#HNNHealth Thank u TIME magazine for dedicating PERSON OF THE YEAR to ALL OF US #Ebola Fighters!

Time magazine named Ebola fighters as its 2014 Person of the Year.

"Ebola is a war, and a warning," Time magazine editor-in-chief Nancy Gibbs wrote in an editor's note. "The global health system is nowhere close to strong enough to keep us safe from infectious disease, and ‘us’ means everyone, not just those in faraway places where this is one threat among many that claim lives every day. The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are Time’s 2014 Person of the Year.”

"Anyone willing to treat Ebola victims ran the risk of becoming one," she added.

Many of us were unsung heroes, who cared and fought it together by educating each other in Nigeria A COUNTRY OF 177 MILLION. To everyone that did something to educate the next, Thank U! All my work was in a volunteer capacity! I was born to serve just like I went to Congo in 1995 as a volunteer US Pharmacist.

• Ironically I even wrote a post to TIME days ago to make Dr Ameyo Stella Adadevoh the Person of the Year because I thought she was deserving. Nigeria would have been the worst epidemic of all if she didn't stop Patrick Sawyer from leaving that hospital.
• Going to Ground Zero in Lagos to report this unfolding tragedy at now 354 shares on FB
• I went on to use social media heavily @Healthreports a twitter handle I created in 2009 and never tweeted on it, passing the information from Nigeria's Federal Ministry of Health to the people.
• Reporting from First Consultants where the staff died to even going to the streets educating sex workers to get off the streets and also market women to wash their hands. 
• Finally Radio Ebola my global newscasts during the ongoing epidemic.
• Pls don't forget Patrick Sawyer's estranged wife Decontee Kofa who was the most hated woman in Nigeria. She spoke to me via twitter and is also an EBOLA FIGHTER with her foundation and events
• I dedicated a handle just to educate my people in Nigeria @Healthreports. Read my article on Nigerian TV: http://www.nta.ng/2014/10/06/what-the-united-states-of-america-can-learn-from-nigeria-on-ebola-in-the-usa/
• Google #HNNHealth and #Ebola together to see my coverage. I began volunteering for Sierra Leone to educate the people via social media which has been a weak point in their war. 84 new cases last week alone! I covered lockdown weekend in Freetown and traveled to Liberia to interview Patrick Sawyer's Cousin in law at one point.
• The entire Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, Dan Nwomeh who tweeted for the minister 24/7 and the frontline healthcare workers, thank u for working together to progress together.

For the issue above, the magazine published five covers featuring different Ebola fighters.

Dr. Kent Brantly, one of the American health care workers who contracted Ebola while fighting the outbreak in West Africa, was one of them.

Brantly called the selection a "huge honor" in an ongoing battle.

"Ebola fighters are not people who did something courageous," Brantly said on the "Today" show, where Time unveiled its Person of the Year. "They are still in the trenches fighting."Finalists for the annual title — given to “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year” — included Ferguson protesters, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Taylor Swift, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, Apple chief Tim Cook, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Masoud Barzani, the acting president of the Iraqi Kurdish Region.

Pls listen to my podcast below

#HNNHealth 3rd member of UN Peacekeeping Mission contracts #Ebola in #Liberia

MONROVIA (Reuters) - A U.N. peacekeeper in Liberia has contracted Ebola and is being treated at a clinic in the capital Monrovia, becoming the third member of the mission infected by the deadly virus since the outbreak began.

The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) said in a statement that it was taking steps to ensure all those who come into contact with the peacekeeper while he was symptomatic were quarantined and 16 individuals had been identified to date.

"Our thoughts are with the patient’s family, friends and colleagues," Special Representative of the Secretary-General Karin Landgren said in the statement late on Thursday.

She said the peacekeeper had tested positive on Wednesday.

A previous confirmed case of Ebola in the U.N. mission and another probable case both resulted in the death of staff members on Oct. 13 and Sept. 25 respectively, she said.

Since the worst outbreak of Ebola on record was detected in March, it has infected some 17,256 people and killed 6,113 in the three worst-affected countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - according to the World Health Organization.

FULL STORY

#HNNHealth #America designates 35 hospitals for #Ebola care. Is one NEAR YOU??

