Another doctor infected with Ebola, Peace Corps withdraws volunteers from Western Africa

Ravages of the Ebola outbreaks continue to mount as the Peace Corps has withdrawn volunteers from Western Africa and another Doctor, this time an American with Samaritans Purse, have become infected, turning himself in at the Lagos airport on his way back to the US. His family had return to Texas several weeks earlier. (Thanks to Catte Nappe for catching this), sending chills throughout the Western African health communities.  Peace Corps Pulls Volunteers Out of West Africa Amid Ebola Scare. His family continued home to Texas where they are being monitored for signs of Ebola Viral Diseases, aka EVD.  

Yesterday, I reported the tragic death, of Doctor Khan, Liberia's top, and only Ebola specialist. Several weeks ago, a Doctor from Uganda died from Ebola in Western Africa after coming there as a volunteer to help out in the crisis. Several dozen nurses, and other health workers have died from exposure to the virus despite taking careful precautions, following all safety protocol, and wearing the Personal Protective Equipment.

Health officials are investigating why and how these infections are occurring so often. Fear of catching Ebola has caused health care workers in some areas to flee. Also, due to misunderstanding and suspicious health care workers have been attacked by rural villagers suspecting the health care workers are spreading the disease which seems to arrive and get dramatically worse at the same time health workers appear in response to first cases.

Liberian and Siera Leone are two of the 10 poorest areas in the world and many of the field hospitals are just tents on a mud floor and have no electricity, running water, sewage, or anything but cots. Many rural western Africans have no formal schooling at all, and are accustomed to using village "witch doctors," I apologize if this seems rude, I am not trying to be insensitive to traditions, but one such doctor seems responsible for infecting nearly everyone in a village after suggesting Ebola was spread by snakes, and conducted a ritual involving group touching.

The annual per capita health care expenditure in Liberia is apparently about $8 per person per year.  
     

“The Peace Corps has enjoyed long partnerships with the government and people of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea and is committed to continuing volunteers’ work there,” the group’s statement reads. “A determination on when volunteers can return will be made at a later date.”

The organization currently has 102 volunteers in Guinea, 108 in Liberia, and 130 in Sierra Leone, it says. On Wednesday, CBS News reported two Peace Corps volunteers in Liberia had been quarantined after possibly being exposed to the deadly virus, though neither currently exhibits symptoms.

As of July 23, 672 people have died from Ebola during the current outbreak, which has spread between Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and other parts of West Africa. Earlier this week, a hospital in Nigeria shuttered its doors after admitting a man who had contracted and later died from the virus.

As of the WHO announcement of July 23, 672 people have died from the Ebola virus, one of the deadliest of any, usually killing 90% of those infected. For some reason, "only" 60% of those infected so far have died in this outbreak.

Airports around the world are now screening all passengers from Western African and several African airlines have canceled flights to and from the affected region.

Kent Brantly, American doctor who contracted Ebola, in grave condition

American Dr. Kent Brantly has spent months treating Ebola patients in Liberia. He is now in an isolation unit in Monrovia, Liberia. His wife and two children who just returned to Texas are being monitored to see if they may become the first to have Ebola Viral Disease, EVD in the United States.

"I'm praying fervently that God will help me survive this disease," Brantly said in an email Monday to Mcray. He also asked that prayers be extended for Nancy Writebol, an American co-worker who also has fallen ill.

Brantly "went into Ebola exhausted" from treating Ebola patients, Mcray said after speaking with him Monday. His prognosis is grave and efforts to evacuate him to Europe for treatment have been thwarted because of concerns expressed by countries he would have to fly over en route to any European destination, Mcray said.

Brantly directed the hospital's Ebola clinic, wearing full-body protective gear in the Equatorial heat for upward of three hours at a time to treat patients.

Liberia's health ministry is investigating how Brantly contracted the virus.

"We're trying to figure out what went wrong because he was always very careful," said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister in Monrovia.

Doctor Brantly's family returned to Texas where they are being monitored for signs of the infection. They would be the first Americans to have Ebola in the United States if infections develop.

