Don't Miss A Stroke! Save a Life

One out of Six people will suffer a Stroke during their lifetime!

A Stroke or Cerebrovascular accident is caused by an interruption in the blood supply to the brain resulting either from  the bursting of a blood vessel or the blockage of a vessel by a clot.

The major symptoms of a stroke include a sudden weakness of usually one side of the face, arm or leg (could involve all at once), numbness, confusion, difficulty speaking or understanding speech; it could also cause a difficulty seeing with one or both eyes; difficulty walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination; severe headache with no known cause; vomiting; fainting or unconsciousness.

One of the key ways to "save a life" or help facilitate timely medical attention in someone suffering from a stroke is to know what a stroke looks like by becoming familiar with the symptoms listed above. Such knowledge will enable you "act fast" to save a co-worker, friend, or relative. Although stroke risk increases with age, strokes can—and do—occur at any age.

To prevent strokes, physical activity and healthy eating play a huge role. Keeping a good watch on vascular disease and stroke risk factors such as elevated blood pressure(hypertension), high blood sugar or diabetes and high cholesterol levels are also very important in every part of the world.

Here are some of the latest recommendations by the World Health Organization to stress these prevention measures

Eat a healthy diet: A balanced diet is crucial to a healthy heart and circulation system. This should include plenty of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, fish and pulses with restricted salt, sugar and fat intake. Alcohol should also be used in moderation.

Eating foods high in cholesterol can build up fatty deposits, called plaque, on the walls of your blood vessels. These deposits can block the flow of blood to the brain, causing a stroke

Take regular physical activity: At least 30 minutes of regular physical activity every day helps to maintain cardiovascular fitness; at least 60 minutes on most days of the week helps to maintain healthy weight.

Being overweight or obese can raise total cholesterol levels, increase blood pressure, and lead to diabetes

Avoid tobacco use: Tobacco in every form is very harmful to health - cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or chewable tobacco. Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke is also dangerous. The risk of heart attack and stroke starts to drop immediately after a person stops using tobacco products, and can drop by as much as half after 1 year.

Smoking cigarettes also raises your blood pressure!

Check and control your overall cardiovascular risk: An important aspect of preventing heart attacks and strokes is by providing treatment and counselling to individuals at high risk (those with a 10 year cardiovascular risk equal to or above 30%) and reducing their cardiovascular risk. A health worker can estimate your cardiovascular risk using simple risk charts and provide the appropriate advice for managing your risk factors.

• Know your blood pressure: High blood pressure usually has no symptoms, but is one of the biggest causes of sudden stroke or heart attack. Have your blood pressure checked and know your numbers. If it is high, you will need to change your lifestyle to incorporate a healthy diet with less salt intake and increase physical activity, and may need medications to control your blood pressure.
• Know your blood lipids: Raised blood cholesterol and abnormal blood lipids increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Blood cholesterol needs to be controlled through a healthy diet and, if necessary, by appropriate medications.
• Know your blood sugar: Raised blood glucose (diabetes) increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes. If you have diabetes it is very important to control your blood pressure and blood sugar to minimize the risk.

Medic-ALL 2018

Ref: WHO

STROKE! BECAUSE WE CARE

Medic-ALL (OCT 29 2015) DISEASE 

One out of Six people will suffer a Stroke during their lifetime! That's a pretty scary statement, but one that can become even more alarming without a day like today. The 29th October is the day observed worldwide as the World Stroke Day, it was established 9 years go by the World Stroke Organization to underscore the seriousness and high rates of the disease worldwide, raise awareness on the prevention and treatment of the condition and ensure better care and support for survivors.

This year, the World Stroke Organization is introducing a new slogan for this important health observance: “Because I care…” This theme reminds us that caring about ourselves, our families, and our friends is the key to preventing strokes and to helping those who experience a stroke. 

A Stroke or Cerebrovascular accident is caused by an interruption in the blood supply to the brain resulting either from  the bursting of a blood vessel or the blockage of a vessel by a clot. The major symptoms include a sudden weakness of usually one side of the face, arm or leg (could involve all at once), numbness, confusion, difficulty speaking or understanding speech; it could also cause a difficulty seeing with one or both eyes; difficulty walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination; severe headache with no known cause; vomiting; fainting or unconsciousness.