I worked in one of them as a young Pharmacist in the 90's and it is Johns Hopkins. Glad to hear about this preparedness especially now that the EXODUS is looming. Many Africans go home for Christmas. I am advising people from hot zones to stay put and not travel this year as they may be subject to quarantine in one of these facilities. Notice how Texas Presbyterian is not on the list. The infamous hospitals where nurses got infected in Dallas

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials have designated 35 hospitals across the country as Ebola treatment centers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the list of hospitals on Tuesday. Most are clustered in metropolitan areas like New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Washington D.C.

For more than a month, health officials have been talking to — and evaluating —hospitals that could serve as referral treatment centers for new Ebola cases that might occur. A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assessed more than 50 hospitals in 15 states and Washington, federal officials said.

The 35 hospitals are deemed to have the staff, equipment and training to safely and effectively care for Ebola, the government said.

More hospitals will be added over the next several weeks to provide wider geographic coverage, officials said.

West Africa is currently suffering the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 17,100 illnesses and at least 6,000 deaths so far. Four cases have been diagnosed in the United States.

The designated hospitals are:

Kaiser Oakland Medical Center, Oakland, California.

Kaiser South Sacramento Medical Center, Sacramento, California.

University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California.

University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco.

Emory University Hospital, Atlanta.

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago.

Rush University Medical Center, Chicago.

University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.

University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore.

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

Allina Health's Unity Hospital, Fridley, Minnesota.

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mayo Clinic Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota.

University of Minnesota Medical Center, Minneapolis.

Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

North Shore System LIJ/Glen Cove Hospital, Glen Cove, New York.

Montefiore Medical Center, New York.

New York-Presbyterian/Allen Hospital, New York.

Bellevue Hospital Center, New York.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia.

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas.

Methodist Richardson Medical Center, Richardson, Texas.

University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia.

Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Source

#HNNHealth NEW #Ebola Patient/Healthcare Worker Coming to #America and has arrived in #Atlanta

ATLANTA (AP) — An American health-care worker who may have been infected with the Ebola virus in West Africa has arrived at a hospital near Atlanta.

Emory University Hospital spokeswoman Holly Korschun says the patient arrived around 5:45 a.m. Thursday.

Details about the patient were not released.

Emory houses a specialized isolation unit that handled four of the 10 Ebola patients previously treated in the U.S.

West Africa is suffering the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 17,100 illnesses and at least 6,000 deaths this year. Six of those treated in the U.S. were Americans infected while providing medical aid there.

The hospital says that as in previous cases, the patient was transported from West Africa aboard a specially equipped jet operated by Cartersville, Georgia-based Phoenix Air Group Inc.

#HNNHealth Why we MUST NOT play the Race card in the #Ebola survivor count

There are a lot of dynamics to do with survivor blood in the treatment of patients during this Ebola outbreak. Many are saying that the black patients and doctors are dying faster in America than the white ones. If blood types don't match, then one cannot infuse the plasma.

Listen to how I break it down and lets stop discrimination and prejudice which may hamper us in treating this deadly epidemic.

#HNNHealth Why are so many Doctors in West Africa DYING of the #EBOLA virus?

More than 100 have died in Sierra Leone. That’s a lot for a country with just two physicians for every 100,000 people. The United States has 245 doctors per 100,000 — more than 100 times as many.

Salia joins a long list of prominent doctors to fall victim to Ebola in Sierra Leone. Others include Dr. Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia Government Hospital in northern Sierra Leone, who died earlier this month; Dr. Olive Buck, who was in charge of Lumley Government Hospital in the Sierra Leonean capital of Freetown and died in September; Dr. Modupeh Cole, who died last August at the Ebola treatment center operated by Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) in the northeastern town of Kailahun; and Dr. Sheik Umar Khan who died at Kenema in July.

In Nigeria, we had Dr Iyke Enemuo and Dr Ameyo Adadevoh as well as Dr Samuel Brisbane in Liberia. The bulk of doctors in Liberia were Americans who were transported back to their country and all cured. The politics involved in this is so complicated that the race card is being pulled all over the place and it is not necessary. Hear my latest podcast here.

#HNNHealth Law Enforcement Safety During the USA #Ebola Outbreak #HNNCrime

Law Enforcement Safety During the USA Ebola Outbreak
By Dr Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo

The Ebola outbreak has ended for now in America and the CDC has declared the country of 300 million #Ebolafree. But in case there is another emergency, how do police and other first responders react? The NYPD handled the Craig Spencer transportation to Bellevue Hospital very well. What about other agencies?

