eveningstandard--2019-07-30--Ebola crisis Officials confirm second case in DR Congo border city of Goma

Ebola crisis: Officials confirm second case in DR Congo border city of Goma

Officials in DR Congo say a second Ebola case has been confirmed in the border city of Goma, raising fears that it could spread.  The city of more than 2 million people, which sits on Congo's border with Rwanda, had its first confirmed case of the disease in this year-long outbreak reported earlier this month.  Local Ebola response co-ordinator Jean-Jacques Muyembe told reporters that there appeared to be no link between the man's case and the previous one in Goma.  The patient arrived on July 13 from a mining area in northeastern Congo's Ituri province and started showing symptoms on July 22.  He is now isolated at an Ebola treatment centre.  Ebola is affecting two provinces of Congo - North Kivu and Ituri.  Goma is the capital of North Kivu and lies just across the border from the Rwandan city of Gisenyi. It also has an international airport.  For months health officials had feared that an Ebola case would be confirmed there.  Days after the first Goma case was announced, the World Health Organisation declared the Ebola outbreak a rare global emergency.  This has become the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 1,700 people killed since August 2018, despite the widespread use of an experimental but effective Ebola vaccine.  Containing the outbreak faces unprecedented challenges amid attacks by rebel groups and resistance by wary community residents in a region of Congo that had never experienced an Ebola outbreak before.  Mr Muyembe and other officials have sought to reassure both Goma residents and neighbouring countries that measures were being taken to strengthen surveillance for Ebola at border posts and elsewhere.  The declaration of a global health emergency - the fifth in history - brought a surge of millions of dollars in new pledges by international donors but some health workers say a new approach is needed to combat misunderstandings in the community.  Far too many people in this outbreak are still dying at home, they say.


fortune--2019-02-04--DR Congos Ebola Virus Outbreak Is Six Months Old and Spreading Heres Why

DR Congo’s Ebola Virus Outbreak Is Six Months Old and Spreading. Here’s Why

The ongoing outbreak of the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo was declared six months ago, and it remains one of the most challenging public health crises in the world right now.  Ebola, which is named for the river in the DR Congo where it was first observed in 1976, is an infectious virus spread through contact with bodily fluid. The current Ebola epidemic is the 10th ever in the Congo and the worst the country has ever experienced. This Ebola outbreak is also the second worst in world history, following the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people.  More than 460 deaths have been reported in the current outbreak, and there are more than 700 reported cases confirmed so far, which puts the mortality rate well over 50%. In December, the outbreak reached Butembo, a city of over a million near the Ugandan border, and it is currently headed toward Goma, another major million-resident city that shares a busy border with Rwanda.  While use of an experimental vaccine has made some health workers optimistic about treating this outbreak, one reason the epidemic continues is misinformation that spreads among Congolese citizens wary of outsiders, according to the Associated Press. Another reason? Armed militias that target Congolese civilians and foreign aid workers make it difficult, if not impossible, for response teams to reach and work in the nation’s most rural areas, a serious issue since the beginning of this current outbreak.  Working to combat misinformation and make patients comfortable is a topic about which health officials continue to work to inform the public. In an impassioned op-ed in the New York Times in January, Doctors Without Borders field director Karin Huster wrote that treatments only work if people are unafraid to seek them out and trust public health professionals. “While promising vaccines and experimental treatments are rapidly being added to our arsenal, this technology is not a panacea,” Huster wrote, explaining that one strategy in combatting the ongoing epidemic is decidedly low-tech: relying on Ebola survivors to spend time with Ebola patients. Doctors and nurses suited up in protective gear simply seem less reassuring, and encouraging personalized contact with fellow community members is one way triage teams can build trust with patients.


france24--2019-07-30--Second Ebola case detected in DR Congos Goma

Second Ebola case detected in DR Congo's Goma

Olivia Acland, REUTERS | A Congolese health worker administers an Ebola vaccine to a man at the Himbi Health Centre in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, on July 17, 2019.  A second case of Ebola was detected on Tuesday in the eastern Congolese city of Goma, a local health official said, increasing concern the virus could establish a foothold in the densely populated area close to the Rwandan border.  Goma's first Ebola case was detected in mid-July, prompting the World Health Organisation (WHO) to warn that the spread of the disease could accelerate. The epidemic has killed more than 1,700 people since it was declared almost a year ago, becoming the second-worst outbreak on record.  The latest person with the disease started developing symptoms on July 22, after arriving from a mining area outside the city, the health official quoted the head of Congo's Ebola response team, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, as saying in an official statement.  Health officials believe the patient, a man, is not connected to the first case in Goma.  "The response teams continue to work to decontaminate the home of the case and the high-risk contacts of the case have been identified and will be vaccinated from tomorrow," Muyembe said.  He said, unlike the first case, the latest patient will be able to receive appropriate treatment in Goma as a facility has been opened in the city, which is more than 350 kilometres (220 miles) south of where the outbreak was first detected.  Goma has been preparing for Ebola to arrive in the city for a year, setting up hand-washing stations and making sure moto-taxi drivers do not share helmets.


france24--2019-08-13--Two new drugs offer hope against Ebola in DR Congo

Two experimental Ebola drugs being tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a yearlong outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people, have succeeded in raising the survival rate to around 90%, health authorities said Monday.  Scientists are a step closer to finding the first effective treatments for the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever after two potential drugs showed survival rate of as much as 90% in a clinical trial in Congo.  Two experimental drugs - Regeneron’s REGN-EB3 and a monoclonal antibody called mAb114 - were both developed using antibodies harvested from survivors of Ebola infection.  The treatments are now going to be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  They showed “clearly better” results in patients in a trial of four potential treatments being conducted during the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak in history, now entering its second year in DRC.  The drugs improved survival rates from the disease more than two other treatments being tested - ZMapp, made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, and Remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences - and those products will be now dropped, said Anthony Fauci, one of the researchers co-leading the trial.  The agency said 49% of the patients on ZMapp and 53% on remdesivir died in the study. In comparison, 29% of the patients on REGN-EB3 and 34% on mAb-114 died.  Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters in a telebriefing the results were “very good news” for the fight against Ebola.  “What this means is that we do now have what look like (two) treatments for a disease for which not long ago we really had no approach at all,” he said.  The agency said of the patients who were brought into treatment centres with low levels of virus detected in their blood, 94% who got REGN-EB3 and 89% on mAb114 survived.  In comparison, two-third of the patients who got remdesivir and nearly three-fourth on ZMapp survived.  Ebola has been spreading in eastern Congo since August 2018 in an outbreak that has now become the second largest, killing at least 1,800 people. Efforts to control it have been hampered by militia violence and some local resistance to outside help.  A vast Ebola outbreak in West Africa become the world’s largest ever when it spread through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2013 to 2016 and killed more than 11,300 people.  The Congo treatment trial, which began in November last year, is being carried out by an international research group coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).  Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies program, said the trial’s positive findings were encouraging but would not be enough on their own to bring the epidemic to an end.  “The news today is fantastic. It gives us a new tool in our toolbox against Ebola, but it will not in itself stop Ebola,” he told reporters.  Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, also hailed the success of the trial’s findings, saying they would “undoubtedly save lives”.  “The more we learn about these two treatments, ...the closer we can get to turning Ebola from a terrifying disease to one that is preventable and treatable,” he said in a statement.  “We won’t ever get rid of Ebola but we should be able to stop these outbreaks from turning into major national and regional epidemics.”  Some 681 patients at four separate treatment centres in Congo have already been enrolled in the Congo treatment clinical trial, Fauci said. The study aims to enrol a total of 725.  The decision to drop two of the trial drugs was based on data from almost 500 patients, he said, which showed that those who got REGN-EB3 or mAb114 “had a greater chance of survival compared to those participants in the other two arms”.


globalresearch--2019-05-07--The Current Ebola Epidemic in Eastern Congo Humanitarian Crisis

