Global

Nurse's discharge leaves one Ebola case in U.S., though larger battle continues

Tue, 2014-10-28 20:29 — mike kraft

CNN Oct. 28, 2014

By Greg Botelho, Jason Hanna and Ashley Fantz,

The release today of nurse Amber Vinson from the Emory Unversity hospital in Atlanta hospital leaves a single person in the United States now battling Ebola, though MS Vinson and others -- including President Barack Obama -- stressed the fight against the deadly virus isn't over.

Dr. Craig Spencer is now the only person in the United States being treated for Ebola. The 33-year-old was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in New York City after developing a fever on Thursday, six days after returning to the United States and over a week after leaving Guinea, where he worked for Doctors Without Borders.

See complete story
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/health/us-ebola/
-0-

WASHINGTON POST GRAPHICS

Seven people were treated and declared Ebola-free; one died. Here is a look at the nine U.S. Ebola patients:

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/status-of-us-ebola-cases/1406/

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Nurse's discharge leaves one Ebola case in U.S., though larger battle continues
Log in or register to post comments

Obama Defends C.D.C.’s Ebola Rules as ‘Sensible, Based in Science’

Tue, 2014-10-28 19:42 — mike kraft

WHITE HOUSE SUPPORTS CDC GUIDELINES FOR CIVILIANS, EXPLAINS DIFFERENT TREATMENT FOR U.S. TROOPS

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 28, 2014
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

WASHINGTON — President Obama on Tuesday said that new Ebola guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were “sensible, based in science” and would help keep Americans safe while not discouraging volunteers from traveling to West Africa to battle the disease at its source....

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about Obama Defends C.D.C.’s Ebola Rules as ‘Sensible, Based in Science’
Log in or register to post comments

Seeking Unity, U.S. Revises Ebola Monitoring Rules

Tue, 2014-10-28 11:02 — mike kraft

UPDATE WITH DETAILS OF MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA MONITORING (Scroll down)

ROUNDUP OF DEVELOPMENTS IN THE QUARANTINE DISPUTE
NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 28, 2014

By SABRINA TAVERNISE, MICHAEL D. SHEAR and HELENE COOPER

The federal government on Monday tried to take charge of an increasingly acrimonious national debate over how to treat people in contact with Ebola patients by announcing guidelines that stopped short of tough measures in New York and New Jersey and were carefully devised, officials said, not to harm the effort to recruit badly needed medical workers to West Africa.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about Seeking Unity, U.S. Revises Ebola Monitoring Rules
Log in or register to post comments

Quarantine debate turning into a chaotic brawl

Tue, 2014-10-28 00:02 — mike kraft

THE WASHINGTON POST 0ct, 27, 2014
By Joel Achenbach, Brady Dennis and Lena H. Sun

The Ebola quarantine controversy has become a chaotic brawl involving politics, science and the law. The rules on quarantining health-care workers returning from West Africa are changing almost daily and varying according to geography and political climate.

The Pentagon announced Monday that Army personnel returning to their home base in Italy from Liberia will be held in quarantine for 21 days — even though none have symptoms of Ebola or were exposed to patients infected with the virus.

The military’s policy does not appear to track new guidelines announced Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which called for “high-risk” individuals and health-care workers without any symptoms to be directly monitored by state and local health authorities.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about Quarantine debate turning into a chaotic brawl
Log in or register to post comments

Insurance companies now write Ebola exclusions into policies; offer Ebola-related products

Mon, 2014-10-27 10:43 — mike kraft

HOMELAND SECURITY NEWS WIRE Oct. 27, 2014

U.S. and British insurance companies have begun to write Ebola exclusions into their policies for hospitals, event organizers, airliners, and other businesses vulnerable to disruption from the disease.

As a result, new policies and renewals will become more expensive for firms looking to insure business travel to West Africa or to cover the risk of losses from Ebola-driven business interruptions (BI).The cost of insuring an event against Ebola, for example, would likely be triple the amount of normal cancellation insurance — if the venue was in a region not known to be affected by the virus.