I've been finishing the closing of our former house in Weston, Massachusetts and preparing to depart to our new home tomorrow morning with G and our three cats. I had to take G to urgent care today for fungus, yeast, and bacteriological infections in places that can't be mentioned.

So I've about had it with biological pathogens today. Please excuse the lack of pictures or deeper analysis as I have got to now be Doctor HoundDog and clean out infectious material that the doctors only prescribed medicines for but did not "clean out."

Are any of you old enough to remember the original Star Trek episodes when Doctor McCoy would proclaim indignantly to Captain Kirk, "Damn it Jim, I'm a Doctor not a &^ &^% engineer!"

Will any of you doubt my empathy and bedside manner if I now exclaim the worse, "Damn it people, I'm an engineer, not a gosh darn Doctor!"

But, when duty and love call, we are all doctors of the heart so I need to scrub up and also move our final mattress into the garage for our last night in our former home which we have to leave professionally cleaned. It all done except my bedroom which has been command central for this operation and now is a medical center.

As always our prayers and best wishes for recovery go out to Dr. Brant, and all Ebola victims their families, all West Africans, and all those suffering from infections with dreadful biological pathogens.

Also, as I wrote last night, our prayers, or humanist best wishes are with Dr. Khan may he rest in peace after his heroic efforts caring for Ebola patients throughout this epidemic.

I may be able to add pix and updates on Dr Brantlys and his family a few hours from now.  

5:45 PM PT: U.S. Peace Corps volunteers exposed to Ebola. Two Peace Corps volunteers have been exposed according to CBS News, so they show no sign of infection.  

A Peace Corps spokeswoman confirmed to CBS News that the two "had contact with an individual who later died of the Ebola virus."

As a result of the growing spread of the deadly, incurable virus, Peace Corps is temporarily evacuating 340 volunteers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three worst-hit countries. ... There are at least three U.S. citizens known to have contracted the disease. Two are medical workers in Liberia, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol.

Another American citizen, Patrick Sawyer, died after flying from Liberia to Lagos in Nigeria. He had been a consultant with Liberia's finance ministry and was originally from that country.

Brantly's wife, Amber, said Wednesday he "remains very physically weak" but they "believe God will deliver" him from the deadly virus.

Amber Brantly and the couple's 3- and 5-year-old children left Liberia for a scheduled visit to the United States on July 20. Days later, Kent Brantly quarantined himself in the isolation ward of a hospital where he had been treating Ebola patients after testing positive for the disease. His host organization, Samaritan's Purse, has recalled nonessential employees from Liberia.

This is good news as the incubation delay, the time from exposure to first symptoms ranges from 2 to 21 days,

Dr. Stephan Monroe of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CBS News's Dr. Jonathan LaPook that the outbreak, which has already infected at least 1,200 people and killed nearly 700, will get worse before it gets better.

"Almost certainly those numbers are going to increase in the coming days and they probably represent an underestimate of the true number of cases because there's incomplete reporting of cases in most of the districts," he said.

6:54 PM PT: Thanks to Catte Nappe for catching error in reporting families travel. Yesterday, I had read that he and his family left Liberia and they traveled on to Texas, and incorrectly assumed they had departed together, Catte found a link indicating the family had left several weeks early. Sorry for error. .

7:48 PM PT: One extra note now that the final cleaning crew has left and all of our possessions are on trucks on their way to Florida. Now that an American doctor has been infected, we see a burst of coverage from mainstream media. Kogs can be proud that we've been covering this story from the first reports in March, Here are some recent articles I've written about Ebola since March of this year, and you can see kogs have shown great interest even from the first cases.  

     

                                                         

