Possible case of ebola in Nigeria

[ttt]

This is not good....


in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/24/health-ebola-nigeria-idINL6N0PZ5VG20140724

LAGOS, July 24 (Reuters) - A Liberian man is being tested for the deadly Ebola virus after he collapsed on arrival at an airport in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos, a mega-city of 21 million people, the Lagos State Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Ebola has killed 660 people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since it was first diagnosed in the region in February, straining their impoverished healthcare systems.

If confirmed, the case would be the first on record of one of the world's deadliest diseases in Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and, with 170 million people, its most populous country.

The special adviser on public health to the Lagos state government, Yewande Adeshina, told a news conference the man, who is in his 40s, arrived at Lagos airport from Liberia on Sunday. He was rushed to hospital and put in an isolation ward, she said.

"The patient was admitted and detained on suspicion of possible EBV (Ebola virus) infection, while blood sample collection and testing was initiated," she said. The test results were pending, she said.

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva confirmed one suspected case of Ebola in Nigeria and said samples had been sent to a WHO lab for testing.

Adeshina said Lagos state authorities had requested the flight's manifest to contact the other passengers. They would also trace the man's travel route and had already distributed protective clothing to health workers, she said.

Ben Neuman, a virologist and Ebola expert at Britain's University of Reading, said it was important to note that Ebola is one of a number of viruses that can cause haemorrhagic fever, and that others, including Lassa fever virus and Dengue virus, could turn out to be the diagnosis in this case.

"Some of these other, more common haemorrhagic fever viruses have already been the cause of false alarms in the ongoing west African Ebola outbreak," Neuman told Reuters in London, urging calm.

HEALTH WORKERS AT RISK

Nigeria has some of the continent's least adequate healthcare infrastructure, despite access to billions of dollars of oil money as Africa's biggest producer of crude.

The Ebola outbreak started in Guinea's remote southeast and has since spread, aided by a lack of information about the disease and affected communities' suspicion of emergency medical staff.

A recent wave of infections among medical personnel is raising questions about the preparedness of regional health structures.

Sierra Leone announced on Wednesday that Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor leading the fight against Ebola in the country, had himself contracted the disease following the deaths of several nurses at the treatment centre where he works.

Dozens of nurses at the centre staged a sit-down strike this week, calling for management of the government-run facility to be transferred to medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

"If you have that number of health personnel being infected within a relatively short period of time, there is definitely something wrong with the system," Deputy Health Minister Abu Bakarr Fofanah said on Thursday.

He said Khan was responding well to treatment, however.

There is no cure or vaccine for Ebola, which causes diarrhoea, vomiting and internal and external bleeding and can kill up to 90 percent of those infected, although the mortality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent.

[summer]

Nope. I'm going to sit here and pretend he was just exhausted. Nope, not happening.

[ttt]

Jul 25, 2014 7:51:51 GMT -5 summer said:

Nope. I'm going to sit here and pretend he was just exhausted. Nope, not happening.

The good thing is that ebola isn't that contagious and it's not airborne, so if they're able to isolate him quickly enough, it will probably be okay. 

Right? It's all going to be okay? Right?

[cosmowife]

The 60% mortality rate in this recent outbreak versus the typical 90% mortality rate in the past is oddly comforting to me.

[darkling_glory]

I'd be less scared if this was anywhere but Nigeria. It's really scary just how many people live in that county without access to any health care whatsoever.

That country is the sole reason we haven't eradicated polio yet. Too many people, not enough infrastructure and no health care to speak of. Very scary.

[meggers5]

Fucking fuck. My blood just ran cold reading this. I can't even imagine how quickly a virus could spread through Lagos. And FI's family is there.

[darkling_glory]

Jul 25, 2014 8:54:13 GMT -5 @mx said:

Jul 25, 2014 8:09:40 GMT -5 darkling_glory said:

I'd be less scared if this was anywhere but Nigeria. It's really scary just how many people live in that county without access to any health care whatsoever.

That country is the sole reason we haven't eradicated polio yet. Too many people, not enough infrastructure and no health care to speak of. Very scary.

Pakistan?

I'm going to Nigeria again next week and Ebola is the least of my worries at this point. They had suspected cases in Mali and Ghana too that turned out to be false alarms.

Pakistan is up there, but I believe the number of cases in Nigeria is more than Pakistan. I just attended a lecture given by Drs. Bruce Aylward & Vincent Seaman so it's fresh on my mind right now.

I could be wrong.

[Deleted]

I heard today on NPR that one of the doctors who has been actively involved in treating these patients has come down with ebola in the last day or so.

[Deleted]

The man in Nigeria has passed away and it's been confirmed that he had Ebola.

[NitaX]

Jul 25, 2014 16:09:59 GMT -5 incogneato said:

HOLY SHIT!!!! OMG the thought of a plane full of people exposed to Ebola makes me want to crawl under my bed and never come out, ever. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

You want to freak out more? My pastor is in Lagos for the next two weeks. He flew in Sunday/Monday. 