Read complete article

http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20141027-insurance-companies-now-write-ebola-exclusions-into-policies-offer-ebolarelated-products

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about Insurance companies now write Ebola exclusions into policies; offer Ebola-related products
Log in or register to post comments

Quarantined Ebola Nurse Kaci Hickox to Be Released by New Jersey

Mon, 2014-10-27 10:23 — mike kraft

ABC NEWS Oct. 27, 2014

by Josh Margolin

NEWARK --New Jersey has decided to release a nurse who was fighting an order that forcibly quarantined her after she returned from Africa where she treated Ebola patients.

The release was announced this morning after Kaci Hickox, hired a lawyer to sue over her mandatory 21-day quarantine. Shortly before the decision by the New Jersey Health Department, the nurse said she hopes "this nightmare of mine and the fight that I’ve undertaken is not in vain.”

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Quarantined Ebola Nurse Kaci Hickox to Be Released by New Jersey
Log in or register to post comments

White House Presses States to Reconsider Mandatory Ebola Quarantine Orders

Sun, 2014-10-26 18:56 — mike kraft

UPDATE: Under Pressure, Cuomo Loosens Policy for Ebola Quarantines in New York

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 26, 2014

by MATT FLEGENHEIMER, MICHAEL D. SHEAR and MICHAEL BARBARO

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about White House Presses States to Reconsider Mandatory Ebola Quarantine Orders
Log in or register to post comments

New York doctor with Ebola gets blood transfusion from aid worker who survived disease

Sun, 2014-10-26 11:40 — mike kraft

FOX NEWS Oct. 26, 2014

Doctors treating New York City’s first Ebola patient have given the ailing doctor a transfusion of blood plasma from an aid worker who was infected with the deadly disease in West Africa and survived.

Dr. Craig Spencer received the donated plasma Friday from Nancy Writebol, a health care worker with the Christian organization SIM. Writebol was treated in August at Emory Hospital in Georgia.

Bellevue Hospital, where Spencer is being treated, said Saturday evening that the 33-year-old physician is “entering the next phase of his illness as anticipated with the appearance of gastrointestinal symptoms.”

The public hospital said in a statement that the patient is “awake and communicating.”

Read complete story

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/26/new-york-doctor-with-ebola-gets-blood-transfusion-from-aid-worker-who-survived/

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about New York doctor with Ebola gets blood transfusion from aid worker who survived disease
Log in or register to post comments

No mandatory Ebola quarantine for health workers coming to Washington area

Sun, 2014-10-26 10:38 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON POST Oct. 26, 2014

By Spencer S. Hsu and Nia-Malika Henderson

One day after governors in New York, New Jersey and Illinois imposed a mandatory 21-day quarantine on medical workers returning from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa, public health officials in the District, Maryland and Virginia did not follow suit Saturday, intensifying a national debate over how to prevent the spread of the disease.

Health officials are working to develop a consistent approach for the area around the nation’s capital. Joxel Garcia, director of the D.C. Department of Health, said that a mandatory quarantine was not scientifically justified and could have a chilling effect on the medical personnel, many of them volunteers, needed to treat Ebola patients at home and overseas.

The differing views highlight challenges confronting federal and state politicians as well as health officials as they race to keep up with fast-changing circumstances and competing political, scientific and legal demands, experts said.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about No mandatory Ebola quarantine for health workers coming to Washington area
1 comment
Log in or register to post comments

As Ebola Spread in Dallas, New York Honed Protocol

Sat, 2014-10-25 21:39 — mike kraft

Health workers at Bellevue Hospital in New York on Oct. 8 demonstrated the gear that staff would wear to treat patients with Ebola. Credit Adrees Latif/Reuters

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 25, 2014

Detailed description of the differences in the way the Dallas Presbyterian Hospital and New York's Bellevue hospital handled their Ebola patients:.

"When Craig Spencer, a young doctor just back from treating patients with Ebola in Guinea, fell ill with the virus in New York on Thursday, the paramedics who went to get him were dressed in protective suits. He entered Bellevue Hospital through a rear door, far from the busy emergency room, and was taken to a state-of-the-art isolation ward that was locked and guarded.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report