UN kicks off mission to halt spread of Ebola
Print Edition
THE United Nations launched a mission yesterday to prevent the worldwide spread of Ebola as the United States hunted for people who came in contact with the first African diagnosed with the deadly virus outside the continent.
Anthony Banbury, the special representative for the UN Mission on Ebola Emergency Response, was expected to set ambitious targets for action on the crisis as he began a tour of the three worst-hit nations in the Liberian capital Monrovia.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said she had told Banbury the virus had spread to all 15 counties of Liberia, the worst-hit nation with almost two-thirds of the 3,338 deaths in west Africa.
“Affected people are leaving from urban places and hiding out in remote communities,” Sirleaf said. “If we do not move in as quickly as possible, the virus (will) further spread in rural areas.”
Miscommunication
Banbury was due to address the media before moving on to Sierra Leone and then Guinea over the coming days, with US health officials scouring the Dallas area for people who came in contact with a Liberian man diagnosed with Ebola.
The man first sought treatment in Texas on September 25 but hospital officials have admitted he may have come into contact with many more people than first thought because an apparent miscommunication among staff resulted in his release back into the community for several days. Reports suggest Texas health authorities are monitoring up to 80 people for signs of the disease.
Ebola is spread through close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, and can only be transmitted when a patient is showing symptoms like fever, aches, bleeding, vomiting or diarrhea.
The man — the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola on US soil and reportedly identified as Thomas Eric Duncan — flew from Liberia and arrived in Texas on September 20 to visit family. He fell ill on September 24.
He went to the hospital the next day but was sent home because the medical team “felt clinically it was a low-grade common viral disease”, said Mark Lester, executive vice president of Texas Health Resources.
“He volunteered that he had traveled from Africa in response to the nurse operating the checklist and asking that question,” Lester added. “Regretfully, that information was not fully communicated throughout the full team.”
Stable condition
Duncan is currently in serious but stable condition and health officials have ordered four of his “close family members” to stay home.
“We have tried true protocols to protect the public and stop the spread of this disease,” David Lakey, Texas health commissioner, said in a statement yesterday about the stay-home order. “This order gives us the ability to monitor the situation in the most meticulous way.”
The Liberian government expressed “regret” yesterday over the spread of Ebola from Monrovia to the US, adding that the incident had demonstrated “the clear international dimension of this Ebola crisis”.
The incubation period for Ebola is between two and 21 days. Patients are not contagious until they start to have symptoms but once the disease takes hold it can lead to massive bleeding and fatal organ failure.
Britain hosted a conference in London yesterday to gather support for the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone, its former colony which has seen over 600 deaths.
Demand for treatment beds
Save the Children warned as the conference began that five people are being infected with Ebola every hour in Sierra Leone and demand for treatment beds is far outstripping supply.
If the current “terrifying” rate of infection continues, 10 people will be infected every hour with the deadly virus in the West African country by the end of October, the London-based charity warned.
“We need a coordinated international response that ensures treatment centers are built and staffed immediately,” chief executive Justin Forsyth said.
Britain has pledged 120 million pounds (US$190 million) to help build an estimated 700 treatment beds, fund new community treatment centers, support existing public health services and support aid agencies in Sierra Leone.
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