• Sierra Leone Cancels Public Christmas, New Year's Celebrations to Curtail Ebola

    Only about 10 percent of all people who are living in Sierra Leone are Christians who will be celebrating this holiday season, but the government has already put necessary restrictions on the festivities due to the continuing Ebola outbreak. Sierra Leone is now the hardest-hit country, surpassing the illness and death that even Liberia has seen, and its leaders are scrambling to find ways to keep Ebola from spreading. That has led them to determine that public Christmas and New Year's celebrations are now banned. People are now forbidden from gathering in groups to celebrate as they normally would. Military personnel will once again take to the streets to make sure that groups of revelers are not gathering together, which would basically intensify the risk of spreading the virus to each other. This is just one more way the everyday lives of the people of West Africa have been disrupted by this epidemic. As of Dec. 10, Sierra Leone had recorded 8,000 cases of Ebola and nearly 1,900 deaths. In West Africa as a whole, more than 18,000 people have been infected, resulting in more than 6,500 deaths. Those numbers are pretty harrowing, but the truth is many at the World Health Organization feared they would be far higher by now.

  • American Health-Care Worker from West Africa Admitted to Atlanta's Emory Hospital with Ebola Symptoms

    Nearly three weeks after Dr. Martin Salia died at Nebraska Medical Center due to advanced Ebola symptoms, we are hearing that there may be another new case of the horrific virus once again on U.S. soil. It was confirmed by Atlanta's Emory University Hospital that at 5:45 a.m. this morning it admitted an American woman who may have been infected while performing recent duties as a health-care worker in West Africa. The woman has yet to be identified and no details have been given out about her just yet, other than the confirmation that she is at Emory, which is waiting for test results. This facility has successfully treated four recent Ebola patients, including Dr. Kent Brantly, Amber Vinson and Nancy Writebol with its special isolation unit and well-trained staff. While the Ebola virus has infected more than 17,000 in Africa just this year alone, the U.S. has, so far at least, managed to keep it from turning into an epidemic here as well. When the first cases were confirmed here, it seemed like everyone was expecting the absolute worse but instead the few cases that have developed have somehow stayed isolated occurrences.

  • Dr. Martin Salia is 'Extremely Critical' While Being Treated in Nebraska for Ebola Virus

    The United States was Ebola-free for a few short days before the news broke that Dr. Martin Salia was being flown to Nebraska from Sierra Leone. As it turns out, Salia is a citizen of Sierra Leone but lives in Maryland, was working as a general surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in the country's capital. Kissy is not an Ebola treatment unit but Salia has also apparently worked in at least three other facilities that are. It's still unclear when or how Salia came into contact with the deadly virus, but five other doctors in Sierra Leone have not only contracted the disease, but also were killed by it.

  • Epicenter for Ebola Has Moved to Liberian Community of Jene-Wonde

    While the United States seems to have managed to prevent an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus — at least for now — people in West Africa are still suffering. A man traveled from a large Liberian city to the small community of Jene-Wonde in Grand Cape Mount County, bringing with him his sick daughter. Within days the man and his family had died, triggering one of the worst Ebola outbreaks so far. Jene-Wonde is near the border of Sierra Leone and is currently considered to be the epicenter of the deadly disease, according to the Associated Press. The community is extremely small with absolutely no established health care. That means that the leaders of the area have no idea how to handle the crisis. They realize that surrounding communities are afraid of them, so rather than initially inviting skilled teams in to help with the dead and sanitize the area, they instead tried to hide the outbreak by burying the dead in ways that ultimately helped spread the virus. Now as many as 10 percent of the community has been infected, and there is a realistic fear that if the Ebola virus is not contained, then everyone will succumb to it.

  • 18K Nurses in California to Strike Over Lack of Ebola Preparedness Training

    Ever since two Texas nurses tested positive for the Ebola virus after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, our attention has been sharply focused on making sure that health care providers have the necessary training to safely treat future patients. Several facilities across the country have gone to great lengths in an attempt to force administrators to make sure the proper training is offered and, in some cases, nurses who feel unprepared have voted to strike. In northern California, there are 18,000 nurses in 21 hospitals and 65 clinics owned by Kaiser Permanente who are planning a two-day strike beginning Tuesday, Nov. 11. According to Charles Idelson, a spokesman for National Nurses United, the union's contract with nonprofit Kaiser expired in August and was extended until October.

