Nigerian Banks Adopt Massive Ebola Precautions!

Nigerian banks have begun handing their workers rinse-free hand sanitizers to scale down the risk of them contracting the deadly Ebola virus.

Pointblanknews.com gathered that several banks began the distribution penultimate week to all workers in their employ. Investigations revealed that in most of the banks, each worker was entitled to a pack of the product each week.

At between N700 and N1000 a pack, the new safety measure is expected to take a heavy toll on the financial health of several banks, a sector that has seen better days.The nature of banking in Nigeria requires several workers, particularly cashiers, handle an average of a hundred customers each working day.

World Health Organization (WHO) has listed constant washing of hands, wearing protective clothing when handling meat, as well as properly cooking meat, as effective means of checking the spread of Ebola virus.

The active ingredient in hand sanitizers may be isopropanol, ethanol, n-propanol, or povidone-iodine, and alcohol based hand sanitizers have proven to be more effective at killing microorganisms than soaps and do not dry out hands as much, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is a disease of humans and other primates caused by an ebola virus. First discovered in 1976 in Sudan and in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ebola virus has between the period and 2013 infected an average of 1000 persons each year.

It is localised in the tropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa. According to the WHO, the disease has a high mortality rate, often killing between 50 percent and 90 percent of those infected with the virus.

For yet-to-be known reasons, there has been an outbreak of the deadly virus in 2014, particularly in West Africa, where close to 1800 persons have been suspected to be infected in the year. It has killed hundreds in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, and recently, Nigeria.

Photos Of Ebola Testing On Travellers At MMA Nigeria!

Nigerian port health officials uses thermometer on travellers at the arrival hall of Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos Nigeria.

NIGERIA REJECTS SPECULATIVE EBOLA DRUG!

The Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the Nigerian Government was withholding its approval for the Anti-Ebola drug, Nano-Silver produced by a Nigerian because it did not meet the requirements of the National Health Research Ethics Code.

The speculative and highly controversial drug is readily available on the Internet and seems to enjoy a sort of attention because of the agelong benefits of the silver molecule.It baffles those in the know when, out of the blues, it was suddenly touted as a cure for Ebola virus in Nigeria. Noteworthy that the US claimed the drug is a pesticide and must be used with care.

The minister further opined that the Nano Silver drug, which was made available to the Emergency Operations Centre in Lagos on August 14, did not meet basic research requirements.

“The experimental drug, Nano Silver did not meet the requirements of the National Health Research Ethics Code.

“Accordingly, the approval was withheld by the National Health Research Ethics Committee”, Chukwu said.

 

RIFE: GEJ UNITED STATES DELEGATION SCREENED FOR EBOLA!

United States President Barack Obama on Friday stated that the US did not wish to take risks from the deadly Ebola virus and that some participants at an Africa summit taking place in Washington will be screened for exposure, the Reuters reports.

Obama said, “We are taking the appropriate precautions. Folks who are from these countries that have even a marginal risk, or an infinitesimal risk of having been exposed in some fashion, we’re making sure we’re doing screening”.

But controversy is now trailing Obama’s directive on participants coming to Washington for the US summit as the directive was said to have caused disquiet in certain quarters over the propriety of the screening of the high profile participants.

US Summit: Jonathan’s entourage not screened for Ebola virus – Presidency

But the development has prompted The Presidency to deny media report alleging that those on President Goodluck Jonathan’s entourage were tested and screened for Ebola virus on arrival in the

US where he is attending a three-day US-Africa Leaders Summit.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, who refuted the said report in his twitter handle yesterday, described the report as the handiwork of mischief makers.

He said the advance team of the president, with lower cadre of officials including journalists, that travelled earlier were not even screened contrary to the media report in one of the national dailies.

Meanwhile, Jonathan yesterday arrived in the US for the Africa-US Summit accompanied by aides.

He was received in Washington DC by US officials a few minutes before 2pm Nigerian time. He is expected back in the country on Wednesday.

Jonathan is listed amongst three out of over forty heads of states convening in Washington DC that will with meet US Vice President Biden for bilateral talks.

Jonathan is to join Obama and about 50 other participating African leaders for discussions that are expected to lead to greater progress in key areas such as expanding trade and investment ties, promoting inclusive sustainable development and expanding cooperation on peace and security.

