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Ebola Update - CDC, WHO Are Not Closing Borders
OR Travel To DR Congo Despite Ebola Epidemic


By Patricia Doyle PhD
Exclusive To Rense.com
5-20-18

Health officials seem intent on letting Ebola loose once again.  This is yet another dark sign of the intentional assault on our cultural immune system and  disease-resistance which was acquired through a century of hard work and common sense immigration policies which, as you well know, has all but been completely abandoned.

These once intelligent policies gave us the healthiest standard of living on the planet but because of the zionist, communist Bolshevik plans to destroy Western Christian-based civilization, we are rapidly falling into Third World status.  It is all, as you well know, being done with full deliberation and the tacit and active approval of all three branches of the US government.  We have been invaded, penetrated and betrayed.  Those are the facts.  

Think of all the diseases that have been intentionally allowed into America…from the new, super-deadly Chagas disease to XDR TB to Leprosy and dozens more, the assault on our country is catastrophic.   And not a single word, let alone a tweet, from the zionist tool in the White House.  

Here is the latest on the Ebola outbreak in Africa...

P ublished Date: 2018-05-20 11:28:20
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Ebola update (12): update, USA, response
Archive Number: 20180520.5806396

EBOLA UPDATE (12): UPDATE, USA, RESPONSE
****************************** **********
A ProMED-mail post
http://www.promedmail.org
ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
http://www.isid.org

In this update:

Update:
-------
[1] Epidemiologic situation
[2] WHO External Situation Report 3
[3] IOM report [International Organization for Migration report]

United States
------
[4] US response
[5] CDC

Response
-----
[6] Vaccine
[7] Congo River: Ebola super highway
[8] Community

******
[1] Epidemiologic situation
Date: Sat 19 May 2018
Source: Minister of Health Press Release [edited]
https://mailchi.mp/ 25eec92f0c9d/ebola_rdc_19mai? e=e31272c28f


- A total of 46 cases of haemorrhagic fever were reported in the region, including 21 confirmed, 21 probable and 4 suspected.
- 3 new suspected cases, including 2 in Iboko and 1 in Wangata;
- 4 cases confirmed by laboratory test in Iboko;
- 1 confirmed case death in Bikoro;
- The total of deaths has thus risen from 25 to 26; lethality among the confirmed is 9.5% (2 out of 21);
- No new health professionals have been contaminated [infected];
- The index case has not yet been identified; investigations are in progress.

Remarks
--------
- Numbers are harmonized with WHO [see next post] and field teams.
- The category of probable cases includes all reported deaths for which it was not possible to obtain biological samples for laboratory confirmation.

News from the Ebola response; Council of Ministers Sat 19 May 2018
------------------------
A Council of Ministers, whose sole purpose was the government response to Ebola, was held on Sat 19 May 2018. The Minister of Health, Dr. Oly Ilunga Kalenga, presented to his government colleagues the response plan as well as the current situation in the Province of Equateur. At the end of the Council of Ministers, the government decided to increase its contribution to the emergency response, which now amounts to more than USD 4 million US. In addition, the Council of Ministers endorsed the decision to establish free healthcare in the affected health zones and provide social care of all Ebola victims and their relatives.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[An excellent historical map of Ebola epidemics [outbreaks] in DRC can be found at the URL above.

Note that there have been 21 confirmed cases, which include 2 deaths, yielding what is likely an artificially low CFR of 9.5%. The remaining deaths apparently have not been confirmed by lab tests as Ebola. It is assumed they have not been tested. The issue with confirmation by RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) is likely preserving the RNA in the specimens and transport to Institute National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB) in Kinshasa from these remote locations. It is hoped that field labs will be established so specimens from suspected cases can be tested quickly. If the outbreak expands in Mbandaka, rapid testing is important to separate Ebola patients from other cases of hemorrhagic fever that are not Ebola virus disease, as well as from other patients in treatment centers. - Mod.LK

HealthMap/ProMED-mail map:
Democratic Republic of the Congo:
http://healthmap.org/promed/p/ 42129 ]