Another doctor infected with Ebola, Peace Corps withdraws volunteers from Western Africa Ravages of the Ebola outbreaks continue to mount as the Peace Corps has withdrawn volunteers from Western Africa and another Doctor, this time an American with Samaritans Purse, have ...	HoundDog	07/30/2014	19	49	-
Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, Sierra Leone's top Ebola doctor, dies of EVD after caring for over 100 patients Umaru Fofana and Adam Bailes bring us the sad news that Sierra Leones' top specialist in Ebola and viral hemorrhagic fever diseases, Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, died of Ebola after being exposed by one ...	HoundDog	07/29/2014	82	192	4
UN Investigation of Israel should go beyond war crimes to include genocide says Micheal Ratner Our moving truck came today for our move from Massachusetts to Florida. We had so much stuff that we filled this giant truck up so they are going to need to send a second one tomorrow which was ...	HoundDog	07/28/2014	69	50	-
497 Chikungunya virus cases so far in 2014: What you need to know about our new tropical disease G, Mish-Mish, Kashi, Yeti and I are just six days away from our drive from Massachusetts to Florida so I've been reading up on dreadful tropical diseases that are creeping up from the Mexico and ...	HoundDog	07/25/2014	49	60	2
Moon-like suit is supposed to keep Ebola virus out so why do health care workers keep catching it? Health care worker in Kailahun, Sierra Leone wearing ...	HoundDog	07/24/2014	102	87	-
Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, Sierra Leone's top Ebola doctor, contracts virus after treating 100 patients Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, Photocredit: Reuters Hannah Goldberg of Time Magazine brings us the sad news that Sierra Leone’s Chief Ebola Doctor Contracts ...	HoundDog	07/23/2014	53	134	-
12 Liberian health workers die of Ebola, others flee posts, 539 deaths out of 888 cases Yesterday, the World Health Organization announced a new total death count of 538 out of 888 total cases of Ebola in Western Africa. This post provides brief paragraphs from, and links to, four ...	HoundDog	07/11/2014	84	134	3
Deadliest Ebola outbreak in history happening now - June 26 WHO update 367 deaths outs of 600 cases This post is meant as a brief update of my post of Wednesday, June 25, ...	HoundDog	06/27/2014	59	44	2
Ebola "out of control, we have reached the limits of what we can do," says Doctors Without Borders Dennis Lynch of the International Business Times reports Ebola Outbreak: Doctors Without Borders ...	HoundDog	06/25/2014	203	333	5
Ebola continues to spread in Western Africa, death toll at 337 with 528 cases     Sylvain Cherkaoui, Cosmos,      Courtesy of Doctors Without Borders The World Health Organization announced the combined death toll from the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra ...	HoundDog	06/18/2014	7	32	1
West African Ebola death toll rises to 193 out of 291 cases, 34 new cases in Sierra Leone After appearing to be under control with a declining number of new cases, the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Western Africa is spreading in a ...	HoundDog	06/02/2014	16	29	-
W.H.O. declares international health emergency as polio spreads at alarming rate Dan Bilefsky and Rick Gladstone, of  The New York Times , report Polio Spreading at Alarming Rates, World Health Organization Declares. PARIS — Alarmed by the spread of polio to fragile ...	HoundDog	05/05/2014	30	34	-
350 cases of SARS-like MERS Coronavirus spreads to new countries from Saudi Arabia causes 100 deaths Egyptian Muslim pilgrims wear masks to protect against MERS: Amr Nabil/AP Photo Gillian Moheney from ABC News ...	HoundDog	04/28/2014	8	20	-
PEDv virus has killed 10% of U.S. pig population causing spike in prices Meredith Davis and Theopolis Waters of the Chicago Tribune report that a Killer virus spreads unchecked through U.S. ...	HoundDog	04/27/2014	43	55	-
WHO reports Ebola outbreak spreading: 50 cases in Guinea's capital Conakry including 20 deaths The United Nation's World Health Organization released new figures today for the death toll from Ebola spreading in Guinea, Mali, and Liberia today. These numbers may not look substantially higher ...	HoundDog	04/22/2014	32	37	-
Ebola outbreak is new strain 97% similar to Zaire strain, blamed for 135 deaths out of 197 cases Reuters reports that the West African Ebola outbreak ...	HoundDog	04/18/2014	5	20	-
Ebola out in Guinea is a new strain, did not spread from previous outbreak, death toll rises to 120 The Ebola Virus in West Africa Is New Strain, Scientists Say, and the outbreak in Guinea that has killed more than ...	HoundDog	04/17/2014	6	32	-
