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viernes, 10 de octubre de 2014

Für Teresa


Teresa Romero recibe Zmapp

Barcelona. (Redacción).- Teresa Romero, la asistente sanitaria infectada por ébola, será tratada con el suero experimental Zmapp, que ha sido importado de Bélgica, según ha confirmado el Gobierno. El sacerdote Miguel Pajares fue tratado con ese suero, aunque no el también religioso García Viejo. Hasta la fecha, Romero había sido tratada con suero hiperinmune, según el último parte médico, la enferma está "estable dentro de la gravedad" crítica de su estado.

El Zmapp es un cóctel de anticuerpos que ha sido probado con éxito en monos y, de forma experimental, en algunas personas. La producción a gran escala de este medicamento resulta muy lenta, y España había agotado las dosis de las que disponía y estaba a la espera de las que ahora han llegado para suministrarlo a la enfermera infectada por el virus del ébola.

Mientras tanto, la vivienda de Teresa Romero ha sido tabicada con pladur y este mismo viernes, una vez pasadas las 48 horas después de que se desalojara totalmente tras el sacrificio de su perro, Excalibur, se procederá a las tareas de desinfección. Así consta en una carta enviada por el director general de Atención Primaria de la Comunidad de Madrid, Antonio Alemany, al alcalde de Alcorcón, David Pérez, en la que le informa de que están siendo atendidas todas las peticiones realizadas por el Gobierno municipal de cara al caso de ébola detectado en la ciudad.
En las últimas horas han ingresado en el centro hospitalario las dos peluqueras que depilaron a Teresa, un médico, dos enfermeras, un enfermero supervisor y un celador, todos ellos asintomáticos. Estas siete personas han quedado ingresadas en la planta de vigilancia activa de contactos de alto riesgo, aunque ninguno de ellos presentaba síntomas de haber podido ser contagiados.
Además, recibió ayer el alta médica uno de los enfermeros del equipo médico que atendió a García Viejo tras dar negativo en los test del virus. De las catorce personas ingresadas, la auxiliar de enfermería Teresa Romero es la única contagiada por ébola hasta el momento, mientras que una enfermera de La Paz que atendió a García Viejo está pendiente del resultado del segundo test tras dar el primero negativo, y otras doce personas están en observación al considerarse contactos de riesgo.
Sobre este punto, además de los últimos siete ingresos, están en observación el marido de la contagiada, Javier Limón, la médico del centro de salud y el facultativo de las Urgencias del hospital de Alcorcón que la atendieron, así como un médico procedente del hospital, que también había atendió a la auxiliar de Enfermería, y ayer por la tarde, el sanitario del Summa.


Leer más: http://www.lavanguardia.com/salud/20141010/54416966752/teresa-romero-ebola-zmapp.html#ixzz3Fl9EYnW2
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Spain ebola: concerns over safety and training

Spanish hospital staff quit over Ebola fears

Madrid’s Carlos III hospital treating virus-hit nurse Teresa Romero Ramos suffers staff shortage amid concerns over training and safety
A medical practitioner wearing protective clothing treates an isolated patient on the sixth floor of the the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain.
A medical practitioner wearing protective clothing treats an isolated patient on the sixth floor of the the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain. Photograph: AP
Carlos III hospital in Madrid is scrambling to contract extra personnel as worries about lack of training and safety standards have left some staff refusing to attend to possible Ebola cases.
Fourteen people are in quarantine, including four health workers who treated Teresa Romero Ramos, the Spanish nurse who contracted the virus after treating an Ebola patient repatriated from Sierra Leone. Seven people including two hairdressers who had given Romero a beauty treatment before she was diagnosed with Ebola turned themselves in late on Thursday to the isolation unit. None had so far tested positive for the disease except Romero, whose condition was described by the hospital as serious but stable. Her treatment has included injections with antibodies extracted from the blood of Ebola survivors.
While no official numbers were available, Elvira González of the SAE nurses’ union said fear of Ebola had caused some staff to refuse to treat certain patients, while others had resigned their posts.
Amid concerns over inadequate training and safety standards, one health worker told El País newspaper that many staff members were making excuses to avoid work. “They are saying they’ve got their period, that they’re getting dizzy, that they’re claustrophobic … People get anxious and they can’t work like that, being so nervous.”
Others worry about being stigmatised. “Their children aren’t being invited to birthday parties and their friends are cancelling joint vacation plans,” Juan José Cano of Satse, a nursing union member, told El País. “They’ve become known as the Ebola nurses. And it’s not fair.”
The hospital was not forcing staff to work, González said. “There are questions as to whether the protective suits are adequate, if the protocols are adequate. A health professional could accuse the administration of a public health offence if they are forced to work in conditions that are not adequate.”
The staff shortage has forced the hospital to seek help from unemployed health workers. One recent nursing graduate told El País she had delivered a CV to La Paz hospital in Madrid on Wednesday morning. Hours later, she received a call offering her work at the Carlos III hospital the next day. Initially, “they didn’t say one word about Ebola”, the 25-year-old said. After discussing the job opportunity with her family, she turned down the work.
Health authorities have done little to dispel claims by health workers’ that the response to Ebola in Madrid has been improvised. In August, when the first missionary with the virus was repatriated from Liberia, the Carlos III hospital was emptied to attend to him. When the second missionary arrived last month, it was decided that only the sixth floor would be cleared. Between appointments and surgeries, the hospital continued as normal.
Initially, the same was done after Romero Ramos tested positive on Monday. But as the number of patients in quarantine grows, authorities have been forced to hastily find more space. In recent days, two more floors have been cleared, with patients either discharged or transferred to other hospitals in the city.

