General Gilbert Diendere, a close ally of former Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, has been named the country’s new leader after presidential guard officers have seized power in a coup, with shooting reported in the capital, Ouagadougou.
French President Francois Hollande condemned what he called a coup in the former French colony.
Presidential forces opened fire to disperse protesters in Ouagadougou, and some were arrested, reports say.
The coup leaders have imposed a night-time curfew across Burkina Faso, and have ordered the closure of land and air borders, AFP reports.
The headquarters of Blaise Compaore’s Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP) party were ransacked in Ouagadougou as news of the coup spread, it adds.
Francois Hollande called for the immediate release of interim President Michel Kafando and PM Isaac Zida, who were detained at a cabinet meeting in the president palace on September 16.
Their transitional government was due to hand power to a new government after elections on October 11.
Blaise Compaore was ousted in a popular uprising last year after 27 years in power, and is currently in exile.
Some of his key allies had been barred from contesting the election.
A statement issued by the coup leaders said Burkina Faso would be led by Gen. Gilbert Diendere, Blaise Compaore’s former chief-of-staff.
An earlier announcement on state television said wide-ranging talks would be held to form a new interim government that would organize “peaceful and inclusive elections”.
Transitional parliamentary speaker Cheriff Sy said the move was “clearly a coup”.
Cheriff Sy said the presidential guard had “sequestrated” the interim government, and he urged people to protest on the streets.
“We are in a resistance situation against adversity,” he added.
Earlier, there was heavy shooting by presidential forces at the capital’s Revolution Square, where protesters had gathered to demand the release of the interim leaders.
The elite presidential guard has been trained, in part, by the US. It is the most powerful armed group in Burkina Faso and often disrupted the activities of the transitional government as it tried to cling to the privileges it enjoyed under Blaise Compaore’s rule.
It is seen to be close to him, and is not popular on the streets. So its seizure of power could be a recipe for serious violence.
The transitional government might have made two mistakes – preventing politicians loyal to Blaise Compaore from running in next month’s elections and allowing the Reconciliation Commission, formed to heal wounds after the end of his authoritarian rule, to release a report calling for the presidential guard to be disbanded.
Some argue that a newly elected president would have had greater legitimacy to take such action.
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.
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.
According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, the death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has passed 3,000.
The latest figures indicate that more than 6,500 people are believed to have been infected in the region.
Liberia is the worst affected country, having recorded around 1,830 deaths linked to the latest outbreak.
The Ebola outbreak is the world’s most deadly and President Barack Obama has called it a “threat to global security”.
Some studies have warned that the numbers of infected could rise to more than 20,000 by early November.
The WHO report said two new areas, in Guinea and Liberia, have recorded their first confirmed cases of Ebola in the last seven days.
It also highlights the risk of infection for health workers trying to stem the outbreak.
The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has passed 3,000
It says 375 workers are known to have been infected, and that 211 have so far died from the virus.
The deaths and sickness have made it even more difficult for the already weak healthcare systems in the affected countries to cope with the outbreak.
There is a severe shortage of hospital beds, especially in Liberia.
The US is sending some 3,000 troops to help Liberia tackle the disease, and set up emergency medical facilities.
Sierra Leone last weekend enforced a three-day lockdown in an attempt to quell the outbreak in the country.
During the curfew more than a million households were surveyed and 130 new cases discovered, the authorities say.
On September 24, Sierra Leone extended the quarantine area to three new districts, meaning more than a third of the country’s six million people cannot move freely.
Some 600 people have died in Sierra Leone and a similar number in Guinea, where the outbreak was first confirmed in March.
Nigeria and Senegal, two other West Africa countries that have also been affected by the Ebola outbreak, have not recorded any new cases or deaths in the last few weeks, the latest WHO report says.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ebola infections will treble to 20,000 by November if efforts to tackle the outbreak are not stepped up.
A new analysis suggests about 70% of those infected have died, higher than the 50% previously reported.
There have been 2,800 deaths so far and the disease remains “a public health emergency of international concern”, the UN agency said.
Trials of experimental drugs are being fast tracked in West Africa.
Meanwhile, more information on the spread and likely scale of the epidemic has emerged.
Projections published in The New England Journal of Medicine suggest by early November there will have been nearly 20,000 cases.
A new analysis of confirmed cases suggests death rates are higher than previously reported at about 70% of all cases.
