WHO declares Ebola epidemic a global health emergency

[Bosonic]

Last edited Fri Aug 8, 2014, 02:36 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: AFP

The World Health Organization on Friday declared the killer Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of west Africa an international health emergency and appealed for global aid to help afflicted countries.

The decision came after a rare meeting of the UN health body's emergency committee, which urged screening of all people flying out of affected countries, where nearly 1,000 people have died

The WHO stopped short of calling for global travel restrictions, urging airlines to take strict precautions but to continue flying to the west African countries hit by the outbreak.

And it called on countries around the globe to be prepared to "detect, investigate and manage" Ebola cases if they should arise.

Read more: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/declares-ebola-epidemic-international-health-emergency-061204494.html#JkCd6bS

[littlemissmartypants]

1. And follows this up with a detailed plan, We Hope! eom

[ReRe]

2. Did anyone see that hearing....

... yesterday or on the overnight on C-Span? Workers/Doctors who flew home to testify on how bad the Ebola outbreak is and beg for more funds/help. They did not paint a pretty picture.

[magical thyme]

17. the articles I read yesterday said they'd "gone medieval," leaving corpses out in the street

to avoid being quarantined.

They've gone from one extreme -- burying their dead family members without precautions -- to the other. Literally dumping their family member's corpses in the street.

And one doctor wrote of the nurse's strike at the hospital where he works. 2 doctors trying to care for 55 patients. They come in and find patients delirious on the floor in pools of blood, feces, and urine.

An absolute horror show.

[ReRe]

20. That's right...

... "none dare call it the black death," say the naysayers: Now that's what you can REALLY call sticking your head in the sand! Ebola is every bit as bad as the plague of the middle ages (the "black death&quot , and I say worse than, because of the speed in which it can travel. The black death traveled by merchant ship. Today it travels by jet!

[deutsey]

3. Thanks to austerity, the networks that may have helped with a rapid mobilzation

are pretty much in tatters, aren't they?

[Divernan]

4. Have there been any other global emergencies declared by WHO?

My initial google on the topic didn't turn anything up. Absolutely nightmarish situation for everyone in the outbreak areas.

[SkyDaddy7]

5. Not to be so-called "ALARMIST" but...

What is to prevent a true sophisticated terrorist...Possibly an educated Al Qaeda trained operative from going to the area & getting tissue or blood from a victim & then taking it to Europe or here & somehow spreading it around. A pint of Ebola blood could go a long way in spreading the disease around & no one would know how it was spreading.

To be honest it would only take a handful of cases not connected to Africa to create enormous TERROR & CHAOS! Because at that point experts would know that someone must be doing something to spread the disease.

I wish I did not have to say this...Before anyone calls me a "CHENEY WARHAWK" or whatever, step back, breathe & THINK...Who the fuck are we going to bomb & who am I advocated to go to war with? Please just take my words at face value...I am being very serious about a very serious topic.

EDIT TO ADD...I am just want to say I am speaking from complete ignorance & concern but obviously the US military is concerned because they have invested a lot of money in Ebola vaccines...There has to be a reason behind that.

If anyone knows more info please share, thanks.

[intaglio]

7. Probably the same reason they don't spread foot and mouth in US cattle

They want high profile acts.

[SkyDaddy7]

12. Yeah, "foot & mouth" is not "high profile"

However, EBOLA is most certainly the highest profile bio-attack one could reach for...If 5-10 people all in different locations around the northeast or lets just say in NYC but not connected to each other or Africa come down with Ebola then everyone would know or at least a have strong suspicion someone is infecting people.

The USSR spent a lot of money trying to weaponize Ebola & who knows if they had any success but according to what I read it would be extremely hard to do for a bunch of religious radicals...But it would not be hard to get a blood sample & spray it on people or their food when not looking or their clean clothes in laundry mat or whatever...It would only take a few to create chaos.

"Foot & Mouth"...Geez.

[Divernan]

8. Biological (germ) warfare - a long history and not to be dismissed lightly

I'm sure someone will respond with the icon with the flaming hair or tinfoil hat - but they'd be whistling in the dark. You raise a spectre, but it's got concrete historical realities.

EMBO Reports

The European Molecular Biology Organization
The history of biological warfare

Friedrich Frischknecht
Abstract

Human experimentation, modern nightmares and lone madmen in the twentieth century

During the past century, more than 500 million people died of infectious diseases. Several tens of thousands of these deaths were due to the deliberate release of pathogens or toxins, mostly by the Japanese during their attacks on China during the Second World War. Two international treaties outlawed biological weapons in 1925 and 1972, but they have largely failed to stop countries from conducting offensive weapons research and large-scale production of biological weapons. And as our knowledge of the biology of disease-causing agents—viruses, bacteria and toxins—increases, it is legitimate to fear that modified pathogens could constitute devastating agents for biological warfare. To put these future threats into perspective, I discuss in this article the history of biological warfare and terrorism.

During the [Second World War], the Japanese army poisoned more than 1,000 water wells in Chinese villages to study cholera and typhus outbreaks

Man has used poisons for assassination purposes ever since the dawn of civilization, not only against individual enemies but also occasionally against armies (Table 1).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1326439/

[SkyDaddy7]

14. Thank-you for the info! I have been reading...

I guess the USSR spent a lot of time trying weaponize filoviruses, Marburg and Ebola, especially the Marbug...I think that is what lead to the US military pouring money into a vaccine. Lets hope they have one just in case.