Shame on you Doctor Rodríguez

 “No hace falta hacer un máster para ponerse el traje”, declaró el médico y Consejero de Sanidad Javier Rodríguez.

Javier Rodríguez insiste en que la enfermera ocultó información

"Si tuviera que dimitir, dimitiría", ha dicho, aclarando que es médico y tiene "la vida resuelta"

Una larga cadena de fallos

laSexta.com  |  Madrid  | Actualizado el 07/10/2014 a las 23:09 horas
Teresa entra en su habitación antes y después de la muerte del religioso Manuel García Viejo, que muere el Jueves 25 de septiembre. Al día siguiente, el viernes, la auxiliar de enfermería coge vacaciones. Pero no viaja, tal y como declara el Gerente del Hospital de la Paz, Rafael Pérez-Santamaría.
Al día siguiente, Teresa se presenta a las oposiciones a Auxiliar de Enfermería en la Universidad Complutense, con otras 84 mil personas. La enferma pudo abandonar el hospital sin haber transcurrido 21 días de observación.
Según cuenta J. Antonio Pérez Molina, Infectólogo Sociedad Española de Enfermedades Infecciosas: "Si no hay síntomas no es contagioso, por lo que lo único que hay que hacer es controlarlos, tomarle la temperatura 2 veces al día y ante la presencia de algún síntoma ponerlo en conocimiento de los médicos competentes".
Su marido ha asegurado que Teresa se medía la temperatura varias veces al día, y desde el hospital la llamaban por teléfono para controlar los datos. Sin embargo, el martes 30, Teresa empieza a notar los primeros síntomas: Tiene unas décimas de fiebre y astenia.
Elvira González, del Sindicato de técnicos de enfermería SAE cuenta: "Fue al servicio de prevención de La Paz, comunicó sus síntomas en 3 ocasiones por lo menos, pero no se activó el protocolo porque la fiebre no pasaba de 38,6. En ese momento, la paciente ya tenía fiebre y otros síntomas como manchas en el cuerpo. Al no alcanzar los 38,6 grados del protocolo de ébola, Teresa hace vida normal en su casa.
Desde entonces hasta este domingo en el que la atiende el SUMMA y traslada al hospital de Alcorcón pasan 5 días. 5 días sin aislar, el primero de una larga cadena de errores.

Las horas más amargas de Teresa

7 de agosto: El misionero Miguel Pajares es trasladado a España desde Liberia. 

12 de agosto: El religioso español de 75 años infectado con ébola muere, convirtiéndose en el primer fallecido por el virus en Europa. La auxiliar de enfermería Teresa Pajares le atendió sin ningún problema.

 21 de septiembre: Otro misionero, Manuel García Viejo, es repatriado desde Sierra Leona hasta España. 

22 de septiembe: García Viejo es ingresado en el hospital Carlos III. La auxiliar Teresa Romero entró en una ocasión a la habitación en la que se encontrada. 

25 de septiembre: Fallece García Viejo a los 70 años. De nuevo, Teresa entra en la habitación y maneja material peligroso. En esta ocasión, según ha reconocido ella misma, se toca la cara con un guante al retirarse el traje de seguridad. Supuestamente se contagia en ese momento, pero todavía no lo sabe.

