Suspected Ebola death in Sierra Leone

17 Jan, 2016 - 00:01 0 Views
Suspected Ebola death in  Sierra Leone At its peak, it the disease devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals recording hundreds of new cases a week. A health worker is pictured spraying a man with disinfectant chemicals after he was suspected of dying of Ebola, in Monrovia, Liberia in September 2014

The Sunday Mail

Health officials have reported a suspected Ebola death in Sierra Leone just hours after west Africa was declared “disease free” by the World Health Organisation.
The outbreak, which lasted two years claimed more than 11 000 lives officially ended on Thursday according to the WHO.
Hours later the health ministry in Sierra Leone admitted it was investigating a suspected Ebola death in the Tonkolili district.
Experts are now examining samples from the victim to determine whether they died of Ebola. The latest suspected victim was a woman.
Sierra Leone was declared Ebola-free on November 7, so any further outbreak would be a major setback.
A Sierra Leone government spokesman said: “A high level team of Ministry of Health officials and key partners including the World Health Organisation and the Atlanta-based Centre for Disease Control are in the area from the capital to undertake intensive investigations.”
The deadliest outbreak on record swept through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone after it emerged in a remote village in Guinea in December 2013.
At its peak, it devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals recording hundreds of new cases a week.
But, today the World Health Organisation said after no new cases emerged in Liberia, the outbreak has ceased.
This date marks the first time since the virus’ emergence two years ago, that all three of the hardest hit nations have reported zero cases for at least 42 days – twice the length of the virus’ ‘incubation period’.
Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director general warned, however, it will be several more months before the world is considered free of the disease.
She said: “Detecting and breaking every chain of transmission has been a monumental achievement. So much was needed and so much was accomplished by national authorities, heroic health workers, civil society, local and international organisations and generous partners. But our work is not done and vigilance is necessary to prevent new outbreaks.”
The announcement comes after the disease wrought havoc, leaving in its wake, a harrowing toll.
11 315 people lost their lives, the majority in the three countries hardest hit, as of January 3
Nearly 23 000 children lost at least one parent or caregiver to the vicious disease
Some 17 000 survivors are trying to resume their lives though many battle mysterious and lingering side effects
Scientists continue to discover evidence about how long Ebola virus can last in bodily fluids. Liberia, which was at the epicentre of the outbreak, was first declared free of the disease last May. But on two occasions new cases emerged, forcing health officials to restart the clock. That clock aimed for the 42-day benchmark — deemed the cut off point for when a nation can be declared free of the virus.
Rick Brennan, WHO director of emergency risk assessment and humanitarian response told a news conference in Geneva: “While this is an important milestone and a very important step forward, we have to say that the job is still not done.
“That’s because there is still ongoing risk of re-emergence of the disease because of persistence of the virus in a proportion of survivors.”
Furthermore, Dr Bruce Aylward, WHO’s special representative for the Ebola response, warned the world is now at a ‘critical point’ in the Ebola epidemic “as we move from managing cases and patients to managing the residual risk of new infections”.
He said: “The risk of re-introduction of infection is diminishing as the virus gradually clears fro the survivor population, but we still anticipate more flare-ups and must be prepared for them.
“A massive effort is underway to ensure robust prevention, surveillance and response capacity across all three countries by the end of March.”
In Liberia, there was guarded optimism today about reaching the 42-day benchmark with no new cases.
The ministry of health is still carrying out Ebola tests on dead bodies before burial, and remains on the lookout for any suspicious cases.
Follay Gallah, an ambulance driver who contracted the disease while intervening in an affected community in 2014, welcomed the news but warned: “We could have a recurrence if we don’t do those things that we need to do.”
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of people who are sick or bodies of the dead.
A country is considered free of the disease when it has passed two incubation periods of 21 days without any more cases.
However, the most recent flare-up in Liberia confounded scientists as it was not initially clear where the new cases had come from.
WHO now says those cases “are likely the result of the virus persisting in survivors even after recovery”.
Of particular concern is the fact it is now known that Ebola is present in the semen of some male survivors up to a year later.
