Ebola epidemic reaches Guinea capital, UNICEF says

[ScienceRocks]

Ebola epidemic reaches Guinea capital, UNICEF says

Africa - Ebola epidemic reaches Guinea capital, UNICEF says - France 24

An epidemic of the deadly Ebola virus in Guinea has now reached the country’s capital of Conakry, the United Nations children's agency said on Sunday.

"At least 59 out of 80 who contracted Ebola across the West African country have died so far. Over the past few days, the deadly haemorrhagic fever has quickly spread from the communities of Macenta, Gueckedou, and Kissidougou to the capital, Conakry," UNICEF said.

Conakry, a vast, sprawling port city on Guinea's Atlantic coast, is estimated to have a population of between 1.5 and two million.

To date, no treatment or vaccine is available for Ebola, which kills between 25 and 90 percent of those who fall sick, depending on the strain of the virus, according to the World Health Organisation.

The fact that a disease that kills over half of its victims is within a city of 1.5 million people = deserving of current events and serious discussion.

 

[ScienceRocks]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola_virus_disease

record is 425 cases and the most deaths in single outbreak is 280...

Now that this is within a big city I don't want to imagine it.

 

[SteadyMercury]

Ebola is scary stuff, some strains can have a fatality rate as high as 90%. However it has been in large cities before with cases in Kinshasa Zaire (now Congo) in the 70s and it didn't wipe out civilization. Ebola is deadly but has never gone rampant because:

1) While highly contagious it rarely spreads airborne like the flu, usually you need to be in contact with fluids to transmit. Granted people with ebola tend to leak lots of fluids.

2) The virus' aggressive nature shows symptoms and debilitates people quickly, so there aren't any long-term hidden carriers like with tuberculosis or HIV

If there was ever an ebola strain that was easily airborne transmitted that showed up in North Amercia I'd seriously consider heading for the fucking hills and shooting anyone who comes within 50 feet of my family until it blows over.

deserving of current events and serious discussion.

Agreed, and kudos to you for starting an interesting thread, with novasteve around this forum is 50% pointless bullshit from him working out his repressed desire to have a massive cock in his throat.

 

[waltky]

Border shut down to prevent spread of ebola...

Senegal shuts land border with Guinea to prevent Ebola spreading
Sat Mar 29, 2014 - Senegal closed its land border with Guinea on Saturday to try to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, which Guinean authorities say is suspected of killing 70 people in what would be the deadliest outbreak in seven years.

The discovery of 11 people suspected to have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia in recent days has stirred concern that one of the most lethal infectious diseases known to man could spread in a poor corner of West Africa, where health systems are ill-equipped to cope. Senegal's Interior Ministry said it had closed the land border with Guinea in the southern region of Kolda and the southeastern region of Kedougou. "The governors of these regions have taken all the necessary steps to implement this decision," it said in a statement published by the official APS state news agency.

A spokesman for Guinea's government said it had not received any official notification of Senegal's decision. The extent of the epidemic is being exaggerated and only 19 cases of Ebola have officially been confirmed by laboratory tests, he added. "We've taken strict measures to stop this epidemic and there is no reason to panic," Damantang Albert Camara told Reuters. Senegal announced on Friday it would introduce sanitary checks on flights between Dakar and the Guinean capital Conakry, where eight cases of Ebola have been confirmed, including one death. West African foreign ministers said at a conference in Ivory Coast this week the Ebola outbreak posed a "threat to regional security". If the 70 deaths to date are all confirmed as Ebola, it would be the most deadly epidemic since 187 people died in Luebo, in Congo's Kasai Orientale province, in 2007.

"STRICT HYGIENE MEASURES"

The vast majority of the cases in Guinea have been detected in the country's remote southeast, near the border with Sierra Leone and Liberia. It took authorities nearly six weeks to identify it as Ebola, allowing the virus to spread. The arrival of the disease this week in the capital Conakry, where hundreds of thousands of people live tightly packed in rambling shanties, marked a sharp increase in the population at risk compared with the sparsely populated villages of the forested interior. Sakoba Keita, head of the prevention division of Guinea's Health Ministry, said there was no cause for alarm in Conakry as the spread of Ebola could be tackled by simple sanitary steps such as regular hand washing and the quarantine of victims. "There have been delays in applying certain measures in our health system," Keita told a news conference, noting six medical staff were among those killed by the disease. "From today, strict hygiene measures will be observed in our hospitals."

There is no vaccine and no known cure for Ebola, which initially induces fever, headaches, muscle pain and weakness. In its more acute phase, Ebola causes vomiting, diarrhoea and external bleeding that carry the virus outside victims' bodies and threaten to infect anyone who touches them. Ebola has killed more than 1,500 people since it was first recorded in 1976 in what is now Democratic Republic of Congo, but this is the first fatal outbreak in West Africa. Guinea is deploying a mobile laboratory to the southern region of Gueckedou to speed up identification of the disease and to test samples from Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Senegal shuts land border with Guinea to prevent Ebola spreading | Reuters

 

[waltky]

78 of 122 patients have died...