The Slogan for this year's World Stroke Day seeks to emphasize the fact that the condition is preventable. One of the best ways to help save lives from stroke is to know what a stroke looks like (see common symptoms above) . Learning about stroke can help you act fast to save a co-worker, friend, or relative. Although stroke risk increases with age, strokes can—and do—occur at any age.

To prevent strokes, physical activity and healthy eating play a huge role. Keeping a good watch on vascular disease and stroke risk factors such as elevated blood pressure(hypertension), high blood sugar or diabetes and high cholesterol levels are also very important in every part of the world.

Here are some of the latest recommendations by the World Health Organization to stress these prevention measures

Eat a healthy diet: A balanced diet is crucial to a healthy heart and circulation system. This should include plenty of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, lean meat, fish and pulses with restricted salt, sugar and fat intake. Alcohol should also be used in moderation.

Eating foods high in cholesterol can build up fatty deposits, called plaque, on the walls of your blood vessels. These deposits can block the flow of blood to the brain, causing a stroke

Take regular physical activity: At least 30 minutes of regular physical activity every day helps to maintain cardiovascular fitness; at least 60 minutes on most days of the week helps to maintain healthy weight.

Being overweight or obese can raise total cholesterol levels, increase blood pressure, and lead to diabetes

Avoid tobacco use: Tobacco in every form is very harmful to health - cigarettes, cigars, pipes, or chewable tobacco. Exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke is also dangerous. The risk of heart attack and stroke starts to drop immediately after a person stops using tobacco products, and can drop by as much as half after 1 year.

Smoking cigarettes also raises your blood pressure!

Check and control your overall cardiovascular risk: An important aspect of preventing heart attacks and strokes is by providing treatment and counselling to individuals at high risk (those with a 10 year cardiovascular risk equal to or above 30%) and reducing their cardiovascular risk. A health worker can estimate your cardiovascular risk using simple risk charts and provide the appropriate advice for managing your risk factors.

• Know your blood pressure: High blood pressure usually has no symptoms, but is one of the biggest causes of sudden stroke or heart attack. Have your blood pressure checked and know your numbers. If it is high, you will need to change your lifestyle to incorporate a healthy diet with less salt intake and increase physical activity, and may need medications to control your blood pressure.
• Know your blood lipids: Raised blood cholesterol and abnormal blood lipids increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Blood cholesterol needs to be controlled through a healthy diet and, if necessary, by appropriate medications.
• Know your blood sugar: Raised blood glucose (diabetes) increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes. If you have diabetes it is very important to control your blood pressure and blood sugar to minimize the risk.

Stay Healthy...See you next year...Oct 29, 2016!

Medic-ALL.Inc 2015

Sources: WHO website, World Stroke Organization, Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Nigeria Kicks Out Polio!

Medic-ALL(09:28:2015) GLOBAL HEALTH

In what has been described as a historical achievement for global health by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Nigeria was last Friday declared free of Polio by the World Health organization and subsequently removed from the Polio-Endemic List, leaving Pakistan and Afghanistan as the two countries in the world that have never been free of the disease. (Read Polio: The "PAN" and the"PAIN").

Nigeria has not reported a case of wild poliovirus since 24 July 2014, and all laboratory data have confirmed a full 12 months have passed without any new cases. Health officials have described this as a major victory in the fight to rid the world of polio. The World Health Organization records show that as recently as 2012, Nigeria accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide.

Since then however , there appeared to be collaborative effort by all levels of government, civil society, religious leaders and tens of thousands of dedicated health workers which resulted in one of the world's most populous nations successfully stopping the disease. More than 200 000 volunteers across the country repeatedly immunized more than 45 million children under the age of 5 years, to ensure that no child would suffer from this paralysing disease. Innovative approaches, such as increased community involvement and the establishment of Emergency Operations Centres at the national and state level, have also been pivotal to Nigeria’s success.

In a statement by Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa “Stopping polio in Nigeria has been a clear example that political engagement, strong partnerships and community engagement are the engines that drive the momentum of public health programmes, enabling them to achieve great things. I would like to congratulate everyone, particularly political, religious and community leaders in Nigeria and across Africa, for reaching a year without cases of wild polio.”

