WATCH ABOVE: A message out of West Africa today: the best way to stop Ebola from coming to North America, is to provide more mobile labs, vehicles, helicopters and trained medical personnel to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. Jackson Proskow has the story.
TORONTO – The Ebola epidemic that’s ripping through West Africa has crossed international borders as single cases have now been reported in the U.S. and Spain.
It’s been a tumultuous week for global health officials trying to control the outbreak in the hardest hit nations, while keeping a watchful eye on other corners of the world.
Here’s what we learned about the U.S. and Spanish cases of Ebola:
Get ready for false alarms:
As of this weekend, a handful of U.S. airports are ramping up screening. On the heels of the country’s first diagnosed case of Ebola, health officials anticipate tighter precautions and in turn, many more alerts to suspected cases. Some might turn out to be real threats.
READ MORE: How does Ebola spread? 5 things you need to know
“We have been very clear that as long as Ebola continues to spread in Africa, we can’t make the risk zero here,” the CDC’s director Dr. Thomas Frieden told reporters.
“We expect that as people are more concerned, as there is a higher index of suspicion, people will be scared, there will be rumours and concerns and potential cases, and that is how it should be,” Frieden said.
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Health officials are worried that dogs might spread the virus:
Madrid officials euthanized a dog after its owner, a Spanish nursing assistant, tested positive for the virus. Monkeys, bats and other animals can spread the disease. It’s never been documented to have passed from humans to dogs, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it wants to “look at all possibilities.”
At least one major study suggests that dogs can contract Ebola. Researchers tested dogs during the 2001 Ebola outbreak in Gabon after seeing the canines eat infected dead animals. Of the 337 dogs tested, up to 25 per cent showed antibodies to Ebola, a sign that they were infected or at least exposed to the virus.
It’s unclear what the risk is to humans, though. Lab experiments in other animals suggest their urine, saliva and stool might contain the virus. That could mean that people could catch it from a dog biting them, for example.
READ MORE: Questions and answers on dogs and Ebola risks
Blood transfusion from survivors may help fight the virus:
Dr. Kent Brantly, the U.S. missionary who contracted Ebola while in Liberia, is giving his blood plasma to an American cameraman who also contracted the disease while in West Africa.
This is the second time Brantly is donating his blood to fellow patients – his blood had also helped Dr. Rick Sacra last month.
READ MORE: Video journalist with Ebola receives blood transfusion from survivor
(When Brantly was sick and waiting on his dosage of experimental serum, he received a unit of blood from a 14-year-old Liberian patient he had taken care of.)
In September, the World Health Organization suggested that transfusions from survivors may be the best way to fight the disease compared to other experimented therapies that are being developed.
The idea is that survivors’ blood contains antibodies to fight the disease. It’s already a measure used in West Africa in treating the disease.
Early intervention is essential to beating the disease:
The first U.S.-diagnosed Ebola case brought tragedy this week. Thomas Eric Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian man, died after he was kept in isolation since Sept. 28 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Duncan showed up at the hospital days earlier and told staff he had been to West Africa. Doctors sent him home with antibiotics and he returned days later in worse condition.
Now, health care officials are asking whether his life could have been saved had he received help sooner. At the time of his death, he was taking an experimental antiviral drug.
READ MORE: 1st Ebola patient diagnosed in U.S. dies, as new screening measures announced
He died “despite maximal interventions,” said Frieden. “The earlier someone is diagnosed, the more likely they will be to survive.”
Ebola could reach France, U.K. by the end of October:
Scientists studying Ebola disease patterns and airline traffic suggest that there’s a 75 per cent chance the virus could be in France and a 50 per cent change it’ll be in the U.K. by Oct. 24.
“It’s a real lottery,” Derek Gatherer, a Lancaster University expert, told the Chicago Tribune.
Even after adjusting for a reduction in travel as airlines halt their flights in West Africa, France’s risk is still 25 per cent. Scientists are pegging France as the biggest target because the affected regions – Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia – are French-speaking and have travel routes into the country. Britain is also a concern because of Heathrow Airport – a huge hub for travel.
Spain already has its first diagnosed case of the disease after a nurse, who looked after an infected priest who was flown back into the country, contracted the disease. The patient she was looking after died on Sept. 25. By Oct. 6, health officials reported her illness. The incubation period for Ebola is 21 days at most.
– With files from the Associated Press
carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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