The Current Ebola Epidemic in Eastern Congo. Humanitarian Crisis

With over a billion dollars pledged so far to rebuild Notre Dame de Paris, another monument to what Western civilization has accomplished enacts a daily tragedy before the forests and villagers trying to stay alive in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.  Still ignored in the Euro-American press is a current Ebola epidemic in particularly Kivu province 1 : the second largest outbreak of Ebola on record and the first where medical care givers are being attacked.  Previously Ebola was difficult to contain without quarantine and research into the ill person’s contacts. Currently the disease is being attacked by large scale vaccination programs relying on U.S. pharmaceuticals. But the vaccination and treatment programs are disrupted in Eastern Congo due to multiple conflicts forcing a hundred thousand people this April alone, into flight, some taking refuge across borders with other countries.  While not declared a global emergency by the UN World Health Organization, the potential is there. A report by the High Commissioner for Refugees notes its work in the RDC is hampered by lack of funding with 47 million USD allocated but only 6.2 million USD received in contributions. 2  Rececently Dr. Richard Valery Mouzoko Kiboung, head of the Ebola team in Butembo, a Camerounais working for WHO, was attacked and killed at a medical conference; two of his staff were wounded. The killers’ motivation is unknown. Some local groups say that Ebola doesn’t exist and its threat is used as a means of control, or money raising. 3  Others say Ebola was brought to the region by white people. Marburg disease which is a kind of hemorrhagic fever much like Ebola and 88% fatal first appeared in 1967 in a laboratory in Marburg Germany, and like Ebola is considered a biological warfare agent (a note).  The Ebola virus (Zaire ebolavirus) first identified in Zaire in 2010 may be a strain of the Marburg virus. The area where Ebola is proliferating has been contested with arms for several decades due to its natural resources sought by Rwandan, Euro-American and Asian markets. Buyers of desired metals are often forced to buy from the militias which control various mines or access to mines even when these are registered with the government. The DRC government army does not control the region. Regional militias represent breakaway units of the government’s army, Rwandan forces, Hutu refugee forces, Tutsi Congolese among other distinct Congolese tribes. The United Nations has peacekeeping troops committed to the region which regularly take casualties.  The recent murder of Dr. Mouzoko is one of 119 attacks so far this year on medical personnel attempting to counter the epidemic, most often under the auspices of the World Health Organization. In researching the causes of the murders press accounts are not helpful. Eleven men were recently arrested in response to the killing of Dr. Mouzoko, but no mention of their motives or allegiances is given. Logic suggests the killers of medical personnel serve the interests of the Ebola epidemic itself, causing panic flight and spread of the disease which could cause widespread death. 33 medical workers have died from contracting the disease.  There is some chance that medical personnel are being killed tactically in a biological war effort to depopulate the region of its inhabitants. But that would be an extreme tactic to accomplish more quickly what continues under corrupt policies the government and corporation boards have furthered for years. While depopulation would deprive mining enterprises of local workers it would favor technologically advanced companies using modern mining equipment. International corporations in the area (whether they are mining with license from the government or without), are involved in acts of plunder, taking what belongs to the region’s people without bettering their lives. It is a monstrous ongoing crime dating in the Congo back to the days of King Leopold.  Over a thousand verified Ebola deaths have been counted so far. Massive vaccination by a Merck produced drug are apparently effective. WHO is expecting new pharmaceuticals from Johnson & Johnson which await federal approval. 4 There is no suggestion in the press that U.S. corporate vaccine products are supplied at cost.  The UN’s emergency management plan for the epidemic is operational but requires 71.5 million USD. 5  Questioning a Euro-American media which has proven so faithful to the state in its propaganda against Venezuela, is not likely to provide answers. Media silence on Eastern Congo supports fears of illegal operations waged to the interests of major western corporations. Aside from pharmaceutical companies, according to Global Witness in 2009, the principle corporate buyers of minerals in the region were: “Bangkok-based THAISARCO (a subsidiary of British metals group AMC), UK-based Afrimex, and Belgium-based Trademet” (“Global Witness uncovers foreign companies’ links to Congo violence,” July 21, 2009). 6  Since informative reports in 2008 and 2009 by Keith Harmon Snow 7, Global Witness 8 and Roger Miller 9, updated reports of corporate involvement are not easily available.  The current political situation in the Congo doesn’t offer much hope of the government addressing the emergency. While Kabila promised to step down and hold elections which he did after some delay, the power of the country may have remained his. An article by Kambale Musavuli of Friends of the Congo reports that former President Kabila’s party won 342 of the Parliament’s 500 seats in the election, and controls 22 of the 26 provinces, 91 of 108 senate seats with a similar percentage of governors; the Congo’s “elected” president Félix Tshisekedi, is considered installed as a Kabila compliant president while the Catholic Church Observer Mission found that Martin Fayulu won the election. 10  In sum the change in Presidency isn’t likely to change the policies of the state as allied with corporate needs, which have allowed the conflicts and mining practices in the East Congo for many years.11. An ongoing genocide warning for the peoples of the Eastern Congo continues. Background. 12   13. Night’s Lantern first noted a genocide warning for peoples of the Eastern Congo, among others affected by resource theft in 2004, followed by others.  Note to readers: please click the share buttons below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.  This article was originally published on nightslantern.ca.  1 “Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of the Congo: Disease outbreak news. Update,” WHO, May 2, 2019, World Health Organization.  3 “The Doctor Killed In Friday’s Ebola Attack Was Dedicated — But Also Afraid,” Nurith Aizenman, April 23, 2019, npr: Goats and Soda.  4 “Congo Ebola deaths surpass 1,000 as attacks on treatment centers go on,” May 3, 2019, Health News.  5 “RD Congo – Sud-Kivu et Maniema : Plan Opérationnel d’Urgence (Janvier – Juin 2019),” UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, April 10, 2019, reliefweb.  6 “Faced with a Gun What Can You Do? War and the Militarisation of Mining in Eastern Congo,” Global Witness 2009; “Global Witness uncovers foreign companies’ links to Congo violence,” Press release, July 21, 2009, Global Witness.  9 “How British Corporations are Fuelling War in the Congo,” Robert Miller, Nov. 10, 2009, www.zcommunications.org/.  11 “Crisis in the Congo: uncovering the truth,” Friends of the Congo. Jan 19, 2011, [access:< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLV9szEu9Ag >.  12 “Civil War in The Congo: Template for Neo-Colonialism,” J.B.Gerald, Dec. 4, 2012, Global Research.  13 “North Kivu: the background to conflict in North Kivu Province of Eastern congo,” Jacob Stearns, U.K.: Rift Valley Institute, 2012.


jerusalempost--2019-11-22--WHO sounds alarm on Ebola due to Congo insecurity

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jerusalempost--2019-12-20--US FDA approves Ebola vaccine for the first time

The vaccine was used by the World Health Organization and Democratic Republic of the Congo as an investigational vaccine to help reduce Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreaks in few West African countries from 2014 to 2016.  The Ebola virus, which causes haemorrhagic fever and spreads from person to person through direct contact with body fluids, has killed more than 2,100 people in Congo since the middle of the year, making it the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history.  The vaccine, which is administered as a single-dose injection, will help to prevent EVD caused by Zaire ebolavirus in patients aged 18 years and older, the regulator said in a statement.  Merck welcomed the FDA's decision, describing it as an important milestone in the fight against the deadly virus.


lewrockwell--2019-07-23--Ebola Declared an International Emergency

If you haven’t heard by now, the World Health Organization has declared the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo an international emergency. Despite this, experts STILL recommend keeping the borders open to the DRC.  After 3 previous meetings in which WHO was reluctant to provide this designation to the crisis, the tipping point was a case of Ebola in Goma, a city of over one million people that is right on the border of Rwanda. Goma is a major transport hub, and as such, should Ebola take a foothold there, it’s entirely likely we could see it spread to the furthest corners of the earth.  Here’s how some of the far-flung cases have spread.  The patient in the case in Goma was a pastor, and he has passed away from the disease. Having died (and been contagious) in such a densely populated urban area, there are fears that others may have contracted the disease from him.  Alton’s Antibiot... Joseph Alton MD, Amy A... Best Price: $51.20 Buy New $25.21 (as of 04:41 EDT - Details) The people who traveled on the bus with the ailing pastor were all identified and given an experimental vaccine (which thus far has been very effective.) Then, according to the Health Ministry, workers followed up with the pastor’s contacts off the bus, as well as the contacts of his fellow passengers.  In another case, the disease appeared in Uganda. A Congolese woman traveled to Uganda to purchase fish on July 11. She went back to DRC, where she perished of Ebola on July 15.  Despite this, the WHO is still not clamping down on border security.  Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, still wants surrounding countries to keep their borders open to DRC.  So why did they even call an international emergency?  Experts hope that declaring an international health emergency will bring more attention to the outbreak which, up to now, has largely been ignored by the global community. The UK and United States governments have been generous – the UK has given £37.7m and has pledged a further £50m – but international development secretary Rory Stewart earlier this week urged “dear friends” in the G7 group of richest nations to step up and do more. The WHO has less than half the $98.4m it required for the period February to July, receiving just $43.6m. Dr. Tedros said that the organisation was finalising its budget for tackling the outbreak beyond this month which would probably run into hundreds of millions of dollars. (source)  They’re going to need more than money to contain this outbreak. It’s occurring in the midst of a violent war and healthcare workers are dealing with people who are afraid of them. Locals don’t trust the influx of foreign doctors and nurses and are suspicious of their treatments.  Here’s why we don’t need to worry…YET.  When I say we don’t need to worry yet, please keep in mind that this could change in the course of one day. I’m sure you remember the frenzy back in 2014 when Thomas Duncan of Liberia was diagnosed with Ebola in Texas.  That whole situation was a horrifying comedy of errors – if you like your comedy dark and threatening anyway.  If you recall, the fact that it didn’t become widespread in the US during the 2014 scare was NOT because it was handled properly.  It was sheer luck. source  When American Patient Zero, Thomas Duncan, first showed up in a Texas emergency room, he wasn’t tested, despite the fact that he told them he was from Ebola-stricken Liberia.  Proper practices were not followed, and one of the nurses who cared for him became the second victim. All sorts of near misses occurred, like the fact that the plane that carried an Ebola patient made FIVE trips before it was sanitized.  That sounds like the plot of a cringe-y movie, where you watch the sneeze spray of an infected person in slow motion landing on everyone nearby. But that wasn’t the only mind-boggling thing that happened.  But that wasn’t the only mind-boggling thing that happened. We brought some exposed people back to the US and put them in hotels.  A couple of days ago an American healthcare worker who had been definitively diagnosed with Ebola was brought back to the US for treatment at the National Institute of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.  Eleven more patients have been isolated and are on their way to the United States as well, after having had  “potential exposure” to the disease. Now, about those people who were “potentially exposed”? They aren’t being hospitalized. Oh no.  They are being brought back to stay at hotels “near” three different hospitals in different regions of the country. I couldn’t make this up if I tried. (source)  So, I think we can all agree, looking to the National Institute of Health, the CDC, and the WHO to keep us “safe” is not the best fall-back plan. We have to be prepared to take action ourselves.  But you still need to pay attention.  While we don’t need to panic, there are many reasons we definitely need to pay attention and perhaps begin to lay in some supplies just in case we have an outbreak in the United States. Knowledge is power, so also pick up this incredibly well-written book about preparing for pandemics. Be Ready for Anything:... Daisy Luther Best Price: $11.75 Buy New $9.49 (as of 11:10 EDT - Details)  The most effective method for protecting yourself and your family in the case of Ebola is to go into lockdown – also known as social isolation. I have a chapter about surviving pandemics in my newest book, Be Ready for Anything. The last time Ebola was a threat, I provided a list that readers complained was perpetually sold out. I updated that list day and night with products that were in stock. The point is, don’t wait until it’s already here and everybody else is panicking before you go and get your supplies.  Is Ebola going to make it back to the US?  In DRC, Ebola has a death rate of 2/3.  Not great odds. It’s likely that if it struck the US the death rate wouldn’t be quite as bad, but hemorrhagic diseases like this are deadly in many, many cases.  Will it reach our shores again? It’s certainly not a long shot, what with global travel and asylum seekers from all over the world at our Southern border.  But without a crystal ball, any projection I make is just a guess. What you should know is that it’s possible, it’s probably more likely than being wiped out by a giant meteor, and you should prepare for it. Just in case.  Reprinted with permission from The Organic Prepper.  The Best of Daisy Luther


motherjones--2019-06-25--As Ebola Deaths Mount in Africa Trump Is Screwing Up the Response