Certainly the victory over Polio in Nigeria would not have been possible without the support and commitment of donors and development partners. Such continued support, along with continued domestic funding from Nigeria, will be essential to keep Nigeria and the entire region polio-free, keeping in mind the vulnerable nations in the region( See Polio:The "PAN" and the "PAIN").

The World Health Organization, through her Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan praised the commitments and efforts that got Nigeria off the Polio-Endemic list whilst reiterating the need for supportive efforts to be rendered to Pakistan and Afghanistan.


Eradicating polio will be one of the greatest achievements in human history, and have a positive impact on global health for generations to come. Nigeria has brought the world one major step closer to achieving this goal and it’s critical that the world seizes this opportunity to end polio for good and ensure future generations of children all over the world are free from this devastating disease.

Source: WHO Media Centre

See Also  Polio:The "PAN" and the "PAIN"

Medic-ALL.Inc 2015

Prevent Hepatitis, Act Now

World Hepatitis Day!

Every 28th of July, marks the World Hepatitis Day. This year's campaign not only focuses on raising  awareness of the often underestimated viral inf , but also on preventive measures against it.

There are about 400million people living with hepatitis B and C worldwide. Up to 1.4 million people die due to the infection every year and there are millions of new infections on a yearly basis.

The transmission of the virus can be prevented through better awareness and services that improve safety practices including blood and injection safety, perinatal screenings and vaccinations.

Four Hundred million deaths is certainly more than enough for A Call to Awareness and Action.

Lets Join the Campaign Today

http://worldhepatitisday.org/

Ref: World Health Organization Media Center
WorldHepatitisDay website

Medic-ALL.Inc 2015!!! One Year Anniversary

The Path to a Smoke Free World

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.”
― Mark Twain

Growing up , I remember watching those tobacco adverts on television that ended with that "ironic" but scary WARNING, that stated clearly that tobacco smokers are liable to die young. At that time, like most people, I simply concluded that smoking would surely have harmful effects on the lungs which would ultimately lead to death.

As years went by however, "medical school happened" and I knew a lot better. I learnt and realized (some times after losing a chronic smoker and alcoholic to an advanced esophageal carcinoma) that the dangers of smoking were not restricted to the lungs and that it infact affected nearly every system in the human body! From increasing the risk of strokes to coronary artery diseases to lung diseases, lung cancers, the proven association with bladder, cervical, esophageal, pancreatic, blood, colon and a couple of other cancers and the obstetric and gynecological dangers (preterm births, stillbirths, low-birth weight, ectopic pregnancy e.t.c) , tobacco smoking seems to do it all, and I haven't even mentioned what it does to the sperm of men, the health of bones and the risk of cataracts! And as far as those tobacco adverts on Nigerian television back then are concerned, recent researches have indeed shown that smoking could singlehandedly shorten one's life by up to 14 years!


Cigarette smoking causes up to 480,000 deaths (human deaths!) per year in the United States! At least the United States has figures and a great healthcare system to go with that. I can't imagine what the figures are like in some other countries with less developed healthcare structures.


I recently came acroos an article on what we can best refer to as a "health-obsessed nation" where there is the world's lowest population of smokers according the the World Health Organization. The country, Turkmenistan, is an oil rich former Soviet republic with some unconventional methods but interesting achievements.







The country's "authoritharian" president, Berdymukhamedov, is a dentist by training who has been in power since the death of his eccentric predecessor, Niyazov in 2006. Niyazov, himself campaigned against smoking and built a 36km "path of health" into the mountains surrounding the nation's capital, Ashgabat which government officials were forced to walk.


Some months ago, the country with about 5 million people held a month of public exercises and sporting events under the slogan "health and happiness".


About 25 years ago, 27% of Turkmen over 15 and 1% of women smoked. A decade later Turkmenistan banned smoking in public places, state buildings and the army as well as all forms of tobacco advertising. Comparing that with 31.1% of the global male population over the age of 15 smoked in 2012 and 6.2% of women were smokers, a statistics that has probably worsened. Recently a WHO overview showed that only 8% of the Turkmenistan population smoke, and this is the lowest National indicator in world according to the World Health Organization's Director, Margaret Chan.