  • Amber Vinson, 2nd Dallas Nurse Stricken with Ebola, Slams CDC's Criticism

    Amber Vinson was the second nurse who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to become infected with the Ebola virus. She raised eyebrows for taking a flight from Dallas to Ohio, and then back again a few days later while supposedly having a low-grade fever. Vinson was finally declared Ebola-free and released from the hospital last week, and while she asked for her privacy, I think many expected to hear from her because the CDC momentarily let her be its fall girl. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had said Vinson should never have flown and that it would have been against its guidelines. But it neglected to mention how nervous the whole situation had actually made her because the nurses who cared for Duncan were never trained until the moment they had to suit up to actively care for him. Vinson told Matt Lauer in an interview this morning on "Today": "The first time that I put on the protective equipment, I was heading in to take care of the patient. We didn't have excessive training where we could don and doff, put on and take off the protective equipment, till we got a level of being comfortable with it. I didn't have that, and I think that's very important for hospitals across the nation, big and small. Once Nina came down with it, my contact at the health department called me and gave me a list of things to look out for, symptoms to look out for and numbers to call if I showed any symptoms. I never had a number to call the CDC directly. I would always call my contact at the health department. And then when I was in Ohio, and I was scheduled to leave, because I was so afraid of what could potentially happen, I did ask them, 'Is there anything that you guys can do to send for me? Do I need to leave earlier?' Because you know, I was worried." Lauer quickly reminded her of how the CDC allowed her to be painted as careless and foolish ,and it was obviously still a sore spot for Vinson, as she explained: "It made me feel terrible, because that's not me. I'm not careless. I'm not reckless. I'm an ICU nurse. I embrace protocol, guidelines and structure. Because in my day-to-day nursing, it is a matter of life and death. And I respect that fact. I would never go outside of guidelines or boundaries or something directly from the CDC telling me that I can't go, I can't fly."

  • Dallas Nurse Nina Pham Reunited with Dog Bentley after His Ebola Virus Quarantine Finally Ends

    Nina Pham's story came full circle yesterday when she was reunited with her King Charles spaniel named Bentley. Pham is the first nurse that contracted the Ebola virus after taking care of Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. On October 12 Pham tested positive for the virus and was transferred to National Institutes of Health in Maryland for treatment. There was a lot of initial concern for Bentley because the dog of a nurse who tested positive for Ebola in Spain was euthanized. Officials insisted that Bentley would be well cared for and that obviously was the case.

  • Kaci Hickox, Nurse Tangled in Ebola Scandal, Breaks Quarantine after Insisting She Has No Symptoms, Ready to Go to Court to Fight for Human Rights

    Kaci Hickox believes the battle she is waging is not just about Ebola. She is the nurse who returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa just last week and, upon landing in Newark, New Jersey, she was taken to a medical detention center to be quarantined. The scuffle began because Hickox reportedly had an elevated temperature when arriving at the airport, and so she was immediately quarantined in a tent. Eventually, Hickox was allowed to leave and returned to her Fort Kent, Maine, home, where she is locked in a battle over whether or not she is a threat to the general public. She has broken quarantine and is willing to go to court over the matter.

  • Nancy Snyderman Out Of Quarantine But Not Returning To NBC Post Until November As Network Hopes Backlash Will Subside

    There has been a lot of speculation in the last ten days over whether or not Dr. Nancy Snyderman would be returning to her post as chief medical editor on NBC after violating her voluntary Ebola quarantine. Snyderman and her crew spent weeks in Liberia covering the virus when one of the cameramen traveling with them became ill. His diagnosis on October 1 sent the entire crew back to the states where they were supposedly going to quarantine themselves for 21 days. Instead several of them were spotted picking up take out food in New Jersey. After weeks of backlash NBC has decided not to fire Snyderman just yet.

  • Dallas Hospital Made Mistakes in Treating Ebola Patients for Days Before CDC Changed Guidelines

    Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas may be one of the best facilities in the country, but when it comes to treating Ebola patients, it now admits it dropped the ball, with deadly consequences. The facility's chief clinical officer Daniel Varga admitted in a Capitol Hill hearing that some of the precautions taken by hospital staff, such as wearing more layers of gear than the CDC, directed actually put the staff at risk.

  • Experts Say a Travel Ban Won't Stop Ebola from Spreading

    It seems like the CDC is rewriting its protocol and rules regarding the Ebola virus on a daily basis. In the last week, we have learned that a hospital praised for its skilled care was not given the proper tools to treat those infected with Ebola and travel restrictions seem to change constantly. Even nurses such as Amber Vinson, who was confirmed to have touched base with the CDC before hopping a plane from Dallas to Ohio and back again, was misdirected in proper procedures. All of the conflicting ideas and confusion has caused many to think a travel ban might be the obvious way to go, but expert sources disagree, saying a ban will not stop Ebola from spreading.

  • Landlord Refuses To Rent To African Student Amara Bangura Over Ebola Fears

    This was bound to happen sooner or later- a college student from Sierra Leone was turned down for housing by a potential landlord out of an abundance of caution due to Ebola fears. Amara Bangura recently arrived in the U.K. region of Norwich from West Africa ready to continue his studies. He was obviously in need of housing and was almost instantly turned down by two potential landlords that took a look at his passport. One potential landlord sent Bangura a letter explaining their decision to rent to someone else.

  • NBC Crew Under Mandatory Ebola Quarantine After Violating Original Voluntary Agreement With CDC

    An NBC News crew has found itself in a bit of trouble this weekend. The network's chief medical correspondent, Nancy Snyderman and her crew that was stationed in Liberia covering Ebola had agreed to quarantine themselves after a cameraman working beside them tested positive for the disease. They returned to New Jersey about a week ago and was supposed to spend 21-days under a voluntary quarantine but apparently at least one crew member violated the agreement that was made with the CDC. On Friday the entire crew was smacked with a mandatory quarantine.
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