easytapper said

By the end of the year, there’s supposed to be 1.4 million people infected with Ebola and 62 percent of them dying, according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention],” Marine Corps Gen. John F. Kelly said. “That’s horrific. And there is no way we can keep Ebola [contained] in West Africa.

That's news to me.  It's going to "blow up" from 4000 cases to 1.4 million???  Seems like someone has been trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

starts looking for bugout bag and heads to get kids at school.

the cdc updated their projections 2 weeks ago for up to 1.4 million cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone alone by the end of January

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/09/23/who-forecasts-more-than-20000-ebola-cases-by-november-2/

it is just me, or does this sound it will cause it to spread more?

Officials Admit a ‘Defeat’ by Ebola in Sierra Leone

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Acknowledging a major “defeat” in the fight against Ebola, international health officials battling the epidemic in Sierra Leone approved plans on Friday to help families tend to patients at home, recognizing that they are overwhelmed and have little chance of getting enough treatment beds in place quickly to meet the surging need.

The decision signifies a significant shift in the struggle against the rampaging disease. Officials said they would begin distributing painkillers, rehydrating solution and gloves to hundreds of Ebola-afflicted households in Sierra Leone, contending that the aid arriving here was not fast or extensive enough to keep up with an outbreak that doubles in size every month or so.

“It’s basically admitting defeat,” said Dr. Peter H. Kilmarx, the leader of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s team in Sierra Leone, adding that it was “now national policy that we should take care of these people at home.”

“For the clinicians it’s admitting failure, but we are responding to the need,” Dr. Kilmarx said. “There are hundreds of people with Ebola that we are not able to bring into a facility.”

The effort to prop up a family’s attempts to care for ailing relatives at home does not mean that officials have abandoned plans to increase the number of beds in hospitals and clinics. But before the beds can be added and doctors can be trained, experts warn, the epidemic will continue to grow.

C.D.C. officials acknowledged that the risks of dying from the disease and passing it to loved ones at home were serious under the new policy — “You push some Tylenol to them, and back away,” Dr. Kilmarx said, describing its obvious limits.

But many patients with Ebola are already dying slowly at home, untreated and with no place to go. There are 304 beds for Ebola patients in Sierra Leone now, but 1,148 are needed, the World Health Organization reported this week. So officials here said there was little choice but to try the new approach as well.

“For the first time, the nation is accepting the possibility of home care, out of necessity,” said Jonathan Mermin, another C.D.C. official and physician here. “It is a policy out of necessity.”

Faced with similar circumstances in neighboring Liberia, where even more people are dying from the disease, the American government said last month that it would ship 400,000 kits with gloves and disinfectant.

“The home kits are no substitute for getting people” to a treatment facility, said Sheldon Yett, the Unicef director for Liberia. “But the idea is to ensure that if somebody has to take care of somebody at home, they’re able to do so.”

More than 4,000 people have died from the outbreak in West Africa, but the United Nations funding appeal remains woefully short, with countries pledging only one-fourth of the $1 billion that the world body says it needs to contain the disease, the United Nations deputy secretary general, Jan Eliasson, told the General Assembly on Friday.

Britain has pledged to get an additional 400 beds into urban areas around Sierra Leone by sometime next month. More rudimentary holding centers for patients awaiting space in hospitals are planned by the government here. And promises of international aid have increased substantially since the outbreak was first identified in neighboring Guinea in March.

But on Friday, Sory Sesay, 2, lay face down on a bench at his home, an arm dangling, his eyes open, listless and apathetic.

What remained of his family was sitting immobilized on the front porch with him at their house in Waterloo, just outside Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital. All of them were sick: his father, who had already lost his wife and daughter; his 11 year-old brother; and a 16-year-old neighbor, whose mother had already died.

They had no painkillers, no rehydrating solution, and only a sack of rice to eat.