As Ebola Deaths Mount in Africa, Trump Is Screwing Up the Response

Near-war with Iran, children being held at the US-Mexico border in horrific conditions, a credible rape accusation levied at Donald Trump—the news has been overwhelming in recent days. But there is another nightmare brewing that has been largely overlooked yet deserves serious attention and fast action: Ebola. The killer disease is again on the rampage in Africa. The number of confirmed Ebola deaths over the past 10 months in the eastern region of Congo has topped 1,500, and the outbreak has spread into Uganda, which earlier this month reported the country’s first Ebola deaths of this epidemic. This is a far cry from the 11,300 deaths that occurred in 2014 and 2015, but the current eruption is the second-worst flare-up, and it’s heading from rural areas toward a major city and refugee camps. So what is President Donald Trump doing about this? Not much. And that’s especially unfortunate because there are several obvious actions his administration could mount to arrest this epidemic before the ongoing tragedy becomes a catastrophe.  Trump and his national security adviser, John Bolton, a year ago signaled they didn’t consider epidemics a national security priority when they bounced Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer from his post as head of global health security on the White House’s National Security Council and eliminated the position. This news was announced one day after the World Health Organization declared an Ebola outbreak in Congo. The well-regarded Ziemer moved over to the US Agency for International Development, becoming an assistant administrator overseeing humanitarian assistance, but as Ronald Klain, the Ebola czar for President Barack Obama during the 2014-15 episode, notes, it is essential that a senior official in the Trump administration with full White House authority coordinate the various agencies involved—the State Department, USAID, the Centers for Disease Control, the Pentagon, and others—to have an effective response. Now no one holds such a position.  Three months ago, Klain wrote an op-ed lamenting that “most Americans seem unaware or unconcerned” about the second-worst outbreak of Ebola. Klain is a veteran of Democratic administrations and no fan of Trump—who in 2014 complained that Obama was spending more time on climate change than Ebola and demanded that the US government block Ebola-infected health workers from entering the United States—but Klain acknowledged “that much of [the Trump administration’s] Ebola response so far has been responsible.” At that point, key US officials had visited the region, and the administration had contributed millions of dollars to the response and announced it would be sending a team of experts to Congo, although only to a location 200 miles from the center of the epidemic. Now Klain tells Mother Jones he believes that Trump is no longer responding responsibly and that the president is not doing what is necessary to battle this Ebola outburst.  Klain maintains that the Trump White House ought to reverse its decision prohibiting the CDC and USAID from operating in the area of Congo where the disease is raging: “We have people in Congo—not many—but even those people have been banned from being on the front lines. It’s not without some rationale; it’s dangerous: armed groups roam, and the risk of kidnapping is real.” In fact, in the city of Beni, a group of people days ago attacked an Ebola response team that was trying to safely dispose of the bodies of two Ebola victims. But Klain points out that since the 2017 ambush in Niger that killed four American soldiers, “the basic Trump administration rule has been zero risk to US personnel. Hence, the very best disease responders in the world (US CDC personnel) and the very best development assistance teams (USAID Disaster Assistance Response Teams) are in Congo but not near where they are needed. These people want to go into the danger zone, but they are being stopped by a White House decision.”  Then there is the question of money. Last week, the World Health Organization said that it needs $98 million to support its counter-Ebola efforts in Congo. And it only has $44 million for the mission. “The funding shortfall is immediate and critical: if the funds are not received, WHO will be unable to sustain the response at the current scale,” the group stated, noting, “The response risks being driven by decisions related to financial capacity rather than operational needs.” Meanwhile, health workers in Uganda are saying they are ill-equipped to handle a spread of the epidemic to their country. The Associated Press recently described a grim scene in Bwera, Uganda, which is on the border of Congo: “The isolation ward for Ebola patients is a tent erected in the garden of the local hospital. Gloves are given out sparingly to health workers. And when the second person in this Uganda border town died after the virus outbreak spread from neighboring Congo, the hospital for several hours couldn’t find a vehicle to take away the body. ‘We don’t really have an isolation ward,’ the Bwera Hospital’s administrator, Pedson Buthalha, told The Associated Press. ‘It’s just a tent. To be honest, we can’t accommodate more than five people.’”  If the Trump administration is not going to allow American response teams into the hot-spot areas, it could send more money and supplies to the WHO and other responders. Hell, if Trump is worth as much as he claims, he could cut a check himself to cover the WHO’s current need. (Trump’s golf trips have cost the American taxpayer more than $100 million—about twice what the WHO requires—in security and travel and security expenses.)  Another money issue hangs over the Ebola outbreak. Due to political tumult and corruption in Congo, the United States has frozen most of its $200 million or so in foreign assistance for the country. This is understandable, Klain notes. But he points out: “The problem the Ebola responders are facing is community resistance to the response: People don’t believe Ebola is real, they think it’s a government conspiracy, it’s not their No. 1 health concern. Every expert says that what you should do is build health clinics to treat all sorts of ailments and win community support. That helps facilitate the Ebola response. But the administration has banned the release of assistance to build these clinics because they are not—directly—emergency response. This needs to change.”  As alarming as this new outbreak is, the situation could quickly turn much more dangerous. To date, this volley of Ebola has struck rural areas. But it is slowly edging toward the city of Goma, with a population of 1 million. And Goma is close to massive refugee camps in South Sudan. If it reaches these locations, Klain remarks, “we are screwed. We had 300,000 vaccine doses when this started. We’ve used 120,000. That will help as long as the disease remains rural. But if it hits a city of 1 million?” The solution: Have vaccines ready. An experimental vaccine issued last year has been found to be 97.5 percent effective, according to data released by WHO. As of April, this vaccine had been given to over 90,000 people, including nearly 30,000 health care workers and other responders—and only 71 developed Ebola. It’s manufactured by Merck & Co. “So what should be done?” Klain asks. “Merck is not going to make 1 million doses if they don’t know that there is a buyer. So the US government should place an order for 1 million doses, and pay for them, and put them in storage. If they are needed in Congo/Uganda/Sudan, we ‘sell’ them to the global vaccine alliance (which gives the shots in Congo). But if we don’t send (what the pros call) the ‘demand signal,’ the vaccine doesn’t get made—and certainly not in time.”  With the advent of the vaccine, Ebola may seem a less frightening disease to people distant from the outbreak. And this latest epidemic has still not captured Americans’ notice like the previous one did—as today’s attention spans are overwhelmed by the crises, chaos, absurdities, and tweets of the Trump era. But there is a calamity under way in Africa. Hundreds have perished in agony. More deaths will come. And the threat could widen. What makes this story all the sadder is that simple actions Trump and his administration could implement to prevent more and much greater harm are going untaken.


naturalnews--2019-05-05--Congo Ebola outbreak exploding right on schedule hospital workers flee

Congo Ebola outbreak exploding, right on schedule... hospital workers flee

(Natural News) Ebola is overtaking the Democratic Republic of Congo, a nation that is also currently being ravaged by war and unrest. Some 100 militias control the area around Butembo, a city in the nation’s eastern region. Butembo is the epicenter of Congo’s Ebola outbreak, but it is also home to other dangers — especially for healthcare workers. As Economist notes, locals are known for being wary of health workers and distrusting them. Locals have even gone so far as to attack and kill medical staff. But perhaps there is a reason for that.  Ebola has been presented to us as a disease, but many experts have cautioned that this “virus” could actually be a weapon. There have already been reports of terrorist organizations attempting to use Ebola as a weapon — it is not hard to believe the United States government conspired to do the same.  Some experts have spoken out about the U.S. government’s secret “biological warfare research” in African countries that also just so happen to be Ebola hot spots, with some even suggesting that our own military is testing weaponized viruses on innocent people. While such theories are often lambasted as “conspiracy theories,” it isn’t really that hard to believe. The U.S. government has been testing biowarfare weapons on American citizens for decades — surely they have no qualms about doing it to anyone else.  If you follow the mainstream media, you’ve probably heard that Ebola comes from tainted bushmeat in West Africa. But what most of the media won’t say is that until 2013, Ebola had never been seen in West Africa. A  two-year-old boy in the remote village of Meliandou, Guinea was the first case. Scientists have never determined how he contracted it or where it came from.  Mother Nature's micronutrient secret: Organic Broccoli Sprout Capsules now available, delivering 280mg of high-density nutrition, including the extraordinary "sulforaphane" and "glucosinolate" nutrients found only in cruciferous healing foods. Every lot laboratory tested. See availability here.  What they do know is that Ebola somehow managed to travel 3,5000 kilometers across the African continent, and infect that little boy’s community — apparently, without infecting anyone else along the way.  Francis Boyle, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, has posited that the appearance of the virus in West Africa was no accident.  In an interview with SIA Novosti, he said, “U.S. government agencies have a long history of carrying out allegedly defensive biological warfare research at labs in Liberia and Sierra Leone. This includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is now the point agency for managing the Ebola spill-over into the U.S.”  He added: “Why has the Obama administration dispatched troops to Liberia when they have no training to provide medical treatment to dying Africans? How did Zaire/Ebola get to West Africa from about 3,500km away from where it was first identified in 1976?”  The U.S. government’s patent on any and all forms of Ebola is also pretty suspicious.  As Mike Adams, founder of Natural News and Brighteon.com, reports, the CDC was awarded a patent on the Ebola virus in 2010 — three years before Ebola “suddenly” appeared in West Africa.  Adams reports that the patent gives the government agency “ownership over all variants of Ebola which share 70% or more of the protein sequences described in the patent,” as well as “ownership over any and all Ebola viruses which are ‘weakened’ or ‘killed.'”  You can view the patent here.  Some experts have also posited that Ebola was originally developed for the Department of Defense as a bioweapon, and that it has been released in Africa for testing purposes. Journalist Jon Rappaport has also sounded the alarm on bioweapons testing in Africa.  We already know that the U.S. government is not above testing weapons and technology on unsuspecting innocents. Whether they’re doing it for profit, for defense purposes or purely for their own entertainment — who knows. But if one thing’s for certain, it’s that there’s more to the Ebola outbreak than meets the eye.  See more coverage of Ebola at Outbreak.news.