New York daily News on Dr Craig Spencer breaking story

After living in America and Canada a total of 35 years and being a Toronto Police volunteer as a member of the Community Police Liaison Committee, it is imperative that I educate these modern police departments during this global Ebola outbreak. Why? There are a lot of potentially deadly issues that need to be addressed before it is too late. Here in Nigeria, Nigerian Police Force operates a little different. There are aspect of policing that are not dealt with here and such a case is domestic violence. We have no domestic violence laws which is a major problem many groups are still protesting and appealing for, therefore rarely do cops go into people's homes for domestic disturbances.

During the Dallas outbreak, I learned that a Deputy was at the residence of Liberian man Thomas Eric Duncan. Initially rumours and reports went out that the Deputy fell sick but he was fine as I later learned that he did not contract Ebola. We need to look into safety of law enforcement officers while there is still an outbreak in America with two nurses and others being treated. In Nigeria, we were declared an Ebola free country on October 20th, 2014, however we have to trace back the first patient who was the index patient here. What happened with Patrick Sawyer would be classified as a law enforcement issue if it were in America.

Sawyer became defiant and ripped off his IV's and began urinating on the three health care workers that attended to him. The Late Dr. Stella Ameyo Adadevoh and nurse Justin Elejonu were directly affected and contracted the virus almost immediately through Sawyer's body fluid notably his urine. Elejonu who was on the job only two days and also in a first trimester pregnancy lost her baby almost immediately. This was tragic as it was. the third nurse whose name was not disclosed during the whole ordeal also died. In the list of 7 people that died in our outbreak here in Nigeria, 5 were health care workers. In America, police would most likely have been called. Dr Adadevoh, the female Nigerian doctor was also very instrumental in keeping him in the facility and not allowing him to be discharged, mix with the general population and in the process sacrificed her own life.

US law enforcement agencies already use precautionary measures like gloves and masks to protect themselves during arrests to prevent any transmission of diseases through blood and body fluids, but could you possibly escape an unannounced scene of a patient standing on a bed urinating on staff? If the First Consultants Hospital in Lagos, Nigeria team wore hazmat suits then if they had known, they may have been alive but we learned these things as the disease situation happened. This aspect was fairly new to our country at the time as we had no case and Dr, Adadevoh made that excellent diagnosis discovery.

Thanks to the use of social media, Nurse Elejonu posted these accounts on her Facebook page while she was in isolation and later died. She also spoke about the need for experimental drugs on others in case she died! The First responder system is not the same here in Nigeria. We do not have an emergency response system like 911 where we can call police, ambulance or fire.

The Ebola epidemic remains a mystery and has now killed over 5000 people globally mostly in West Africa. Though we in Nigeria were declared Ebola Free, we are not letting our guard down. The World Health Organization continues to look for solutions, meeting with big Pharmaceutical companies in developing treatments. All Law enforcement officers in the United States must use caution, wear gloves, wash hands like a ritual, never transport a suspected Ebola patient showing symptoms or not in a police car, have an ambulance prepared for that task. Finally, like I told the Nigerian Police, don't allow a suspect to yell "I have Ebola" to deter you from an arrest. Do your job carefully and be safe! We want our American police friends also running #EbolaFree cities.

Update: As of when I wrote this article 2 weeks ago, I was on assignment and the USA is now Ebola Free and there are no known cases.

I am Dr Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo a US trained Pharmacist, Journalist and PR Specialist of 26 years based in Ibadan, Nigeria the largest city in West Africa. Also the News Director of #HNNAfrica, a world news portal for Nigerians and run #HNNHealth under the health twitter handle @HealthReports. U can contact me @HNNAfrica on twitter.

#BREAKING #HNNHealth Why I FULLY support #Canada's VISA BAN from #Ebola hot zones (FREE PODCAST)

It's self explanatory consider this was a country that once kicked me out. Download the podcast FREE and use on radio and TV talkshows as you wish. Just credit it to www.HNNAfrica.com

#BREAKING All VISAS for #Ebola Countries SUSPENDED by #CANADA! My Opinion>>Good Move!

Canada is following in Australia's footsteps and has closed its doors, effectively immediately, to people from the West African countries battling Ebola.

In a move that puts Canada at odds with the World Health Organization, the federal government said Friday it is suspending the issuance of visas for residents and nationals of countries with "widespread and persistent-intense transmission" of Ebola virus disease. As well, work on permanent residence applications for people from the affected countries is also being suspended.