The question is , what will it take to have such success stories reproduced in many countries where tobacco smoking continues to account for huge morbidity and mortality. Perhaps the truth is that there are yet lessons to be learnt and imbibed from the isolated nation of Turkmenistan where fewer than one out of 12 people use tobacco if the world is serious about saving itself from the dangers of smoking.


Medic-ALL Inc Anniversary Special


Refs: World Health Organization, the Guardian, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention


See also ; Smoking: Breaking The Habit

Is Sex Bringing Ebola Back?

Medic-ALL (03:29:2014) -DISEASE

Its been a year long outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus and whilst the whole world looked back at the losses and lessons from the epidemic this past year, the virus appears to be making an unheralded comeback.

On Friday, in Liberia (one of the hardest hit countries alongside Sierra Leone and Guinea) , a 44 year old victim of the deadly virus was reported dead. There are indications that the new case may have occured via sexual transmission from a survivor she was said to be dating. Additional tests are being carried out to confirm this.

Research has shown traces of Ebolacan remain  in the  semen of some survivors for at least 82 days after the onset of symptoms. There is no conclusive scientific proof these traces are infectious. But anecdotal evidence in the latest case, and several others in West Africa, along with and confirmed transmission of Marburg, another viral hemorrhagic fever, have led experts to warn of the potential risk of sexually transmitted Ebola.

The World Health Organization, as a precautionary measure, advises Ebola survivors to abstain from sex during a 90-day period following recovery. At the very least, they should practice safe sex.

The case threatens to undermine the country's efforts to end a year long outbreak which has claimed over 10,300 lives across the African continent.

The country was on it's way to completing a 42-days period without a new case of the disease, which is necessary to declare the country free of the disease when it recorded the recent case.

Ebola continues to spread in Africa, though not as bad as it was some months ago. 79 new cases were reported last week. 

Though, it was known that Ebola was largely transmitted through body fluids of close contacts, no case of transmission via sex had been previously documented. 

Ref: World Health Organization, NBCNews

    

Ebola: West African Nation Declared Free

Medic-ALL (01:18:2015) Healthcare News-

Ebola virus stopped in yet another West African Country

The Government of the West African nation, Mali today declared the country free of the deadly Ebola virus following a 42-day period without a new case of the disease.

Mali's Health Minister Ousmane Koné declared this in a statement in which he thanked the country's health workers and international partners for their work which helped to see a halt to the outbreak.

Countries must report no new cases for 42 days - or two incubation periods of 21 days - to be declared Ebola-free.

Mali recorded a total of seven deaths caused by the Ebola outbreak that began just over a year ago

According to World Health Organization (WHO) data the worst epidemic of the viral haemorrhagic fever on record has killed more than 8,400 people, mostly in neighbouring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

At least 21,296 people have so far been infected with the virus worldwide.

Mali's last infected patient recovered and left hospital early last month. At one point health officials had been monitoring more than 300 contact cases.

Mali became the sixth West African country to record a case of Ebola when a two-year-old girlfrom Guinea died in October. It was close to being declared Ebola free in November before a second wave of infections.

The country now joins other West African countries Nigeria and Senegal who had been declared Ebola-free in the last couple of months.

Medic-ALL.Inc 2015

Ref: BBC, WHO

Ebola Response On Track -WHO

Medic-ALL (19:12:2014) Via MedPage Today

The response to the Ebola epidemic is on track to meet U.N. targets, the World Health Organization said in a mildly optimistic midweek situation report.
By New Year's Day, the agency said, the three hardest-hit countries will likely have the capacity to isolate and treat all cases and to bury all Ebola victims "safely and with dignity."

Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone all now have more available beds than reported patients, the WHO said, although they are not distributed evenly and some regions still have "serious shortfalls." By the same token, each country has enough safe burial teams to handle all people known to have died from Ebola; however, some regions might lack enough capacity.

The U.N. goals are to have 100% of new patients under treatment by Jan. 1 and all known Ebola victims buried safely. Isolating patients breaks the chain of transmission, while safe burials -- avoiding unprotected contact with the highly infectious body of an Ebola victim -- avoid an important risk factor for new cases.
The agency also had a brighter picture of the incidence of cases, suggesting there are signs that the epidemic in Sierra Leone might be starting to slow -- even though the country reported 327 new confirmed cases in the week ending Dec. 14.
Most of the cases are in the western part of the country, with the capital, Freetown, accounting for 125 of the new cases. Teams began house-to-house searches in Freetown yesterday, seeking hidden Ebola patients, according to the BBC.
The searches are part of the so-called Western Area Surge, which aims to get Ebola patients into treatment and also to raise the number of available beds in the capital, the WHO said.