Ebola toll rises in 'unprecedented' outbreak
April 1, 2014 -- Ebola toll rises to 78 in Guinea; Cases have been suspected or confirmed in Liberia, Sierra Leone; Doctors Without Borders calls geographic spread of cases "unprecedented"

An outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West Africa has spread to Guinea's capital and beyond its borders in an "unprecedented epidemic," a leading aid agency reported Monday. A total of 122 patients are suspected of contracting Ebola and 78 have died, Doctors Without Borders said. Most victims have been in Guinea, but the World Health Organization reported Sunday that two deaths in Sierra Leone and one in Liberia are suspected to have been caused by the Ebola virus.

Doctors work to isolate Ebola outbreak

Cases have been identified in three provinces in Guinea near the borders and in Conakry, its coastal capital, said Mariano Lugli, the Doctors Without Borders coordinator there. "We are facing an epidemic of a magnitude never before seen in terms of the distribution of cases in the country," Lugli said in a statement issued by the organization. Previous outbreaks "were much more geographically contained and involved more remote locations," he said. "This geographical spread is worrisome, because it will greatly complicate the tasks of the organizations working to control the epidemic," Lugli said.

Ebola virus spreads to Guinea capital

The organization, also known by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) describes Ebola as "one of the world's most deadly diseases." It spreads in the blood and shuts down the immune system, causing high fever, headache and muscle pain. It is rare but creates panic, because there is no cure and it's fatal in up to 90% of cases, according to MSF. The variant seen in the Guinea outbreak is the so-called Zaire strain, which Lugli called "the most aggressive and deadly."

Ebola toll rises in 'unprecedented' outbreak - CNN.com

 

[longknife]

A Biblical Plague?

The most frightful virus ever – Ebola. It's reached the capitol of Guinea, crowded with more than 2 million people living in Third World poverty. Will it spread? How far? How fast?

The Ebola virus is rare but deadly. Its point of origin is often the consumption of bush meat, including meat from apes or possibly bats, and it has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent. Human transmission occurs through contact with bodily fluids. Already, the Guinea outbreak is more serious than the most recent previous one, in Uganda in 2012, when fewer than 50 died. In that outbreak, cases were also recorded in the capital, Kampala. But in some previous outbreaks in Central and Eastern Africa, as many as 400 cases were recorded, health officials said.

More.

And from Laurie Garrett, at Foreign Policy, "Don't Kiss the Cadaver":

The Ebola hemorrhagic disease is terrifying, as the virus punches microscopic holes in the endothelial lining of blood veins, vessels, and capillaries, causing blood to leak from its normal pipelines coursing through the body. Within hours, the punctures enlarge, the leaking turns into a flood, and blood pours into the intestines, bowels, and respiratory channels. As the victims become feverish -- raging in pain and hallucinations -- their tears drip red with blood. The crimson liquid flows from their noses, ears, bowels, bladders, mouths, while old wounds reopen all over their bodies. The deterioration is swift, transpiring from infection to death typically within five days. And Ebola is spread, via the infected body fluids, to attendant family members, health-care workers, and funeral preparers.

With an incubation period of between 2 and 21 days, it can spread anywhere in the world undiscovered.

Read more @ American Power: Ebola Reaches Guinean Capital, Stirring Fears

 

[ScienceRocks]

Yet the conservatives would cut 25% out of the cdc that tracks shit like this. LOL...When you think through things you start realizing just how crazy they're.

 

[SteadyMercury]

The most frightful virus ever – Ebola.

I don't know man, I'd rather have discover I had ebola because of symptoms than I would rabies. Once you're showing signs of rabies you're pretty well fucked.

 

[waltky]

Ebola Spreading Beyond Guinea...

Deadly Ebola virus spreads beyond Guinea borders, suspected in Mali
April 04, 2014: Mali authorities have reported of three suspected cases of fatal Ebola virus. Liberia is now also believed to have witnessed the outbreak, which has killed at least 84people in Guinea and alarmed the world.

"Three suspected cases of hemorrhagic fever have been detected in the country. Samples have been taken and sent abroad for analysis," said Ousmane Kone, Health Minister of Mali, West Africa, according to AFP. The samples of the virus were sent to scientists to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now Mali authorities are waiting for the results, which will be made public as soon as they are known. All three patients have been isolated and received appropriated medication. According to Mali’s government, the condition of the patients is improving.