 27 de septiembre: Teresa Romero termina su trabajo y coge vacaciones. El protocolo indica que debe tomarse la temperatura dos veces al día. En este mismo día se presenta a las oposiciones a Auxiliar de Enfermería en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. 30 de septiembre: 

La enferma empieza a sentir síntomas del virus, pero todavía muy leves y no lo identifica con el ébola. Llama al Servicio de Prevención de Riesgos Laborales del hospital Carlos III, pero al no llegar a superar los 38,6 grados de fiebre no la internan y le dicen que tome precauciones y que siga observándose. Más tarde la auxiliar acudió al centro de salud Alcorcón, pero supuestamente no se identifica como una de las personas que atendió a los misioneros. Le diagnostican gripe y le receta paracetamol. Antes de volver a su casa fue a una peluquería a depilarse.

 2 de octubre: Vuelve a llamar por teléfono al hospital Carlos III siguiendo las instrucciones que fueron facilitadas por teléfono por el facultativo especialista de riesgos laborales, e informa de que tenía fiebre de 38 grados. A partir de ese momento, la sanidad madrileña se pone en contacto con ella dos veces al día para que informara de la fiebre que tenía, según ha señalado el consejero de Sanidad de la Comunidad de Madrid, Javier Rodríguez. 

3 de octubre: Tiene 36 grados, sin haber consumido ninguna medicación, y niega cualquier incidencia con la protección personal y contacto con fluidos del paciente. 

6 de octubre: A las 4 de la mañana, la trabajadora llamó al sistema de alerta de salud pública con fiebre de 37,3 grados y tos, además de astenia (cansancio) y mialgias (dolores musculares), y desde Salud Pública adoptaron la decisión de trasladar un equipo del SUMMA 112 al domicilio de la paciente, desde donde fue trasladada a Urgencias del Hospital Fundación de Alcorcón. Allí le realizan una primera prueba del ébola y da positivo.

Una segunda prueba confirma el primer positivo por ébola fuera de África en el mundo.

 La enferma asegura que se enteró de la noticia por la prensa. Se la traslada desde Alcorcón hasta el Hospital Carlos III de Madrid, donde la ingresan en la sexta planta. 

7 de octubre: Comienzan a tratarla con suero de la hermana Paciencia, la monja que padeció la enfermedad en agosto. El marido de Teresa, que permanece aislado por precaución, avisa de que quieren sacrificar a su perro, Excalibur. Medio centenar de personas permanecen bajo vigilancia por precaución. 

8 de octubre: El perro es sacrificado por la tarde. 

El doctor Germán Ramírez, uno de los médicos que atiende a Teresa Romero, señala que la paciente ha reconocido que pudo infectarse al tocarse la cara con los guantes al quitarse el traje de protección. La evolución de Teresa Romero ofrece una ligera mejoría. 9 de octubre: La casa y la sala del Hospital de Alcorcón son descontaminadas.

 El estado de la enferma empeora. 10 de octubre: La paciente permanece estable dentro de la gravedad y los 14 médicos que la atienden deciden iniciar un nuevo tratamiento. 

Ver más en: http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/2262341/0/teresa-romero/cronologia-paso-paso/contagio-enfermedad-ebola/#xtor=AD-15&xts=467263

Obamas "War on Ebola" or for Oil?

Obamas “War on Ebola” or War for Oil? Sending 3000 Troops to African “Ebola” Areas that Happen to Export Oil to China