In Guinea, there has been no evident pattern in recent weeks, with the number of new confirmed cases each week fluctuating between 75 and 148. For the week ending Dec. 14, there were 76.
In Liberia, on the other hand, incidence is falling, with only six districts reporting new confirmed or probable cases in the week ending Dec. 14, although data are missing for much of the week.
The cumulative Ebola toll worldwide, to Dec. 14, is 18,603 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases in five affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Sierra Leone, and the U.S.) and three previously affected countries (Nigeria, Senegal, and Spain), the agency said.

The U.S. has not had a new Ebola case since Craig Spencer, MD, was reported to be be cured Nov. 9; the country can be declared free of the disease Sunday, which will be 42 days after Spencer tested negative.
Mali also appears to have controlled the disease; all of the contacts of the country's eight confirmed and probable Ebola patients (six of whom died) have now passed the 21-day incubation period without developing the disease.


The last patient tested negative for the disease Dec. 6.

The WHO also reported, for the first time, population-based Ebola rates for Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone:

In Guinea, there have been 22 reported cases and 14 deaths per 100,000 people, with a cumulative total of 2,416 cases and 1,525 fatalities.

Liberia has had 197 reported cases and 83 deaths per 100,000 population, with a total of 7,790 cases and 3,290 deaths.

And Sierra Leone has had 145 cases and 36 deaths per 100,000 people, for a total of 8,356 cases and 2085 deaths.

Meanwhile, researchers are reporting that laboratory tests show that 53 existing and approved drugs have the effect of blocking ebolavirus entry to target cells.

The list includes a wide range of drug classes: microtubule inhibitors, estrogen receptor modulators, antihistamines, antipsychotics, pump/channel antagonists, anticancer drugs, and antibiotics, according to Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, and colleagues.
But more experiments will be needed to understand how useful any of the compounds might be, Garcia-Sastre and colleagues cautioned in Emerging Microbes and Infections.

The work is a positive step, commented Ben Neuman, PhD, of England's University of Reading, who was not part of the study.
The research "extends the list of drugs that are safe to use in people, and have been shown to interfere with Ebola in the lab," he said. But, he added, "it takes a lot to stop Ebola and none of the drugs identified in this study has been shown to protect an experimental animal yet."

"We now have a longer list of things that might work, but the list of things that definitely will work still unfortunately stands at zero," Neuman said.
Indeed, there is little evidence of efficacy even for the drugs that have been used experimentally during this current outbreak, according to the European Medicines Agency, which is conducting a continuing review of them.

The agency is looking at such medicines as brincidofovir, favipiravir, TKM-100802, and ZMapp -- all used to treat one or more patients -- but there is nothing to be said so far about their efficacy, according to an interim report.
"Treatments for patients infected with the Ebola virus are still in early stages of development," an agency spokesman said in a statement. "We encourage developers to generate more information on the use of these medicines in the treatment of Ebola patients."

Ref: World Health Organization
Photo Credits
Medpage today
in.pharmatechnologists.com
seattletimes.com

Nigeria Declared Ebola-Free by WHO

Medic-ALL (20:10:2014) by Kayode Kuku

With no new cases of Ebola reported in Nigeria over the last 42 days, the World Health Organization (WHO) today declared the country "Ebola Free", a sign of how the deadly virus could have been easily contained had the other West African countries ravaged by the disease acted swiftly.

There haven’t been any cases of Ebola in 42 days, said WHO Country Representative Rui Gama Vaz in a news conference in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

“The last chain of transmission has been broken. The disease is gone,” said Dr. Vaz. “This is a spectacular story, that Ebola can be defeated.”

This is following an announcement that Senegal is also rid of the virus.

The entire world and health officials particularly were concerned of a possible worldwide outbreak  and wary of the spread throughout the world when a Liberian-American "transported" the virus into Nigeria when he flew into Lagos, the Country's most populous city with a population of about 21 million people late July.