The stress on countries with widespread transmission provides an out for the United States, which currently still has at least one active Ebola case within its borders. At present only three countries meet the definition of widespread and persistent Ebola transmission: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Canada is doing the RIGHT THING! I lived in Toronto 5 years on refugee status. Kicked out cos I was not eligible anymore meanwhile the criminals and terrorists are kept in. The refugee system too lenient for the ppl who don't contribute to society there. I fought gun violence at Facebook.com/WHAT ABOUT OUR SONS

My personal Immigration Rants aside, banning visas means you won't have to go thru that quarantine BS the Americans are messing with. Everyone's learning from the American nurse Kaci Hicox and her lawsuit and temporary victory. Good move for once Harper! You already got terrorists in there. Deal with that problem first. Thank God Nigeria is Ebola FREE! For the people who live in Canada and from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, do NOT come home this Christmas. They will NOT let you back in. Nigerians, ebola free or not, don't allow yourselves to be stigmatized when you return. The schoolgirl in Connecticut dealt with that and missed 3 weeks of school.

STAY in Canada for now. For real, many North Americans still don't think EBOLA is real. You can shake a victim and get it just from their sweaty palms. We dont even shake in Nigeria anymore. Google the #EbolaHandshake. Only good move the US has made so far is to quarantine their troops on coming back. Our troops are doing the same when they get back here in March 2015.

BUT....unlike Australia, we need Canada to give West Africa money to help. There is so much being done here and money needed in every facet to get education and livelihoods thriving.

I am the leading Ebola reporter in Africa as listed by Newsweek Europe so follow me on Facebook.com/HNNAfrica
Google #HNNHealth and #Ebola together for my stories
Twitter @Healthreports and @HNNAfrica.
Go to Soundcloud.com/hnnafrica and pick the Radio Ebola playlist.
Facebook.com/radioebola is coming today

On Soundcloud.com/HNNAfrica, I will do a podcast today. Anyone may use clips of it on any show on TV and radio and download it FREE PPL. Ebola is serious!!

SHARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This POST!!!

With files from HuffPostCanada

#HNNHealth #China mass producing HAZMAT suits preparing for #Ebola? GOOD MOVE!

Africa's biggest trading partner China is using its military might to help protect itself from an expected first case of Ebola in the country.

The close business ties with the continent, whose western nations are battling the worst outbreak of the virus in history, is worth over £131 billion and sees more than one million Chinese migrant workers stationed in Africa.

It has led to growing fears that Ebola could travel to the Asian nation.

Factories are mass producing protective Hazmat suits amid expectation that the first case will arrive sooner rather than later.

Source

#HNNHealth #Nigeria RIPS Countries DISCRIMINATING against Nigerians for #Ebola #HNNImpact

Minister Aminu Wali

The bigger picture is that our country was declared Ebola FREE. Can you imagine if we were still in the epidemic?  The latest is a kid in Connecticut, USA and her father is suing the school. The Opayemi kid was stigmatized and forced into quarantine when that nurse Kaci Hicox was the one that should be isolating herself from the community.

Now comes word that the Nigerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aminu Wali, on Friday protested the continued discrimination and profiling of Nigerians by some countries over the outbreak of the Ebola disease in West Africa.

At an interactive session with members of the diplomatic corps, Mr. Wali named 22 countries that had targeted and discriminated against Nigerians, since the index case of Ebola in Nigeria.

He said it was regrettable that discrimination against Nigerians persisted, in spite of the World Health Organisation, WHO, declaration that Nigeria was Ebola-free.

He said it was regrettable that some countries had chosen to flout WHO rules and protocols on preventing the spread of the virus, through deliberate policies of stigmatisation and discrimination.

He said the foreign ministry has received unpleasant reports that Nigerians have been targeted and discriminated in Bahrain, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon.

Other countries discriminating against Nigerians are Cuba, Gabon, China, Egypt, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Zambia.

Also in the list are Mauritania, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, United Arab Emirates, Ukraine, Namibia, Seychelles and South Sudan.




The minister expressed dismay that even top government officials on working visits abroad had suffered discriminatory practices by the countries.

He noted that it was “intriguing’’ that it took time for the international community to acknowledge the valiant and effective measures taken by Nigeria to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

“It is therefore, my hope that this briefing will assist in expunging any negative notion about the Ebola Virus in Nigeria,’’ he said.