The Summit which, according to a statement by Abati, is the first of its kind between an American President and African heads of state and government, is expected to greatly strengthen ties between the United States, Nigeria and other African countries. Leadership

U.S TO SCREEN TRAVELLERS FROM AFRICA FOR EBOLA

 

Additionally, President Obama announced Friday that officials would begin screening travelers for signs of Ebola before they leave Africa and again when arrive in the United States

The plan to bring two Americans stricken by the Ebola virus back to the United States for treatment has sparked a backlash on social media from some people terrified that the incurable disease will spread here as it has in western Africa.

“Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S.,” Donald Trump tweeted Friday. “Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!”

This mystifies infectious disease experts, who consider the viruses that cause Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and bird flu much more contagious — and therefore more dangerous to the public. Tranmission of Ebola requires direct contact with an infected person’s blood, vomit or feces during the period that he or she is contagious, something that is extremely unlikely for anyone but health-care workers. The virus is not spread by coughing or sneezing. Nor do Americans bury their own dead family members or friends, as some residents of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea must do with Ebola victims.

“There is zero danger to the U.S. public from these [two] cases or the Ebola outbreak in general,” said Amesh Adalja, a member of the public health committee of the Infectious Disease Society of America and an infectious disease doctor at the University of Pittsburgh.

“People who have Ebola are not walking around on the street. They are very, very sick and pretty much confined to a hospital and to a bed,” he added.

But what if you find yourself on an airplane, or in a hospital waiting room, with a symptomatic carrier of Ebola? What if you shake hands with an infected person whose hygiene is not perfect? Couldn’t you contract it that way?


Theoretically, yes, Adalja, acknowledges, but here he quickly notes something that most Americans don’t realize: Lassa fever, another horrifying hemorrhagic disease that kills about 5,000 people in West Africa every year, has been imported into the United States by travelers seven times in recent years, with no known case of transmission.

The most recent case: 2014 in New Jersey, according to Adalja’s blog.

“Ebola will find the Unites States just as inhospitable as lassa fever,” he predicted.

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, struck a similar tone in an interview with The Washington Post Thursday. “There is certainly a possibility that someone might get on a plane who is infected in Sierra Leone or Liberia and come to the United States,” he said. “But the chance of it being spread here the way you are seeing there is extraordinarily low, to the point that the CDC and me and other officials feel confident that there’s not going to be an outbreak here.”

Added Tom Frieden, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Ebola poses little risk to the U.S. general population.

Additionally, President Obama announced Friday that officials would begin screening travelers for signs of Ebola before they leave Africa and again when arrive in the United States.

The CDC is among the medical authorities that acknowledge that hospitals must do a better job of controlling infection. According to this report by the agency, one in 25 patients acquires an infection while under care in a U.S. hospital. Adalja agrees, but notes that the systems in place, even in small community hospitals, are much better than they are in West Africa.

The first line of defense is a doctor or triage nurse asking every patient who shows up with a fever whether he or she has recently traveled to West Africa, which the CDC has reminded them to do. Beyond that are ever tighter barriers — gowns, gloves and equipment used only on a patient when “contact precautions” are called for; droplet precautions such as surgical masks for flu cases; better masks for infections that can be transmitted through the air, such as tuberculosis, and negative pressure rooms for cases that require even better control, such as MERS.

Here’s how one Indiana hospital got it right when a MERS case unexpectedly showed up at the door.

If, in the end, you still want to worry about something, Adalja said, worry about the H5N1 bird flu that continues to infect poultry, and occasionally people, in Asia and the Middle East. It is currently fatal to humans about 60 to 65 percent of the time and is much more contagious than Ebola. Ebola’s fatality rate is also about 60 percent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/08/01/why-youre-not-going-to-get-ebola-in-the-u-s/?tid=sm_fb

UK IMMIGRATION ON EBOLA THREAT ALERT!

An asylum seeker was suspected of having the deadly Ebola virus after developing symptoms within days of arriving in Britain from Liberia, it has emerged.



The man, who was awaiting processing at an immigration centre run by security company G4S in Gatwick, was feared to be carrying the disease, which has killed more than 700 people in West Africa.

Immigration staff isolated the man and tested him for Ebola earlier this week, but he did not have the infection.

