Nations step up measures to stem worsening Ebola outbreak

MADRID, Spain – Countries across the world scrambled Saturday, October 11, to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak that UN officials warn is getting worse as New York’s main JFK airport prepared to screen travelers from epidemic-hit west Africa.

And in Madrid, the serious condition of a Spanish nurse, who was the first person to become infected with Ebola outside of Africa, showed signs of improving.

More than 4,000 people have died from Ebola in 7 countries since the start of the year, according to the UN’s World Health Organization, and the disease appears to be outpacing efforts to fight it.

“The virus is far ahead of us and every day the situation gets worse,” the head of the United Nations’ emergency Ebola mission Anthony Banbury, told UN leaders after a tour of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the nations worst affected by the epidemic.

At John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, passengers and crew arriving from the three countries at the center of the outbreak will have their temperatures taken and be screened for signs of illness and answer questions about possible exposure, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

“Exit screening might not find every person with Ebola, however, it does not have to be perfect to help reduce the spread of Ebola,” the CDC said in a statement. Four other major US airports are to start similar checks next week.

In Latin America, Peru and Uruguay have announced airport measures and Mexico and Nicaragua planned to tighten controls of migrants heading for US soil as an Ebola precaution.

Amid fears of a global contagion, two countries on Saturday ruled out suspect cases.

The Brazilian health ministry reported a Guinean man tested negative for Ebola.

And in Macedonia, tests showed that a British man who died displaying Ebola-like symptoms did not have the virus, officials said.

In Spain, attention remained focused on 44-year-old nurse Teresa Romero, whose condition “improved in the night. She is conscious and talks from time to time when she is in a good mood,” a hospital source told Agence France-Presse.

Romero is thought to have contracted the disease in late September in a Madrid hospital while caring for a Spanish missionary infected with Ebola in Africa who later died.

Fifteen other people, mostly hospital staff as well as Romero’s husband, are under observation at the Carlos III hospital where Romero is being treated. The hospital said none of them were showing any symptoms.

Experimental drugs, vaccine

The Spanish hospital source added that doctors started treating Romero with the experimental Ebola treatment ZMapp late on Friday, October 10.

There is still no vaccine or widely available treatment for Ebola, but ZMapp, made in California, is one of several drugs that have been fast-tracked for development.

And Russia’s Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova announced Saturday that her country has “created 3 (Ebola) vaccines… and we think they will be ready in the next six months”.

“One of them is already ready for a clinical trial,” she added.

Trials for an Ebola vaccine are under way in Mali, which has no cases of the disease but borders Guinea where the outbreak began.

“It’s purely a scientific step. The trials are on volunteer researchers,” Malian Health Minister Ousmane Kone said.

That vaccine is being developed by the British drug company GlaxoSmithKline and the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The WHO reported 4,033 people have died from Ebola as of October 8 out of a total of 8,399 registered cases in seven countries.

The sharp rise in deaths came as the UN said aid pledges to fight the epidemic have fallen well short of the $1 billion (800 million euros) needed.

The Spanish health ministry on Friday called on citizens “to continue their daily activities normally,” after a series of hoaxes fueled fears of wider contagion.

Police said Saturday they had arrested a man in the southern Spanish city of Cadiz who they said had triggered a safety alert by pretending to have Ebola symptoms.

Officials at the Madrid hospital insisted there was no risk of infection from patients under observation, including Romero’s husband, who were photographed leaning out of the windows of their hospital rooms.

Disease safety drills

Britain held a nationwide exercise on Saturday to test its preparedness for an Ebola outbreak.

The 8-hour drill featured actors pretending to be infected with Ebola plus medical staff treating them at locations around the country.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said afterwards that the country was ready to cope with any outbreak.

The Canadian government advised its citizens to leave the west African countries most affected by Ebola. It took measures at its own borders to screen for potentially exposed travelers.

Ebola concern also spread to the sports world, with hosts Morocco calling for the January-February 2015 Africa Cup of Nations to be postponed, but the African Football Confederation said the schedule would not be changed. – Rappler.com