West African Ebola death toll reaches 121, rate of new cases slows, progress on vaccine in mice I have three articles for you tonight and for the first time since the outbreak started two bits of good news. Guineas reports that the number of new cases is falling, and our second articles ...	HoundDog	04/16/2014	9	31	-
Deadly MERS virus outbreak in Saudi Arabia kills 92 out of 228 confirmed cases   Ellen Knickmeyer and Ahmed Al Oman report that Saudi Arabia has confirmed a surge in cases of the virus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, (MERS), as ...	HoundDog	04/14/2014	10	31	-
Ebola outbreak is one of most challenging ever seen, death toll tops 100, will continue for months Terri Rupar, of The Washington Post reports that Doctors of the World Health Organization announced today ...	HoundDog	04/08/2014	13	43	-
Ebola death toll rises to 95 with 151 suspected cases My son just told me his girlfriend's sister is in Mali with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Doctor's Without Borders,  helping treat the afflicted and contain this epidemic and he and her family ...	HoundDog	04/08/2014	8	24	-
Preserving antibiotics for humans requires cutting back on their use in animal feed on farms The LA Times Editorial Board has taken a strong stand on the excess use of antibiotics in animal feed and on farms, after the original reporting they did last week I covered ...	HoundDog	04/07/2014	22	36	1
'Panic' as Ebola virus spreads across West Africa, mob attacks medical center Different images of the Ebola epidemic in Western Africa emerge depending on which reports you read. The death toll has risen to 90.  The World Health Organization is downplaying concerns ...	HoundDog	04/06/2014	53	119	2
Ebola death toll climbs to 85 out of 137 cases, in Mali, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone Two hours ago, Matt Smith, of CNN wrote Ebola toll tops ...	HoundDog	04/05/2014	10	37	-
At, 1,000 feet, Bouyant Air Turbines from MIT to break altitude record for airborne wind generation Last week's frightening announcements from the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports on global warming that our world must accelerate our conversion away from burning ...	HoundDog	04/04/2014	74	94	2
A new independent outbreak of Ebola occurring in Libera, death toll escalates. Hi Everyone. In order to get our discussion started earlier tonight I'm going to do things a little bit differently, and post a survey of five articles without my usual pix, to get discussion started,	HoundDog	04/03/2014	112	103	1
West Africa on high alert as ebola epidemic spreads in unusual pattern, Sauda Arabia cancels visas Concern over Africa's largest outbreak of Ebola in seven years is moving up to a higher level as the death toll rises and the spread of the epidemic moves into an unusual pattern breaking out at ...	HoundDog	04/02/2014	151	93	-
African Ebola outbreak expanding in unusual pattern,  78 deaths out of 122 suspected cases Linda Poon, of NPR, explains how ...	HoundDog	04/02/2014	39	67	-
Paul Ryan's Social Security lies, LA Times warns that Paul Ryan wants to rob your retirement money   As Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wisc. tries to reinvent math to solve the impossible problem of balancing the budget while not raising revenues and ...	HoundDog	04/01/2014	60	113	1
Ebola now confirmed to have spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone from Guinea, at least 70 dead Alphonso Toweh, of Reuters reports the latest update from Liberian health authorities confirm two cases of Ebola: WHO, and left 70 ...	HoundDog	03/31/2014	33	37	-
Senegal shuts border with Guinea to stop spread of Ebola, cases now in  Libera and Sierra Leone	HoundDog	03/29/2014	59	67	1
8 cases of Ebola found in Guinea's capital of Conakry, bats confirmed as viral reservoir, 70 deaths CBS News confirms that Ebola hits Guinea's capital Conakry, 8 infected Health officials in the West African nation of Guinea say they're now ...	HoundDog	03/28/2014	18	12	-
Bats discovered to be transmission vector in largest outbreak of Ebola in Africa in seven years 64 The BBC is reporting that scientists have finally discovered that bats are the hidden reservoir and transmission vector for spreading Ebola, as reported, in Guinea Ebola outbreak: Bat-...	HoundDog	03/27/2014	35	22	-
Africa's largest outbreak of Ebola in seven years now suspected of spreading  to Liberia (updated) Update: Bloomberg is now reporting that Africa's largest outbreak of Ebola in seven years is now thought have spread from Guinea to Liberia. The report below develops chronologically from this ...	HoundDog	03/24/2014	63	30	-