******
[2] WHO External Situation Report 3
Date: Fri 18 May 2018
Source: Relief Web [edited]
https://reliefweb.int/report/ democratic-republic-congo/ democratic-republic-congo- ebola-virus-disease-external- situation-1


Situation update:
Grade 3
Cases 45 [now 46 - 19 May]
Deaths 25 [now 26 - 19 May]
CFR 56% [now 56.5%]

Context
-----
On 3 May 2018, the Provincial Health Division of Equateur reported 21 cases of fever with haemorrhagic signs including 17 community deaths in the Ikoko-Impenge Health Area in this region. A team from the Ministry of Health, supported by WHO and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), visited the Ikoko-Impenge Health Area on 5 May 2018 and detected 5 active cases, 2 of whom were admitted to Bikoro General Hospital and 3 who were admitted in the health centre in Ikoko-Impenge. Samples were taken from each of the 5 active cases and sent for analysis at the Institute National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), Kinshasa on 6 May 2018. Of these, 2 tested positive for Ebola virus, Zaire ebolavirus species, by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on 7 May 2018, and the outbreak was officially declared on 8 May 2018. The index case has not yet been identified, and investigations are on-going including laboratory testing.

Update
-------
Since the last situation report, 4 additional cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) including 3 suspected and 1 probable case were reported from Bikoro and Wangata (Mbandaka City) health zones in Equateur Province as of 16 May 2018. In addition, 12 previously identified suspected cases were laboratory confirmed for EVD including one case from Wangata health zone in Mbandaka City, an urban centre with a population of more than one million people. No new health zones reported cases since the last situation report.

As of 16 May 2017, a cumulative total of 45 EVD cases including 25 deaths (case fatality rate = 56%) have been reported from 3 health zones in Equateur Province. The total includes 14 confirmed, 21 probable and 10 suspected cases in Bikoro (n=36), Iboko (n=5) and Wangata (4) health zones. Bikoro health zone remains the epidemic centre of the outbreak, reporting 80% of the total cases and 93% of the confirmed cases. Approximately 51% of the cases in Bikoro health zone were have reported from Ikoko-Impenge health area, the area from where the 1st cases were reported.

A total of 532 contacts are being followed in Bikoro (n=330), Iboko (n=120) and Wangata (n=52) health zones. As of 16 May 2018, 18 samples have been collected, of which 14 tested positive by PCR, 13 from Bikoro and one from Wangata. Eleven of the confirmed cases were tested in the mobile laboratory installed by INRB in Bikoro; the remaining 3 were tested at the INRB, Kinshasa.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[HealthMap/ProMED-mail map:
Democratic Republic of the Congo:
http://healthmap.org/promed/p/ 42129 ]

******
[3] IOM report [International Organization for Migration report]
Date: Fri 18 May 2018
Source: Relief web [edited]
https://reliefweb.int/report/ democratic-republic-congo/un- migration-agency-dr-congo- government-enhance-ebola- screenings


On 5 May 2018, IOM, the UN Migration Agency, is supporting the deployment of teams of epidemiologists and medical staff from the Ministry of Health and the National Programme of Hygiene at Borders (PNHF) in Kinshasa to 16 points of entry along the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) borders. This deployment is part of an effort to prevent and control the outbreak of Ebola in the DRC, supporting the World Health Organization (WHO).

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[HealthMap/ProMED-mail map:
Democratic Republic of the Congo:
http://healthmap.org/promed/p/ 42129 ]

******
[4] US response
Date: Fri 18 May 2018
Source: Washington Post [edited]
https://www.washingtonpost. com/news/to-your-health/wp/ 2018/05/18/u-s-plans-to- provide-several-million- dollars-for-ebola-outbreak-in- congo/


The United States is planning to provide several million dollars to support the global response to the growing Ebola outbreak in Congo, officials said Fri [18 May 2018]. Details are being finalized, and an announcement is expected early next week.

WHO officials estimate that outbreak-control efforts will cost USD 26 million over the next 3 months. So far, the WHO has received commitments for about USD 9 million.

