom Frieden said.
When Amber Vinson returned from Ohio, she was not showing symptoms of the disease, the crew has told CDC investigators.
Health experts say people who are not showing symptoms are not contagious.
On the morning of October 14, Amber Vinson came down with a fever and was isolated within 90 minutes. Her diagnosis was announced early on October 15.
One of the ill women is to be transferred to Emory University hospital in Atlanta, which oversaw the recovery of two US aid workers who had caught the disease in Africa.
Thomas Eric Duncan, who was the first person to be diagnosed in the US with Ebola, started showing symptoms of the disease just days after he arrived in Texas from Liberia, where he contracted it.
An initial set of 48 people who were in contact with Thomas Eric Duncan before he was admitted to hospital are nearing the end of the window in which they could develop an Ebola infection.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials are seeking 132 people who flew on a plane with a Texas nurse on the day before she came down with symptoms of Ebola.
The nurse, the second person to catch Ebola in the US, became ill on October 14.
Both she and nurse Nina Pham, 26, had treated Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on October 8, in Dallas.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Ebola mission chief says the world is falling behind in the race to contain the virus, which has killed more than 4,000 in West Africa.
On October 15, the CDC said it wanted to interview the passengers on Frontier Airlines flight 1143 from Cleveland, Ohio, to Dallas, Texas on October 13.
It said it was taking the measure “because of the proximity in time between the evening flight and first report of illness the following morning”.
The CDC officials are seeking 132 people who flew on a plane with a Texas nurse on the day before she came down with symptoms of Ebola
Both the newly diagnosed nurse, who has yet to be identified, and Nina Pham treated Thomas Eric Duncan early in his stay at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas when he had “extensive production of body fluids”, CDC director Tom Frieden told reporters on Wednesday.
The second nurse flew to Cleveland on 10 October, even though she had had “extensive contact” with Thomas Eric Duncan and was being monitored for signs of Ebola and therefore should not have flown on a commercial aeroplane, Dr. Tom Frieden said.
Nina Pham subsequently became ill and was diagnosed with Ebola. When the second nurse returned from Ohio on Monday evening, she was not showing symptoms of the disease, the crew has told CDC investigators.
Health experts say people who are not showing symptoms are not contagious.
“We will from this moment forward ensure that no other individual who is being monitored for exposure undergoes travel in any way other than controlled movement,” Dr. Tom Frieden said, meaning, for example, in chartered flights or ambulances.
On the morning of October 14, the second nurse came down with a fever and was isolated within 90 minutes. Her diagnosis was announced early on October 15.
One of the ill women is to be transferred to Emory University hospital in Atlanta, which oversaw the recovery of two US aid workers who had caught the disease in Africa.
A second Texas health care worker has tested positive for Ebola, health officials say.
A 26-year-old female nurse is already receiving treatment after becoming infected by Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan who died from the deadly virus last week.
Health officials say they are monitoring 48 contacts of the Liberian national and the healthcare workers who treated him.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says 4,447 people have died from the Ebola outbreak, mainly in West Africa.
A second health care worker has tested positive for Ebola at Dallas hospital
Nina Pham was exposed to Ebola at a Dallas hospital when she treated Liberian Thomas Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the virus on US soil.
Doctors at the Health Presbyterian hospital said she was in good condition on October 14.
The identity of the second health worker has not yet been revealed, however, the person also cared for Thomas Eric Duncan while he was in hospital.
The health worker was immediately isolated after reporting a fever on October 14, the Texas state department for health said in a statement.
“Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored,” the department said.
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A UN medical worker infected with Ebola has died at St Georg hospital in Leipzig, Germany.
The 56-year-old man, originally from Sudan, died despite receiving experimental drugs to treat the virus, German doctors say.
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,000 people since March – mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says the outbreak is the “the most severe, acute health emergency in modern times”.
The man had been working as a UN medical official in Liberia – one of the worst affected countries – when he caught Ebola.
A UN medical worker infected with Ebola has died at St Georg hospital in Leipzig
He arrived in Germany on October 9 for treatment and was put into a hermetically sealed ward, accessed through airlock systems.