The WHO has warned that Ebola infections will treble to 20,000 by November 2014 if efforts to tackle the outbreak are not stepped up
And WHO scientists said numbers were predicted to rise exponentially, raising the possibility that the disease could become endemic [regularly found] in West Africa.
Nearly all of the deaths in the world’s worst Ebola outbreak have been recorded in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Dr. Christopher Dye, Director of Strategy for WHO, said projections suggest “unless control measures – including improvements in contract tracing, adequate case isolation, increased quality of care and capacity for clinical management, greater community engagement, and support from international partners – improve quickly, these three countries will soon be reporting thousands of cases and deaths each week”.
Dr. Christopher Dye, co-author of the study, called for “the most forceful implementation of present control measures and for the rapid development and deployment of new drugs and vaccines”.
It came as The Wellcome Trust charity announced that experimental drugs would be tested in West Africa for the first time.
Several drugs are under development, but they have not been fully tested and most are in very short supply.
They include the drug ZMapp, which has been given to a handful of infected health workers.
Dr. Peter Horby, of the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at the University of Oxford, said the first trials could begin in West Africa as early as November.
Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said therapeutics alone were not an answer.
President Barack Obama has announced the US measures to combat the Ebola virus as he called the outbreak in West Africa “a threat to global security”.
“The world is looking to the United States,” Barack Obama said, but added the outbreak required a “global response”.
The measures announced included ordering 3,000 US troops to the region and building new healthcare facilities.
Ebola has killed 2,461 people this year, about half of those infected, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
The announcement comes as UN officials have called the outbreak a health crisis “unparalleled in modern times”.
Among the measures announced by Barack Obama on September 16:
Building 17 healthcare facilities, each with 100 beds and isolation spaces, in Liberia
Training as many as 500 health care workers a week
Developing an air bridge to get supplies into affected countries faster
Provide home health care kits to hundreds of thousands of households, including 50,000 that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will deliver to Liberia this week
Ebola only spreads in close contact but there is no cure and no vaccine. The outbreak began in Guinea before spreading to its neighbors Sierra Leone and Liberia.
President Barack Obama has announced the US measures to combat the Ebola virus as he called the outbreak in West Africa a threat to global security
Barack Obama said the outbreak had reached epidemic proportions in West Africa, as the disease “completely overwhelmed” hospitals and clinics and people were “literally dying on the streets”.
He called on other countries to step up their response, as a worsening outbreak would lead to “profound political, economic and security” issues.
There’s a “potential threat to global security if these countries break down”, he said, which would impact on everyone.
“The world knows how to fight this disease. We know if we take the proper steps we can save lives. But we have to work fast,” Barack Obama said.
Earlier, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the 3,000 troops would not provide direct care to Ebola patients. Some soldiers would be stationed at an intermediate base in Senegal, while others will provide logistical, training and engineering support at locations in Liberia.
Also on September 16, a US congressional panel heard testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the national Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and Dr. Kent Brently, who recovered from an Ebola infection after receiving an experimental treatment for the disease.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told the committee 10 volunteers in a separate vaccine study had shown no ill effects from an early stage trial.
More than 1,900 people have now died in West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
WHO head Margaret Chan said there were 3,500 confirmed or probable cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
“The outbreaks are racing ahead of the control efforts in these countries,” she said.
On September 4, the WHO is holding a meeting to examine the most promising treatments and to discuss how to fast track their testing and production.
Disease control experts, medical researchers, officials from affected countries, and specialists in medical ethics will all be represented at the meeting in Geneva.
The WHO has previously warned that more than 20,000 people could be infected before the outbreak of the virus is brought under control.
Margaret Chan described the outbreak as “the largest and most severe and most complex we have ever seen”.
More than 1,900 people have now died in West Africa’s Ebola outbreak
“No one, even outbreak responders with experience dating back to 1976, to 1995, people that were directly involved with those outbreaks, none of them have ever seen anything like it,” she said.
At least 40% of the deaths have occurred in three weeks leading up to September 3, the WHO says.
Yesterday Nigeria reported two further cases in the city of Port Harcourt.
There had previously only been one case outside the city of Lagos, where five people have died from the virus.
“The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Port Harcourt has the potential to grow larger and spread faster than the one in Lagos,” the WHO warned.
Also on September 3, the first British person to contract Ebola during the outbreak was discharged from hospital after making a full recovery.
On September 2, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned that a global military intervention was needed to combat the outbreak.
