Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Timeline: How the recent Ebola epidemic turned into the worst yet


First published on Aug 6

Remember those infected and recently disclosed as dead had gotten infected two, three and four weeks ago...

Vex:
Jpg_final_destinations_of_airline_travelers_departing_from_guinea__liberia__and_sierra_leone_by_who_region_during_the_month_of_august_nologoDakar, Senegal: Below are the main developments since the worst-ever epidemic of the haemorrhagic fever Ebola emerged in west Africa at the start of the year, fuelling fears it could spread to other continents.

March 2014
- 22: Guinea identifies the Ebola virus as the source of a highly contagious epidemic raging through its southern forests, as the death toll rises to 59.
Experts had been unable to identify the disease, whose symptoms were first observed six weeks ago, but scientists studying samples in the French city of Lyon confirmed it was Ebola.
- 27: Ebola spreads to Guinea's capital Conakry.
- 31: Liberia confirms two cases of the virus.
April
- 5: West African countries mobilise against an epidemic of haemorrhagic fevers, including Ebola. The measures include the deployment of medical teams at Conakry airport.
- 8: The UN's health agency, the World Health Organization, says the Ebola outbreak is among the "most challenging" for health workers since the deadly disease emerged elsewhere in Africa four decades ago.
- 10: International aid organisations launch a series of emergency measures across west Africa in a bid to contain the outbreak.
May
- 26: Sierra Leone confirms its first death from Ebola and said it is restricting travel in some areas to stop the fever from claiming more lives.
June
- 18: Fresh data from the WHO confirms the outbreak to be the deadliest ever, with 337 deaths since January, a 60 percent increase in two weeks.
- 21: The WHO says the recent rapid spread of Ebola in the three countries has come in part because efforts to contain the deadly virus have been relaxed.
- 23: The outbreak is now "out of control" with more than 60 outbreak hotspots in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the medical charity Doctors Without Borders says.
July
- 3: The WHO says at the close of a regional summit of health ministers on the crisis it expects the Ebola outbreak to continue for at least "several months".
- 25: The virus spreads to Africa's most populous country Nigeria, as a Liberian national dies in quarantine in Lagos. A day later the country places its ports and airports on alert.
- 27: A woman suffering from the first confirmed case of Ebola in Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, dies.
- 29: After Nigeria's main airline Arik, pan-African airline ASKY suspends all flights to and from the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone.
- 30: Doctors Without Borders warns there is a risk of Ebola spreading to other countries.
Liberia announces it is shutting all schools and placing "non-essential" government workers on 30 days' leave.
- 31: Countries across the world announce stringent new security measures to contain the epidemic.
Sierra Leone declares a state of emergency.
The WHO raises the death toll to 729.
The United States, Germany and France issue warnings against travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, while Paris also includes Nigeria.
August
- 1: The head of the WHO and presidents of the countries involved meet in Guinea to launch a $100 million emergency response, involving the deployment of hundreds of medical personnel to help overstretched workers and facilities.
WHO chief Margaret Chan tells the leaders the outbreak is "moving faster than our efforts to control it".
Dubai's Emirates airline says it is suspending flights to Guinea.
(Me)

First known Ebola death outside West Africa

 - 6: A Saudi national, who fell ill after returning from Sierra Leone, died early Wednesday in his hospital isolation ward where he was being tested for the Ebola virus, said the Saudi Health Ministry.

- 6: GENEVA The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday began a two-day emergency meeting on West Africa's Ebola epidemic, with the UN agency deciding whether to declare it an international crisis. The closed-door session is tasked with ruling whether the outbreak constitutes what is known in WHO-speak as a "public health emergency of international concern".

-6: CDC raises Ebola alert to hightest level (red) and presidential news conference at the State Department on it.

Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the United States Center for Disease Control, announced this afternoon that the agency has elevated its response to the Ebola virus to Level 1-- the highest possible response level. The CDC heightened the level today in response to multiple new diagnoses and scares around the globe.

Here comes the quickening?

-7: Congressional Hearing
 
Tom Friedman CDC Director: "The infection and death numbers are a fog of war situation."
 
Ken Isaacs Samarian Purse: "The data is at least undercounted by 25% to 50%."

"Is we don’t make a stand in West Africa, then we will be making a stand in all the capitals of the world. But I am afraid the cat is already out of the bag."

"Ken Isaacs Samarian Purse: We are going to see death tolls that are unimaginable."
 
"Dr Frank Glover: People are getting infected because they don’t have gloves." 


U.S. orders diplomats' families to leave Liberia as Ebola spreads.

-8: Ebola in Binin.

CNN -- Global health experts on Friday declared the Ebola epidemic ravaging West Africa an international health emergency that requires a coordinated global approach.


Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are battling the Ebola virus, which has also spread to Nigeria. More than 930 people have died.
NYT--W.H.O. Declares Ebola in West Africa a Health Emergency
LONDON — Facing the worst known outbreak of the Ebola virus, with almost 1,000 fatalities in West Africa, the World Health Organization declared an international public health emergency on Friday, demanding an “extraordinary” response — only the third such declaration of its kind since regulations permitting such alarms were adopted in 2007.
-27 CNN) -- "It's even worse than I'd feared," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday of the Ebola outbreak rampaging through West Africa. "Every day this outbreak goes on, it increases the risk for another export to another country.

-28 NYT-Ebola Could Eventually Afflict Over 20,000, W.H.O. Says

-29 New college students being screened for Ebola as Senegal reports its first case Universities are taking precautions with students coming to school from Africa. Senegal is now the fifth country affected in the West African region.

Sept
 
-2 WHO: Ebola death toll tops 1,900.

-9 The Ebola virus is spreading exponentially across Liberia as patients fill taxis in a fruitless search for medical care, the World Health Organization said Monday.

-30 History in the making...you knew it was on the way. So the panic started in Dallas...he caught it two to three weeks ago. I better not hear New Orleans anything!  
UPDATE: The Dallas-Fort Worth CBS affiliate is reporting that a patient who was being evaluated for Ebola has tested positive for the virus. According to Reuters, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the case -- the first time Ebola has been diagnosed in the United States.





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