naturalnews--2019-06-19--The incubation period lie about Ebola and why America is vulnerable to an Ebola outbreak from inf

The "incubation period" lie about Ebola, and why America is vulnerable to an Ebola outbreak from infected migrants

(Natural News) It’s a huge, dangerous lie. City officials in San Antonio, Texas, are claiming that no migrants from the Ebola-infected Republic of Congo could possibly be carrying Ebola into the United States because “Ebola has a 21-day incubation period,” they say. And the migrants have been walking for more than 21 days. Therefore, they cannot possibly have Ebola.  The “officials” saying this are either grossly incompetent or deliberately lying. (By the way, it also begs the question of how migrants from Africa “walked” to the U.S. / Mexico border. Can they walk on water?)  For starters, Ebola’s incubation period only averages 21 days. It can be 40+ days in some people, and that’s according to the World Health Organization. As previously reported by Natural News:  • 95% of Ebola incubations occur from 1 – 21 days   • 3% of Ebola incubations occur from 1 – 42 days   • 2% of Ebola incubations are not explained  Furthermore, migrants from the Republic of Congo could have been infected by other carriers who perished before reaching the U.S. border. Infected migrants could enter the USA on, for example, day 10 of their own incubation period. Or day 30. By the time they begin to explode with symptoms, they will have already been transported by bus to any one of dozens of U.S. cities that are currently receiving these migrants.  Surely medical personnel aren’t so stupid that they don’t understand the basics of infectious disease, symptomless carriers and incubation times. Surely doctors must know that magically declaring “zero risk” among people who come from a region of the world that’s known for producing symptomless carriers of Ebola isn’t a valid conclusion. Yet they draw these conclusions nonetheless, putting all of America at risk in order to appease the open borders pushers who seem to want America to be overrun with illegal immigrants.  Watch my short explanation video to learn more:  See more breaking news videos at Brighteon.com, the free speech alternative to YouTube. Read more news about migrants being bused across America at Migrants.news.


naturalnews--2019-07-02--Can you prepare for an Ebola outbreak

Can you prepare for an Ebola outbreak?

(Natural News) In 2014, the Ebola outbreak occurred in West Africa where 11,000 people died. Although it was contained for a few years, it has re-emerged in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Ebola virus causes severe hemorrhagic fever with up to a 90 percent death rate. An infected person will show symptoms within two to 21 days.  Its symptoms start out like the flu, with cough, sore throat, fever, aches and pains, diarrhea, malaise, nausea, and vomiting. As the virus advances, the victim starts to get bruising, rashes, bloody diarrhea and vomiting, bleeding from the eyes, nose, mouth, and multiple organ failure leading to death.  A person can contract the virus by being exposed to infected bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, vomit, perspiration, or stools. In many African countries, the practice of preparing their deceased loved ones for burial is often the cause of exposure. It can also spread via sexual contact because the virus can stay in sperm for months, even as the victim recovers. (Related: Ebola virus remains in survivors’ semen six months after recovery.)  Currently, there is no cure for the Ebola virus disease, so preparing for an outbreak is important. Here are some tips that can help you cope if anything happens:  The Centers for Disease and Prevention suggests avoiding the following in an area affected by Ebola:  The power of the elements: Discover Colloidal Silver Mouthwash with quality, natural ingredients like Sangre de Drago sap, black walnut hulls, menthol crystals and more. Zero artificial sweeteners, colors or alcohol. Learn more at the Health Ranger Store and help support this news site.  Apply these same prevention methods when traveling to an area affected by an Ebola outbreak. After returning from an area affected by Ebola, monitor your health for 21 days. If you develop symptoms of Ebola virus disease, seek medical help right away.


npr--2019-02-25--Why Does Ebola Keep Spreading In Congo Heres A Major Clue

Why Does Ebola Keep Spreading In Congo? Here's A Major Clue

A medical worker puts on protective gear at an Ebola treatment center in Beni in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Officials want to train workers at all health facilities to take precautions. **John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images** ****hide caption****  ****toggle caption****  John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images  A medical worker puts on protective gear at an Ebola treatment center in Beni in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Officials want to train workers at all health facilities to take precautions.  John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images  Michel Yao says his job is a lot like being a detective.  [Yao](https://www.linkedin.com/in/michel-yao-07105229/) is leading the World Health Organization's on-the-ground response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And as each new person falls sick, his team must race to figure out how the person got infected.  So, Yao says, "we ask the person a series of questions."  First up: Were you in contact with any sick person who had some symptoms like bleeding or like fever? Perhaps a relative you were taking care of?  No? OK, did you attend a funeral? (At traditional funerals, mourners often wash the body, another way many people are infected with Ebola.)  No, again? Well, then, have you recently touched any dead animals?  But some weeks ago, as cases started erupting around two towns, Katwa and Butembo, the investigators found that patient after patient had something else in common: They had all recently visited a health clinic for treatment for some other disease such as a respiratory infection or malaria.  "They would say, 'I went to the hospital. They treated me. I got clear [of that illness]. And then a few days after, I start having fevers.' " Fevers that were the first of signs of Ebola.  The surge of confirmed cases in Katwa and Butembo – 307 and rising — is now the largest flare-up during the course of this outbreak, which has infected nearly 900 people since August. And WHO officials estimate that in about one- fifth of these recent cases, the person contracted Ebola at health care facilities.  When Yao started visiting the clinics, it was pretty obvious how this was happening: Even government-run facilities such as large hospitals hadn't set up triage tents to separate possible Ebola patients from everyone else.  "This disease is not well-known in this part of the country. It is the first time," Yao explains, even though Ebola has broken out in other parts of the DRC on multiple occasions.  Even more problematic, says Yao, are the hundreds of unofficial private health facilities in this area. Some are large operations. In many other cases, says Yao, "it's just a house — a very old house."  And often a crowded one at that. "In one bed putting two children."  These facilities are also often short on supplies. "You can see people using several times the same gloves or the same equipment," including syringes, says Yao.  Along with modern medicine, many facilities also offer traditional cures. (Indeed, health officials commonly refer to such facilities as "tradi- moderns.") And this too creates opportunities for infection, says Yao.  That's because the traditional medicines are often diluted in water and put in a cup for the patient to drink. Then, he has noticed on his visits, the cup often isn't cleaned before it's passed on to the next patient.  In response to all these findings, Congo's government and the WHO are trying to reach out to every one of these health facilities in Katwa and Butembo. In conjunction with a range of nonprofit aid organizations, they are training the staff on infection control and providing them with necessary protective equipment.  But it's a daunting task. Just finding all the private clinics is difficult because there's no official list, says Yao. Officials know about only the ones reported by Ebola patients.  Dr. [Cimanuka Germain](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cimanuka-germain- a0250a102/) of International Medical Corps, which is helping with the effort, says private clinics sometimes resist the help.  For instance, when he told the staff of one clinic that they should report suspected Ebola cases to a hotline instead of treating them, their response was: "This is not possible for us."  That facility treats about 65 patients a day, says Germain. They didn't want to lose business.  Then there's the facility where Germain spent days training nurses on how to set up and operate a triage tent. Two weeks ago he showed up for a surprise visit.  "One of them was there without wearing gloves," Germain says, sighing incredulously.  For Germain the takeaway was clear: "To change someone's behavior is not [a matter of] one day or two days — you need time."  He had been visiting weekly — but from that point on he assigned two people from his organization to keep watch at the clinic all day every day. And he has done the same thing for the 11 other facilities working with International Medical Corps.  Officials are optimistic the watchdogging will work because of the success of similar efforts in a town called Beni — about 40 miles from Katwa. Last autumn, Beni was the epicenter of the outbreak, with the number of cases ultimately topping 200. But over the last three weeks, the caseload there has dropped to nearly zero.  Yao, of the World Health Organization, says improving infection control in Beni's health clinics played a big role in the change. Still, Yao notes, "it took us more than two months to reach these results."  [Laurent Sabard](https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurent-sabard-47113a8a/), health coordinator with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been working with health facilities in Beni, says they can't afford to let up anytime soon.  "We have to continually follow up," he says. If only to ensure they don't run out of supplies. The thermometers given out by the Red Cross are a thermoflash type that lets you take someone's temperature with touching the person, notes Sabard. "But they have to change the battery regularly — so we have to provide them with batteries regularly."  Adding to the difficulty is the insecurity of the area, where multiple armed groups frequently clash with government forces.  Paul Lopodo of Save the Children — which has been working with 39 health centers in the outbreak zone — recalls how back in December the violence prevented the group from checking in with one public clinic for two weeks.  By the time they returned, the staff was so out of practice, says Lopodo, that "we had to the run the training all over again."