A different story has been unfolding in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, whose governments didn’t notice Ebola had arrived in their interiors until March, four months after the disease first erupted in rural Guinea late last year.

More than 4,500 people are known to have died from the disease in those countries, the WHO says. Thousands more are thought to have contracted it without ever being tallied in the United Nations health agency’s records.

Meanwhile the United States continue to put in place measures to ensure the diseses which has so far been confirmed in 3 persons in the U.S. 43 contacts of the country's first Ebola case, Thomas Eric Duncan have been cleared after not developing any symptoms following a 21-day period in quarantine, while 4 others are close to the end of the isolation period.

 Reports from Spain, reveal that the nurse's aide has also beaten Ebola after spending weeks hospitalized with the disease.

Ref : Wall Street Journal

Related posts: Yes!! Nigeria, Ebola Free

Fight Against Ebola: Grossly Unfunded!

•  MARKETS
•  SETTINGS

CNN (NewYork) 22:09:2014 -

The Ebola virus has already killed thousands in West Africa, an immeasurable loss for many families. As medical workers try to quell its spread, global organizations are calculating the economic impact of the disease.

"Their economies are basically being devastated," said Daniel Epstein, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. "Economic activity has halted in many areas there. The harvest isn't going on. People can't fly in and fly out."

WHO workers even had difficulty flying into the Ebola-stricken nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, Epstein said. 

The Ebola virus has already killed thousands in West Africa, an immeasurable loss for many families. As medical workers try to quell its spread, global organizations are calculating the economic impact of the disease.

"Their economies are basically being devastated," said Daniel Epstein, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. "Economic activity has halted in many areas there. The harvest isn't going on. People can't fly in and fly out."

WHO workers even had difficulty flying into the Ebola-stricken nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, Epstein said.

Over 2,600 people have died, according to the latest WHO count. If Ebola is not contained this year, the cost could increase by eight times its current estimate, according to a report published Wednesday by the World Bank Group. Ebola's toll in Liberia alone could affect almost 5% of the country's GDP this year, the World Bank said.

"Our findings make clear that the sooner we get an adequate containment response and decrease the level of fear and uncertainty, the faster we can blunt Ebola's economic impact," said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim in a statement.

In need of aid: The United Nations said this week that $1 billion in aid is needed to contain the Ebola outbreak. But a UN database tally of donations shows that many wealthy Western nations that verbally pledged support have donated paltry sums to fight the disease.

Total donations, including non-binding pledges, to fight Ebola are about $388 million, well under half of the United Nation's estimate, according to data from Financial Tracking Service, a database that tracks humanitarian aid and is managed by the United Nations. The Obama administration announced this week that it hopes to send an additional $500 million in humanitarian aid to the West African nations this fiscal year.

Even with the U.S. government's significant aid proposal, the total number would still fall short of the United Nations' estimate of a billion.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went as far as saying "our best estimate is that we need a 20-fold increase in assistance" at a meeting this week.

Some private foundations have also stepped in. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over $8 million so far to various organizations to fight Ebola. That is more than the combined donations of Canada, Germany and Spain, according to FTS data.

Overall, the Gates Foundation has pledged $38 million, which eclipses many more countries.

Epstein noted that countries such as Canada contribute to the aid effort in non-monetary ways by sending aid workers and conducting medical research.

"We're also at the stage where people are seeing what the landscape is and figuring out, what's the best way to donate funds?" Epstein said. "In a humanitarian crisis, there are often delays between what people realize what they have to do and what they actually do.

WHO: Ebola Surging Beyond Control

Medic-ALL(13:09:2014) via CBC News:

Ebola virus cases in West Africa are rising faster than the ability to contain them, the World Health Organization says, as experts warn that the exponential rise could become a worldwide disaster.

The death toll has risen to more than 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases, WHO director general Margaret Chan told reporters at the UN health agency’s headquarters in in Geneva on Friday, noting the figures could be an underestimate.

In the three hardest hit countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the number of new patients is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them. We need to surge at least three to four times to catch up with the outbreaks," Chan said.

She called for urgent international support in the form of doctors, nurses, medical supplies and aid to the worst-affected countries.

Health-care workers have been infected with Ebola while treating patients in West Africa. Almost half of the 301 health-care workers who have developed the disease have died.

