Red Alert: Ebola outbreak - Liberia shuts most border points [Could reach UK]

[Benjamin]

Most border crossings in Liberia have been closed and communities hit by an Ebola outbreak face quarantine to try to halt the spread of the virus.

Screening centres are also being set up at the few major entry points that will remain open, such as the main airport.

Meanwhile, Nigeria largest's airline, Arik Air, has suspended all flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone after a man with Ebola flew to Nigeria last week.

The virus has killed at least 660 people in West Africa since February.

The outbreak began in southern Guinea and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is the world's deadliest so far.

Nigeria has put all its entry points on red alert after confirming that a Liberian man died of Ebola after arriving at Lagos airport on Tuesday.
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/76571000/gif/_76571744_ebola_deaths_624_latest.gif

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/76571000/gif/_76571745_ebola_deaths_624_v4map.gif

Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

It spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.

Arik Air said it took the decision to halt flights as a precautionary measure and called for all inbound flights to Nigeria from Ebola-affected countries to be suspended.

"We feel especially compelled to take the business decision to immediately suspend flight services into the two Ebola affected countries due to our interest in the well-being of Nigerians," the airline, which operates routes across West Africa, said in a statement.
]In a statement on Sunday night, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said the special Ebola task force she was heading would ensure that "communities that are seriously affected will be quarantined and travels in and out of such communities restricted".

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in the capital, Monrovia, says her new orders include strict observation at the international airport of all outgoing and incoming passengers, who are now liable for inspection and testing.

All government facilities and public places are to install public access for washing of hands and all hotels, restaurants, and film centres are to play five-minute information clips on Ebola awareness and prevention.

Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the world's largest
Over the weekend prominent Liberian doctor Samuel Brisbane died after a three-week battle with the virus.

Two US aid workers are also being treated for Ebola in Liberia, including Dr Kent Brantly, who was the medical director at one of the country's two treatment centres run by the group the Samaritan's Purse.


Dr Ben Neuman tells 5 live: "There's a lot of panic"

The other American, Nancy Writebol, works for the Serving in Mission (SIM) as part of the same team.

"It's been a shock to everyone on our team to have two of our players get pounded with the disease," Ken Isaacs, from the Samaritan's Purse in the US, told the Associated Press news agency.

President Johnson Sirleaf urged people to co-operate with health workers and Ebola awareness campaigners.

Last month she warned that anyone caught hiding suspected Ebola patients would be prosecuted.

Experts say the disease creates fear within communities and sick people are often stigmatised.

Liberian Senator Peter Coleman, a doctor and former health minister, told the BBC authorities needed to approach religious leaders to spread the message about Ebola as "people don't seem to believe anything the government now says".



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-28522824

[Vanessa]

OMG! This is shocking! I hope they manage to contain it. :eek:

[Benjamin]

Watch this spread like wildfire now.

[arista]

http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/7/29/326226/default/v1/300714-daily-telegraph-1-329x437.jpg

its the africans touching their dead

http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/7/29/326240/default/v1/300714-daily-mirror-1-329x437.jpg
Ben its Red Alert - hit the deck



Top Ebola Doctor Falls Victim To Deadly Virus - that should not happen
http://news.sky.com/story/1310003/top-ebola-doctor-falls-victim-to-deadly-virus

[lostalex]

Outbreak staring Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo is one of my favorite movies ever. This disease is SCARY!

[arista]

Outbreak staring Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo is one of my favorite movies ever. This disease is SCARY!


Yes Great Film

http://aneeshchaganty.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/outbreak-poster.jpeg


Its bound to travel (Ebola)
with the person not knowing
until its to late.
Then hand shakes may have stop

[Benjamin]

The Ebola virus, which has killed more than 670 people in West Africa, poses a threat to the UK, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has told the BBC.

He said he would chair an emergency Cobra meeting on the issue later.

Mr Hammond said no Britons had been affected so far and there were no cases in the UK, but the government was viewing the outbreak very seriously.

Earlier this month Public Health England issued an alert to UK doctors to be aware of Ebola's symptoms.

Several West African airlines have now stopped flying to Liberia and Sierra Leone amid concerns about the spread of the disease to those countries from Guinea.

The move by airlines comes after an infected American man of Liberian descent was found to have flown from Liberia to Nigeria last week. He developed symptoms during the flight.

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At the scene
Medical workers
Tulip Mazumdar, Gueckadou, Guinea

This is the final resting place of the latest victim of Ebola: a four-month-old baby boy called Faya.

He caught the virus from his mother, who died a few weeks earlier. His is the 20th anonymous grave in this dark and lonely clearing.

"I was there with him just before he died," says Adele Millimouno, a Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) nurse recruited from a nearby village.

