Posted on 08/10/2014 12:46:23 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe
I have spent a little time compiling links to threads about the Ebola outbreak in the interest of having all the links in one thread for future reference.
Please add links to new threads and articles of interest as the situation develops.
Thank You all for you participation.
Note: number of doctors infected and their death rate.
Guinea Calls on Retired Doctors to Fight Ebola
http://m.news24.com/news24/Africa/News/Guinea-calls-on-retired-doctors-to-fight-Ebola-20141015
2014-10-16 06:09
Conakry - Guinea’s president has issued a call for retired doctors to return to work to help the impoverished country’s overstretched health system fight the deadly Ebola outbreak.
President Alpha Conde’s appeal, made late on Tuesday, has already prompted some doctors to volunteer, however many health workers in the country have fled in fear of the disease.
Ibrahima Balde, a doctor at a hospital in the Coyah district some 50km from the capital, said health workers left their posts when a suspected Ebola case was found this week.
Communications Minister Makanera Kake said on Wednesday that 76 doctors have been infected and 37 have died since March.
Together with Liberia and Sierra Leone, Guinea has been severely hit by the Ebola virus, with 1,350 infected and 778 dead.
"As part of the declaration, the city may restrict travel for health care workers who may have cared for the first Ebola patient."
Followed by travel restrictions on persons living in the affected area, i.e., you, your wife and your children.
http://news.sciencemag.org/africa/2014/10/push-gamble-big-mass-production-ebola-vaccines
Push to gamble big on mass production of Ebola vaccinesBy Jon Cohen and Kai Kupferschmidt 8 October 2014 4:15 pm
... At the end of a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland, last week to discuss Ebola vaccines, several participants were convinced that mass production of experimental products should begin in parallel with studies that aim to determine whether they actually work. “I’d pull out all the stops,” says Ira Longini, a statistician at the University of Florida at Gainesville who attended the meeting. “I’d try to make 30 to 40 million doses to cover at risk West African populations."
... Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) of Rixensart, Belgium, is now testing an Ebola vaccine for safety in volunteers at no risk of contracting the disease. A second one, made by NewLink Genetics of Ames, Iowa, is expected to enter clinical trials later this month. If the vaccines prove safe and able to trigger the desired immune responses, an earlier WHO consultation found wide support for shortcutting the standard progression of vaccine clinical trials and jumping straight from these phase I trials to phase III efficacy tests in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, the three hard-hit countries.
In early November, GSK expects to have enough data from the phase I studies to decide whether to launch phase III trials, says Ripley Ballou, who heads GSK's Ebola program. Health care workers—now broadly defined to include everyone from hospital janitors to burial teams—will be first in line. GSK earlier predicted it would have 10,000 doses by the end of the year that could be used in phase III trials, but Ballou says production has been going extremely well, and there may be as many as 20,000 doses by then.
Then check out this old post of mine with links to an article describing ow fast Ebola vaccines can be produced with the new cell-based means, as opposed to the old egg-culture means.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3191066/posts?page=3449#3449
" The Novartis Holly Springs site stands apart because of new technology that can produce vaccines in animal cells through a process called cell culture. Flu vaccines have traditionally been produced by growing the virus in chicken eggs, which can take up to six months. Instead, Novartis’s Holly Springs plant makes flu vaccine from animal cells, specifically, a cell line from a dog’s kidney. This cell culture process takes about 30 days.Novartis broke ground in Holly Springs in 2009. Two years later, the plant was ready for production. In June, the Food and Drug Administration licensed the Novartis facility to produce seasonal flu vaccine made from cell culture. This facility is the first, and so far only, plant in the United States approved by the FDA to manufacture influenza vaccine cultured in animal cells. It will produce about 50 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine annually, but it has the capacity to expand in emergencies. The Novartis site was designed to have the capacity to produce 200 million doses of flu vaccine within six months of the declaration of a flu pandemic.
The ability to quickly manufacture large quantities of medicine would allow the response center to meet government orders for vaccines or drugs during an outbreak of infectious disease, such as flu, or even Ebola."
Novartis DID produce so many vaccines so fast for the H7N9 flu virus.
The means of stopping the Ebola epidemic exists. Only the political will to do is lacking.
Related breaking news NBC
Nina Pham, one of the two nurses who contracted Ebola in Dallas, is expected to be moved to a National Institutes of Health isolation unit in Bethesda, Maryland, a federal official with direct knowledge of the plans told NBC News on Thursday.
The transfer could happen later Thursday, but the official cautioned that plans were evolving. Pham was diagnosed with the virus on Sunday after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who contracted Ebola in Liberia, flew to Dallas and later died.
I can’t imagine if there really are more HCW’s infected they could keep it quiet.
Sorry, but I know the relatives of a few HCW at Presby.
It sounds very plausable to me.
I know how hospital politics are- I work in one. .I’m just thinking the patients themselves would get the word out. .regardless of what PR and admin departments say
I can imagine the level of discomfort for staff there right now is extreme
Ebola at Yale?
Patient at Yale-New Haven Hospital with Ebola-like symptoms
http://wwlp.com/2014/10/16/patient-at-yale-new-haven-hospital-has-ebola-like-symptoms/
News 8 Medical Reporter Jocelyn Maminta has talked to a credible source with the hospital who says the patient is one of the Yale Researchers who just returned from a trip to Liberia on Monday. This is one of the same researchers officials decided not to have quarantined after their trip to Africa.
