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15 Feb ’12
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Time to be worried?
http://youtu.be/90--.....Y?t=27m47s
The United States is dramatically escalating its efforts to combat the spread of Ebola in West Africa, President Barack Obama announced Tuesday, during a visit to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
The unprecedented response will include the deployment of 3,000 U.S. military forces and more than $500 million in defense spending drawn from funding normally used for efforts like the war in Afghanistan, senior administration officials outlined Monday. Obama has called America’s response to the disease a “national-security priority,” with top foreign policy and defense officials leading the government’s efforts.
The officials said Obama believes that in order to best contain the disease, the U.S. must “lead” the global response effort. In the CDC’s largest deployment in response to an epidemic, more than 100 officials from the agency are currently on the ground and $175 million has been allocated to West Africa to help combat the spread of Ebola. Those efforts will be expanded with the assistance of U.S. Africa Command, which will deploy logistics, command and control, medical, and engineering resources to affected countries.
Officials said that the Department of Defense is seeking to “reprogram” $500 million in funding from the department’s “overseas contingency operations” fund to assist in the response. Obama has also requested another $88 million from Congress for the U.S. response, including $58 million to expedite the development of experimental treatments for Ebola.
The Pentagon will deliver 130,000 sets of personal protective equipment, thousands of kits used to test for the disease, two additional mobile lab units (one is already on the ground), and a 25-bed mobile hospital to the region. In addition, Africa Command engineers will construct additional treatment units, while the others set up a training center for to educate up to 500 health workers per week. The United States Agency for International Development will also airlift tens of thousands of home health kits and protection kits, including disinfectants and protective equipment, to be delivered to communities affected by the outbreak.
The U.S. effort, named Operation United Assistance, will be based out of Monrovia, Liberia, the country hardest hit by the Ebola epidemic and where the disease is currently spreading fastest, and will be commanded by an Army general. Obama’s announcement follows weeks of calls from global health organizations that global assistance, in particular American help, is needed to address the disease.
The World Health Organization announced last week that as of Sept. 7, there have been 4,366 confirmed, suspected, or probable cases of the disease, with 2,218 deaths. More troubling is the pace of infections, which has steadily risen despite local, regional, and international containment efforts. The WHO has predicted “thousands” of new infections in the coming weeks, calling on the global community to make an “exponential increase” in its response efforts.
U.S. officials have maintained that there is a minimal threat to the United States from the disease, but Obama warned in an interview earlier this month with NBC’s Meet The Press that failing to act could elevate the risk to the nation. “If we don’t make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa but other parts of the world, there’s the prospect then that the virus mutates,” Obama said. “It becomes more easily transmittable. And then it could be a serious danger to the United States.”
While the affected countries have imposed screenings at their airports to stop infected individuals from boarding aircraft, U.S. officials outlined efforts to build up detection and prevention capabilities at home, including new training efforts for airline employees and flight attendants to spot ill passengers. Customs and Border Protection officers manning ports of entry to the U.S. have also received additional training to spot potentially infected travelers. Currently the disease can only be spread by direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected patients.
U.S. officials said that in addition to the potential for the disease to spread to the U.S., they are concerned by economic, security, and political instability in countries heavily affected by the outbreak.
Earlier this month, Obama released a video to the people of West Africa, raising awareness about the disease
19 Feb ’12
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As I said in another forum, I expect this is how Ebola will make it stateside.
15 Feb ’12
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that's what I'm thinking, if it goes airborne, I'm headed out to the land
20 Feb ’12
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Crazy. Things are getting out of hand.
15 Feb ’12
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holy crap
Ebola Strikes EPS - 57 Agents Quarantined
As the Ebola virus continues to spread throughout the country like wildfire, the elite presidential guard- the Executive Protection Service, formerly the Special Security Service is the latest hit by the deadly disease.
57 of its officers and agents are currently being quarantined on suspicion of contracting the virus. Information gathered by this paper point to the fact the active EPS agents were being quarantined for attending the funeral and burial of a colleague reportedly died as a result of the deadly virus.