MSF condemned the global response so far as “lethally inadequate” and said the world was “losing the battle” to contain the outbreak.
It has called for military and civilian teams capable of dealing with a biological disaster to be deployed immediately, as well as for more field hospitals with isolation wards to be set up, trained healthcare workers to be sent to the region and air support to move patients and medics across West Africa.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people before it is brought under control.
The WHO said the number of cases could already be four times higher than the 3,000 currently registered.
It also called on airlines to resume “vital” flights across the region, saying travel bans were threatening efforts to beat the epidemic.
So far, 1,552 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria have died.
Announcing a WHO action plan to deal with the outbreak, Bruce Aylward said “the actual number of cases may be 2-4 fold higher than that currently reported” in some areas.
The WHO assistant director-general said the possibility of 20,000 cases “is a scale that I think has not ever been anticipated in terms of an Ebola outbreak”.
“That’s not saying we expect 20,000… but we have got to have a system in place that we can deal with robust numbers,” he added.
The WHO plan calls for $489 million to be spent over the next nine months and requires 750 international workers and 12,000 national workers across West Africa.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people before it is brought under control (photo AFP)
On August 28, Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola death outside Lagos, with an infected doctor in the oil hub of Port Harcourt dying from the disease.
Operations have not yet been affected in Africa’s biggest oil producer, but a spokesman for Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary said they were “monitoring the Ebola outbreak very closely”.
Health ministers from across West Africa are meeting in Ghana at an extraordinary meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss how to prevent the virus from spreading further.
Officials at the ECOWAS session backed the WHO’s call for flight bans to be ended and called for states to reopen their borders to make it easier for health workers to access affected areas.
Earlier Bruce Aylward insisted bans on travel and trade would not stop the spread of Ebola, saying they were “more likely to compromise the ability to respond”.
Despite rumors to the contrary, the Ebola virus is not airborne and is spread by humans coming into contact with bodily fluids, such as sweat and blood, from those infected with virus.
Medical agencies in West Africa are struggling to cope with an increasing number of cases and growing hostility from communities in certain affected areas.
Efforts to prevent the virus spreading are unlikely to see any results given that most treatment centers are already operating at full capacity.
Meanwhile, British medical charity Wellcome Trust and pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said safety trials on an experimental Ebola vaccine are being fast-tracked.
GSK says it plans to build up a stockpile of up to 10,000 doses for emergency deployment if results from the trials, which could begin as soon as next month, are good.
Canada will donate up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to help battle the disease’s outbreak in West Africa.
The announcement comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was ethical to use untested drugs on Ebola patients.
However, experts say supplies of both the vaccine, and experimental drug ZMapp are limited and it could take months to develop more supplies.
More than 1,000 people have been killed by the current outbreak.
Canada says between 800 and 1,000 doses of the vaccine, which has only been tested on animals, will be donated to the WHO for use in West Africa.
However, it will keep a small portion of the vaccine for research, and in case it is needed in Canada.
The current outbreak has infected people in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.
Canada will donate up to 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to help battle the disease’s outbreak in West Africa (photo WHO)
Dr. Gregory Taylor, deputy head of Canada’s Public Health Agency, said he saw the vaccines as a “global resource”.
He said he had been advised that it would make sense for health care workers to be given the vaccine, given their increased risk of contracting the disease.
Even if Canada releases most of its existing doses, experts warn it could take four to six months to make a quantity large enough to have any real impact at preventing the illness.
On Tuesday, the WHO said that in light of scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths, it was “ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention.”
Last week the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak was a global health emergency.
Liberia says it is getting an experimental drug, ZMapp, after requests to the US government.
However, the WHO said there were only 12 doses.
ZMapp maker Mapp Biopharmaceutical said on Tuesday: “The available supply of ZMapp has been exhausted. We have complied with every request for ZMapp that had the necessary legal/regulatory authorization.
“Drug has been provided at no cost in all cases.”
ZMapp has been used on two US aid workers, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who have shown signs of improvement, although it is not certain what role the medication played in this.
A Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who died after returning home to Spain is also thought to have been given the drug.
Ebola’s initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external hemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure. Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.
Clinical trials of a preventative vaccine for the Ebola virus made by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline may begin next month and made available by 2015, the WHO said on Saturday.
“We are targeting September for the start of clinical trials, first in the United States and certainly in African countries, since that’s where we have the cases,” Jean-Marie Okwo Bele, the WHO’s head of vaccines and immunization, told French radio.