"So, we are about USD 17 million short," Peter Salama, the WHO's lead official in charge of epidemic response, said during a news conference in Geneva on Friday [18 May 2018]. That may sound like a considerable amount, he said, but not compared with the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which cost between USD 3 billion and USD 4 billion. "So, this is a relatively small investment to stamp out a small outbreak quickly for a major gain in lives saved, but also in dollars saved," he said.

On Fri [18 May 2018], the U.S. Agency for International Development said that it has provided an initial USD one million to the WHO to combat the outbreak. Several million additional dollars are expected to be announced next week to support the effort, according to U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details are being worked out.

These funds would be separate from the USD 252 million in unused funds remaining from U.S. reaction to the 2014 Ebola epidemic that the administration wants Congress to cut.

USAID is also sending 2000 personal-protective-equipment kits, laboratory materials for diagnostic testing and other technical support. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already mobilized its country office in Congo, which includes several experts who had extensive experience handling the 2014 West Africa epidemic. The CDC has also assembled a team of about a dozen experts who are planning to deploy to Congo within days. Their expertise includes infection control, contact tracing and emergency operations management.

One of the agency's senior Ebola experts, Pierre Rollin, said in an interview this week that multiple CDC teams are preparing to deploy if needed, with each shift in the Congo expected to last 4-6 weeks.

"We have intensified our support to the response," Anne Schuchat, the CDC's principal deputy director, said in an interview Friday [18 May 2018]. Because the WHO and Congolese officials have responded quickly so far, the CDC has not yet needed to send in large teams. But the next few days will be critical, she said, to prevent the virus from spreading to another country, and for personnel on the ground in the outbreak areas to keep up with contact tracing. But unlike the West Africa epidemic, she said, "this is not thousands of new cases, which is what we were dealing with in the [West African] capitals."

The National Security Council, which last week lost its top official responsible for leading the U.S. response to pandemics and split up the global-health-security team he oversaw, is managing the overall response in coordination with the CDC and USAID, a spokesperson said.

[Byline: Lena H. Sun]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

******
[5] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]
Date: Fri [18 May 2018]
Source: Reuters [edited]
https://www.reuters.com/ article/us-health-ebola-cdc/ ebola-experts-from-u-s- centers-for-disease-control- ready-to-go-to-congo- idUSKCN1IJ2PU


Ebola experts from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are ready to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where an Ebola outbreak has spread to a major African city, increasing the risk of a global outbreak.

Earlier this week, the CDC issued a level one travel alert for the DRC, Skinner said, warning travelers that there is a disease outbreak and to take precautions.

"Right now, we're thinking the risk of importation of Ebola to the United States is very low," Skinner said. "We're not recommending any additional border intervention or enhanced screening at the moment."

As part of its Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network, the World Health Organization asked the CDC for a list of about a dozen experts in epidemiology, diagnostics and healthcare worker safety who are ready to travel to the hot zone if asked to do so by WHO, Skinner said.

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

******
[6] Vaccine
Date: Fri 18 May 2018
Source: Reuters [edited]
https://www.reuters.com/ article/us-health-ebola- vaccine-analysis/in-congo- outbreak-ebola-vaccine-faces- reality-tests-idUSKCN1IJ121


An experimental Ebola vaccine to be deployed in an outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo has conquered some major scientific hurdles in giving high protection, but it now faces extreme real-world tests including heat, humidity, language barriers and lack of roads.

Because it is not yet licensed, the Merck & Co vaccine has been offered to Congo under a "compassionate use" protocol agreed by national and international health and ethics authorities.

This means fully informed, signed consent is needed from every person who wants the shot. And in the current Ebola outbreak, that makes logistical, cultural and language barriers the ultimate challenges, global health specialists say.

The hurdles illustrate how hard it can be to move from laboratory to real life, especially in remote communities with no functioning health systems. The Congo outbreak is a chance to reality-test a vaccine against a disease epidemic that can't be replicated in controlled environments.

The vaccine supplies so far will be enough to vaccinate 50 rings of 150 people, according to the WHO. It said that as of 15 May 2018, 527 contacts of Ebola cases and suspected cases had been identified and were being followed up.

Health workers will need to use translators for several local languages and explain the vaccine to leaders from different communities, Salama said. Limited communications, health facilities, and electricity, as well as the need to keep the vaccine in a "cold chain" at -60 to -80 C [-76 to -112 F] will also present challenges.