Mr. Wali called on the international community to increase assistance to the countries afflicted with the deadly virus.

He pledged that Nigeria would continue to assist neighbouring countries and share its experience on the successful control of the virus with the rest of the world.

A Nigerian, Suleiman Mohammed, who is the Honorary Consul to Mongolia, recounted how he was detained for six hours in Seoul after alighting from his flight.

He said he was detained for several hours by the immigration authorities in South Korea alongside with Nigeria’s ambassador to South Korea, Amb. Desmond Akawor.

Mr. Mohammed said the incident happened on September 9.

He added that he was subjected to the same treatment when he was transiting through South Korea even after he had shown no symptoms of the virus.

In his remarks, the High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago partly blamed the discrimination against travellers from West Africa on the international media and ignorance.

“From Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean, there is mass hysteria and ignorance on this issue (Ebola).

“The international media is constantly reporting that there is Ebola in West Africa and some people think West Africa is a country and not a region and in the Caribbean that understanding is not clear.’’

He cited an incident where union workers at a port in Trinidad and Tobago refused to board an oil-tanker that berthed in his country from Gabon.

He said there was hysteria that the vessel that arrived from West Africa may have been exposed to Ebola.

Meanwhile, South Sudan has refused entry to Nigerian Foreign Service officers deployed to the country because of Ebola.

In his contribution, the South Sudan Ambassador to Nigeria, Parmena Mangar Riak, claimed that after the WHO certification on Oct. 20, some Nigerians received their visas to travel to the country last week.

Dean of the Diplomatic Corps and Cameroon Ambassador to Nigeria, Salaheddine Abbas-Ibrahima, claimed that many countries had lifted restrictions on travel from people from Nigeria after the WHO certification.

He assured the minister that “in a matter of days” there would be total lifting of the ban on restrictions of travel by Nigerians by the remaining countries.

The ambassador who did not name the countries that had relaxed the ban said that Cameroon would take advantage of the Ebola information centre, established by the Federal government.

He said the centre would serve as a source of information for countries to plan their national response to the deadly virus.

With files from (NAN)

#HNNHealth Read the WEEKLY Report @CDCGov @CDCHealth Report on #Ebola around the globe. Thanks @DrFriedenCDC

The CDC now puts a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) out weekly on the Ebola outbreak globally. This week ended like this.

Update: Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak — West Africa, October 2014
WeeklyOctober 31, 2014 / 63(43);978-981

On October 28, 2014, this report was posted as an MMWR Early Release on the MMWR website (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr).

Incident Management System Ebola Epidemiology Team, CDC; Guinea Interministerial Committee for Response Against the Ebola Virus; CDC Guinea Response Team; Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare; CDC Liberia Response Team; Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation; CDC Sierra Leone Response Team; Viral Special Pathogens Branch, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC

CDC is assisting ministries of health and working with other organizations to control and end the ongoing outbreak of Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in West Africa (1). The updated data in this report were compiled from situation reports from the Guinea Interministerial Committee for Response Against the Ebola Virus and the World Health Organization, the Liberia Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation. Total case counts include all suspected, probable, and confirmed cases as defined by each country. These data reflect reported cases, which make up an unknown proportion of all actual cases and reporting delays that vary from country to country.

According to the latest World Health Organization update as of October 22, 2014 (2), a total of 9,911 Ebola cases have been reported as of October 19 from three highly affected West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) (Figure 1). The highest reported case counts were from Liberia (4,665 cases), followed by Sierra Leone (3,706) and Guinea (1,540).

The geographic distribution of the number of Ebola cases reported during September 28–October 18 changed from the distribution of cases reported during August 31–September 23 (3), when counts were highest in the areas where Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea meet. Counts of Ebola cases reported during September 28–October 18 were highest in the area around Monrovia and in the district of Bong, Liberia; the Freetown area and the northwest districts of Sierra Leone; and the district of Macenta, Guinea (Figure 2).

The map of the cumulative incidence of Ebola, as of October 18, indicates that the highest incidence rate (>100 cases per 100,000 population) was reported by two districts in Guinea (Guéckédou and Macenta), five districts in Liberia (Bomi, Bong, Lofa, Margibi, and Montserrado), and four districts in Sierra Leone (Bombali, Kailahun, Kenema, and Port Loko) (Figure 3).