WHO experts warned today Ebola can “in rare instances be transmitted to intimate partners”.
Before the Ebola epidemic —which is believed to have started in rural Guinea in December 2013 – most of what was known about the disease was limited to studies of much smaller outbreaks in Congo and Uganda.
This time, though, the disease made its way to Guinea’s capital, then leaped across borders to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Cases also popped up in Mali, Senegal and Nigeria though transmission chains there were quickly shut down.
A Liberian man who travelled to the United States in October 2014 fell ill and died in Texas of Ebola.
No other deaths emerged there, though two nurses got sick and the cases sparked panic in the United States.
There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola.
Experimental treatments emerged during the outbreak but were limited in supply; those who received supportive care had much higher survival rates but beds at treatment centres initially were hard to come by.
The WHO and others have been roundly criticised for responding too slowly at the beginning of the outbreak, a fumbling that experts say ultimately cost lives across West Africa.
An Associated Press investigation found the UN health agency delayed declaring an international emergency for political and economic reasons.
Emails, documents and interviews obtained by the AP show WHO and other responders failed to organise a strong response even after the signal was issued.
None of the senior leaders involved in directing the Ebola response has been disciplined or fired.
“I think there’s been general acknowledgement that WHO and the international community were slow at the start of this outbreak and there is no question that the disease did get away from us all collectively, and in retrospect there are a number of things that we would have done better and sooner,” Mr Brennan said on Thursday.
WHO has said that major soul-searching and reforms have taken place as a result. “I think you will see a much more responsive and effective WHO in future emergencies,” he added.
In a promising sign, one experimental vaccine tested on thousands in Guinea seems to work. Dr Margaret Chan, director-general of WHO, has said if proven effective, the vaccine will be a “game-changer”.
Time-line of an epidemic
Ebola emerges in rural Guinea
December, 2013: A one-year-old baby dies in southern Guinea and is later identified as “Patient Zero”. The virus remains localised until February 2014, when a care-worker in a neighbouring province dies.
Ebola begins to spread in West Africa
March 31, 2014: Two cases are confirmed by the WHO in Liberia, while on May 26 Sierra Leone confirms its first case, to be followed in late July by Nigeria, in August by Senegal and in October by Mali. Senegal and Nigeria are declared free of Ebola in October 2014 while Mali is declared Ebola-free in January 2015.
Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone cut off from the world
May 30, 2014: Ebola is ‘out of control’, according to the aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF). The three worst-hit countries, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, declare measures including states of emergency and quarantines. Many neighbouring nations close their borders with the affected countries.
A ‘public health emergency’
August 8, 2014: The WHO declares Ebola a ‘public health emergency of international concern’. Four days later it authorises the use of experimental drugs to fight Ebola after an ethical debate. That day, a Spanish missionary infected in Liberia dies in Madrid, the first European fatality.
Death in the US
September 30, 2014: A Liberian man is hospitalised in the US state of Texas, the first Ebola infection diagnosed outside Africa. He dies on October 8.
October 6, 2014: A Spanish nurse in a Madrid hospital becomes the first person to be infected outside Africa. She is treated and given the all-clear on October 19.
Ebola begins a halting retreat
February 22, 2015: Liberia says it is lifting nationwide curfews and re-opening borders, as the epidemic begins to retreat.
February 26, 2015: The US ends its military mission in west Africa where it had deployed 2,800 soldiers to help in the fight against Ebola, mainly in Liberia.
Closing in on a vaccine
July 10, 2015: International donors pledge $3.4 billion to help stamp out Ebola.
July 31, 2015: The WHO says an Ebola vaccine provided 100-percent protection in a field trial in Guinea, suggesting the world is ‘on the verge of an effective Ebola vaccine’.
Hardest-hit countries emerge from the epidemic
May 9, and September 3, 2015: Liberia is declared Ebola-free by the WHO after no new cases were recorded for 42 days, but the declarations are followed by a resurgence of the virus.
On December 4 Liberia releases from hospital its last two known Ebola cases.
November 7, 2015: Sierra Leone is declared free of the outbreak by the WHO.
December 29: The WHO declares Guinea’s Ebola outbreak over, six weeks after the recovery of its last known patient, a three-week old girl born with the virus. — Daily Mail

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