Jean-Marie Okwo Bele said he was optimistic about making the vaccine commercially available.
Clinical trials of a preventative vaccine for the Ebola virus made by GSK may begin next month and made available by 2015
“We think that if we start in September, we could already have results by the end of the year.
“And since this is an emergency, we can put emergency procedures in place … so that we can have a vaccine available by 2015.”
There is currently no available cure or vaccine for Ebola, a virus that causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.
It has claimed close to 1,000 lives in the latest epidemic to spread across West Africa this year. Fatality rates can approach 90 percent, although the latest outbreak has killed around 55 to 60 percent of those infected.
Several vaccines are being tested, and a treatment made by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, ZMapp, has shown promising results on monkeys and may have been effective in treating two Americans recently infected in Africa.
The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak an international health emergency.
WHO officials said a coordinated international response was essential to stop and reverse the spread of the virus.
The announcement came after experts convened a two-day emergency meeting in Switzerland.
The WHO has declared the spread of Ebola in West Africa an international health emergency (photo Getty Images)
So far more than 960 people have died from Ebola in West Africa this year.
The WHO said the outbreak was an “extraordinary event”.
“The possible consequences of further international spread are particularly serious in view of the virulence of the virus,” the UN health agency said in a statement.
More than 1,700 cases of Ebola have been reported in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
WHO director-general Dr. Margaret Chan appealed for help for the countries hit by the “most complex outbreak in the four decades of this disease”.
Dr. Margaret Chan said there would be no general ban on international travel or trade.
A New York man who was admitted to hospital with a high fever and stomach problems after travelling through West Africa has tested negative for Ebola.
The patient in New York had been isolated shortly after arriving at Mount Sinai hospital on Monday.
An outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 900 people and a state of emergency has been declared in Liberia.
The US infectious disease agency is now operating at its highest emergency response in order to free up resources.
Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases known to humans, with a fatality rate in this outbreak of between 50% and 60%.
The Ebola suspected patient has been isolated shortly after arriving at Mount Sinai hospital
It is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of Ebola patients showing symptoms.
Two other Americans infected with Ebola were flown this week from Liberia to a hospital in Atlanta to receive treatment.
They are reportedly improving after receiving an experimental drug called ZMapp, produced by a firm in San Diego, but it is unclear if the drug is responsible for their improving health.
At least one country involved in the outbreak is interested in the drug.
Nigeria’s health minister, Onyenbuchi Chukwu, said at a news conference that he had asked US health officials about access. Nigeria has seen seven confirmed cases.
Officials said the manufacturer would have to agree. A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said director Dr. Tom Frieden “conveyed there are virtually no doses available”.
Dr. Tom Frieden was expected to testify in front of Congress about the outbreak on Thursday.
The treatment, tested only in animals, boosts the immune system’s ability to fight off Ebola through antibodies made by lab animals exposed to elements of the virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has planned to convene a panel of medical ethicists next week to discuss the ramifications of using an untested drug.
In a statement, it said the use of ZMapp “has raised questions about whether medicine that has never been tested and shown to be safe in people should be used in the outbreak and, given the extremely limited amount of medicine available, if it is used, who should receive it”.
Some public health officials were wary of ramping up production of the drug at the expense of traditional isolation and testing measures.
Peter Piot, who co-discovered the virus in 1976, and two other Ebola experts, urged the drug be made more widely available.
The FDA has separately given the US defense department an emergency authorization to use an Ebola diagnostic test overseas.
It will be used in labs designated by the defense department to respond to the Ebola outbreak.
The US will send at least 50 public health experts to West Africa to help fight the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola.
A senior US health official said the Ebola outbreak was out of control but insisted it could be stopped.
Ebola has claimed 728 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone this year. The current mortality rate is about 55%.
Meanwhile, an American doctor infected with the virus is improving in hospital after returning to the US from Liberia.
Dr. Kent Brantly arrived at a military base in Georgia on Saturday before being driven to Emory University Hospital.
Another infected American, aid worker Nancy Writebol, is expected to arrive in the US soon.
The US will send at least 50 public health experts to West Africa to help fight the worst-ever outbreak of Ebola
The virus spreads through human contact with a sufferer’s bodily fluids.
Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external hemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.
Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announced the new US measures in an interview with ABC’s This Week.
“We do know how to stop Ebola. It’s old-fashioned plain and simple public health: find the patients, make sure they get treated, find their contacts, track them, educate people, do infection control in hospitals.”