Chan welcomed Cuba's announcement that it will send 165 health-workers to fight the outbreak , but added that at least 500 doctors from abroad are needed.

An infectious disease expert warned in Friday’s New York Times that "the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done."

Michael Osterholm is the director of the Center for go backrian aid from countries and non-governmental groups. Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Ebola spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids, but Osterholm raised a possibility that he said virologists are loath to discuss openly but consider behind closed doors: the prospect that the Ebola virus could mutate to become transmissible through the air.

Osterholm cites a 2012 study by researchers at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg that showed the Ebola Zaire strain behind West Africa’s outbreak could spread by the respiratory route between pigs and monkeys.

The key to containing the outbreak, Osterholm stressed, is to beef up efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

To that end, he suggested that the United Nations take over the position of "command and control" to direct the efforts of medical, public health and humanitarian aid from countries and non-governmental groups.

Culled from CBC News

Ebola Response: Slowed by a "Perfect Storm" of Setbacks

Via Medpage Today (09:09:2014)

WASHINGTON -- The world was taken by surprise by the West Africa Ebola outbreak and has been scrambling ever since to catch up, with many setbacks and only a few bright spots in the picture, international experts said at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

The Centre for Disease Control (CDC)'s initial response was based on years of experience with Ebola, according to Barbara Knust, DVM, of the agency's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

In March, the agency dispatched 20 staff to do what the CDC has often done before -- help control an Ebola outbreak with such things as data management, contact tracing, and epidemiology, she told reporters.

It seemed to work, and in May the agency pulled its staff back, satisfied -- as was the World Health Organization (WHO) -- that the worst would soon be over.

But in the following months it became clear that a "perfect storm" of factors was at work, combining to push what had been a localized outbreak into a widespread and deadly epidemic, she said.

Those factors included a very mobile community that was sometimes angrily opposed to the outbreak control measures -- adequate infection control and safe burial practices, for instance -- that had always worked in the past.

The result was an outbreak that has grown so swiftly that "those measures still need to be put fully into effect," she said.

Currently, the CDC has some 90 people on the ground in the affected countries -- Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria -- and is planning to send teams to nearby nations to help them get ready in case of further spread.

Knust was among three speakers added to the ICAAC program at the last minute to fill in the Ebola picture. The others were Aneesh Mehta, MD, of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and Gary Kobinger, PhD, of Canada's National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Mehta was part of the 100-strong medical team that cared for two American medical missionaries who came down with the virus and were airlifted to Atlanta for treatment.

Both recovered and Mehta said he and colleagues gleaned some "clinical pearls" from their experience that might help future patients including those in West Africa.

Among them, he told MedPage Today, was the ability to swiftly correct specific electrolytes, to switch intravenous fluids quickly to match changing patient needs, and to give high-quality liquid nutrition to help repair the immune system.

"One of the things that we learned was the power of close monitoring and high-level nursing care," he added, something that both patients commented was absent in the African setting.

Although the caregivers initially had no idea what to expect, the two patients were very similar to other seriously ill people, Mehta said, and responded to similar interventions.

One advantage the American team had was daily on-site lab work which is not available to African doctors. But he said the American team also used point-of-care devices to monitor blood chemistry, which could also be used in the African setting.

The epidemic has now caused more than 3,700 cases and almost 1,850 deaths, according to WHO, and the treatment for Ebola is some form of the supportive care that Mehta discussed.

But several vaccines and therapeutics are in the pipeline and might be ready in time to have some impact on the epidemic, Kobinger said.

In particular, it's just possible that the two vaccines now entering phase I safety trials will pass that hurdle in time to be of some help.

But the process of getting such drugs into the clinic in a hurry is not an easy one, he said.

"It's easy to say let's do a clinical trial, but it's very complex, especially in the current situation where the focus is really on the outbreak response," he said.

On the other hand, if the vaccines are shown to be safe and effective, they could assist the public health response by persuading more healthcare workers to take part, Kobinger stated.

"If you could just protect them, you would have a tremendous impact on the response," he said, "because more people would go."

In the long run, the availability of drugs and vaccines might change the face of Ebola. "I'm hoping this will be the last large outbreak," he said.