“The government has not yet come in to assist us,” said Sheka Dumbuya, the local community leader. “Mr. Sesay is actually traumatized. We took them the day before yesterday to the health center, but there is no space for them.”

http://www.nytimes.c.....&_r=0

well damn

Texas health worker is positive for Ebola, would be 1st Ebola transmission in U.S.

A "close contact" of the health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas who preliminarily tested positive for Ebola has been "proactively" placed in isolation, Texas Health Resources chief clinical officer Dan Varga said Sunday.

[Previous story, posted at 8:55 a.m. ET]

(CNN) -- A health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas has tested positive for Ebola after a preliminary test, the state's health agency said.

Confirmatory testing will be conducted Sunday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Test results are expected to be announced later in the day.

The employee helped care for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person ever diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Duncan died Wednesday.

The health care worker is in stable condition, Texas Health Resources chief clinical officer Dan Varga said. The worker was involved in Duncan's second visit to the hospital, when he was admitted to treatment, and was wearing protective gear.

"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in a statement Sunday morning.

"We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."

The health care worker reported a low-grade fever Friday night and was isolated, the health department said. The preliminary test result came in late Saturday.

If confirmed by the CDC, the health care worker's case would mark the first known transmission of Ebola in the United States and the second-ever diagnosis in the country.

David Sanders, associate professor of biological sciences at Purdue University, said he thinks the CDC testing will probably support the preliminary results.

"It sounds likely that it's positive, and it's going to stay positive."

The news is not completely unexpected, an infectious disease specialist told CNN's "New Day."

"I think we've always expected that there may be another individual who will come down with the Ebola from the transmission of this one particular person, and we always felt that it was going to likely be one of his close contacts or one of the health care workers, because that's the way this virus works," Dr. Frank Esper said.

Esper said Texas officials have been keeping a close eye on people who had contact with Duncan.

"I will tell you that the fact that we identified this individual so quickly is actually to me a sign that the system is working," he added.

Globally, the disease has wrought catastrophic consequences.

The World Health Organization estimates more than 8,300 people have contracted Ebola during this year's outbreak. Of those, more than 4,000 have died.

Ebola is actually very difficult to catch. People are at risk if they come into very close contact with the blood, saliva, sweat, feces, semen, vomit or soiled clothing of an Ebola patient, or if they travel to affected areas in West Africa and come into contact with someone who has Ebola.

Those stricken with Ebola suffer ghastly symptoms, including vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain, fever and unexplained bleeding.

Three countries -- Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia -- have been hardest hit. And many of those who care for the ill have also come down with the disease.

The World Health Organization estimates at least 416 health care workers have contracted Ebola, and at least 233 have died.

In Liberia, health care workers are threatening to strike if their work conditions don't improve.

The first infection outside of Africa happened in a nurse's aide in Spain, Teresa Romero Ramos. She became sick after she helped treat an Ebola-stricken Spanish missionary.

Her case has prompted questions from fellow medical professionals about whether they are properly equipped to safely treat Ebola patients.

Spanish Ebola patient's condition worsens, doctor says

Another search begins

For weeks, health officials have been monitoring those who had contact with Duncan before he was hospitalized and isolated.

Duncan left Liberia on September 19 and arrived in Dallas on September 20. Four days later, he began feeling ill; the following night, he went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

But despite telling a hospital worker that he had arrived from Liberia, Duncan was sent home with antibiotics. He returned a few days later and tested positive for Ebola.

It's not clear whether the health care worker in the second Ebola case contracted the disease during Duncan's first visit to the hospital or after he was isolated.

But now, the search begins for all the contacts whom that worker came in contact with.

"We need a whole new crew of people to do contact tracing," said Elizabeth Cohen, CNN senior medical correspondent.

Because Ebola's incubation period can last up to 21 days, the health care worker's contacts will have to be monitored for three weeks.

The Texas health department said officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures.

"This is not an easy thing," Cohen said. "Keeping track of large numbers of people, taking their temperature twice a day, making sure they don't ... leave town, all of that is a lot of work."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/12/health/ebola/index.html?hpt=hp_t2