npr--2019-06-21--Will 1 Of These 4 Experimental Treatments Cure Ebola

Will 1 Of These 4 Experimental Treatments Cure Ebola?  When patients arrive at the Ebola Treatment Center in the city of Beni, Dr. Modet Camara oversees a strict protocol. First they're tested to confirm that they have the virus. Then a social worker asks if they're willing to participate in a study that would randomly assign them one of four experimental treatments intended to attack the virus, eliminating it from the body before it can kill the patient.  "For us caregivers this study is so important," says Camara."It's the best chance we've had since Ebola virus was first discovered in 1976 to finally find a medication that can save people from this disease."  Camara has seen firsthand how much the science around Ebola disease has advanced in recent years.  During the world's worst recorded Ebola epidemic – the West Africa outbreak of 2014 to 2016 – Camara worked at several Ebola treatment centers in his native Guinea, where he was continually dismayed by how little he and the rest of the staff could do for patients.  Now he's on the front lines of the ten-month-long Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, working for the nonprofit aid group ALIMA, which runs the Beni treatment center, one of three where the clinical trial of the therapies is taking place.  The groundbreaking study is not the only new anti-Ebola effort in Congo. An experimental vaccine – which has already been given to more than 137,000 people – was recently found to be extremely effective.  Camara says when it comes to the experimental therapies, patients are eager to help test them. "Since we started this work in November, not a single patient has refused. Everyone wants to do it."  The study is likely to produce results soon, says Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases – which is overseeing the study in conjunction with the World Health Organization and Congo's government.  Fauci notes that to have statistically significant results investigators need to administer the treatments to at least 500 people – evenly divided between the four options. So far about 340 people have been treated through the trial. (In addition about 600 people have been given the treatments as part of a "compassionate use" provision but are not being studied through the trial.)  "So I would imagine before this outbreak is under control it is likely we would have enough individuals in the clinical trial to be able to get an answer as to which [of the medications] actually work," says Fauci.  One of the four treatments has already been subjected to an earlier clinical trial: It's called ZMapp, and is a cocktail of antibodies – the proteins that the human immune system can produce to attack a given virus. Toward the end of the West Africa outbreak ZMapp was tested in 72 patients – a study that Dr. Camara helped implement on the ground. That epidemic was over before enough people could enroll in the trial to produce definitive results. But, says Fauci, there were signs ZMapp may indeed reduce the death rate from Ebola. So officials decided the most ethical option would be to use ZMapp as the benchmark against which the other three treatments are measured rather than testing them against what happens when no medications are offered.  Two of the other experimental medications — REGN-EB3 and MAb114 — also consist of various antibodies. The latter is an antibody that was extracted from a person who had contracted Ebola during a 1995 outbreak in Congo and survived.  "It was a patient who naturally recovered," says Fauci. "Now that person has in their body an immune response that's protecting them from ever getting infected with the same strain of Ebola. So what we did is we brought that individual to the United States – here to the National Institutes of Health — and drew their blood."  NIH scientists then cloned the antibodies from that survivor's blood to produce enormous quantities. The idea, says Fauci, "is you inject [the antibodies] into someone who is infected with Ebola and that antibody will knock out Ebola in exactly the same way as it did for the person from whom we got that antibody."  The fourth therapy being tested – called Remdesivr – is an antiviral, essentially, says Fauci, a chemical that researchers hope will interfere with the process the Ebola virus uses to replicate.  Yet for all the potential of the medications study it has also been dogged by the larger challenge that has made this outbreak so difficult to end: Violence.  The outbreak – which has already infected more than 2,000 people and shows little sign of abating — is taking place in a northeastern region of Congo that has been wracked by conflict between dozens of armed groups and the government. The clashes continually shut down health services in major population centers and have forced hundreds of thousands to flee their villages. Many people are also deeply distrustful of authorities – and by extension, health workers. And many attacks have directly targeted Ebola responders.  These include several instances in which gunmen stormed two of the Ebola treatment centers where the clinical trial is underway – setting fire to the centers as patients ran for their lives.  "Thankfully we did not lose any of the follow-up on the individuals," says Fauci, when it came to continuing their treatment. But he says the incidents have delayed progress of the study. The atmosphere of insecurity and distrust also means that many patients only come forward for care when they are in an advanced stage of Ebola disease. And at that point it's far less likely that any medication can save them.  This shouldn't prevent the study from producing useful findings, says Fauci, given that the four medications are being compared against one another. But it is devastating for patients.  "There's no end to the examples of this," laments Camara. "Just yesterday we lost a 4-year-old boy, a pregnant woman and a father who was the breadwinner for the whole family."  They had been living in an area near Beni where one of the local armed groups staged an attack earlier this month, he explains. "So they had to take shelter in another location, where it happened that Ebola is spreading. There they all caught the virus."  But even as their symptoms progressed the family did not come forward seeking treatment. "People have so much reluctance to believe that Ebola is real," says Camara. And because of the continued insecurity in the area, the local Ebola response team was unable to get to them until early this week.  Almost as soon as the three were brought to the center, they were enrolled in the trial and given the experimental therapies. "But their organs were already hemorrhaging," says Camara. Within 24 hours they were dead.  "To see our patients die like this, when we know that we have medications that could probably have saved them if they had arrived sooner – frankly, as a caregiver, it's extemely painful," says Camara.  And he adds that it underscores a larger lesson of the current outbreak: Scientific advancements will mean little unless officials can address the political power struggles, mismanagement, and poverty driving the violence and mistrust of health workers.  "If the population won't come to us for care," says Camara, "frankly, we can't do anything for them."


pravadareport--2019-06-13--Why is Ebola raging in DR Congo after a year

Why is Ebola raging in DR Congo after a year?  Ebola nightmare still rages in DR Congo unabated nearly one year after the Health Ministry reported an outbreak. Why?  Ebola Virus Disease is a horrific virus with a high mortality rate, so much so that it is classified as a Category A bioterrorism agent. EVD is not (yet) an airborne virus like the Influenza viruses, and it is transmitted by contact with bodily fluids, such as blood, feces and vomit, milk, urine and semen, possibly also saliva and tears, more especially in the later stages of the illness. Some studies also indicate that it can be spread through sweat and contact with the body of someone infected or contact with contaminated surfaces.  Some say that the virus then needs to be passed to mucous membrane through touching the mouth, nose or eyes, others say it can be transmitted through lesions in the skin, while others state that it can be absorbed directly through the skin, in which case it is enough to touch an infected and contagious person.  Contagion occurs when a patient is infectious, in other words displaying the first symptoms, which is a sudden high fever, extreme fatigue, headache, sore throat, body pain and lack of appetite. This develops into nausea, then diarrhea and vomiting. As the virus takes hold and destroys the blood vessels, the central nervous system takes control from the digestive system and tells the body to expel as much fluid as it can through violent and sustained, copious projectile vomiting and diarrhea, which in the terminal stage can include blood. The patient becomes a human volcano of bodily fluids and torrents of blood.  An outbreak is caused by contact with an infected animal and a common vector (transmitting agent) is the fruit bat which is roasted and eaten in part of Africa. Primates, rodents and some plants are believed to be a possible source of transmission and therefore deforestation could be a factor in releasing the virus resevoir contained in the biome. The disease is named after the first patient in Zaire (now DR Congo), Mabalo Lokela, a school headmaster, died after visiting the Ebola River in the north of the country in 1976.  The patient lies extremely ill, with a fever, confused, unable to swallow, has difficulty in breathing and may suddenly start bleeding from the skin, the nose or even the eyes.  Shocking? Let us look at this most recent outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Health Ministry of this country reported an outbreak of EVD in North Kivu Province nearly one year ago, on August 18, 2018. The latest figures from June 10, 2019 indicate a total of 2071 cases (1977 confirmed, 94 probable) with 1396 deaths (1392 confirmed, 94 probable), a mortality rate of 67%.  But more shocking still is the fact that on May 11, 2017, the Health Ministry of DR Congo notified the World Health Organization about an outbreak of EVD. There were 4 deaths and 4 survivors and the outbreak was declared over in July of 2017.  In May 2018, the DR Congo reported 39 cases of EVD with 19 deaths. In July, the outbreak was declared over. A month later, the current outbreak was announced.  Fighting in the region over the mineral resources hampers the work of aid workers and medical teams.  While as yet there are claims that effective treatment does not exist, there is the experimental drug Brincidofovir, administered during the West African Outbreak of EVD in 2016 to Thomas Eric Duncan unsuccessfully, there is the plasma treatment in which a patient receives a transfusion from an EVD survivor with the same blood type (as was the case of Nina Pham receiving plasma from Dr. Kent Brantly, one of the first two American citizens infected), and there is Z-Mapp, which was successfully administered to these two patients, Dr. Brantly and aid worker Nancy Writebol.  ZMapp is a treatment composed of the use of cultures of cells which make monoclonal antibodies, mAbs. The experimentation began with MB-003, a cocktail of three human/human-mouse mAbs, namely c13C6, h13F6 and c6D8, which showed promising results when administered to rhesus monkeys infected with EVD. The process evolved to the creation of ZMab, namely m1H3, m2G4 and m4G7. These also proved very promising in trials on Ebola-infected macaque monkeys. ZMapp humanized the three ZMab antibodies and tested these with combinations of MB-003 first in guinea pigs and then in monkeys. The best and most successful therapeutic combinations were the c13C6 from MB-003 and the humanized mAbs c2G4 and c4G7, from ZMab, and the result is what is known today as ZMapp.  During the West Africa outbreak of EVD, a medical team of Russian virologists, epidemiologists and bacteriologists was in the field in the Republic of Guinea, alongside humanitarian aid-workers. Russia sent doses of the anti-viral drug Triazavirin, which is effective in 70 to 90% of cases of infections with 15 strains of Influenza, including A H1N1 (Swine Flu) and H5N1 (Avian flu), at any stage of the infection.  On January 13, 2016, President Putin announced that Russia had developed a cure for EVD. In December 2015, Anna Popova, the Director of Rospotrebnadzor, declared that the documents for the registration of a vaccine against EVD had been delivered and Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova declared that the clinical trials of the vaccine revealed a very high degree of efficiency.  So what, we may ask, is going on in DR Congo and why is the disease raging out of control? It has even spread to Uganda. Has the world gone back to a slumber of complacency because this is Africa, where shit happens?  The first outbreak took place in Sudan and was discovered only after it had ended, although at the time experts knew they weree dealing with a hitherto-unknown disease later named the Sudan variant (SUDV) of the genus of what would later in the year be identified as Ebola Virus Disease. Between June and November 284 people were infected with 151 deaths (53% mortality rate).  In August 1976, EBOV (Ebola Virus Disease) was identified as the cause of 318 cases with 280 deaths (88%) in Zaire.  Zaire, now known as Democratic Republic of Congo, experienced another outbreak in 1995 (EBOV) with 315 cases and 254 deaths (81%). Next in 2000, Uganda (SUDV) 425 cases, 224 deaths (53%); in 2003, DR Congo (EBOV) 143 cases, 128 deaths (90%); 2007, DR Congo with 264 cases and 187 deaths (71%); and the same year, Uganda with a new variant of the Ebolavirus genus, named after the place it was discovered, Bundibugyo with 149 cases and 37 deaths (25%).  In 2012, 2 outbreaks in Uganda (SUDV) with 7 cases and 4 deaths (57%) and 24 cases with 17 deaths (71%).  The worst outbreak was the West African Outbreak (EBOV) (2013-2016) causing a total of 17.140 cases and 6.069 deaths (35%): Country, cases, deaths %mortality:  plus some cases of deaths and survival among foreign aid workers who had become infected while working in the region.  ...and in 2019 to date, a total of 2071 cases (1977 confirmed, 94 probable) with 1396 deaths (1392 confirmed, 94 probable), a mortality rate of 67%.  May we ask the question, if this was in Europe or North America, would the story be the same? If not, then why not?  Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey works in the area of teaching, consultancy, coaching, translation, revision of texts, copy-writing and journalism. Director and Chief Editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru since 2002, and now Co-Editor of the English version, he contributes regularly to several other publications in Portuguese and English. He has worked in the printed and online media, in daily, weekly, monthly and yearly magazines and newspapers. A firm believer in multilateralism as a political approach and multiculturalism as a means to bring people and peoples together, he is Official Media Partner of UN Women, fighting for gender equality and Media Partner with Humane Society International, promoting animal rights. His hobbies include sports, in which he takes a keen interest, traveling, networking to protect the rights of LGBTQI communities and victims of gender violence, and cataloging disappearing languages, cultures and traditions around the world. A keen cook, he enjoys trying out different cuisines and regards cooking and sharing as a means to understand cultures and bring people together.  Join the most international forum on the Net