The latest updates on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, including case counts, are available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea/index.html. The most up-to-date clinical guidelines on the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa are available at http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/index.html.
Acknowledgments

World Health Organization. Geospatial Research, Analysis, and Services Program, CDC. Situational Awareness Team, Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, CDC.
References
Dixon MG, Schafer IJ. Ebola viral disease outbreak—West Africa, 2014. MMWR 2014;63:548–51.
World Health Organization. Ebola response roadmap situation report, 22 October 2014. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2014. Available at http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/137091/1/roadmapsitrep22Oct2014_eng.pdf?ua=1.
Incident Management System Ebola Epidemiology Team, CDC; Ministries of Health of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, and Senegal; Viral Special Pathogens Branch, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC. Ebola virus disease outbreak—West Africa, September 2014. MMWR 2014;63:865–6.

FIGURE 1. Cumulative number of Ebola virus disease cases reported, by epidemiologic week — three countries, West Africa, March 29–October 18, 2014

Alternate Text: The figure above shows a bar chart showing the cumulative number of Ebola cases reported, by epidemiologic week, in three West African countries, during March 29- October 18, 2014. According to the latest World Health Organization update as of October 22, 2014, a total of 9,911 Ebola cases have been reported as of October 19 from three highly affected West African countries (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone). The highest reported case counts were from Liberia (4,665 cases), followed by Sierra Leone (3,706) and Guinea (1,540).


FIGURE 2. Number of new cases of Ebola virus disease reported — West Africa, September 28–October 18

Alternate Text: The figure above is a map of West Africa showing the number of new cases of Ebola reported in West Africa during September 28-October 18. Counts of Ebola were highest in the area around Monrovia and in the district of Bong, Liberia; the Freetown area and the northwest districts of Sierra Leone; and the district of Macenta, Guinea.

FIGURE 3. Ebola virus disease cumulative incidence — West Africa, October 18, 2014*

* Cumulative number of reported Ebola virus disease cases per 100,000 persons since December 22, 2013.

Alternate Text: The figure above is a map of West Africa showing Ebola cumulative incidence as of October 18, 2014. The map of the cumulative incidence of Ebola, as of October 18, indicates that the highest incidence rate (>100 cases per 100,000 population) was reported by two districts in Guinea (Guéckédou and Macenta), five districts in Liberia (Bomi, Bong, Lofa, Margibi, and Montserrado), and four districts in Sierra Leone (Bombali, Kailahun, Kenema, and Port Loko).

#HNNCulture #HNNHealth #Halloween and #Ebola for our #American friends>>FREE PODCAST

Dear America and Canada, keep washing your hands as you will be giving candy every 10-20 minutes. Listen to my podcast below as we care here in Africa. I miss Halloween, everywhere in Nigeria, its really a costume party in clubs for adults. Kids don't trick or treat here.

#HNNHealth Panic at #Nigerian airport as #EbolaFree Survivor arrives from #SierraLeone

Panic Wednesday at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos after a Nigerian, who survived Ebola Virus Disease in Sierra Leone arrived aboard Royal Air Maroc.
The man, whose identity was given as Mr. Theophilus Onnakhinon, was flown from Sierra Leone by the airline while his younger brother, Mr. Chinedu Eroka was said to have absconded from the Sierra Leonean authorities.

Sources told newsmen that Onnakhinon had already been cured of the dreaded disease and had been certified fit by the health authorities of that country few weeks back.

The source who would not want his name in print claimed that Onnakhinon was assisted into the country by the Nigeria’s consular officer, Mrs. T. Mohammed in order to avoid stigmatization by the Nigerian health officials and other authorities at the airport.

He was immediately handed over to Port Health officials at the Nigerian airport so as to be quarantined and tested by authorities who told #HNNHealth that they wanted to make sure Sierra Leonian authorities had done their job. 

That to me is proper procedure and not violating anyone's right. Meanwhile Kaci Hicox the US nurse is still battling her country's authorities with her quarantine war. Better safe than sorry.

With Files from Daily Post  

#HNNHealth GOOD NEWS: #Ebola appears to be slowing in #Liberia says @WHO

Liberia may be seeing a decline in the spread of Ebola, with falls in the number of burials and new admissions as well as a plateau in laboratory-confirmed cases, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

"Do we feel confident that the response is now getting an upper hand on the virus? Yes, we are seeing slowing rate of new cases, very definitely," WHO Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward told a news conference.

