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Posted on 08/27/2014 12:24:17 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
On 26 August 2014, the Ministry of Health, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Equateur Province.
The index case was a pregnant woman from Ikanamongo Village who butchered a bush animal that had been killed and given to her by her husband. She became ill with symptoms of EVD and reported to a private clinic in Isaka Village. On 11 August 2014, she died of a then-unidentified haemorrhagic fever. Local customs and rituals associated with death meant that several health-care workers were exposed and presented with similar symptoms in the following week.
Between 28 July and 18 August 2014, a total of 24 suspected cases of haemorrhagic fever, including 13 deaths, have been identified. Human-to-human transmission has been established and includes the health-care personnel who were exposed to the deceased pregnant woman during surgery (one doctor and two nurses) in addition to the hygienist and a ward boy, all of whom developed symptoms and died. Other deaths have been recorded among the relatives who attended the index case, individuals who were in contact with the clinic staff, and those who handled the bodies of the deceased during funerals. The other 11 cases are currently being treated in isolation centres.
Samples have been sent to laboratories in Kinshasa and in Gabon for confirmation of EVD and to identify the strain. The index case and the 80 contacts have no history of travel to the EVD-affected countries in West Africa (Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, or Sierra Leone) or history of contact with individuals from the affected areas. At this time, it is believed that the outbreak in DRC is unrelated to the ongoing outbreak in west Africa.
The Ministry of Health of DRC has dispatched field teams to the area to monitor and evaluate the situation. Contact tracing has begun and 80 individuals are currently being followed-up. Treatment of patients is ongoing and infection prevention and control measures are in place and are being supported by WHO with the delivery of personal protective equipment to the area.
WHO is currently monitoring the situation with the Government of DRC and awaiting confirmation of the disease strain from the laboratories. A rapid response team is poised to deploy and assist DRC, if needed. This is the seventh outbreak of EVD in the former Zaire / present DRC since 1976.
WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions be applied except in cases where individuals have been confirmed or are suspected of being infected with EVD or where individuals have had contact with cases of EVD. (Contacts do not include properly-protected health-care workers and laboratory staff.) Temporary recommendations from the Emergency Committee with regard to actions to be taken by countries can be found at:
This is not good. If medical personnel who know to take precautions catch and die from ebola, think about the spread among the rest of the population in the Congo.
BTW, this is the latest Ebola update from WHO. Conspicuously MISSING is the latest stats. None posted at WHO since August 22 which is a record length of time since this latest outbreak started spreading fast a few months ago. What's up? Has there been an institutional breakdown now preventing the collection of stats?
FYI
individuals who were in contact with the clinic staff
Not good.
This is looking worse and worse.
This doesn't sound like "medical personnel who know to take precautions". The surgeons and nurses, presumably more so, but third-world hospital conditions just the same.
I was an administrator at one of the country's most famous hospitals for twenty years.In the 80's I was invited to visit with an African physician who spent a short time training at my hospital.He was a top staff member of the Muhimbili Medical Center in Dar Es Salaam,Tanzania.While there he gave me a tour of the hospital and I was stunned...speechless.This was the largest and most important hospital in the entire country and to call it primitive would be to heap praise upon it.IOW...you can be damn sure that the medical workers dropping like flies in Africa aren't able to come within 500 light years of the infection control procedures that you'd find routinely practiced at Snowshoe Community Hospital in Deadhorse Montana.
Perhaps the aide workers and doctors who were reporting local infection rates have bugged out -or are dead.
I think it just represents a breakdown of reporting due to the rate at which health care workers and aides are being infected. Ie, individual quarantine and PL3 aren’t working. This is evidenced by Liberia going to area-wide quarantines enforced by soldiers.
human to human transmission is not a new designation, it just means that humans catch it from other humans ( just like in the west africa outbreak and previous outbreaks)
this terminology does not suggest that the disease is airborne. before people go around in a panic it is useful to understand standard epidemiological definitions
Just wait until authorities get out into bush country. Many horrors await...
Thanks for the comment.
Personal protective equipment, as you are no doubt aware, is not supposed to be the primary protection against spread of pathogens. That’s handled by general sanitation and cleanliness, with the PPE acting as backup.
In highly unsanitary conditions, PPR, even if available and used, is very likely to be inadequate.
They know the precautions - they don’t have the equipment.
They don’t even have gloves, let alone other one-time use supplies, masks, isolation gowns, negative-pressure rooms.
Do they even have bleach? Carbolic acid?
soiled linens?
little/no human waste disposal?
no biohazard disposal?
non-filtered, well water?
reused needles?
no iodine/bacine soap use?
insufficient PPE?
shared straws for oral rehydration?
rectal to oral thermometer useage without sterilization?
Am I getting close?
Oh,you’ve been there....
Probably a big factor but western doctors have gotten it too. Its extremely contagious.
“non-filtered, well water?”
That episode of Walking Dead where one of the walkers had fallen into the well.
What happens if this virus gets into the ground water? It would survive there.
You're correct and I admit that I did a poor job making my point.Even if you're familiar with the correct procedures you don't have the equipment/supplies/basic sanitary conditions to effectively employ them in West Africa.
Consider wearing the protective equipment in summer in West Africa, for 12-14 hours.
without air conditioning.
It sounds like CDIF or MRSA type infections...even though bacterial, it gets in EVERYTHING in a hospital environment.....although ebola is a virus and a MUCH MORE efficient killer.
We did MOPP4 training in Ft. Jackson, SC in AUG. We were supposed to wear full MOPP4 for 3 hours, and OPFOR was VERY generous in their employment of CS gas to simulate a gas attack. After about 30 minutes, I took off my M17a1 Mask and told my foxhole-buddy, "I'd rather die in a gas attack" than stay in MOPP4.
Absolute misery.
We had heat casualties and dehydration by guys sitting still in their foxholes. I can't imagine being in West Africa moving bodies, buckets of puke/blood/bodily waste, bringing food back and forth, etc.
In South Korea we were forced to stay in MOPP4 for 12-14 hours in August. They threatened LORs and Art 15 for anyone caught taking their gear off. As I recall 24 people ended up in the hospital.
They even wanted the depot maintenance guys who had been scheduled for 2 years to climb the 400 foot tall radio tower in MOPP4. Those guys packed up and said we’ll be back in 2 years.
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