However the incident shows how easy it would be for the deadly disease to enter Britain through illegal channels.

Border staff at UK airports also claim they have not been trained to deal with suspected cases coming into the country.

Major British hubs like Heathrow have failed to tighten procedures even through airports in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa have introduced beefed up screening.

Keith Vaz MP, the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee, has written to Theresa May, the home secretary, demanding to know which entry point in the UK is most at risk and how border staff are being protected against infection.

“I am concerned that officers enforcing our borders suggest they may not be fully prepared to protect the public from the spread of this deadly virus.

“Prevention is not just better than cure, in this case it is essential. I have written to the Home Secretary to ensure that we are doing all we can to protect the UK on the frontline.”

Immigration Service Union general secretary Lucy Moreton said customs, border and immigration staff were worried about being infected and had not been given proper advice about how to deal with people suspected of being sick.

Mrs Moreton said: "They serve on the front line; they are the first point of contact usually for people coming off an aircraft and the concern is what do they do if they're confronted with someone that doesn't appear well who appears at the border.

"There is no health facility at the border, there is no containment facility and until extremely recently there has been no guidance issued to staff at all as to what they should do."

Ms Moreton said members had been contacting the union for guidance on what to do and how to protect themselves, but that it had no answers for them.

A spokesman for G4S said they were monitoring new entrants who had been in the country less than 21 days, the maximum incubation time for the disease.

Professor John Ashton, President of the Faculty of Public Health, said the disease was likely to spread further.

“Epidemic diseases do not respect country boundaries, which is why we need collective action to tackle the causes of outbreaks to prevent further tragedies,” he said.

Latest figures from the World Health Organisation show that the outbreak of the deadly virus in western Africa has infected more than 1,300 people and killed at least 729. Ebola has no vaccine and there is no cure.

The outbreak has centred on Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. There has also been particular concern after densely populated Nigeria reported what is thought to be its first death from the disease on Friday.

The scientist who helped to discover the Ebola virus has said there was a ‘good probability’ that someone with the disease would enter Europe and warned that health workers were particularly at risk.

However Professor Peter Piot, who was part of the team that discovered the virus in 1976, said that the likelihood the epidemic could spread in the UK was "very, very, very low".

Prof Piot, who is now director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said even if someone came to the UK during the incubation period, infection control measures in Britain would prevent the spread of the virus.

He said: "In Europe, the way I see it is that there is a good probability that someone will enter a country while incubating - when you have Ebola, frankly you can't travel you are so sick - it's the incubation time when people can enter the country.

"Here, because of our infection control and standards in hospitals, I think that the likelihood that would give rise to an epidemic is very, very, very low."

He said that he wouldn't mind sitting next to an infected person on a plane or train, adding: "By that I mean someone who is already infected but is not yet ill. Even in the early days when they have fever, that's also not risky for others.

"It's when they start bleeding, have diarrhoea and are vomiting, that's risky, but someone with full-blown Ebola infection can't travel. Even then you still need close contact. It's not like tuberculosis or Sars or the flu - that you can catch on a bus, but not Ebola.

"When someone is extremely ill - that is when they are very infectious, but at that stage patients can hardly move - they are not mobile.

"This is not a very contagious infection, you need close contact with someone who is really ill or who died from it.

"For border agents there is no problem that I can see.

"I think the key risk is for health workers. When someone comes (to hospital) with fever and some other symptoms health workers just have to ask where the person has been in the past month. If the answer is Sierra Leone then the red light should be flashing.”

Public Health England said border officers have been given guidance on how to identify and deal with suspected Ebola cases safely.

Yesterday, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond sought to reassure the public over fears that the disease could come to Britain, saying it was "most unlikely" it could spread within the UK.

He did, however, describe the outbreak as a "very serious threat", and health experts have met to discuss the possibility of people contracting the virus in West Africa and falling sick here.

The Government's emergencies committee Cobra met to discuss the situation yesterday, after which Mr Hammond said the "logical" approach was to tackle the disease at source in West Africa.

He said that the "frankly different" standards of infection control in the UK meant it was unlikely it could spread here, and that the disease appeared to be contained within the worst outbreak areas.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt also said that Britain had expertise in the NHS and extensive experience dealing with dangerous diseases through the work of organisations such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.