I don't fear a terrorist weaponizing Ebola but they could travel to Africa get a small sample of blood & head to Europe, the UK or if they have someone who is "clean" to enter the USA then come here...They could figure out a way to infect a handful of people if not more & once the word got out that there were cases popping up with no connection to Africa & no connection to each other then it would cause extreme panic!

Who knows...The world is a crazy place!!

[jwirr]

11. IMO war is the last thing we need on the globe right now. Back in 1918 WWI helped to spread

influenza. All it would take is for ebola to spread to a war zone where the soldiers travel to homes all over the world and bingo - we have a pandemic.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

15. Tom Clancy wrote a novel,

Executive Orders in which a terrorist organization does exactly that.

[840high]

19. Same thought has crossed my mind.

[Divernan]

6. Here's a link to the official WHO statement.

WHO Statement on the Meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee Regarding the 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

WHO statement
8 August 2014

The first meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the Director-General under the International Health Regulations (2005) [IHR (2005)] regarding the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (EVD, or “Ebola”) outbreak in West Africa was held by teleconference on Wednesday, 6 August 2014 from 13:00 to 17:30 and on Thursday, 7 August 2014 from 13:00 to 18:30 Geneva time (CET).

Members and advisors of the Emergency Committee met by teleconference on both days of the meeting1. The following IHR (2005) States Parties participated in the informational session of the meeting on Wednesday, 6 August 2014: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.

During the informational session, the WHO Secretariat provided an update on and assessment of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The above-referenced States Parties presented on recent developments in their countries, including measures taken to implement rapid control strategies, and existing gaps and challenges in the outbreak response.

After discussion and deliberation on the information provided, the Committee advised that:

the Ebola outbreak in West Africa constitutes an ‘extraordinary event’ and a public health risk to other States;
the possible consequences of further international spread are particularly serious in view of the virulence of the virus, the intensive community and health facility transmission patterns, and the weak health systems in the currently affected and most at-risk countries.
a coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop and reverse the international spread of Ebola.

It was the unanimous view of the Committee that the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) have been met.

More at this link:
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/statements/2014/ebola-20140808/en/

[Moostache]

9. Call me whatever makes people feel better, but this is NOT getting enough attention, period.

The transmission of a virus with greater than 70% lethal outcomes into a pandemic would end the smugness of some replies I have seen recently in posts and threads about the Ebola outbreak. Personally, I am aghast that the further this spreads and the more uncontrollable it becomes that we are largely not making any real action plans about it.

Once the disease is raging through white people in Europe or North America, its too fucking late! Prevention of spread is the single (and possibly ONLY) way to avoid a hideous situation that would make it dwarf the Spanish Flu and bring it into the realm of the Black Death / Plague era. I cannot afford to abscond to the country and live in isolation, so I am a little more than nervous about this growing worse still...

[Divernan]

10. Any govt. preparations are likely kept very, very secret.

But hopefully, they have been made and updated for this particular infectious disease. As a high level staffer, I was at a briefing for Pennsylvania legislators during the mad cow scare, when the state police discussed quarantines, which included blocking highways and roads. They anticipated people trying to run the blockades to escape the quarantines and took pains to let the legislators know that no exceptions would be made (even for said legislators) and that such people would "meet with the necessary force".

[mountain grammy]

13. But what about the "secret serum?"

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/6/5974809/cdc-answers-questions-about-ebola-secret-serum-zmapp/in/5712456

Don't need much.. how many 1%er's are there?

[magical thyme]

16. the "secret serum" is a product in development

You could count the research doses available on one hand, and have a couple fingers left.

The calls for the "manufacturing company" to provide the serum to African patients left me shaking my head.

It isn't a manufacturing firm. It is a tiny, 9-person R&D biotech laboratory. They've probably been making it as they use it.

[Bosonic]

18. Nigeria declares national emergency over Ebola

Nigeria declares national emergency over Ebola

Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria's president declared a national emergency on Friday over the deadly Ebola virus that has claimed two lives in Africa's most populous country.

"President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Friday in Abuja declared the control and containment of the Ebola virus in Nigeria, a national emergency," his office said in a statement.

The president called on the population to avoid large gatherings in order to prevent the spread of the virus.

"Religious and political groups, spiritual healing centres, families, associations and other bodies should ... discourage gatherings and activities that may unwittingly promote close contact with infected persons or place others at risk," said the presidency.

http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-declares-national-emergency-over-ebola-180727159.html;_ylt=AwrBJSDsFOVTrCgA.l3QtDMD

[Electric Monk]

21. Brampton (Ontario, Canada) Civic Hospital’s patient sparks Ebola worries

Brampton Civic Hospital is taking extra precautions and has isolated a patient — one with a fever and flu-like symptoms — who had recently travelled from Nigeria, which on Friday declared a state of emergency due to the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

But health officials stressed Friday evening that the Brampton patient has not been diagnosed with Ebola.

more
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/08/08/brampton_civic_hospitals_patient_sparks_ebola_worries.html

[Earth_First]

22. I do not for the life of me understand this...

"...urging airlines to take strict precautions but to continue flying to the west African countries hit by the outbreak.

FFS, shut down ALL non-essential travel to these countries.

Period.

The ONLY authorized travel into and out of these countries should be healthcare related travel.

If you aren't specifically donning a bio hazard suit to bring an end to the crisis. You have absolutely ZERO necessary travel to these affected countries.

Why is this so difficult to mandate?