"These are make or break issues," said Salama, who visited Congo last weekend. "There are a lot of complex logistics and social science here."

Acceptance
-------
Experts also caution that acting too hastily could jeopardize the potential success of a vaccine deployment.

Micaela Serafini, a medical director for the international charity Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF), who is helping coordinate the response to the Congo outbreak, said its teams are planning for at least 45 minutes of discussion and information-sharing with each person, with a translator present, before signed consent would be obtained.

Then, she told Reuters, medical teams would probably return the following day to administer the vaccine.

"What we need to avoid at all costs is an uncontrolled situation in the communities affected," she said.

Even though the vaccine has still yet to get a license, the emergency response teams say its safety and efficacy data are strong. And despite lingering suspicions in some of the more remote parts of Africa of western medicines, experts anticipate widespread public acceptance.

Congo's health minister Oly Ilunga signaled on Thu [17 May 2018] that his government was fully behind the shot's use.

"The vaccine will help us save lives in the Equateur province, in the DRC and in neighboring countries. The vaccine allows us to limit the virus, so we must use it," he said.

Merck and the GAVI vaccine alliance have said a stockpile of more than 300 000 doses of the shot is available for emergency use in an epidemic.

Salama and Serafini said one tricky task may be managing a scenario where larger groups of people not identified as high-risk contacts of an Ebola case might demand the vaccine for themselves or their family.

"We want to make sure we are engaging whole communities so that the broader community understands what we are doing and why," said Salama. "That is particularly important when you're not targeting everyone, because naturally people will ask: 'How come you're vaccinating that person but not me?'"

[Byline: Kate Kelland]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[In addition to the contacts, Ebola healthcare workers and frontline works are vaccinated, said Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who was part of the research team leading the Ebola vaccine trials. Anyone receiving the vaccine will then be checked 3, 14, 21, 42, 63 and 84 days later.

The [rVSV ZEBOV] vaccine isn't the only Ebola vaccine out there. There are multiple Ebola vaccine candidates in development, including the cAd3-EBOZ vaccine, which was found to be well-tolerated and induced an immune response, according to findings presented in February 2016. (From https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/ 18/health/ebola-outbreak-drc- intl/index.html ). - Mod.LK

******
[7] Congo River: Ebola super highway
Date: Sat 19 May 2018
Source: The Hill [edited]
http://thehill.com/policy/ healthcare/388401-the-ebola- superhighway-why-a-new- outbreak-terrifies-public- health


In all 8 of the previous known Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the virus has been contained within remote jungle villages or relatively small towns, where isolated populations are less likely to spread the disease.

But the Congo River is effectively the region's highway system. Barges and boats travel from Kisangani in the east through major cities including Bumba, Mbandaka, and, eventually, Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC and home to more than 11 million people, as well as Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.

"The Congo River connects 3 national capitals and multiple other large cities," said Jeremy Konyndyk, who served as head of USAID's Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance during the 2014-2015 outbreak. "The fact that there are now several cases in an urban center of more than a million people underscores the potential for this outbreak to get out of control."

If the Ebola virus traveled upriver from Bikoro to Mbandaka, some officials wonder, has it also traveled downstream toward Kinshasa, which offers direct air traffic to cities including Brussels, Paris, Dubai and Lagos, Nigeria?

"We don't know what's happening along the river, because the river is used by a lot of barges," said Pierre Rollin, one of the world's leading experts on the Ebola virus at the CDC. "None of the outbreaks have been by the river or in the big towns. So, we have a lot of caution before claiming we know what's going on."

Previous outbreaks have been snuffed out in the Congo, Rollin said, because the area is so remote that humans did not have a chance to travel far enough to transmit the virus before succumbing.

That was not the case 4 years ago in West Africa, where the virus spread widely across international boundaries. Commercial and cultural travel throughout Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- across borders drawn a century and a half ago by colonizers with little regard for traditional tribal boundaries -- is far more common than it is in the Congo.