Global Research, October 03, 2014

Foto:elmundo.es

For a Nobel Peace Prize President, Barack Obama seems destined to go down in history books as the President who presided over one of the most aggressive series of wars ever waged by a bellicose Washington Administration. Not even George Bush and Dick Cheney came close.
First, before the ink was even dry on his Nobel Prize certificate, Obama announced the Afghanistan surge, pouring another 30,000 US military into that destroyed part of the world. Then came Obamas war against Libyas Qaddafi, followed rapidly by his war to try to topple Syrias Bashar al Assad. Soon after came Obamas war for democracy in Ukraine, otherwise better called Obamas attempt to provoke Russia into a new war confrontation with NATO by backing a gaggle of Ukrainian oligarchs, criminals and outright neo-nazis in Kiev. In July of this year, Obamas Administration was pushing the President to launch a second try at bombing Syria back to the Stone Age, allegedly to destroy ISIS, a looney Jihadist Sunni sect that was said to be a joint venture of the CIA and Israeli intelligence.
Now Obamas advisers, no doubt led by the blood-thirsty National Security Adviser, Susan Rice, have come up with a new war. This is the War Against Ebola. On September 16, President Obama solemnly declared the war. He announced, to the surprise of most sane citizens, that he had ordered 3,000 American troops, the so-called boots on the ground that the Pentagon refuses to agree to in Syria, to wage a war against....a virus?
In a carefully stage-managed appearance at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Obama read a bone-chilling speech. He called the alleged Ebola outbreaks in west Africa, a global threat, and it demands a truly global response. This is an epidemic that is not just a threat to regional security. Its a potential threat to global security, if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic, Obama continued, conjuring images that would have made Andromeda Strain novelist Michael Chrichton drool with envy. Obama added, That has profound effects on all of us, even if we are not directly contracting the disease. This outbreak is already spiraling out of control.
With that hair-raising introduction, the President of the worlds greatest Superpower announced his response. In his role as Commander-in-Chief of the United States of America announced he has ordered 3,000 US troops to west Africa in what he called, the largest international response in the history of the CDC. He didnt make clear if their job would be to shoot the virus wherever it reared its ugly head, or to shoot any poor hapless African suspected of having Ebola. Little does it matter that the US military doesnt have anywhere near 3,000 troops with the slightest training in public health.
Before we all panic and line up to receive the millions of doses of untested and reportedly highly dangerous Ebola vaccines the major drug-makers are preparing to dump on the market, some peculiarities of this Ebola outbreak in Africa are worth noting.
Certified Ebola Deaths?
The World Health Organization, under the Director, Dr Margaret Chan, in a press conference on September 13, sounded the alarm, warning that Ebola in west Africa was surging out of control. In the three hardest hit countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the number of new patients is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them, Chan claimed. WHO claims that almost half of 301 health-care workers dealing with alleged Ebola patients have themselves died, and that 2,400 people out of 4,784 cases in Africa have died of Ebola. On August 8, Chan declared the African Ebola situation a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, whatever that is supposed to mean.
A major problem for Chan and her backers, however, is that her Ebola statistics are very, very dubious. For those whose memory is short, this is the same Dr Margaret Chan at WHO in Geneva who was guilty in 2009 of trying to panic the world into taking unproven vaccines for Swine Flu influenza, by declaring a Global Pandemic with statistics calling every case of symptoms that of the common cold to be Swine Flu, whether it was runny nose, coughing, sneezing, sore throat. That changed WHO definition of Swine Flu allowed the statistics of the disease to be declared Pandemic. It was an utter fraud, a criminal fraud Chan carried out, wittingly or unwittingly (she could be simply stupid but evidence suggests otherwise), on behalf of the major US and EU pharmaceutical cartel.
In a recent Washington Post article it was admitted that sixty-nine percent of all the Ebola cases in Liberia registered by WHO have not been laboratory confirmed through blood tests. Liberia is the epicenter of the Ebola alarm in west Africa. More than half of the alleged Ebola deaths, 1,224, and nearly half of all cases, 2,046, have been in Liberia says WHO. And the US FDA diagnostic test used for the lab confirmation of Ebola is so flawed that the FDA has prohibited anyone from claiming they are safe or effective. That means, a significant proportion of the remaining 31 % of the Ebola cases lab confirmed through blood tests could be false cases.
In short, no one knows what 1,224 Liberians in recent weeks have died from. But WHO claims it to be Ebola. Note that the countries affected by the Ebola alarm are among the poorest and most war-torn regions in the world. Wars over blood diamonds and colonial genocidal tribal wars have left a devastated, mal-nourished population in its wake.
WHOs official fact sheet on Ebola, which now they renamed EVD for Ebola Virus Disease, claims, The first EVD outbreaks occurred in remote villages in Central Africa, near tropical rainforests, but the most recent outbreak in west Africa has involved major urban as well as rural areas... WHO further notes that, It is thought that fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are natural Ebola virus hosts. Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals such as chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
Then the official WHO Ebola Fact Sheet dated September, 2014, states, It can be difficult to distinguish EVD from other infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever and meningitis.
Excuse me, Dr Margaret Chan, can you say that slowly? It can be difficult to distinguish EVD from other infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever and meningitis? And you admit that 69% of the declared cases have never been adequately tested? And you state that the Ebola symptoms include sudden onset of fever fatigue, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhea, rash, symptoms of impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding?
In short it is all the most vague and unsubstantiated basis that lies behind President Obamas new War on Ebola.
War on Ebola or War for Oil?
One striking aspect of this new concern of the US President for the situation in Liberia and other west African states where alleged surges of Ebola are being claimed is the presence of oil, huge volumes of untapped oil.
The offshore coast of Liberia and east African Ebola zones conveniently map with the presence of vast untapped oil and gas resources shown here
The issue of oil in west Africa, notably in the waters of the Gulf of Guinea have become increasingly strategic both to China who is roaming the world in search of future secure oil import sources, and the United States, whose oil geo-politics was summed up in a quip by then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in the 1970s: If you control the oil, you control entire nations.
The Obama Administration and Pentagon policy has continued that of George W. Bush who in 2008 created the US military Africa Command or AFRICOM, to battle the rapidly-growing Chinese economic presence in Africas potential oil-rich countries. West Africa is a rapidly-emerging oil treasure, barely tapped to date. A US Department of Energy study projected that African oil production would rise 91 percent between 2002 and 2025, much from the region of the present Ebola alarm.
Chinese oil companies are all over Africa and increasingly active in west Africa, especially Angola, Sudan and Guinea, the later in the epicenter of Obamas new War on Ebola troop deployment.
If the US President were genuine about his concern to contain a public health emergency, he could look at the example of that US-declared pariah Caribbean nation, Cuba. Reuters reports that the Cuban government, a small financially distressed, economically sanctioned island nation of 11 million people, with a national budget of $50 billion, Gross Domestic Product of 121 billion and per capita GDP of just over $10,000, is dispatching 165 medical personnel to Africa to regions where there are Ebola outbreaks. Washington sends 3,000 combat troops. Something smells very rotten around the entire Ebola scare.
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook
Copyright © 2014 Global Research