"I had been feeding him milk. I stepped away, just for a short break, but then I was called back and he was dead. I was totally devastated."

Ebola voices: Fighting the deadly virus in Guinea

Why Ebola is so dangerous

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'Managing risk'
Mr Hammond told BBC News the government was "absolutely focused" on tackling the threat posed by the Ebola virus, including looking at "whether there are precautions we need to take - either in the UK or to protect our nationals in the area abroad".

"At the moment we don't think any British nationals [abroad] are affected and we are fairly confident there are no cases in the UK," he said.

"But it is a threat, it is something we need to respond to and we will be doing so through the Cobra mechanism."

A Public Health England spokeswoman said the alert sent to UK doctors on 1 July had advised them to be aware of the symptoms of Ebola, especially in people who had recently returned from the region.

"Individuals who have sudden onset of symptoms such as fever, headache, sore throat and general malaise within 21 days of visiting affected areas should receive rapid medical attention, and be asked about potential risk factors and their recent travel," it said.

It also reminded doctors that there has never been an Ebola outbreak in Europe.

Issuing national medical alerts was a very common event, the spokeswoman added.

Neither the World Health Organization or the UK Foreign Office are recommending any travel restrictions to Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone.

Liberian money changer
People in affected areas have been advised to regularly clean their hands to combat the spread of Ebola
The Department of Health said a man had been tested for Ebola in Birmingham but tests for the virus had proved negative.

A spokeswoman said protecting the public from infectious diseases was a priority and the UK l"ead the world in this field".

"We are well-prepared to identify and deal with any potential cases of Ebola, though there has never been a case in this country," she said.

"Any patients with suspected symptoms can be diagnosed within 24 hours and they would also be isolated at a dedicated unit to keep the public safe. Our specialist staff are also working with the World Health Organisation to help tackle the outbreak in Africa."

Earlier, the government's chief scientific adviser Sir Mark Walport told the Daily Telegraph Ebola was a threat because of how "interconnected" the world was now.

Sir Mark said: "Emerging infectious disease is a global grand challenge. We were lucky with Sars. But we have to do the best horizon scanning."

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Analysis
By Helen Briggs, Health Editor, BBC News website

Doctors have been told to remain vigilant for possible cases of Ebola "imported" to the UK.

The medical director of Public Health England said it was "unlikely but not impossible" that travellers infected in West Africa could develop symptoms on their return. According to Dr Ben Neuman, a virologist at Reading University, the chance of the virus spreading in the UK was "very, very small".

He said border staff are already trained to deal with illnesses of this kind, and anyone showing signs of fever from an outbreak area would be stopped, quarantined and treated in containment facilities if the infection were confirmed.

He said the virus itself is "delicate and inefficient - you have to pick it up from bodily fluids". But he said it was sensible to be prepared, given the situation in West Africa.

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Early treatment
Elsewhere, Dr Brian McCloskey, director of global health at Public Health England, said the outbreak was "clearly not yet under control" in West Africa.

He added: "The risk to UK travellers and people working in [affected countries] of contracting Ebola is very low but we have alerted UK medical practitioners about the situation in West Africa and requested they remain vigilant for unexplained illness in those who have visited the affected area."

BBC global health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar said the West African outbreak had been going on for four months.

In that time local people had been looking after the sick and carrying out burials, which could actually help to spread the virus, she said.

Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

The outbreak - the world's deadliest to date - was first reported in Guinea in February. It then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28558783

[arista]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/07/30/article-2710285-202052F800000578-798_964x378.jpg

[Toy Soldier]

Outbreak staring Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo is one of my favorite movies ever. This disease is SCARY!

That wasn't Ebola, it was a fictional (and worse) virus than Ebola.

A global outbreak, or any large scale outbreak, of Ebola is all but impossible for two reasons.

1) Ebola is not airborne. To catch it, there needs to be direct bodily fluid contact with an infected person, e.g. blood or saliva. This is actually a major plot point of Outbreak. The **** hits the fan because the fictional virus mutates and becomes airborne.

2) Ebola isn't contagious in the incubation phase. Unlike many other viruses - like the various influenzas - someone with Ebola isn't contagious until they start showing signs of being infected. This makes containment much easier.


Basically, Ebola is scary because of the very high death rate once infected. But as diseases go, it's not particularly infectious... it doesn't spread easily or quickly.

[Kizzy]

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/

[lostalex]

That wasn't Ebola, it was a fictional (and worse) virus than Ebola.

A global outbreak, or any large scale outbreak, of Ebola is all but impossible for two reasons.

1) Ebola is not airborne. To catch it, there needs to be direct bodily fluid contact with an infected person, e.g. blood or saliva. This is actually a major plot point of Outbreak. The **** hits the fan because the fictional virus mutates and becomes airborne.