“Despite intensive medical measures and maximum efforts by the medical team, the 56-year-old UN employee succumbed to the serious infectious disease,” a statement from St Georg hospital said.
He was the second member of the UN team in Liberia to die from the virus.
The man was the third Ebola patient to be treated for the deadly virus in Germany after contracting the disease in the outbreak zone in West Africa.
One patient – a Ugandan doctor infected in Sierra Leone – is still receiving treatment in a hospital in Frankfurt, while a Senegalese aid worker was released from a hospital in Hamburg after five weeks of treatment.
The WHO says it is alarmed by the number of health workers who have been exposed to the disease.
London’s Heathrow airport is to start screening for Ebola among passengers flying into the UK from countries at risk.
A “handful” of cases – thought to be fewer than 10 – are expected to reach the UK before Christmas.
Screening will start at Terminal 1, before being extended to other terminals, Gatwick airport and Eurostar by the end of the week.
In September, around 1,000 people arrived in the UK from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa.
People flying from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will be identified by Border Force officers.
Nurses and consultants from Public Health England will then carry out the actual screening.
Passengers will have their temperatures taken, complete a risk questionnaire and have contact details recorded.
Anyone with suspected Ebola will be taken to hospital.
Heathrow airport is to start screening for Ebola among passengers flying into the UK from countries at risk
Passengers deemed to be at high risk due to contact with Ebola patients, but who are displaying no symptoms, will be contacted daily by Public Health England.
Ebola has killed more than 4,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
A spokesman for Heathrow said the welfare of “our passengers and colleagues is always our main priority”.
He added: “We would like to reassure passengers that the government assesses the risk of a traveler contracting Ebola to be low.”
There is no direct flight to the UK from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea so people could arrive at airports that do not screen passengers.
Instead “highly visible information” will be in place at all entry points to the UK.
The Department of Health estimates that 85% of all arrivals to the UK from affected countries will come through Heathrow.
However, screening arrivals marks a rapid shift in policy from the UK government.
Just last week, it said there were no plans for screening as people were tested before leaving affected countries.
The WHO said it was unnecessary and that it would mean screening “huge numbers of low-risk people”.
Anyone in the UK with suspected Ebola will be taken to hospital and blood samples will be taken to Public Health England’s specialist laboratory for rapid testing.
If the test is positive, then the patient will be transferred to an isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London. It is the centre that cared for the British nurse William Pooley, who contracted Ebola in West Africa.
Hospitals in Newcastle, Liverpool and Sheffield are on standby to offer similar facilities if there is a sudden surge in Ebola cases. A total of 26 isolation beds could be prepared at the four hospitals.
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Liberian nurses and medical assistants are on national strike, as the Ebola epidemic continues in the country.
The National Health Workers Association wants an increase in the monthly risk fee paid to those treating Ebola cases.
In the US, President Barack Obama has directed more steps to be taken to ensure high safety procedures when dealing with suspected Ebola patients.
A health worker treating an Ebola victim has herself caught the virus.
Liberia’s Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah said a strike would have negative consequences on those suffering from Ebola and would adversely affect progress made so far in the fight against the disease.
The government says the scale of the epidemic means it now cannot afford the risk fee originally agreed.
Liberia’s National Health Workers Association wants an increase in the monthly risk fee paid to those treating Ebola cases
The risk fee is currently less than $500 a month, on top of basic salaries of between $200 and $300. Staff is now seeking a risk fee of $700 a month.
The health workers also want personal protective equipment and insurance.
Ninety-five of their colleagues have so far died from Ebola. Liberia is one of the countries worst affected by the epidemic.
More than 4,000 people have so far died in the Ebola outbreak.
A new UN centre to co-ordinate the fight against the epidemic is being set up in Ghana.
Six months after the epidemic began in west Africa there are still only about a quarter of the treatment beds required to tackle it.
Food is now in short supply as markets are disrupted in some parts of the three countries worst affected: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
In Liberia, elections have been postponed because the gathering of people at polling stations would endanger lives.
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