Meanwhile, Liberia also reported about the first case of a deadly disease which has originated within its own borders and has no connections with the outbreak in Guinea, where it all started. The results of the sample testing are pending. However, if confirmed, the case in the eastern Liberian town of Tapeta would mark a worrying development in the fight against the deadly virus. "We have a case in Tapeta where a hunter who has not had any contact with anyone coming from Guinea got sick… This an a isolated case." chief medical officer Bernice Dahn told AFP, adding that the man died 30 minutes after being rushed to the local hospital.

Staff of the 'Doctors without Borders' ('Medecin sans frontieres') medical aid organisation carry the body of a person killed by viral haemorrhagic fever, at a center for victims of the Ebola virus in Guekedou

According to Dahn, seven new patients brought the total suspected Ebola cases in Liberia to 14. The first outbreak of the fatal disease started in March in southeast Guinea, in West Africa. According to Guinea’s health authorities, the death toll from suspected cases of Ebola in the country hit 84. Overall 134 suspected Ebola cases were reported by the country. On March 28, the Guinean Health Ministry confirmed that the virus spread to its capital, Conakry, and the officials called it a “threat to regional security.” World Health Organization (WHO) officials also reported of suspected cases showing similar symptoms in Sierra Leone, which borders Guinea on the northeast. The neighboring countries to Guinea are now working to control the outbreak by imposing health and travel restrictions. On March 30, Senegal’s Interior Ministry has blocked the border with Guinea “until further notice” over the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the virus got mobile by making its way towards Canada. The Health Ministry in the country’s Saskatchewan province put a man and his entire family in quarantine after he exhibited disturbing symptoms upon arrival from Africa by plane. This is the first fatal outbreak in West Africa. The disease hadn’t been endemic to Guinea as it mostly affects Congo in Central Africa and Uganda and Sudan in the east. Ebola has claimed almost 1,600 lives since it was first observed in 1976 on the territory of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fruit bats are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus. As there is no vaccine or treatment available, the Ebola virus kills from 25 to 90 percent of those who are infected.

More Deadly Ebola virus spreads beyond Guinea borders, suspected in Mali ? RT News

See also:

CROWD ATTACKS EBOLA TREATMENT CENTER IN GUINEA
Apr 5,`14 -- A crowd angry about an Ebola outbreak that has killed 86 people across Guinea attacked a center where victims were being held in isolation, prompting an international aid group to temporarily evacuate its team, officials said Saturday.

The violence took place in the southern town of Macenta, where at least 14 people have died since the outbreak emerged last month. The mob who descended upon the clinic accused Doctors Without Borders health workers of bringing Ebola to Guinea, where there had never previously been any cases. Some young people threw rocks at the aid workers, though no one was seriously hurt, said Sam Taylor, a spokesman for Doctors Without Borders. "We understand very well that people are afraid because it is a new disease here," Taylor said. "But these are not favorable working conditions so we are suspending our activities."

Patients are continuing to receive treatment from Guinean health ministry personnel, Taylor said. Guinea's government swiftly condemned the attack, saying that Doctors Without Borders and other international aid groups are key to stopping the spread of Ebola. "The international community has rapidly mobilized to help us in these difficult moments with considerable medical support and specialists on the ground at the disease's epicenter," the statement said. "That's why the government is calling on people to stay calm and allow our partners to help us eradicate this epidemic."

There is no cure for Ebola, which causes fever and severe bleeding, and up to 90 percent of patients die from the strain of the virus that has been detected in Guinea. Some patients are held for observation, and then transferred to another area if they are confirmed to have Ebola. Confusion about the process has prompted misinformation in this remote corner of Guinea. Resident Kolie Martin accused doctors of transferring patients to the isolation ward who had not tested positive for Ebola. "As soon as someone is brought here, they don't try to figure out whether he is sick or not, they just transfer him directly to the sick ward. So it's them who are killing the people who are in good health," Martin said.

A total of 86 people have died so far from Ebola in Guinea and two other confirmed deaths have been reported in neighboring Liberia. Authorities in Mali are also investigating three suspected cases of Ebola, and they have sent samples overseas for testing. Experts say that Ebola is carried by fruit bats living in West Africa, and that it could have been transmitted to a human who ate a bat or another animal that had bitten by a bat. Health officials emphasize it can only be spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is infected. But that hasn't stopped fear and misinformation from spreading.

In Guinea, passengers aboard a crowded bus fled at the sight of an elderly man who vomited, fearing he was ill with Ebola. In Mali, people protested in the neighborhood where the suspected Ebola patients were being isolated, fearing their presence. An Air France flight from the Guinean capital that landed in Paris on Friday was briefly quarantined after the crew discovered indications that a passenger had been sick in the toilets. After medical checks on board the flight, the 180 passengers and 11 crew members were released, Air France said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-04-05-12-07-05

 

[ScienceRocks]

If it was a few thousand dead in this event and it was threatening to mutate into something that can spread more. Well, then it would be something to worry about.

