NIGERIA, LIBERIA TO SHUT DOWN EBOLA HOSPITALS

[Wilikon]

Ebola terror at Gatwick as passenger collapses and dies getting off Sierra Leone flight


Airport staff tonight told of their fears of an Ebola outbreak after a passenger from Sierra Leone collapsed and died as she got off a plane at Gatwick.

Workers said they were terrified the virus could spread globally through the busy international hub from the West African country which is in the grip of the deadly epidemic.

The woman, said to be 72, became ill on the gangway after she left a Gambia Bird jet with 128 passengers on board. She died in hospital.

Ebola has killed 256 people in Sierra Leone. A total of 826 have died in West Africa since the outbreak began in February. Tests are now being carried out to see if the woman had disease.

The plane was quarantined as ­officials desperately tried to trace everyone who had been in contact with the woman.

Airport workers face an anxious wait to see if the woman had Ebola. One said: “Everyone’s just ­petrified.

“We’ve all seen how many people have died from Ebola, especially in Sierra Leone, and it’s terrifying.”



http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ebola-terror-gatwick-passenger-collapses-3977051#ixzz39N7JCJb3
Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ebola-terror-gatwick-passenger-collapses-3977051

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[Tzupy]

An experimental monoclonal antibody ZMapp was used to treat US patients:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
IMO a combination of Favipiravir and clomiphene would have worked as well, and it would be
much easier to deploy on a larger scale, once it would be confirmed to work as expected.

[Wilikon]

An experimental monoclonal antibody ZMapp was used to treat US patients:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
IMO a combination of Favipiravir and clomiphene would have worked as well, and it would be
much easier to deploy on a larger scale, once it would be confirmed to work as expected.

Would this untested drug be forced on the population on a large scale for the greater good? What big Pharma will push for that bill?

[bryant.coleman]

The outbreak appears to have stabilized in Guinea, where it was first reported. However, new cases are being uncovered on a constant basis in both Liberia and Sierra Leone. How did the Guinean authorities controlled the outbreak, when their counterparts are struggling with the same?

[RedDiamond]

An experimental monoclonal antibody ZMapp was used to treat US patients:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
IMO a combination of Favipiravir and clomiphene would have worked as well, and it would be
much easier to deploy on a larger scale, once it would be confirmed to work as expected.

"An American doctor flown to the U.S. after being infected with Ebola in Liberia "seems to be improving" after receiving an experimental antibody serum"

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/08/u-s-doctor-with-ebola-improving-after-receiving-experiemental-serum-105720.html

[Tzupy]

An experimental monoclonal antibody ZMapp was used to treat US patients:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
IMO a combination of Favipiravir and clomiphene would have worked as well, and it would be
much easier to deploy on a larger scale, once it would be confirmed to work as expected.

Would this untested drug be forced on the population on a large scale for the greater good? What big Pharma will push for that bill?

ZMapp can't be used on a large scale because it's not yet ready for mass production.
On the contrary, the FDA approved and cheap clomiphene could be easily deployed.
And Favipiravir being in phase 3 clinical trials means it's safe at therapeutic doses and
is currently tested on 1000 - 2000 patients, so mass production is close.

[Wilikon]

An experimental monoclonal antibody ZMapp was used to treat US patients:
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/04/health/experimental-ebola-serum/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
IMO a combination of Favipiravir and clomiphene would have worked as well, and it would be
much easier to deploy on a larger scale, once it would be confirmed to work as expected.

Would this untested drug be forced on the population on a large scale for the greater good? What big Pharma will push for that bill?

ZMapp can't be used on a large scale because it's not yet ready for mass production.
On the contrary, the FDA approved and cheap clomiphene could be easily deployed.
And Favipiravir being in phase 3 clinical trials means it's safe at therapeutic doses and
is currently tested on 1000 - 2000 patients, so mass production is close.

I do not doubt mass production is close. I wonder how you can force people to take a drug that is untested. It does not matter if 2000 patients take it now. It is still experimental. Am I wrong to believe a drug needs at least, 5, 10 years of testing before being pushed to your local walgreens? Maybe that law changed and I wasn't aware of that.

[RedDiamond]

"ZMapp, the experimental treatment rushed to two Americans infected with Ebola in Africa, is grown in specially modified leaves of tobacco"

"Saphire says she expects the first human trials of ZMapp to begin in 2015"

http://www.webmd.com/news/20140804/ebola-virus-vaccine

[Wilikon]