Ebola Takes Toll on African Economy

Wall Street Journal (05:09:2014) by Matina Stevie, Nicholas Bariyo and Gbenga Akingbule:

Ebola's economic toll on Africa is starting to emerge.

The flow of goods across many African frontiers, from Congolese copper crossing the Botswana border to used cars driven into Nigeria, is seizing up on fears that traders could be carrying or catch the killer virus. The trade slowdown comes on top of a drop in tourismand the suspension of commercial flights to West African cities as well as Nairobi, a continental hub.

The upshot: An accelerating continental economy has hit a massive speed bump. The International Monetary Fund projected sub-Saharan Africa would grow by 5.4% this year, but it is now warning that Ebola is set to badly hit growth rates in the countries directly affected.

The Ebola outbreak began in Guinea eight months ago and has since spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. A separate Ebola outbreak has surfaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The World Health Organization has warned that the epidemic is likely to accelerate and more than 20,000 people could be infected. Already, more than 1,900 people have died.

Ebola's economic impact has become so severe that the IMF is now warning that stricken countries could need emergency assistance. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have all been burning holes in their finances trying to curb the outbreak, and a dramatic downturn in trade—specifically timber and rubber—will compound those troubles.

"What is already clear at this stage is that growth is likely to slow sharply," said Gerry Rice, a fund spokesman. "Significant financing needs are likely to rise."

The World Bank and the IMF said recently that the epidemic would shave a full percentage point off Guinea's growth rate, slowing it to 3.5%.

Sierra Leone's economy was set to grow by a breakneck 13.9% rate in 2014, and Liberia's by 5.9%, the IMF predicted earlier this year. While the fund still hasn't specified how it believes the outbreak will affect those growth rates, the impact is expected to be significant, setting back fragile economies that were beginning to stage convincing economic expansions.

The Washington-based institution is already funding assistance programs to the three West African nations affected by Ebola. Sierra Leone benefits from a roughly $96 million IMF program, while Guinea is drawing on a $200 million loan, and Liberia on an $80 million one. IMF rules allow it to enhance or extend such loan facilities.

Agriculture accounts for some 40% of the economic output in Liberia and Sierra Leone and a quarter in Guinea, and the sector is taking a hit in the three countries as farmers are forced to leave the fields and can't trade across borders because many have closed, according to Manji Cheto, vice president at the New York-based Teneo Intelligence consultancy. What could be worse is the jobs and vital income lost in the sector: In Sierra Leone, for example, about 70% of the workforce is occupied in the broader agricultural sector.

Nigeria, which this year surpassed South Africa as the continent's largest economy, is better positioned to absorb the impact of the Ebola epidemic, which at this point appears confined to two cities, Lagos and Port Harcourt.

Still, Ebola is deterring those who help drive trade with Nigeria. A Nigerian customs official said revenue from import duties of used vehicles has declined drastically. Part of the reason is that increased surveillance for the disease at land borders—including quarantines for those with high fevers—has slowed trade and potential customers to a trickle, the official, who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media said.

And It isn't just cars. "Many of my customers from neighboring countries have stopped coming," said Yusuf Adamu, an electronics dealer in Nigeria. "When I try to reach out to them on the phone they complain of stringent Ebola screening measures."

Zambia's health ministry said Friday that it was reviewing travel regulations for people entering its borders from Congo, the latest country to be hit by Ebola. Since Aug. 25, Botswana's authorities have blocked the entry of more than 100 trucks carrying copper from Congo.

Traffic along the Rwanda-Congo border has dropped drastically, as travelers stay away due to long screening queues. According toFrançois Kahwerikula, a Congolese customs official at the Goma border crossing, known asGrande Barriere, daily collections have declined by 30% to 40% since Congo announced that it had confirmed the Ebola outbreak.

More than 10,000 people cross the Rwanda-Congo border every day for business, but a Congolese mineral dealer, Siraje Bigirimana, said he is booking a hotel room in Rwanda until the situation is safe. "It's very expensive to operate in such a situation," Mr. Bigirimana said.

Rwandan Health Minister Agness Binagahwo said that Kigali had deployed troops and civilian health workers to ensure that all people going through the borders are screened. All people with a fever of 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit) and above are being turned away at the busy cross points.

"No one passes without being screened," said Ms. Binagwaho said. "There is good coordination and everything is going in fine."