The experts would arrive in West Africa within 30 days to fight what he called the “scary” disease.
He rejected fears that this would put more US citizens in harms way.
“The single most important thing we can do to protect Americans is to stop this disease at the source in Africa” he said.
The plane carrying Dr. Kent Brantly was outfitted with a special portable tent designed for transporting patients with highly infectious diseases.
The same aircraft is due to bring missionary Nancy Writebol from West Africa.
The hospital facility which will treat both patients is one of four in the US able to handle Ebola patients.
US officials say they are confident the patients can be treated without putting the public in any danger.
The National Institutes of Health in the US has said it will begin testing a possible Ebola vaccine in September.
Dr. Kent Brantly, who was infected with the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia, has arrived in the US for treatment at a specialized unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
The US doctor arrived in a specially equipped private plane at a military base before being whisked away to Emory University Hospital.
Fellow infected US aid worker Nancy Writebol is expected to follow shortly.
Ebola has claimed 728 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone this year, killing up to 90% of sufferers.
The virus spreads through human contact with a sufferer’s bodily fluids.
Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external hemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.
Ebola infected Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol will be treated at a specialized unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta
The US health authorities have warned against travelling to the African states affected and 50 extra American specialists are being sent to affected areas.
The plane carrying Dr. Kent Brantly was outfitted with a special portable tent designed for transporting patients with highly infectious diseases.
After it touched down at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, the patient was collected by an ambulance which drove him to Emory, 15 miles away.
At the hospital a person in protective clothing could be seen climbing down from the back of the ambulance and a second person in protective clothing appeared to take his gloved hands and guide him toward a building, the Associated Press report.
US officials say they are confident the patients can be treated without putting the public in any danger.
The specialized unit at Emory University Hospital was opened 12 years ago to care for federal health workers exposed to some of the world’s most dangerous germs.
While it has an isolation unit, health experts say it is not needed for treating a patient with Ebola, as the virus does not spread through the air.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is unaware of any Ebola patient ever being treated in the US before.
Dr. Kent Brantly’s employer, the aid group Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement that it was evacuating 60 non-essential staff who were healthy back to the US.
An earlier statement said that Dr. Kent Brantly had been offered experimental serum – using blood from a child whose life he saved – but he had insisted that Nancy Writebol should receive it instead.
Dr. Kent Brantly’s wife, Amber, said in a statement she remained “hopeful and believing that Kent” would be “healed from this dreadful disease”.
The National Institutes of Health in the US has said it will begin testing a possible Ebola vaccine in September.
World Health Organization head Margaret Chan has said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is spreading faster than efforts to control it.
The WHO director general told a summit of regional leaders that failure to contain Ebola could be “catastrophic” in terms of lives lost.
She said the virus, which has claimed 729 lives in four West African countries since February, could be stopped if well managed.
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected.
It spreads by contact with infected blood, bodily fluids, organs – or contaminated environments. Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.
Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external hemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.
Dr. Margaret Chan was meeting the leaders of the worst-affected countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – to launch a new $100 million Ebola response plan.
Ebola virus has claimed 729 lives in four West African countries since February
The plan includes funding the deployment of hundreds more health care workers to affected countries.
“This meeting must mark a turning point in the outbreak response,” Margaret Chan said at the summit in Guinea’s capital, Conakry.
“Cases are occurring in rural areas which are difficult to access, but also in densely populated capital cities,” she said, explaining that the outbreak was the world’s deadliest and largest in terms of geographical areas.
“It is taking place in areas with fluid population movements over porous borders, and it has demonstrated its ability to spread via air travel, contrary to what has been seen in past outbreaks,” she said.
In her comments – also published on the WHO website – Dr. Margaret Chan said the virus was affecting a large number of doctors, nurses and other health care workers who have an essential role in curtailing the outbreak.
“To date, more than 60 health care workers have lost their lives in helping others. Some international staff are infected. These tragic infections and deaths significantly erode response capacity,” she said.
Dr. Margaret Chan said that while the situation in West Africa “must receive urgent priority for decisive action at national and international levels, experiences in Africa over nearly four decades tell us clearly that, when well managed, an Ebola outbreak can be stopped”.
She pointed out that medics are not fighting an airborne virus – transmission requires close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.
“Apart from this specific situation, the general public is not at high risk of infection by the Ebola virus,” Margaret Chan said.