At this moment there's definitely deadlier and more capable viruses! The flu and the common cold every year kill far more...

 

[waltky]

Ebola in Sierra Leone causes UK mining company to pull staff...

8 Staff at UK Miner Leave Sierra Leone Due to Ebola Virus
June 03, 2014 — Eight employees at iron ore producer London Mining have left Sierra Leone and the company has imposed travel restrictions due to an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, it said on Tuesday.

Sierra Leone last month recorded five deaths from Ebola, its first confirmed fatalities from an outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever that has is believed to have killed around 185 people in neighboring Guinea and Liberia since March. London Mining said its output had not been affected and no cases of Ebola had been found in communities around the mine. But a spokesman for the company, which operates the Marampa mine some 120 km (75 miles) east of Freetown, said eight non-essential staff had left Sierra Leone at the weekend and those abroad on holiday had been advised not to return for now. “The company has also restricted non-essential travel and all such travels are approved by the managing director of London Mining,” Osman Lahai said.

London Mining also advised employees who are able to work remotely that they can do so. A spokesman for African Minerals, another British iron ore miner in the West African state, said it had also introduced travel restrictions on workers but operations were otherwise unaffected. Both firms said they had put in place systems to screen the body temperatures of people working on their sites.

An Ebola outbreak began earlier this year in Guinea's remote southeast, spreading later to Guinea's capital, Conakry, and into neighboring Liberia. Until last month, suspected cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone had tested negative. The confirmed cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone have all been located close to the border with Guinea's Gueckedou prefecture, near the epicenter of the regional outbreak. Theo Nicol, Sierra Leone's deputy information minister, said the government was doing everything it could to fight the disease and all cases in the capital, Freetown, had tested negative so far.

Underscoring the challenges tackling a highly contagious disease with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent in countries with some of the weakest health systems in the world, relatives of an Ebola patient in Sierra Leone took her home saying they did not trust the care she was given. Sierra Leone began exporting iron ore in 2011, fuelling economic growth and highlighting the flood of investment into the country during the decade since its civil war ended. However, Sierra Leone remains one of the world's poorest and least developed countries, and there is widespread frustration that despite the mining boom, more than half of the population of 6 million lives on less than $1.25 per day.

8 Staff at UK Miner Leave Sierra Leone Due to Ebola Virus

 

[Peach]

Ebola in Sierra Leone causes UK mining company to pull staff...

8 Staff at UK Miner Leave Sierra Leone Due to Ebola Virus
June 03, 2014 — Eight employees at iron ore producer London Mining have left Sierra Leone and the company has imposed travel restrictions due to an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, it said on Tuesday.

Sierra Leone last month recorded five deaths from Ebola, its first confirmed fatalities from an outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever that has is believed to have killed around 185 people in neighboring Guinea and Liberia since March. London Mining said its output had not been affected and no cases of Ebola had been found in communities around the mine. But a spokesman for the company, which operates the Marampa mine some 120 km (75 miles) east of Freetown, said eight non-essential staff had left Sierra Leone at the weekend and those abroad on holiday had been advised not to return for now. “The company has also restricted non-essential travel and all such travels are approved by the managing director of London Mining,” Osman Lahai said.

London Mining also advised employees who are able to work remotely that they can do so. A spokesman for African Minerals, another British iron ore miner in the West African state, said it had also introduced travel restrictions on workers but operations were otherwise unaffected. Both firms said they had put in place systems to screen the body temperatures of people working on their sites.

An Ebola outbreak began earlier this year in Guinea's remote southeast, spreading later to Guinea's capital, Conakry, and into neighboring Liberia. Until last month, suspected cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone had tested negative. The confirmed cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone have all been located close to the border with Guinea's Gueckedou prefecture, near the epicenter of the regional outbreak. Theo Nicol, Sierra Leone's deputy information minister, said the government was doing everything it could to fight the disease and all cases in the capital, Freetown, had tested negative so far.

Underscoring the challenges tackling a highly contagious disease with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent in countries with some of the weakest health systems in the world, relatives of an Ebola patient in Sierra Leone took her home saying they did not trust the care she was given. Sierra Leone began exporting iron ore in 2011, fuelling economic growth and highlighting the flood of investment into the country during the decade since its civil war ended. However, Sierra Leone remains one of the world's poorest and least developed countries, and there is widespread frustration that despite the mining boom, more than half of the population of 6 million lives on less than $1.25 per day.

8 Staff at UK Miner Leave Sierra Leone Due to Ebola Virus

It does "burn out" quickly; the infected are not well long enough for mass transmission. However, there are several strains, and further mutation, possible.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Has killed over 200. I think it is the 4th deadiest.