prisonplanet--2019-07-16--Ebola-Stricken Man Takes Bus To DRC Travel Hub With 2 Million Residents

The Congolese health ministry announced that a pastor infected with Ebola took a bus to the city of Goma late Sunday, the first time the virus has spread to the major travel hub and home to more than two million people.  The man, traveling from Butembo, was quickly identified and transported to an Ebola treatment center, while authorities say that they have tracked down the other 18 passengers aboard the bus and would vaccinate them on Monday, according to the Washington Post.  “Because of the speed with which the patient was identified and isolated, and the identification of all the other bus passengers coming from Butembo, the risk of it spreading in the rest of the city of Goma is small,” the ministry said in a statement.  The official statement was echoed by WHO director-general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who said “Goma is a city of two million people, near the border with Rwanda, and is a gateway to the region and the world,” adding “We are confident in the measures we are put in place and hope that we will see no further transmission of Ebola in Goma.”  “Nevertheless, we cannot be too careful.”  The outbreak has killed 1,665 people as of Monday, while nearly 700 have survived the virus, which causes high fevers and internal bleeding. Days with dozens of new cases are common, despite a massive public health intervention across the affected area. Health workers worry that some cases — if not whole transmission chains — are in places that are inaccessible because of poor infrastructure or insecurity, making the extent of the outbreak hard to fully measure. The area where the outbreak is taking place is also home to one of Congo’s most protracted and violent conflicts — a patchwork of ethnic militias, vigilantes and government-aligned forces. Fighting has at times targeted the Ebola response, hampering it and leading to spurts of new cases. Near the outbreak’s epicenter in the city of Beni on Monday, two health workers were killed by unknown assailants. Tedros Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, said there have been almost 200 attacks on health workers, killing seven, since January. –Washington Post  As the Post points out, the virus is now present in two cities with populations exceeding one million people – Butembo being the other. The current outbreak is the second-worst on record, after the 2013-2016 epidemic which killed 11,300 in West Africa.  This article was posted: Tuesday, July 16, 2019 at 6:14 am


sottnet--2019-01-20--Ebola popping up unexpectedly and proving impossible to control

Ebola "popping up unexpectedly and proving impossible to control"

a top WHO official told me, "all bets are off," for stopping the epidemic.  And there is a genuine threat that this Congo health crisis-the 10th the African nation has faced-could become essentially permanent in the war-torn region bordering South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, making a terrible transition from being epidemic to endemic.Despite having a tool kit at its disposal that is unrivaled-including a vaccine, new diagnostics, experimental treatments, and a strong body of knowledge regarding how to battle the hemorrhage-causing virus-the small army of international health responders and humanitarian workers in Congo is playing whack-a-mole against a microbe that keeps popping up unexpectedly and proving impossible to control. This is not because of any special attributes of the classic strain of Ebola-the same genetic strain that has been successfully tackled many times before-butThe sheer duration of the present epidemic means that the 4.5 million people in the currently affected North Kivu province of Congo are no longer the only ones in danger. The rest of the country and populations in the bordering nations of Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan, and Burundi are now at risk, too.Like homicide detectives tracking murder clues, teams of Ebola hunters are scouring urban areas and remote villages across North Kivu province, trying to catch the culprit before it claims more victims. But all too often, this killer, which, is leaving no useful clues. In past brushes with Ebola, humanity has won out by tediously, and often perilously, finding an infected individual and then tracking backward through the person's recent life to reckon who might have had contact with the ailing patient, building a chain of transmission that not only leads back to the first case introduced into a given location but also steers the disease detectives toward the killer's next likely targets. By building chains of transmission, the Ebola fighters know who to quarantine, where to target their searches for other patients, and how best to deploy limited supplies of vaccines and diagnostic equipment.But day after day, cases are popping up all over North Kivu that don't connect to any known chains of transmission - it's as if they popped out of thin air. The problem: North Kivu is one of the most violent places on Earth, rife with distrust, rumors, conflicts, and multigenerational hatreds. Investigators can't find the links in the disease chains because the people there do not trust anything, even the very idea that a virus called Ebola exists, and refuse to comply with investigations.On Jan. 11, for example, villagers in Marabo rose up in protest against the construction of an Ebola treatment center in their community after three high school students were diagnosed and placed in quarantine to stop a local chain of transmission.An Ebola disease that became endemic in Congo would pose many novel dangers.It can also spread within military units that refuse scrutiny from virus detectives and among groups involved in illegal war-related activities such as arms smuggling. Even immune survivors might be at risk in an endemic context, as a recent study found thatPeter Salama, who heads up the World Health Organization's Ebola effort, predicted in December that the epidemic would last at least another six months. And that's likely an overly optimistic forecast. "It's an outbreak I describe as a perfect storm - a combination of this deadly disease in," he told Vox last month.The current crisis comes even though the disease has likely been slowed by. As of Jan. 11 , teams have administered a Merck-madein North Kivu and small numbers of health care workers in neighboring countries, in case of cross-border spread. First used to halt a smaller 2018 outbreak hundreds of miles away in Congo's Equateur province last May, the vaccine is considered fully effective and has lowered risks toto date in North Kivu. In the West African 2014-2016 epidemic, in the absence of the Merck vaccine,"One thing I am really certain of now is: If it wasn't for the vaccine we're using, the number of cases we have could have been really high, high, high," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after spending New Year's Eve and two other days in the disease epicenter. It was Tedros's fourth trip into the heart of the epidemic. (No prior WHO leader ever set foot in an Ebola hot zone.) But despite swift mobilization by Congolese health officials, a strong WHO response, financing, the presence of humanitarian medical groups such as the Red Cross, Médecins Sans Frontières, and the Alliance for International Medical Action, an effective vaccine, and scores of volunteers and experts on the ground, the epidemic just keeps growing. "This is a very dangerous enemy, and we have to stay," Tedros said . "If we leave ... the virus will get an advantage and will spread freely. Not only for [Congo]-it will be bad for the neighboring countries and even beyond."The epidemic has already transformed fromthat parallels the Ugandan border and Semliki River. Farther south along the highway are two pivotal metropolises, Goma and Bukavu, each with a million residents, bordering Rwanda and Lake Kivu. Were Ebola to reach these cities,Meanwhile, health responders keep playing that whack-a-mole game against the virus because the threat of violence from ongoing warfare in Congo limits their movements and public distrust impedes assistance with investigations. As a result, the disease keeps popping up in unforeseen places and people.A significant unknown is the extent of Ebola in the ranks of warring soldiers, gangs, arms smugglers, and rapists. The groups have not only refused testing, but they have threatened health responders with guns and machetes.This makes it even harder for public health officials to estimate future transmissions-a difficult task in any case, since past outbreaks have shown the disease can lie dormant for more than a year in tissue including the eyes and genitals. Raping and pillaging soldiers can carry the virus from village to village long after they may personally have survived the viral disease. Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who served as theGoing forward, that could make the current outbreak the first to be heavily transmitted, and reignited repeatedly, by sexual abuse.Short of vaccination, combination of contact tracing and quarantine -finding and blocking chains of transmission. But those methods require freedom of movement and public compliance, both of which are lacking in war-torn Congo. In a grim assessment last November, Robert Redfield, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told reporters that the outbreak might not be controllable and could easily become entrenched and endemic.It's hard to know what steps could break the Ebola impasse. Warring forces have shown little inclination to give the disease hunters free rein across the region. Political leaders in Kinshasa are obsessed with the strongly contested results of the country's long-delayed national elections, leaving no clarity about who is in charge of the country at the moment. The United States has little skin in the game, as the Trump administration decided months ago that the security situation was too risky to allow any U.S. government employees-including CDC Ebola veterans-into North Kivu. U.N. peacekeepers are unlikely to either increase their force numbers or alter activities in any way that might make disease investigation safer, andMerck shows no sign of ramping up vaccine production to replenish or increase supplies. And on the front lines, the responders-the Africa CDC, WHO, a host of NGOs and humanitarian groups, and the Red Cross-are already toiling valiantly.Health officials in Uganda, South Sudan , and Rwanda see the writing on the wall: This epidemic won't end anytime soon and constantly threatens to cross their borders. They're preparing their health teams, giving them vaccinations and Ebola training. Vigilance is high across the region.If Ebola hitchhikes its way in an unwitting human carrier across Lake Edward into Uganda, down the highway to Goma and Rwanda, or up the Semliki River toward South Sudan, the world community will face tough choices. Option one: Keep on muddling through with the tools, personnel, and funding that have carried the response to date. Option two: Declare a global public health emergency, escalating financing and on-the-ground response to the multibillion-dollar scale seen in West Africa. Option three: Dedicate massive financial resources to pushing Merck and other vaccine-makers to rapidly manufacture millions of doses, andMaybe we'll all get lucky, and the virus will just peter out. But there's no reason to think it will.