2) Ebola isn't contagious in the incubation phase. Unlike many other viruses - like the various influenzas - someone with Ebola isn't contagious until they start showing signs of being infected. This makes containment much easier.


Basically, Ebola is scary because of the very high death rate once infected. But as diseases go, it's not particularly infectious... it doesn't spread easily or quickly.

well aren't you just ruining our contagious disease FUN, jeez! what's next you wanna tell some kids that santa claus doesn't exist?

[Nedusa]

Maybe this virus will finally make the border control agencies finally wake up and start to take immigration seriously.

All air travellers from countries that have the infection should be monitored and anyone showing any flu symptoms must be quarantined for 3 weeks to stop this virus being spread.


.

[arista]

Maybe this virus will finally make the border control agencies finally wake up and start to take immigration seriously.

All air travellers from countries that have the infection should be monitored and anyone showing any flu symptoms must be quarantined for 3 weeks to stop this virus being spread.


.



The Problem is
are there any infected already in USA or UK?


"immigration seriously."
I could see more public escape from the infected nations
going by Boat to Italy or something like that.



[Ebola first appeared in 1976 in 2 simultaneous outbreaks,
in Nzara, Sudan, and in Yambuku, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The latter was in a village situated near the Ebola River, from which the disease takes its name. ]
From Kizzys link

[Kizzy]

http://news.sky.com/story/1311049/us-ebola-doctor-gives-serum-to-fellow-patient

[arista]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/08/02/article-2714272-2035795700000578-61_964x411.jpg
[Just two beds: There is only one operational
High Secure Infectious Diseases Unit (HSIDU) in the UK,
at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
It has an array of equipment to ensure
the patient did not pass on the killer virus]


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2714272/UKs-two-bed-ebola-unit-MP-calls-fever-scans-UK-airports-just-one-isolation-facility.html

[Marc]

D:

Save our celebrities

[arista]

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

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ebola-terror-gatwick-passenger-collapses-3977051#ixzz39MrePFVC

[arista]

http://media.skynews.com/media/images/generated/2014/8/3/327126/default/v1/mirror-1-329x437.jpg


Panic Over


The Gatwick dead women was tested negative on ebola

[Nick.]

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2014/07July/Pages/Ebola-threat-to-the-UK-is-very-low.aspx

[Samm]

I avoid Swine flu so hopefully if this does happen over here, I will not get it

[Ross.]

Omg D:

[Marsh.]

That's my trip to Africa OFF. :laugh:

[lostalex]

That's my trip to Africa OFF. :laugh:
LOL, the giraffes will miss you bro!

[T*]

*moves to antartica*

[MB.]

*moves to antartica*

:suspect:

And ew nobody give me Ebola pls thanks

[lostalex]

am i sick for really wanting this to happen?

[T*]

yes.

[Marsh.]

LOL, the giraffes will miss you bro!

:sad:

am i sick for really wanting this to happen?

Are you craving some form of excitement? :laugh:

[arista]

What is Tragic about Ebola
is there nothing that can stop it
and No Company is investing to find a cure
due to what they see as low numbers.



Of Course if Ebola Mutates
then mega panic

[Marsh.]

Just burn them. It worked for foot and mouth.

[arista]

Just burn them. It worked for foot and mouth.

In Africa its a mess.



There is One USA Doctor , infected, in America now
and another on its way.

[Kizzy]

Just burn them. It worked for foot and mouth.

Burn humans... alive?

[Samm]

No joke Saph said she though someone had it on her cruise she got ill and though she was dying

[Jordan.]

she's still ill, hope she'll be okay :worry:

[Marsh.]

Burn humans... alive?

Yes. :suspect:

You're making it sound bad. :nono:

[Kizzy]

What happen to you man?... You used to be cool.

[Marsh.]

What happen to you man?... You used to be cool.

I'm a fully trained medical expert.

[Kizzy]

I'm a fully trained medical expert.

I thought you were an artist?... ;)

[billy123]

am i sick for really wanting this to happen?Yes you are a poorly individual.

[Marsh.]

I thought you were an artist?... ;)

I paint with blood. :smug:

[Kizzy]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/fda-lifts-hold-on-experimental-ebola-drug-tekmira/

'The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has eased safety restrictions on an experimental drug to treat Ebola, a move that could clear the way for its use in patients infected with the deadly virus.

Canadian drugmaker Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. said the FDA modified a hold recently placed on the company's drug after safety issues emerged in human testing.

The company has a $140 million contract with the U.S. government to develop its drug, TKM-Ebola, which targets the genetic material of Ebola. But last month the FDA halted a small study of the injection in adults to request additional safety information.'