“At the same time, it would be extremely unwise for national authorities and the international community to allow an Ebola virus to circulate widely and over a long period of time in human populations.”
Emory University Hospital in Atlanta is preparing to receive a US aid worker infected with the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa.
The unnamed patient will be flown to the US in the next few days for treatment at a high-security ward at Emory University Hospital, medics said.
The worst Ebola outbreak in history has swept through the region, killing 729 people.
A spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said her agency was working on the transfer with the US State Department.
Barbara Reynolds said she was not aware of any Ebola patient ever being treated in the US before.
The worst Ebola outbreak in history has swept through West Africa, killing 729 people
In a statement, the Atlanta hospital said it has an isolation unit which is specially equipped to deal with this kind of infection.
On Friday, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) and leaders of West African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak are expected to announce a joint $100 million response plan.
Sierra Leone’s president has declared a public health emergency over the outbreak after 233 people died there.
Ebola spreads through human contact with a sufferer’s bodily fluids.
Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external hemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure. It kills up to 90% of those infected.
The US health authorities have warned against travelling to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone as they strive to tackle the Ebola outbreak, and 50 extra American specialists are being sent to affected areas.
American Dr. Kent Brantly with Ebola in Liberia has taken a “slight turn for the worse”, the Samaritan’s Purse aid agency said on Thursday.
Kent Brantly and another American worker, Nancy Writebol, “are in a stable but grave condition”, the agency said in a statement.
The statement said that Dr. Kent Brantly had been offered experimental serum – using blood from a child whose life he saved – but he had insisted that Nancy Writebol should receive it instead.
Meanwhile, the National Institutes of Health in the US has said it will begin testing a possible vaccine in September.
Liberia is closing down all schools across the country to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
Some communities would be placed under quarantine as well, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said.
Non-essential government workers will be sent home for 20 days and the army deployed to enforce the measures.
The number of people killed by the virus in West Africa has now reached 672, according to new UN figures.
Liberia is closing down all schools across the country to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus (photo AFP)
Treatment facilities have reportedly been overwhelmed in the Liberian capital Monrovia.
Some wards have already filled up, forcing health workers to treat some patients at their homes.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said that Friday, August 1, would be a non-working day in Liberia to allow for the disinfection of all public facilities.
“All non-essential staff – to be determined by the heads of ministries and agencies – are to be placed on 30 days’ compulsory leave” she added.
The US humanitarian organization Peace Corps said it was withdrawing 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea because of the spread of the virus.
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.
The virus spreads through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.
The Ebola outbreak – the world’s deadliest to date – was first reported in Guinea in February. It then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
West African airline ASKY has stopped flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone amid growing concern about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
ASKY Airlines said it took the decision to keep “its passengers and staff safe during this unsettling time”.
The number of people killed by the virus in West Africa has now reached 672, according to new UN figures.
In Sierra Leone, the doctor who led the fight against Ebola, Sheik Umar Khan, has died of the disease.
Government officials hailed Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, 39, as a “national hero”.
ASKY has stopped flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone amid growing concern about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus (photo Flickr)
The government disclosed last week that he was being treated for Ebola and had been quarantined.
His death follows that of prominent Liberian doctor Samuel Brisbane at the weekend.
Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.
It spreads through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.
The outbreak – the world’s deadliest to date – was first reported in Guinea in February. It then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
ASKY is the second airline, after Nigeria’s largest airline, Arik Air, to ban flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
It had not halted flights to Guinea, but passengers departing from there would be “screened for signs of the virus”, ASKY said.
Last week, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, reported its first case – that of Liberian finance ministry official Patrick Sawyer who flew to the main city, Lagos, in an ASKY flight.
Liberia has deployed police officers at the international airport in the capital, Monrovia, to ensure passengers are screened for symptoms of Ebola.
“We have a presence of the police at the airport to enforce what we’re doing,” said Binyah Kesselly, chairman of the Liberia Airport Authority.
“So if you have a flight and you are not complying with the rules, we will not allow you to board.”
Most border crossings in Liberia have been closed to contain the outbreak and affected communities are being quarantined.
Liberia has also suspended all football activities in an effort to control the spread of Ebola.
In a statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that 1,201 Ebola cases had been reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Of the 672 deaths, the highest number was in Guinea with 319, followed by Liberia with 249 and Sierra Leone with 224, it said.