Disease Expert Warns Terrorists Could Make Dirty Bomb Containing Ebola


A Cambridge University disease expert warns that terrorists could be able to build a dirty bomb containing the Ebola virus.
Speaking to The Sun, biological anthropologist Dr. Peter Walsh says that the risk should be taken seriously of terror groups getting their hands on the Ebola virus.
“A bigger and more serious risk is that a group manages to harness the virus as a powder, then explodes it in a bomb in a highly populated area,” Walsh told The Sun. “It could cause a large number of horrific deaths.”
Walsh states that groups might try to harness the virus out of west African nations where the outbreak is prevalent.
“Only a handful of labs worldwide have the Ebola virus and they are extremely well protected. So the risk is that a terrorist group seeks to obtain the virus out in West Africa,” Walsh told The Sun.
Walsh added this scenario could “cause a large number of horrific deaths.”
“It is a threat that is taken very seriously,” Walsh told The Sun.
Walsh also said that the chance Ebola reaches the United Kingdom is small.
Two Americans, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, contracted Ebola after working on the same medical mission team treating victims of the virus around Monrovia, Liberia. More than 1,300 people have been stricken, killing more than 800 of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
A Liberian government official has confirmed that a medical evacuation team is scheduled to fly Writebol back to the United States early Tuesday. She will receive treatment at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital alongside Brantly, who was admitted Saturday.
Brantly and Writebol contracted Ebola after working on the same medical mission team treating victims of the virus around Monrovia, Liberia. More than 1,300 people have been stricken, killing at least 729 of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2014/08/04/disease-expert-warns-terrorists-could-make-dirty-bomb-containing-ebola/

[Wilikon]

AMERICA'S EBOLA RESPONSE IS 'MADNESS'


[...]
So here are some questions. All these experts on television are telling us it’s perfectly safe and we need not worry. And the lamest answer comes when you ask them how the medical doctor who they brought to Atlanta contracted Ebola in Africa. Their answer is always the same: “Oh, an accidental needle prick.”

This is nonsense. It is possible they were experimenting on the poor African villagers and the disease got out of control. Now, they are bringing in highly infectious patients into this nation that is Ebola-free. In doing so, they are violating the primary rule of contagion: isolation. They are now using this: “We must fight our fears or remain compassionate.” This story is unraveling.

Now let’s follow the money. A recent USA Today article had this headline: “NIH to launch early Ebola vaccine trial in September.” What does that mean? Well, what it means is this: Until the current outbreak of Ebola, many in the industry said there was not a great need for an Ebola vaccine, because the virus only caused 10-100 infections per year. But that’s all changed.

Now, according to Dr. Scott Lillibridge, assistant dean at the Texas A&M School of Public Health, “The current outbreak has somewhat changed our thinking.” More people now think the world needs an Ebola vaccine. Why? Because there’s going to be a call to vaccinate entire populations of nations or to vaccinate health workers in hospitals and clinics to protect them from getting and spreading the virus.

So what’s going on is that the FDA is making exceptions to its usually stringent rules for drug development in evaluating treatments for Ebola. And as a result, they’re speeding forward with a stage I trial with a man-made antibody treatment.

We all know that for the full-blown Ebola hemorrhagic virus, there is no drug on the planet that is going to cure it. But as of now, in the monkey model there are drugs that can arrest early stages of infection. Why have they brought an infected doctor and another patient from the area of contagion to Emory University in the U.S. when these individuals could treated just as well in Africa? Perhaps they are using these two patients as guinea pigs in a trial for a new vaccine from which billions are to be made if successful.


http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/ebola-madness-is-epidemic/

Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of columns on the Ebola epidemic by radio talk-show host Michael Savage, who has a Ph.D. in epidemiology.

[Wilikon]

Many US hospitals not prepared for Ebola


[...]
Many U.S. hospitals are poorly prepared to contain any pathogen. That’s why at least 75,000 people a year die from hospital infections.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/08/04/many-us-hospitals-not-prepared-for-ebola/

[elite3000]

It is still contagious in dead tissue. I don't have the info on how long, but the media's reporting that funeral and burial rites are spreading the virus to the family and friends of victims

[bryant.coleman]

Disease Expert Warns Terrorists Could Make Dirty Bomb Containing Ebola

I don't think that Ebola can be used as a biological weapon. The Ebola virus is not an airborne organism. It can be spread through contact with the infected people only. Also, it is very difficult to preserve the virus for long duration. If someone wants to make a biological weapon using the Ebola virus, then he will have to ensure a constant supply of infected individuals.

[dKingston]

Ebola is a very dangerous virus and whole world can be affected very soon.
Plus the epidemy continues to spread in Africa, more the possibilities that
Ebola continues the spread in whole world are.

[lepirate]

The thing is that Ebola is not really a threat to, at least, the western world. The only reason why it's spreading out of control in West Africa is the lack of trust against doctors, governments and other people who wants to help, as well as lack of knowledge.
In the western world people trust their governments and will not refuse to get help, they will probably even go get it themselves.
Also, the only way to get infected is to get infected body fluids inside your own system, so it's actually quite hard to get infected.
So it's not the threat that media tries to make us believe it is.

However, in poorer parts of the world (like west africa) it is a major threat, and more resources should be given to prevent further spreading.