"We need to be careful here. This thing hasn't dropped off the cliff like that. We're seeing a reversal of that rapid rate of increase to the point that there seems to be a decline right now."

He said there had been 13,703 cases in eight countries and the reported death toll, to be published later on Wednesday, was likely to be over 5,000. A jump of more than 3,000 in the number of cases since Saturday was largely due to the data being updated with old cases rather than new cases, he said.

Aylward said he would be "terrified" if wrong conclusions were read into his statement and Ebola was thought to be under control. "It's like saying your pet tiger is under control."

But he said that if current trends continued, the worst hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone should be able to "comfortably" meet a target to scale up Ebola-containment measures by Dec. 1.

Last week Mali became the sixth West African country to report a case of the disease, which has an incubation period of two to 21 days. The patient, a two-year-old girl, died after traveling by bus from Guinea with her grandmother, with at least one stopover, in the capital Bamako.

Aylward said the government of Mali was putting in a "Herculean" effort to track people who had contact with the girl, with 84 people being monitored so far. No new suspected Ebola cases had yet been reported, he added.

The WHO has been rushing to help organize bed spaces to take care of Ebola patients in treatment centers, but there were now around 100 beds empty in Liberia, he said.

"The single biggest mistake anybody could make right now is to think do we really need all those beds?"

In neighboring Sierra Leone, the second worst hit country, the number of cases was continuing to increase in some areas, including the capital Freetown, he said.

"We're still seeing this thing burning quite hot in parts of Sierra Leone right now," Aylward said.

NATO CALL

Separately, a group of 40 senior European political, diplomatic and military figures called on Wednesday for the NATO military alliance to deploy staff, ships and aircraft to help fight Ebola in West Africa.

Signatories including two former NATO secretary-generals and three ex-prime ministers said in two open letters that the WHO and United Nations should ask for help from NATO, whose "unique capabilities ... could make a difference in this situation."

The letters to NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan were drafted by the European Leadership Network think tank in London.

Source

#HNNHealth US Ambassador Power Ends her Tour of #Ebola stricken West Africa

US ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power has ended her tour to West Africa with a message that the World has the capability to end the outbreak of Ebola, but needs to act faster. She addressed the press at the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response in Accra, Ghana.

After visiting the three countries hit hardest by the virus - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - she toured the UN agency set up in Accra to co-ordinate the response.

Ms Power said she was impressed by the what the region's leaders have done to fight the outbreak, but also challenged countries that are yet to their honour pledges of support to step up.

The UN has received commitments for less than half of the resources it says are needed to bring the disease under control. The plan is to have all infected people treated and all bodies buried safely by the end of the year. From here, Ambassador Power is scheduled to travel to Brussels for the final leg of her trip.

We need to be facing how to stop an outbreak, instead we are focusing on the wrong things, everyone's suing over quarantines, Liberians being stigmatized and Africans unnecessarily bullied. Countries like Australia not getting involved and shutting its doors on the 3 countries until GOD FORBID an Australian of West African descent travels back home for Christmas and returns January vomiting blood and develops a high fever. Everyone must get involved now!

With Files from BBC

#HNNHealth Dear America #Ebola may be Coming To #America like the Eddie Murphy movie

Dear America, Cheers from Nigeria! Instead of your President and lawmakers focusing on who is coming from the hot zones, people and healthcare workers, you are being paranoid on the wrong things. States are doing their own quarantine laws, isn't there an Ebola Czar over there? Ron Klain isn't speaking while the wrong ppl may slip in. Do u ppl have any idea of how many West Africans come home for Christmas? Last person from Q here went home Oct 2nd and this Nigerian kid forced to quarantine in Connecticut was here Oct 3rd -13th? Plus we have no cases for 42 days. The huge casualties are COMING TO AMERICA like that Eddie Murphy movie as a part 2. No joke. Better have Dr Kent Brantley's blood ready. You'll need lots of it. Kaci Hickox, pls listen to my audio

Follow me @HNNAfrica and @Healthreports and google #HNNHealth and go to www.hnnafrica.com #Ebola

LISTEN: https://soundcloud.com/hnnafrica/hnnhealth-why-american

READ MY ARTICLE: http://www.nta.ng/what-the-united-states-of-america-can-learn-from-nigeria-on-ebola-in-the-usa/

#HNNHealth Patrice Motsepe, S.Africa's FIRST Black Billionaire give $1M to #Guinea to fight #Ebola

South Africa's first black billionaire, Patrice Motsepe, gives $1m to help Guinea fight Ebola. Wow, now that is great! Mark Zuckerberg is another philantropist who gave money for the Ebola fight. Read the full story on BBC bbc.in/1DvmBFx pic.twitter.com/9Q6JVefa6K

#HNNHealth #Ebola can't come DOWN UNDER! The #Australians are not issuing visas to #Ebola Country citizens!