US doctor Kent Brantly, who has been working with Ebola patients in Liberia, has tested positive for the deadly virus, an aid organization said Saturday.
North Carolina-based Samaritan’s Purse issued a news release saying that Dr. Kent Brantly tested positive for the Ebola disease and was being treated at a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia.
He is the medical director for the aid organization’s case management center in Monrovia.
Dr. Kent Brantly has been working with Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia since October 2013 (photo Samaritan’s Purse)
Dr. Kent Brantly, 33, has been working with Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia since October 2013 as part of the charity’s post-residency program for doctors, said the group’s spokeswoman Melissa Strickland. The organization’s website says he had worked as a family practice physician in Fort Worth, Texas.
The highly contagious virus is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Photos of Dr. Kent Brantly working in Liberia show him in white coveralls made of a synthetic material that he wore for hours a day while treating Ebola patients.
Kent Brantly was quoted in a posting on the organization’s website earlier this year about efforts to maintain an isolation ward for patients.
Strickland says that Kent Brantly’s wife and children had been living with him in Africa, but they are currently in the US.
Ebola virus has killed 672 in several African countries since the outbreak began earlier this year.
Saudatu Koroma, a Sierra Leone woman who fled hospital after testing positive for the Ebola virus, has died after turning herself in.
Her family had forcibly removed her from a public hospital on Thursday.
Saudatu Koroma’s is the first case of Ebola to be confirmed in the country’s capital Freetown, where there are no facilities to treat the virus.
Since February, more than 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa – the world’s deadliest outbreak to date.
Nigeria has put all its entry points on red alert after confirming the death there of a Liberian man who was carrying the highly contagious virus.
The man died after arriving at Lagos airport on Tuesday, in the first Ebola case in Africa’s most populous country.
The outbreak began in southern Guinea and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Since February, more than 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa (photo AP)
Reports on Saturday said that a prominent Liberian doctor, Samuel Brisbane, had died after a three-week battle with the virus.
And later it emerged that a US doctor working with Ebola patients, Kent Brantly, was being treated for the virus in a hospital in the capital Monrovia.
The virus, which kills up to 90% of those infected, spreads through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.
Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive treatment early.
Saudatu Koroma was the first registered Ebola case in the capital Freetown.
Both she and her parents – who are suspected of having the virus – had been taken to Ebola treatment centers in the east of the country..
Saudatu Koroma had been one of dozens of people who tested positive but were unaccounted for.
The Ebola cases in Sierra Leone are centered in the country’s eastern districts of Kenema and Kailahun, just over the border from the Guekedou region of Guinea where the outbreak started.
Police said thousands of people joined a street protest in Kenema on Friday over the government’s handling of the outbreak.
Earlier this week, it was announced that the doctor leading Sierra Leone’s fight against Ebola was being treated for the virus.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization said that 219 people had died of Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, in Nigeria, the health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said that all other passengers on board the flight with the infected man had been traced and were being monitored.
Twenty five more people have died from Ebola in West Africa since July 3, taking the total number of deaths to 518, health officials say.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said 50 new cases of the deadly disease had also been reported.
A WHO spokesman said health workers were struggling to contain the outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
On Monday, a doctor in Ghana said preliminary tests on a US citizen showed he did not have the disease.
But further tests are now being carried out.
Twenty five more people have died from Ebola in West Africa since July 3
The man had recently visited Sierra Leone and Guinea and was quarantined after showing signs of the virus.
In a statement on Tuesday, the WHO said the latest figures from health ministries in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea showed a total of 844 cases since the epidemic began in February.
Guinea’s ministry reported two deaths since 3 July but no new cases in the past week, the WHO said, calling the situation in the affected region of West Africa a “mixed picture”.
It said Sierra Leone had accounted for 34 of the new cases and 14 deaths, while Liberia reported 16 new cases and 9 deaths.
“These numbers indicate that active viral transmission continues in the community,” the statement said.
WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said the two main modes of transmission were people caring for sick relatives at home and people attending funerals of victims.
“If we don’t stop the transmission in the several hotspots in the three countries we will not be able to say that we control the outbreak,” she said.
Last week, health ministers from 11 West African countries adopted a common strategy to fight the outbreak.
At an emergency meeting in Ghana last Thursday, ministers promised better collaboration to fight what has become the world’s deadliest outbreak to date.
Under the new strategy, the WHO will open a sub-regional control centre in Guinea to co-ordinate technical support.
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