Reactor de fusión viable

Diseñan reactor de fusión viable para generar energía a gran escalaPDFPrintE-mail
  
Imagen activaWashington, 9 oct (PL) Ingenieros de la estadounidense Universidad de Wisconsin anunciaron hoy que diseñaron un concepto económico de reactor de fusión que, de construirse a gran escala, rivalizaría con el coste de una planta a base de carbón.
La energía de fusión es, en teoría, la más prometedora de todas ya que no emite gases de efecto invernadero y sus residuos radiactivos no son duraderos; además de que cuenta con un suministro de combustible prácticamente ilimitado.

Sin embargo, el mayor obstáculo para su adopción es el económico, pues los diseños de la energía de fusión no son lo suficientemente baratos como para superar los sistemas que utilizan combustibles fósiles como el carbón y el gas natural, de ahí la importancia del nuevo concepto.

Los especialistas estadounidenses informaron que presentarán los resultados del diseño el venidero 17 de octubre en la Conferencia de la Energía de Fusión de la Agencia Internacional de Energía Atómica, en San Petersburgo, Rusia.

Ahora mismo, este diseño tiene un mayor potencial de producción de energía de fusión de bajo costo que cualquier otro concepto actual, dijo Thomas Jarboe, profesor de aeronáutica y astronáutica de la Universidad de Wisconsin.

El científico explicó que el diseño se basa en la tecnología existente, crea un campo magnético dentro de un espacio cerrado para mantener el plasma en su lugar el tiempo suficiente para que se produzca la fusión, permitiendo que el plasma caliente reaccione y se combustione.

El reactor sería en gran medida autosuficiente, lo que significa que podría calentar continuamente el plasma para mantener las condiciones termonucleares, el calor generado calentaría un refrigerante que se utiliza para hacer girar una turbina y generar electricidad, de forma similar a cómo funciona un reactor de energía normal, añadió Jarboe.

ro/nvo

jueves, 9 de octubre de 2014

Cuba contra el ébola

In Ebola respose: U.S. to Screen Airports

BREAKING NEWSWednesday, October 8, 2014 12:21 PM EDT
In Ebola Response, U.S. to Screen for Fever at 5 Airports
Federal officials said Wednesday that they would begin temperature screenings of passengers arriving from West Africa at five American airports, beginning with Kennedy International in New York as early as this weekend, as the United States races to respond to a deadly Ebola outbreak.
Travelers at the four other airports — Washington Dulles International, O’Hare International, Hartsfield-Jackson International and Newark Liberty International — will be screened starting next week, according to federal officials.
The screenings will be for passengers arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries hardest hit by the epidemic.

