Ebola in Berlin

[Figaro]

Job Centre closed for quarantine because of the threat of Ebola
Around 600 people are quarantined inside a Job Centre in Pankow after a 30-year-old West African had been taken to Berlin's Virchow hospital after showing symptoms of Ebola.
The woman had collapsed and emergency medical services were called. According to the Berliner Zeitung, she said she had had contact with victims of the deadly disease in her homeland.
Yep, hope the virus will not able to outbreak in Europe, otherwise...

 

[SteadyMercury]

All the fear-mongering sites leave part out:

600 quarantined in Berlin Ebola scare - The Local

She was immediately taken for testing at Berlin's Virchow hospital. Doctors later said that Ebola was no longer suspected and that the woman was probably suffering from an intestinal infection, the Berliner Zeitung reported.

 

[saveliberty]

Three weeks quarantine for everyone exiting Africa would be very helpful.

 

[SteadyMercury]

So a businessman who wants to travel from Capetown South Africa, over 3,000 miles away from the nearest case of Ebola, should have to wait three weeks?

That is absurd.

 

[waltky]

Trying to prevent a global pandemic...

Ebola co-discoverer: 'Perfect storm' fueling outbreak
Sept.`11 ~ 'Only way to control is through rapid response on massive scale'
The current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is a “perfect storm” that requires a massive and immediate international response to prevent it from developing into a global pandemic, warns Dr. Peter Piot, the co-discoverer of the Ebola virus. “There are now five affected West African countries: Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and most recently, Senegal,” Piot warns in an editorial published in Science magazine. Piot is director and professor of Global Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He argues the outbreak is the result of dysfunctional health services hampered by decades of war, low public trust in government and Western medicine, traditional beliefs, denials of the existence of the virus and burial practices that include contact with Ebola-infected corpses. He expresses alarm at the rapid rate at which the Ebola virus is advancing within the affected West African countries, with the threat the virus could expand globally. “Ebola has killed around 2,000 and infected more than 3,500 with over 40 percent of cases occurring within the past few weeks. The World Health Organization predicts that 20,000 may become infected. This fast pace of Ebola’s spread is a grim reminder that epidemics are on a global level and the only way to get this virus under control is through a rapid response at a massive global scale – much stronger than current efforts.”

Piot is critical of the current international response, and he charges that West African governments and the international community “have been slow to act in a way commensurate to a major threat to health, economies, and societal stability.” He points out it took nearly four months after the first patient died in December 2013 before the outbreak was confirmed as being caused by the Ebola virus. WHO and concerned governments waited until August before declaring the epidemic a public health emergency, despite multiple calls by Médecins Sans Frontières, or Doctors Without Borders. “Finally, national organizations, including WHO, the United Nations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and MSF are intensifying their efforts, hopefully in a coordinated manner, with WHO releasing a roadmap to contain Ebola within 9 months,” he writes.

The immediate needs are enormous, Piot stresses. “International assistance to the growing local efforts must include support for disease-control activities such as the provision of protective equipment, patient care, and addressing the health nutritional, and other needs of populations in quarantine,” he says. “This must be done while dealing with other epidemic health challenges: Uninfected people are dying from treatable diseases because of closed or abandoned health facilities, the cancellation of international flights to the infected countries is creating an obstacle to international support, and there are growing concerns about sending medical help without a plan of treatment for these workers (around 150 doctors and nurses have died of Ebola, and 240 medical staff are infected).”

MORE[/quote]

See also:

EXCLUSIVE: Ebola Survivor Kent Brantly Donates Blood to Treat Rick Sacra
Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly donated a unit of blood to treat the third American aid worker infected with the virus as doctors fight to save the patient’s life, Samaritan’s Purse tells NBC News.

Brantly flew to Nebraska last week to donate his blood to use to treat Dr. Rick Sacra, Samaritan's Purse President and CEO Franklin Graham said. "He flew out from North Carolina to Nebraska to give a unit of blood," Graham said in an interview with NBC News. "His blood was a perfect match." Sacra, a volunteer who was working in Liberia for another group, SIM, is being treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. "It really meant a lot to us that he was willing to give that donation so soon after his own recovery," Sacra's wife, Debbie Sacra, told a news conference. She spoke to Brantly's wife, Amber. "We both marveled at the fact that they had the same blood type."

Sacra also has received an experimental drug, but his doctors say they have been asked not to say which drug. Using serum from the survivor of a disease is not a new approach, but it's considered highly experimental. Last week the World Health Organization endorsed the approach, saying it was worth trying. The idea is that survivors have antibodies to the virus in their blood, and those antibodies can kick-start the immune system of another patient.

Graham thinks it helped. "Dr. Brantly said that when he saw him last week he was in pretty bad shape," Graham said. "It sounds like he has made a dramatic turn." Sacra was reported up and joking as he underwent treatment at Nebraska's special biocontainment unit. "His progress has been remarkable," Dr. Angela Hewlett, who is treating Sacra, told a news conference. Brantly and fellow missionary Nancy Writebol were treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. They both got an experiment therapy based on engineered antibodies called ZMapp, and Brantly also got a unit of blood from an Ebola survivor. "Dr. Brantly is now immune to that strain of Ebola," Graham said.

Doctor say they'll never know what precisely led to their recovery, but they say the specialized care given in a modern U.S. hospital has to have been a major factor. They say Ebola patients lose not only fluids through near constant diarrhea and vomiting, but they also lose important minerals such as potassium and magnesium that are key for healthy organ function -- especially the heart. Graham said Brantly made the flight to and from Omaha on a Samaritan's Purse plane. "He wanted to keep it quiet because he doesn't want anyone to believe he is a hero," Graham said. “I would be willing to do anything I could to help my friend," Brantly said through a Samaritan's Purse spokesman.

EXCLUSIVE Ebola Survivor Kent Brantly Donates Blood to Treat Rick Sacra - NBC News

 

[Rotagilla]

ebola is racist. It chooses to kill more blacks than whites..