(Reuters) - Australia became the first developed country on Tuesday to shut its borders to citizens of the countries worst-hit by the West African Ebola outbreak, a move those states said stigmatized healthy people and would make it harder to fight the disease.

Australia's ban on visas for citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea followed decisions by the U.S. military to quarantine soldiers returning from an Ebola response mission and some U.S. states to isolate aid workers. The United Nations said such measures could discourage vital relief work, making it harder to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

"Anything that will dissuade foreign trained personnel from coming here to West Africa and joining us on the frontline to fight the fight would be very, very unfortunate," Anthony Banbury, head of the U.N. Ebola Emergency Response Mission (UNMEER), told Reuters in the Ghanaian capital Accra.


Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf urged Australia to reconsider its travel ban.

"Anytime there's stigmatization, there's quarantine, there's exclusion of people, many of whom are just normal, then those of us who are fighting this epidemic, when we face that, we get very sad," she told a news conference.

Neighboring Sierra Leone called the Australian move draconian.

"It is discriminatory in that ... it is not (going) after Ebola but rather it is ... against the 24 million citizens of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea," Information Minister Alpha Kanu told Reuters. "Certainly, it is not the right way to go."

The virus has killed almost 5,000 people since March, mostly in those three countries. Nine U.S. cases have prompted states such as New York and New Jersey to ignore federal advice and quarantine all health workers returning from the region.

A Texas nurse who caught Ebola in the United States while treating an infected Liberian patient left hospital on Tuesday after being declared free of the disease.

"I'm so grateful to be well, a smiling Amber Vinson, 29, told reporters at Emory University Hospital before hugging the doctors and nurses who treated her for two weeks.

The arrival of the disease in the United States has prompted fierce debate there and in other developed countries about the best measures to prevent its spread.

The World Health Organization says overly restrictive quarantines and travel bans will put people off volunteering to go to Africa, where relief workers are needed to help improve a health system to deal with the disease.

"We desperately need international health workers ... They are really the key to this response,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.

World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim said the three worst hit countries needed 5,000 overseas health workers at any one time.

"Those health workers cannot work continuously: there needs to be a rotation. So we will need many thousands of health workers over the next months to a year in order to bring this epidemic under control," he said an African Union meeting in Ethiopia. "Right now, I am very much worried where we will find those health workers."

Source

#HNNHealth Second #Dallas Nurse Amber Vinson discharged from hospital and #EbolaFree

Amber Vinson

Amber Vinson, a nurse who fueled Ebola fears by flying to Cleveland after being infected by her dying patient in Dallas, is now virus-free, and was celebrated Tuesday by her caregivers as courageous and passionate before getting out of the hospital.

Dr. Bruce Ribner, an infectious disease expert who oversaw Vinson's recovery at Emory University Hospital, said fellow medical workers "deeply admire Ms. Vinson's care and courage in caring for patients with serious communicable diseases. Nurses are on the front line 24 hours a day in treating our patients."

Ribner said doctors were "not sure" why Vinson and fellow Dallas nurse Nina Pham recovered so quickly from the virus, given its traditional high mortality rate. Some theories doctors have suggested include the young age of the two nurses, as well as the fact that they probably got a relatively low "viral load" when they were exposed due to their protective gear.

Emory University Hospital spokeswoman Holly Korschun later confirmed that Vinson received blood plasma from Ebola survivor Kent Brantley, and said Ebola survivor Nancy Writebol also donated her plasma, but it wasn't ultimately needed.

So everyone gets Dr Kent Brantley's holy blood and they are healed.  He sure is a good samaritan when needed, Brantley worked for aid group Samaritan's purse in Liberia when he contracted Ebola and was flown home to the US. he has since donated blood to a number of US victims.

With files from CBS News