spiegel--2019-01-08--Fund in China Neu entdeckter Virus ahnelt Ebola

Fund in China: Neu entdeckter Virus ähnelt Ebola

Die Familie der Filoviren ist vielleicht nicht jedem ein Begriff. Doch die Vertreter ihrer beiden wichtigsten Gattungen sind weltweit bekannt und gefürchtet: Marburg- und vor allem Ebolaviren können beim Menschen zu schweren Erkrankungen führen, mit hohen Todesraten unter den Infizierten. Aktuell tobt etwa eine Ebola-Epidemie im Kongo. Wissenschaftler haben in Asien nun einen bisher unbekannten Erreger entdeckt, der ebenfalls zur Familie der Filoviren gehört.  Forscher um Lin-Fa Wang von der Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapur und Zheng-Li Shi von der Chinesischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wuhan berichten im Fachmagazin "Nature Microbiology" von einem Fund, den sie in der Leber eines Rosettenflughunds in der südwestchinesischen Provinz Yunnan gemacht haben.  Aus dem Gewebe des Tieres konnten sie demnach einen Virus isolieren, der sich genetisch von den Gattungen der Marburg- und Ebolaviren unterscheidet, gleichzeitig jedoch mit diesen verwandt ist. So würde dasselbe Rezeptorprotein namens NPC1 genutzt, um Zellen zu infizieren. Die Forscher sprechen vom Mengla-Virus, der Name verweist auf den Landkreis, aus dem der Flughund stammte.  Das untersuchte Genmaterial des Erregers stimme nur zu 32 beziehungsweise 54 Prozent mit den bisher bekannten Filoviren überein, so die Forscher. Man könne den neuen Erreger im Stammbaum zwischen Marburg- und Ebolavirus ansiedeln. Es sei möglich, dass man sogar eine neue Gattung entdeckt habe, zu der gleich mehrere verschiedene, bisher noch unbekannte Viren zählen.  Wie bei anderen Filoviren gibt es nach den Erkenntnissen der Forscher auch jetzt das Risiko, dass der Erreger Artgrenzen überwinden könnte. Man habe bei Versuchen im Labor unter anderem Zellen von Affen, Hamstern, Hunden und Menschen infizieren können. Es brauche jedoch noch weitere Forschungen, um das praktische Ausbreitungsrisiko über die Flughunde hinaus bestimmen zu können.  Zur Familie der Filoviren gehört übrigens noch eine weitere, eher unbekannte Gattung, die der Cuevaviren. Diese wurden erstmals 2011 bei Langflügelfledermäusen in einer Höhle in Spanien nachgewiesen. Hier gibt es bisher noch keine Erkenntnisse über eine mögliche Gefahr für Menschen.  Flughunde und Fledermäuse gelten als Hauptverdächtige für die Übertragung von Ebolavriren auf den Menschen - ohne selbst krank zu werden. Tatsächlich ist ihre Rolle bei der Verbreitung der Krankheit aber auch nicht unumstritten. Manche Forscher argumentieren, dass die Tiere die Erreger zwar zweifelsfrei beherbergen könnten, diesen allerdings nicht weitergeben würden. Man solle daher keine unüberlegten Maßnahmen ergreifen, mit denen der Bestand von Flughunden und Fledermäusen dezimiert werden würde.


spiegel--2019-07-31--Hochgefahrliches Virus Neuer Ebolafall in kongolesischer Millionenstadt entdeckt

Hochgefährliches Virus: Neuer Ebolafall in kongolesischer Millionenstadt entdeckt

Bisher beschränkte sich der neuste Ausbruch der Ebola-Krankheit eher auf ländliche Teile der Demokratischen Republik Kongo. Doch nun wurde erneut ein Patient in der Großstadt Goma im Osten des Landes registriert. "Unsere Eingreiftrupps haben gerade einen zweiten Fall entdeckt und isoliert", erklärte der Ebolaforscher Jean-Jacques Muyembe.  Es handele sich um einen Mann, der am 13. Juli aus einer spärlich besiedelten Region in die Millionenstadt gekommen sei. Der Fall steht demnach nicht in Verbindung mit einem ersten Ebolapatienten in Goma, der vor zwei Wochen gemeldet wurde. Damals war ein infizierter Priester per Bus in die Metropole gekommen und hatte bereits klare Symptome gezeigt.  Die Epidemie war vor einem Jahr in der Gegend von Butembo in der Provinz Nord-Kivu ausgebrochen. Seitdem sind laut offiziellen Zahlen vom Dienstag 1790 Menschen in der Region an dem Virus gestorben. Nach dem Tod des ersten Ebolapatienten in Goma, der zweitgrößten Stadt des Landes, rief die WHO einen internationalen Gesundheitsnotstand aus.  Es bleibe jedoch bei einer regionalen Bedrohung, so die WHO. Grenzschließungen seien derzeit nicht nötig. Sie könnten den Kampf gegen die Krankheit im Gegenteil noch erschweren, weil Menschen dann womöglich Schleichwege benutzten und nicht die offiziellen Grenzübergänge, wo medizinisches Personal bei Passanten nach Krankheitsanzeichen Ausschau hält.  Probleme mit bewaffneten Gruppen in der Region  Erschwert wird der Kampf gegen Ebola im Kongo durch Angriffe bewaffneter Milizen auf Behandlungszentren. Zwischen 2013 und 2016 waren in Westafrika bei einem schweren Ausbruch mehr als 11.300 Menschen gestorben.  Beim Ebolavirus leiden die Betroffenen an Fieber, Muskelschmerzen, Durchfall sowie in heftigen Fällen an inneren Blutungen und Organversagen. Die Krankheit endet in etwa der Hälfte der Fälle tödlich. Unter Menschen reicht schon eine Berührung zur Infektion mit dem Virus. Ein neuer Impfstoff hilft aber bei der Eindämmung der Krankheit.


sputnik--2019-01-02--Confirmed Ebola Cases in DR Congo Hit 560 - Countrys Health Ministry

Confirmed Ebola Cases in DR Congo Hit 560 - Country's Health Ministry

The death toll from the virus in the DRC previously stood at 360, while the number of confirmed Ebola cases amounted to 545, according to the ministry.  "Ebola — the situation on Wednesday, January 2, 2019: a total of 608 cases (560 confirmed and 48 possible), 368 [people] died and 207 have recovered," the DRC Ministry of Public Health wrote on Twitter.  The Ebola virus is transmitted to humans from wild animals and is estimated by the World Health Organization to have a 50-percent fatality rate. Ebola is named after the DRC's Ebola River, near which the virus was discovered by Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot and his team in 1976.


sputnik--2019-01-04--Swedish Hospital Says Has Received One Case of Suspected Ebola Patient Isolated

Swedish Hospital Says Has Received One Case of Suspected Ebola, Patient Isolated

The patient was initially admitted to Enkoping Hospital, but later transferred to a facility in Uppsala County. The hospital in Enkoping was swiftly closed over fears of staff potentially being exposed to the deadly virus.  The Ebola virus is transmitted to humans from wild animals and is estimated by the World Health Organization to have a 50-percent fatality rate.  The largest Ebola outbreak to date killed more than 11,000 people in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between December 2013 and April 2016, according to published reports.  Ebola is named after the DRC's Ebola River, near which the virus was discovered by Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot and his team in 1976.