According to a document in the possession of this paper under the directive of the Director of the Presidential elite force-EPS, Col. Frank O. Nyekan, the 57 agents were asked to stay off the job for 21 days for participating in the funeral of Agent Ballah O. Dennis, who finally died on August 15, 2014.
A citation, under the signature of Agent Joseph Kollie, supervisor of the Human Resource Section of the EPS, issued on September 15, 2014, states: “by directive of the administration, through Director Frank O. Nyekan, the below listed employees of the EPS are hereby instructed to report to the office of the professional standard to state the role they played during the funeral service and burial of the late Agent Ballah O. Dennis,” the citation instructed.
The two page-citation further stated: “In the same vein, they are hereby advised to stay away from work until the Professional Standard Section comes up with analytical report and recommendations relative to their roles played during the funeral service and burial of the late agent. Let this administrative instruction claim your attention and act accordingly to avoid future embarrassment,” it warned. Agent Dennis was assigned with the presidential motorcade prior to his demised at the “hands of Ebola”.
According to our sources, the late Agent Dennis, along with other family members, accompanied for medication an ailing relative (named not revealed) to several hospitals in Monrovia, including the SDA Cooper, SOS, ELWA, and government- run John F. Kennedy Medical Center, but was rejected on the basis of his condition.
Later at the Goodwill Clinic in Fiamah, SDinkor, where they thought there would have been little hope, the patient was denied acceptance because medical practitioners at the clinic observed serious symptoms of the Ebola virus disease. The Ailing EPS Agent was later taken back to his residence in the Tulsa Field Community Gardinersville, outside Monrovia where he finally died.
When Presidential Spokesman Jerolinmek Piah was contacted via mobile phone Wednesday afternoon, he declined to comment on grounds that he only speaks for the president’s office and not the Executive Protection Service. When the Director of the EPS, Col. Frank O. Nyekan was finally contacted via mobile phone, he told this paper that he was in a meeting and could not speak to the issue.
However, it is unclear as to whether the Late Agent Ballah O. Dennis closely and personally interacted with President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in recent times prior to death as a member of the Presidential motorcade.
15 Feb ’12
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this is what the soldiers are going to have to overcome
Ebola outbreak: Guinea health team killed
Eight members of a team trying to raise awareness about Ebola have been killed by villagers using machetes and clubs in Guinea, officials say.
Some of the bodies - of health workers, local officials and journalists - were found in a septic tank in a village school near the city of Nzerekore.
Correspondents say many villagers are suspicious of official attempts to combat the disease.
More than 2,600 people have now died from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
It is the world's worst outbreak of Ebola, with officials warning that more than 20,000 people could ultimately be infected.
Neighbouring Sierra Leone has begun a controversial three-day curfew to try to stop the spread of the disease.
The team disappeared after being pelted with stones by residents when they arrived in the village of Wome - in southern Guinea, where the Ebola outbreak was first recorded.
A journalist who managed to escape told reporters that she could hear villagers looking for them while she was hiding.
A government delegation, led by the health minister, had been dispatched to the region but they were unable to reach the village by road because a main bridge had been blocked.
'Killed in cold blood'
On Thursday night, government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said the victims had been "killed in cold blood by the villagers".
The bodies showed signs of being attacked with machetes and clubs, officials say.
Six people have been arrested and the village is now reportedly deserted.
The motive for the killings has not been confirmed, but the BBC's Makeme Bamba in Guinea's capital, Conakry, says many villagers accuse the health workers of spreading the disease.
Others still do not believe that the disease exists.
Last month, riots erupted in Nzerekore, 50 km (30 miles) from Wome, after rumours that medics who were disinfecting a market were contaminating people.
Speaking on Thursday, French President Francois Hollande said France was setting up a military hospital in Guinea as part of his country's efforts to support the West African nations affected by the outbreak.
He said the hospital was a sign that France's contribution was not just financial, adding that it would be in "the forests of Guinea, in the heart of the outbreak".
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that more than 700 new cases of Ebola have emerged in West Africa in just a week, showing that the outbreak was accelerating.
It said there had been more than 5,300 cases in total and that half of those were recorded in the past three weeks.
The epidemic has struck Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal.
A three-day lockdown is underway in Sierra Leone in a bid to stop the disease spreading.
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