READ MORE »

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/09/us/us-to-begin-ebola-screenings-at-5-airports.html?emc=edit_na_20141008

Ebola Update

CDC and Texas Health Department Confirm First Ebola Case Diagnosed in the U.S.

What are body fluids? (Qué son fluídos corporales)

Ebola has been detected in blood and many body fluids. Body fluids include saliva, mucus, vomit, feces, sweat, tears, breast milk, urine, and semen. (sangre,saliva, mocos, vómito, heces, sudor, lágrimas, leche materna, orina)

Can Ebola spread by coughing? By sneezing?

Unlike respiratory illnesses like measles or chickenpox, which can be transmitted by virus particles that remain suspended in the air after an i,,nfected person coughs or sneezes, Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with body fluids of a person who has symptoms of Ebola disease. Although coughing and sneezing are not common symptoms of Ebola, if a symptomatic patient with Ebola coughs or sneezes on someone, and saliva or mucus come into contact with that person’s eyes, nose or mouth, these fluids may transmit the disease.

What does “direct contact” mean? Acceso directo de los fluídos de la persona portadora de ébola (viva o muerta). Contacto por los ojos, nariz, una herida abierta, una abrasión.

Direct contact means that body fluids (blood, saliva, mucus, vomit, urine, or feces) from an infected person (alive or dead) have touched someone’s eyes, nose, or mouth or an open cut, wound, or abrasion.

How long does Ebola live outside the body?

Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (such as household bleach). (lejía) Ebola on dried on surfaces such as doorknobs and countertops can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature. (varios días a tempeeratura ambiente)

Are patients who recover from Ebola immune for life? Can they get it again - the same or a different strain?

Recovery from Ebola depends on good supportive clinical care and a patient’s immune response. Available evidence shows that people who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years, possibly longer.
We don’t know if people who recover are immune for life or if they can become infected with a different species of Ebola.

If someone survives Ebola, can he or she still spread the virus?

Once someone recovers from Ebola, they can no longer spread the virus. However, Ebola virus has been found in semen for up to 3 months. People who recover from Ebola are advised to abstain from sex or use condoms for 3 months.

Can Ebola be spread through mosquitos? No, son mamíferos.

There is no evidence that mosquitos or other insects can transmit Ebola virus. Only mammals (for example, humans, bats, monkeys and apes) have shown the ability to spread and become infected with Ebola virus.

Obama Ebola wars

Risk of Exposure
Presidente Obama, ¿para cuándo sus tropas pacíficas activas en África?. Se pasó el verano en Hawaii. Descansando. Mientras, la epidemia avanzaba. Señor, Usted tiene graves responsabilidades pendientes. Por favor, guarde su deslumbrante sonrisa para tiempos mejores. Olvide los arrumacos.
Africa is dying. And you are waiting in your Oval Room. ¿Yes?. ¿You really can?

Africa is gold, oil, diamonds, Uranio, endemic poverty, lack of health care, HIV.