foreignpolicy--2019-09-20--The World Knows an Apocalyptic Pandemic Is Coming

The World Knows an Apocalyptic Pandemic Is Coming  A new independent report compiled at the request of the United Nations secretary-general warns that there is a “very real threat” of a pandemic sweeping the planet, killing up to 80 million people. A deadly pathogen, spread airborne around the world, the report says, could wipe out almost 5 percent of the global economy. And we’re not ready.  The ominous analysis was compiled by an independent panel, the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), which was assembled last year in response to a request from the office of the U.N. secretary-general, and convened jointly by the World Bank and World Health Organization (WHO). Co-chaired by the former WHO head and former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and the head of the international Red Cross, Elhadj As Sy, the GPMB commissioned expert studies and issued a scathing attack on the political, financial, and logistical state of pandemic preparedness affairs.  “Preparedness is hampered by the lack of continued political will at all levels,” read the report. “Although national leaders respond to health crises when fear and panic grow strong enough, most countries do not devote the consistent energy and resources needed to keep outbreaks from escalating into disasters.”  With no intention of degrading the GPMB’s effort, I must sadly say that this core message has been shouted from the rafters many times before, with little discernable impact on tone-deaf political leaders, financial enterprises, or multinational institutions. There’s no reason to think this time will be any different. It’s hard to know what, shy of a genuinely devastating pandemic of killer influenza or some currently unknown microbe, will motivate global leaders to take microscopic threats seriously.  In May 1989, Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg gathered fellow Nobelists and a roster of extraordinary virus-hunters for a three-day meeting in Washington to consider a then bold hypothesis that viruses, far from being vanquished by modern medicine, were actually surging worldwide in animals and people, often in forms never previously seen. And air travel increasingly meant that an outbreak in an obscure location could spread to large cities, even make its way around the world. At the time, the exploding HIV/AIDS epidemic focused collective attention: If the incurable virus could claim millions of lives, what other threats might lurk? During the gathering I felt tensions rise by the hour, as the volume of evidence grew in support of the dire hypothesis.  The National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine was sufficiently shaken by the meeting that it delved further, beyond the kingdom of viruses to all microbial threats, and in 1992 published a call to arms—a report that drew sufficient interest at U.S. President Bill Clinton’s White House to prompt the formal classification of emerging diseases as national-security threats in 1996.  In 1994 I published my book on the subject, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance, arguing that human disruption of the global environment, coupled with behaviors that readily spread microbes between people and from animals to humans, guaranteed a global surge in epidemics, even an enormous pandemic. And in 2000, my book Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health demonstrated that outbreaks were aided and abetted by inept health systems, human behavior, and the complete lack of consistent political and financial support for disease-fighting preparedness everywhere in the world.  So what has changed?  An enormous number of previously unknown viruses, such as the one that caused the 2003 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), have claimed the lives of people and animals around the world. In just seven years (from 2011 to 2018), for example, the WHO did battle with 1,483 epidemics.  And the costs of containment, coupled with the disruptions’ general economic impact, have worsened, according to a GPMB study commissioned by the World Bank. The 2003 SARS epidemic exacted a toll of about $40 billion on the global economy, the 2009 swine flu epidemic reached about $50 billion, and the 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic cost nearly $53 billion. An influenza pandemic akin to the 1918 flu would today cost the world economy $3 trillion, or up to 4.8 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP).  Economically, wealthy nations have proven the most resilient in recent outbreaks, and the GPMB predicts that countries such as the United States and Germany could get through a devastating epidemic with less than 0.5 percent loss of GDP. But poorer nations—from India and Russia down to the countries of Central Africa—could lose up to 2 percent of their GDPs from the same hypothetical pandemic. The West African Ebola epidemic directly cost the hardest-hit countries—Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea—$2.8 billion, knocking Sierra Leone’s GDP down a whopping 20 percent in 2015.  And risks are increasing. Climate change favors outbreaks, as rising heat and humidity spawn surges in populations of disease-carrying mosquitoes, allow water surfaces to suffocate under toxic algae, fill hospitals and agricultural fields with deadly fungi, and change the migratory patterns of birds and animals—which, in turn, carry their microbial hitchhikers to new geographies.  Consider the events of the first two weeks of this month, for example. A mysterious explosion in a Soviet-era laboratory complex outside Novosibirsk, Russia, raised concerns about the safety of smallpox and hundreds of other viruses locked in the facility’s freezers. The Russian lab, known as Vector, was once one of a handful of top-security pathogen research centers in the world, but today there are more than 1,000 such so-called Biosafety Level-3 and -4 labs, in which lethal microbes are stored and studied: Many of the facilities have had leaks and safety breeches. Australia’s H3N2 influenza is still spreading as the country heads into spring. Seemingly on track to be the nation’s largest flu year—for both cases and hospitalizations—in recent history, it has sickened 279,326 Australians so far, a possible harbinger of what’s ahead in a few weeks for North America. According to the Pan American Health Organization, more than 2,384,029 people in Latin America and the Caribbean contracted dengue virus infections last week alone. The so-called TR4 fungus is suddenly wiping out bananas across Central America and recently turned up in Australia, increasing fear of the fruit’s extinction. The African swine-fever epidemic that started in China late in 2018 has spread across Asia and just turned up in the Philippines: Tens of thousands of pigs in the region have died of the incurable, usually lethal disease.  The GPMB says that the current Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) exemplifies everything that is wrong with the current state of epidemic preparedness. When it first emerged on Aug. 1, 2018, according to a report commissioned by GPMB, “the fundamentals of an effective response were put in place within days of the declaration of the outbreak. The response in the first weeks of August was the fastest, best equipped, and best-funded in the history of Ebola outbreak response.” Yet despite these efforts, “the outbreak in North Kivu and Ituri persisted and spread, crossing the national border to Uganda in June 2019, and reaching Goma, the capital of North Kivu in July 2019. The outbreak now stands, [after] more than one year, [at] 3000 cases, and 2000 deaths since its declaration.”  The Ebola response has failed in the DRC so far because the country’s health system is in shambles, the outbreak is nested in a violent war zone, the local population harbors deep suspicions about it and fails to fully cooperate with health authorities, donors have left DRC humanitarian needs woefully underfunded, and the Ebola response is compelled to beg for dollars and euros.  Prospects for even deadlier, airborne microbes have also risen since the 1989 gathering of scientists in Washington because the technology to alter viral and bacterial genes is now fast, easy, cheap, and precise. Whether achieved via CRISPR or even newer genetic manipulations, it is now possible to give microbes all sorts of attributes—or make them, from the DNA up. Whether a man-made killer leaks accidentally, or is deliberately spread by malevolent individuals, no nation has the organization and technology to halt an outbreak once the germs escape their lab confines.  The GPMB provided a list of seven policy initiatives that should be implemented worldwide to improve humanity’s odds against the microbes. All of them have, in some form, been on the table for years, even decades. We have been here before.  “Preparedness and response systems and capabilities for disease outbreaks are not sufficient to deal with the enormous impact, rapid spread and shock to health, social and economic systems of a highly lethal pandemic, whether natural, accidental or deliberately released. There is insufficient R&D investment and planning for innovative vaccine development and manufacture, broad-spectrum antivirals, appropriate nonpharmaceutical interventions,” read the GPMB report. “Epidemic control costs would completely overwhelm the current financing arrangements for emergency response.”  The United Nations General Assembly that convenes in New York this week and next, and delegates will be deluged with similarly grim reports about climate change, humanitarian crises, refugees, intractable conflicts, diminishing supplies of safe drinking water, and literally dozens more crises. Every one merits attention, financing, and global cooperation.  In 1996, the Clinton administration declared that “emerging infectious diseases such as Ebola, drug-resistant tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS present one of the most significant health and security challenges facing the global community,” and issued an eight-point plan for improving pandemic preparedness. The specifics may have changed, but the tone and recommendations in the new GPMB pandemic report are remarkably similar, if not more urgent. The GPMB insists it is possible to render microbial outbreaks to controllable, containable scale—if humanity has the political and financial will to do so.  So far, however, humanity has pushed disease threats out of its collective consciousness shortly after every epidemic ceased. The 1918 influenza pandemic killed some 50 to 100 million people—estimates vary widely. And the plague of the 14th century claimed 60 percent of the European population: roughly 50 million souls. We have already, in my lifetime, failed to stop HIV, which, since its emergence on the global stage in 1981, has sickened 75 million people, killing about 32 million of them.  We know there will be another terrible epidemic—perhaps not as large as 1918 flu or the plague, but awful nonetheless. Yet it will likely take much more than expert reports to mobilize serious collective efforts to prevent and prepare catastrophe.


fortune--2019-03-11--Another Flu Pandemic Is Inevitable World Health Organization Says

Another Flu Pandemic Is Inevitable, World Health Organization Says

The World Health Organization released what it’s calling the “most comprehensive and far-reaching” strategy for fighting influenza Monday, reminding the world that the threat of a pandemic is “ever-present.”  “The question is not if we will have another pandemic, but when,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement. “We must be vigilant and prepared—the cost of a major influenza outbreak will far outweigh the price of prevention.”  The WHO Global Influenza Strategy for 2019-2030 urges every country to have a plan to fight influenza and contribute to global preparedness. It also focuses on the development of improved vaccines, antivirals, and treatments to distribute worldwide.  While the danger influenza poses to public health is well recognized during a pandemic—such as the H1N1 virus of 2009, which infected at least one in five people worldwide within the first year—the WHO strategy says the “substantial morbidity and mortality” of the flu is “often underappreciated in the context of year-round seasonal influenza.”  WHO estimates there are 1 billion cases of influenza around the world each year, with 290,000 to 650,000 influenza-related respiratory deaths. The organization recommends an annual vaccination as the most effective prevention, especially for those at higher risk of contracting the virus.  This year’s flu season is ongoing, with as many as 26.3 million people infected, resulting in 31,200 deaths.