Just heard on Washington DC ABC radio affiliate:
Nina Pham moved to NIH Bethesda, Maryland due to “staffing problems” in Texas
My mistake. Not “tertiary” in epidemiological terms. I keep counting the local index patient as primary when that patient is not considered “primary.” Nina Phem and Vinson are “primary” patients.
The reason Nina Pham is being sent to Maryland is that PPresby cannot get its HCW to show up to treat her.
In all likelihood Texas Health Presby will never reopen.
Management screwed up by the numbers with the treatment of Thomas Duncan and then they tried to screwed their healthcare workers with the CDC.
Everything about Presby is now quite literally poison.
The physical plant on the property there is nothing but bio-hazmat from possible Ebola contamination in the tube system.
The medical corporation will file Chapter 11 and hospital physical plant is going to be torn down and removed as hazmat by the state of Texas.
The land the physical plant was on will be heavily bleached and sealed over in concrete.
Didn’t they take Michael Lively, who rode in the ambulance after Duncan, to Parkland?
Uh-oh.
That’s a grim outlook. Probably accurate too.
We know Pham is being moved but do you know how many patients are left there ?
Is this conjecture , or fact ?
I am aware that CDC protocals were minimal, and that initially HCW were not privided even with CDC level II PPE by the hospital.
Frieden does not even know whether the president can issue a travel ban?????
According to his testimony today..
TIK,
The lack of staff was confirmed by the move of Pham.
The screw up by THPH management was confirmed by multiple stories via the California Nurse union.
The screw up with Ebola in the hospital tube system was confirmed in multiple local media reports in Dallas.
The rest is simple legal process as the Duncan related law suits and hazmat costs roll in.
It is Texas political tradition that the State cleans up hazmat by bankrupt oil companies, and THPH will remain a Ebola infection hazmat threat if left vacant after bankruptcy. Thus subject to pilferage by illegal immigrant copper theives teating copper wire out of the walls.
>>We know Pham is being moved but do you know
>>how many patients are left there ?
Presby’s emergency room has been put on divert status for all but 1/2 hour since 30 Sept.
The labs at Presby have been taken over by the CDC with local lab workers being kicked out.
The cafeteria at Presby has been a ghost town and is in danger of shutting down for a lack of business.
There was a report that Presby management “told staff to stay home” after the 1/2 hour non-divert “Aloha” operation. (I mentioned this previously up thread)
And finally friends of my wife, who live in that area, are trying to move out now because of all the road closures from Hazmat teams cleaning out Ebola exposed apartment complexes proximate to Presby.
In so many words, there is a large scale, on-going, and very under reported panic near Presby that you can only track via social media and its faint echos in the blogs and tweets of associated local mainstream media.
The Mainstream Media “Get Smart Cone of Silence” ain’t what it used to be.
From PFiF
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 10:25 am
Post subject:
A friend just sent me a copy of this email received today from her hospital in northern VA.
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 2:21 PM
To: DIST-Inova-ALL
Subject: Ebola Update: PPE Super User Training Started Today
Team Inova,
Today Inova is beginning Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) Super User Training for “Point of Entry” staff who would have initial contact with an Ebola patient. Today’s training includes representatives from all five hospitals and the Healthplexes. The Urgent and Emergency Care Centers and IMG offices will receive training for their Point of Entry Staff in the days to come.
Inova will continue to offer this Super User Training until all identified Super Users (each OU is identifying their team) have received training.
The trained Super Users will return to their locations and continue to train and practice (mock drills) with the teams from their location that most likely would need to wear PPE if an Ebola patient arrives.
Who Are The Point of Entry Staff:
The training is immediately focused on:
· Emergency Department Team members
· Radiology staff
· Environmental Services
· Security
Critical Care Unit Representatives– Will receive their own training specific to their environment soon. Emergency Management and Infection Prevention and Control are working with your leaders to schedule the training.
What type of PPE:
Inova is using Enhanced PPE – to further protect neck and head
1. It is the PPE we use in our Operating Rooms – Flyte Hoods
a. Supplies are in each location
b. More are on the way to create a stockpile
2. New PPE demonstration video/posters in development – In addition to the Super User Training, your local teams will have a PPE video and poster to help guide you.
a. Increased PPE Training and Drilling – Super Users from each location will work with your leadership to continually practice and train designated staff in PPE.
3. PPE Buddy System Required – Staff will partner when donning and doffing PPE as an additional preventative measure from staff contaminating themselves when removing PPE.
A third observer, an Ebola patient room monitor, will also observe the donning and doffing process of the PPE Buddies. In addition, this room monitor will document all staff who enter the Ebola patient’s room. This log is needed to monitor staff who have had contact with an Ebola patient.
Regular Ebola Updates:
Inova is committed to keeping staff informed on our progress with Ebola preparations. We will provide updates on the homepage of InovaNet as well as use Inova All emails for significant updates, like this notice about Super User Training.
As we continue to learn from the experiences from all the hospitals who have treated Ebola patients, we are adapting our plan to reflect the best known practice. Events are changing rapidly and our plans will be modified and enhanced as the information becomes available.
How To Stay Informed:
The InovaNet Ebola page is your best source of information. If you have additional questions, reach out to your leader, who can connect with the appropriate people to find you answers.
Your support in our Ebola preparations and training of staff is appreciated. Please print and post the attached document and share with your teams who don’t have easy access to email.
Loring S. Flint, MD
EVP, CMO & President of Inova Medical Group
Inova Health System
Reason for Pham’s transfer to NIH Bethesda was repeatedly confirmed over WMAL/ABC radio broadcasts citing “staffing problems”. Last one at 3PM eastern
Maybe combination of nurse mutiny, lawyers, and bean-counters.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.