Commence freaking out now.

[meggers5]

This actually has me in mild panic mode. FI's mom goes back to Lagos in weeks.

[weardogbride]

Jul 25, 2014 16:59:29 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

I heard today on NPR that one of the doctors who has been actively involved in treating these patients has come down with ebola in the last day or so.

Yes, he's from my city...http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/kent-brantly-fort-worth-doctor-in-africa-tests-positive-for-ebola-virus-268750291.html

A Fort Worth doctor working with Ebola patients in Liberia has tested positve for the virus, according to Samaritan's Purse, an international relief agency.
Dr. Kent Brantly is medical director at the Samaritan's Purse Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia.
The relief group says the 33-year-old physician with a private practice in Fort Worth is undergoing treatement in an isolation center at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia's capital city.
Samaritan's Purse says Brantly is married and has two children, and that the agency is committed to doing everything possible to assist him.
He has worked with the agency in Liberia since last October. Before that, he was a family practice doctor in Fort Worth, where he finished his residency at John Peter Smith Hospital.
JPS Health Network president and CEO Robert Earley says the staff is taking this news hard.
"One: We're stunned. Two: It's painful. But this is the kind of individual that he is," Earley told News 8. "They go into the worst situations in the world and try to save lives."
Samaritan's Purse spokeswoman Melissa Strickland said Brantly began serving in Africa as part of a post-residency program before the current Ebola outbreak began.
The highly contagious virus is one of the most deadly diseases in the world. Photos of 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.
Brantly was quoted in a posting on the organization's website earlier this year about efforts to maintain an isolation ward for patients.
"The hospital is taking great effort to be prepared," Brantly said. "In past Ebola outbreaks, many of the casualties have been health care workers who contracted the disease through their work caring for infected individuals."
Strickland said Brantly's wife and children had been living with him in Africa, but they are currently in the U.S.
The deadly disease has already killed 672 in several countries since the outbreak began earlier this year.

[Deleted]

That wasn't the doctor I was referring to actually. The one I'd heard of had worked with a similar disease in research and treatment for more than ten years.

www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/07/23/334467906/a-doctor-leading-the-fight-against-ebola-has-caught-the-virus

[ttt]

Jul 25, 2014 16:09:59 GMT -5 incogneato said:

HOLY SHIT!!!! OMG the thought of a plane full of people exposed to Ebola makes me want to crawl under my bed and never come out, ever. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!

The good thing is that Ebola is relatively difficult to transmit from person to person. It's not airborne and requires close contact with a person's bodily fluids. So most of the people on the plane aren't at risk. 

[laurenpetro]

Jul 27, 2014 8:01:21 GMT -5 @helenabonhamcarter said:

That wasn't the doctor I was referring to actually. The one I'd heard of had worked with a similar disease in research and treatment for more than ten years.

www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/07/23/334467906/a-doctor-leading-the-fight-against-ebola-has-caught-the-virus

Edited: nope, wrong doctor.

westchester.news12.com/news/nation-world/official-ebola-kills-senior-doctor-in-liberia-1.8900661

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2014 13:01:29 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

Jul 25, 2014 7:57:35 GMT -5 cosmowife said:

The 60% mortality rate in this recent outbreak versus the typical 90% mortality rate in the past is oddly comforting to me.

It's discomforting to me. My first thought was: mutation?

I don't think that's the case. I believe such it's a larger outbreak, more people are focused on treatment, so they're catching it earlier, hence lower mortality rate. 

I think the mortality rate could even be lower, but there have been reports in some areas of people being scared to seek medical help due to fear that outsiders are bringing the disease in. 

[Deleted]

Jul 27, 2014 14:05:25 GMT -5 @wandering said:

Jul 27, 2014 13:01:29 GMT -5 asdfjkl said:

It's discomforting to me. My first thought was: mutation?

I don't think that's the case. I believe such it's a larger outbreak, more people are focused on treatment, so they're catching it earlier, hence lower mortality rate. 

I think the mortality rate could even be lower, but there have been reports in some areas of people being scared to seek medical help due to fear that outsiders are bringing the disease in. 

It also sounds like treatment facilities are not in as good of a condition as they should be. I believe I've heard that there is a higher than usual instance of medical personnel contracting the illness when it should not be that high. There have been calls to allow Doctors Without Borders to maintain the facilities and not the local governments.

[Wanderista]

This epidemic is such a sad situation. I feel particularly emotional about it because I had a Guinean nanny as a child. She doesn't live there now but I've always had an affinity for the country because of growing up around her. I know she has an extensive family in Conakry and yeah, it makes me really emotional to think about what is happening there.

I've read some good articles on the BBC. I'm also following the news about the American medical personnel who've recently contracted it. The only good thing out of this horrible situation is that they may be able to start clinical trials on medical personnel as progress towards a vaccine. Sadly, an epidemic is the best opportunity for them to do that.