Jim Kim on Ebola

"The international community had failed miserably in its respose to the Ebola virus", Jim Kim, president of the World Bank
The president of the World Bank, Jim Kim, admitted on Wednesday that the international community had “failed miserably” in its response to the Ebola virus that has killed more than 3,800 people in west Africa and warned that the crisis now affecting Spain and the US was going to get much worse.
Amid signs yesterday that western governments were being forced to take the risks of a global pandemic more seriously, Kim said he wanted them to back a new $20bn (£12bn) global health fund that would be able to react instantly to emergencies.
“It’s late. It’s really late,” he said in an interview with the Guardian before the annual meeting of the Washington-based organisation this weekend.
“We should have done so many things. Healthcare systems should have been built. There should have been monitoring when the first cases were reported. There should have been an organised response.”
Kim’s warning that the global community was still not “moving fast enough” came as the Ebola virus claimed its first victim in the US and news of a case in Spain sent shares in travel and airline companies tumbling on stock exchanges.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the number of deaths from Ebola in west Africa now stood at 3,879 with no evidence that the epidemic was being brought under control.
The US has announced that it is scaling up its efforts and will tighten screening procedures at airports from this weekend.
Thomas Duncan, who died in a Dallas hospital on Wednesday after arriving from Liberia, lied in a questionnaire about whether he had been in contact with anyone affected by Ebola.
Britain also announced on Wednesday that it was scaling up its efforts to deal with the Ebola virus which has gripped three west African countries –Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
All of England’s major hospitals are making preparations to isolate and treat patients suspected of having Ebola if a serious outbreak occurs, while more than 750 military personnel and the medical ship RFA Argus are being sent to west Africa to help contain the outbreak.
RFA Argus has a fully-equipped hospital including critical care and high-dependency units, and will be sent to Sierra Leone along with three Merlin helicopters.
The announcement followed a meeting of the government’s Cobra emergency committee, chaired by the UK prime minister.
However the government has come under pressure to do more to prevent the disease spreading in the UK, including calls for the introduction of screening at airports and other transport hubs.
Keith Vaz, chairman of Britain’s Commons home affairs select committee, said: “We must do all we can, both at the source and in the UK, to combat the spread of this virus.
“Our immediate response should be to tighten regulation and introduce measures such as screenings at airports, train stations and ferry ports to ensure that this deadly disease cannot take more lives.
“Immigration officers are not trained health professionals. Greater support must be offered to ensure that they are equipped to deal with this outbreak to prevent it reaching the UK.”
Kim said he welcomed the UK and the US scaling up their efforts, but said that a high price was being paid for 11 months of delay and inter-agency argument.
“Now that there are cases in Spain and the US, the chance of the virus going to other European countries is fairly high,” he said.
In a blunt assessment of how the international community had coped with the crisis, Kim said: “We were tested by Ebola and we failed. We failed miserably in our response.”
He urged finance ministers attending meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund this weekend to provide the resources needed to treat Ebola patients in their home countries.
Under the Bank’s plan, resources would be provided to build big specialised treatment centres and to extend care to local communities. Every developed country should be prepared to send trained medical staff to west Africa, Kim said.
“We don’t need to stop all travel from these countries. It’s going to be impossible to stop people. The way to stop the flow of patients from these countries getting to the rest of the world is to have programmes that will treat people and increase survival dramatically. It’s possible.
“We need to have quality services in place so that the motivation to leave these countries goes away. It is a rational thing to do to get away because we don’t have the treatment in place.”
Rudimentary healthcare systems in the three west African countries have encouraged people to travel abroad for treatment, thereby spreading the virus. Before the crisis, Liberia had 61 doctors and 1,000 nurses, while Sierra Leone had 327 hospital beds.
“I say to finance ministers: look at what’s happening in Spain right now. It is going to get much worse.”
The authorities in Spain said they were dealing with the first case of Ebola that had been transmitted outside of the three west African countries – a nurse who treated a priest who had flown to Madrid for care.
The World Health Organisation said further “sporadic” cases of Ebola in Europe were now inevitable.
A World Bank study released on Wednesday showed that the economic cost of Ebola could be as high as $33bn over the next two years if the virus spreads to neighbouring countries in west Africa.
Kim admitted that the Bank had been having arguments with the WHO over Ebola but that they had now stopped.
“The most important thing is to stop arguing about what is or is not possible and to get on with doing what’s needed.”
Kim said his plan involved big treatment centres being set up by the US and the UK together with attempts to provide as full a range of services as possible into local communities.
He said: “It would be good if you could manage the treatment of people close to home. But you can’t do that without the personnel.
“We need to put the capacity into place so that cases are identified more quickly.”
Oxfam criticised the World Bank for its failure to invest enough in healthcare and in its promotion of user-fees and privatisation.
Nicolas Mombrial, head of Oxfam in Washington, said: “This has changed rhetorically under Jim Kim. We hope to see it play out in the Bank’s lending and advice from now. Ebola should serve to accelerate this change.”
Kim said that countries such as Sierra Leone had used financial support from the Bank to improve energy supplies, but added: “This has taught us that we have to be much more serious about putting health systems into place.”
He contrasted health systems in the three west African countries with Rwanda, which has 55,000 health workers. “If this had happened in Rwanda we would have had it under control.”
Kim said it was fortunate Ebola was not a quick-moving virus but the chances of a quick moving virus in the next 10 years is high.
“This was sloppy work on even a slow-moving virus like Ebola. If we have seen this with a slow moving virus we are not even close to being ready to deal with a fast moving virus.”
He said Ebola highlighted the need to have a speedier way of responding to health crises.
“Why don’t we have a multibillion dollar fund of $10bn, $15bn or $20bn set up so that once there is a global health emergency it can be drawn down on very quickly?” ("The Guardian").