The present outbreak has raised anew questions about WHO and its capacity to respond to deadly viral threats. In the wake of the West African outbreak before, when an ill-prepared WHO endured withering criticism for its lackluster response to the initial round of cases, the agency has undergone a remarkable round of self-flagellation, reorganizing to prioritize emergency preparedness and response while cutting bureaucracy.

"We've seen WHO activate much more quickly, at much larger scale, and in more effective partnership with players like Doctors Without Borders," said Konyndyk, who sat on an independent panel that advised WHO on reforming its emergency functions after the West African outbreak.

The 1st WHO investigative team arrived in Bikoro on 5 May 2018, about a month after the 1st suspected cases are likely to have emerged in Ikoko Impenge. A logistics team arrived on 9 May 2018, and the United Nations began daily flights carrying supplies and personnel between Kinshasa and Mbandaka on 13 May 2018. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO's director general, visited Bikoro on 13 May 2018, in part to show the urgency of the situation.

"A major lesson learnt from the West Africa Ebola outbreak was that WHO needed a flexible fund to rapidly respond to outbreaks and emergencies," Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman, said in an email from Geneva. The agency's new Contingency Fund for Emergencies, already activated in the Congo, has made cash available to responders far more quickly than in the case of West Africa.

Still, some wonder why it took the Congolese Ministry of Health and the WHO a month to spot the virus in the 1st place. "We are doing better at response, but not much better at rapid detection, which is important," said Tom Frieden, the former CDC director who now runs the public health organization Resolve to Save Lives. "This was spreading for a while before [it was] recognized."

Aiding the response further is a new vaccine, finalized in the last days of the West Africa outbreak. About 4000 doses of the vaccine are headed to the epicenter of the new outbreak, where they will be used in 2 ways: 1st, health care workers, those most vulnerable to exposure, will be vaccinated. Then, those who have come into contact with anyone infected, and the contact's contacts, will be vaccinated, a practice known as ring vaccination.

"That part should really add another arm to the response. It's not the response by itself, because you still have to do all the rest," Rollin said.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is also far more prepared to respond to an Ebola outbreak because the virus is known to be endemic to the region. The 1st modern outbreak of the Ebola virus occurred in the village of Yambuku, about 370 miles from the site of the present one, back in 1976.

[Byline: Reid Wilson]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

******
[8] Community
Date: Fri 18 May 2018
Source: CNN [edited]
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/ 18/health/ebola-outbreak-drc- intl/index.html


The [WHO] is working with health NGO Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF), the Red Cross, and other partners to boost the number of special isolation wards to treat patients. WHO's own staffing will include 100 experts deployed in country by the weekend, said the director-general, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a team from the UK, and the European Union will also provide personnel.

"Tens of thousands will be ready," said the director-general, if a big response becomes necessary.

WHO personnel and others will conduct surveillance in the city and inform local communities on treatment and prevention methods in collaboration with the country's Ministry of Health.

Community workers have been deployed to Bikoro and Mbandaka to conduct information campaigns and engage with communities to help contain the disease, UNICEF said Friday [18 May 2018].

"It is crucial that communities understand how to protect themselves at home and in public places, especially in health facilities and schools," said Dr. Gianfranco Rotigliano, UNICEF representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Experience in previous outbreaks has shown that when we engage communities in prevention efforts, we stand the best chance of containing the disease."

Water and hygiene supplies have also been provided, as well as hand-washing points in 122 schools in both regions.

[Byline: Euan McKirdy, Meera Senthilingam]

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall


See Also

Ebola update (11): WHO, vaccination, response
Ebola update (10): urban case Congo DR, response, support 20180517.5801917
Ebola update (09): update, alerts, prevention 20180516.5799567
Ebola update (08): summary, emergency plan, vaccine, roads 20180515.5797415
Ebola update (07): Congo DR, nurse, Uganda susp, WHO, border, vaccine 20180513.5795881
Ebola update (06): Congo DR, susp, RFI, vulnerability, response, control 20180512.5794300
Ebola update (05): Congo DR, outbreak update, vaccine, preparedness, research 20180511.5792856
Ebola update (04): Nigeria, Kenya, Congo DR (ET), WHO 20180510.5791247
Ebola update (03): Congo DR (ET), WHO 20180509.5790577