The United Nations says that the Ebola crisis in west Africa could end up bringing a widespread famine that leads to more deaths than the virus will end up causing at the end of the outbreak.
The announcement came on the eve of the UN’s World Food Day Thursday.
“The world is mobilizing and we need to reach the smallest villages in the most remote locations,” Denise Brown, the U.N. World Food Program’s regional director for West Africa, said in a statement Wednesday. “Indications are that things will get worse before they improve. How much worse depends on us all.”
The World Food Program says that over 1.3 million people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are lacking enough food. The organization says they don’t have enough supplies for everyone and currently are able to reach up to 700,000 people a month.
The WFP is providing food to families of Ebola victims.
“We are assessing how families are coping as the virus keeps spreading,” an organization spokesman said. “We expect to have a better understanding of the impact of the Ebola outbreak on food availability and farming activities by the end of October.”
A second nurse who treated Thomas Eric Duncan has Ebola.
The Centers for Disease Control says that not only does Amber Vinson, 26, have the virus, but that she also traveled on an airplane Monday just before she reported having symptoms.
Vinson had been monitoring herself after treating Duncan and self-reported a fever Tuesday morning. She was immediately placed into isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
She is the second of 77 healthcare workers who have been self-monitoring to watch for signs of Ebola.
The CDC says that Vinson lived alone and had no pets. Her home is being sanitized along with all her furniture, bedding and clothing incinerated.
The first nurse to show infection, Nina Pham, worked a different shift than Vinson and the two reportedly had no contact.
Nina Pham, the 26-year-old intensive care unit nurse who has been infected with Ebola, has been given a blood transfusion from Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly.
Officials with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital gave the transfusion to Pham on Monday. A priest in Pham’s congregation told reporters that she was doing better after the transfusion.
“I’m doing well and want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers,” Pham said in a statement released by the hospital. “I am blessed by the support of family and friends.”
CBS Dallas says that one person who had close contact with Pham is now under hospital observation but has not developed any signs of Ebola.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization released a statement saying at the current spread of infection, it’s possible to have 10,000 new cases a week starting in December.
Dr. Kent Brantly, the Christian doctor who was one of the first Americans to be infected with Ebola during the current outbreak, says that conditions in Africa are worse than you see on television.
You’ve seen the news reports, and I can assure you, the reality on the ground in West Africa is worse than the worst report you’ve seen. And our attention and our efforts need to be on loving the people there,” he said.
“Let’s stop talking about that highly improbable thing [of an outbreak in America] and focus on saving people’s lives and stopping the outbreak where it is. God saved my life… He used some incredible people and unbelievable circumstances to do that … I want to live in that reality forever.”
Dr. Brantly called the attention being paid to Ebola possibly breaking out in the United States “panic.”
“I just want to tell everyone that yes, Ebola is a serious devastating disease and for those number of people who have been identified as contacts of an Ebola patient, they need to be monitoring themselves, they need to be cooperating with the authorities, with the CDC, and it’s very serious for them, but for the rest of us we don’t need to be worried,” Dr. Brantly said.
“I am particularly thrilled to be alive,” Brantly added.
A nurse who treated the Liberian who arrived in Texas infected with Ebola has been confirmed to be infected with the virus.
“A health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who provided care for the Ebola patient hospitalized there has tested positive for Ebola in a preliminary test at the state public health laboratory in Austin,” reads a statement issued Sunday morning by the Texas Department of State Health Services. “Confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.”
The head of state health services said he was not surprised to see someone else become infected with the virus.
“We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility,” said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services. “We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread.”
The CDC was quick to claim the infection had to be a mistake on the part of the nurse, despite having no evidence to back up that claim.
A Dallas County Sheriff’s Deputy who was exhibiting signs of Ebola has been taken into isolation at a Dallas area hospital.
The deputy began to show signs of illness Wednesday morning and went to an urgent care center in Frisco, Texas. The patient said while he didn’t have direct contact with the now-deceased Thomas Eric Duncan, he was in the apartment and had contact with the family and possessions of the “Ebola patient zero.”
The patient has been identified as Sgt. Michael Monnig. He had been monitoring his temperature for the last week as a precaution and went to seek medical help when he had a fever, stomach pain and fatigue.
“We don’t want to cause a panic,” Logan Monnig told The Dallas Morning News. “There is almost no chance my dad would have Ebola. He spent very little time in the apartment, and he did not come in contact with Mr. Duncan or any bodily fluids.”
Doctors say Monnig is a “low risk” Ebola case and that it’s unlikely he or anyone else could have been infected from his visit to the urgent care center.
A United Nations medical official who tested positive for Ebola has arrived in Leipzig, Germany for isolation and treatment.
The medic is the second member of the U.N.’s medical team to contract the virus. The first member of the team infected died on September 25th.
“The man will be treated on an isolation ward… with strict security measures,” Dr Iris Minde, head of Leipzig’s St Georg clinic wrote in a press statement. “There is no danger of infection for other patients, relatives, visitors or the public.”
The clinic says their staff is fully trained in dealing with highly infectious diseases.
Meanwhile, two doctors who treated a Spanish nursing assistant who contracted Ebola from a priest who had been transported to Spain after his infection are under observation as a precaution. Neither the doctors nor the husband of the infected woman are showing signs of Ebola but remain quarantined.
Teresa Romero was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday and is the first person to catch the disease outside of Africa. Two other nurses who attended to the priest are in isolation and observation.
The death toll from the Ebola outbreak is closing in on 3,900.
The Liberian man who fell ill with Ebola while in the Dallas area is dead.
Thomas Eric Duncan died Wednesday morning at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. He had been in critical condition for days and rumors had been rampant for days that Duncan was on the verge of death.
Duncan’s family is still in isolation and is being monitored by health officials for any Ebola symptoms. Several others who had close contact with Duncan have been taken to a secret secured location. The Centers for Disease Control says no one has shown signs of Ebola.
The family confirmed that they had received confirmation of Duncan’s death.
CNN is reporting that airports within the United States are now going to take temperatures of passengers arriving from countries with Ebola infections.
The director of the CDC says that new travel guidelines are being developed for Americans.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control has admitted to reporters for the first time the possibility that Ebola could become an airborne virus.
Dr. Tom Frieden, however, sought to downplay the possibility.
“The rate of change [with Ebola] is slower than most viruses, and most viruses don’t change how they spread,” he said. “That is not to say it’s impossible that it could change [to become airborne.] That would be the worst-case scenario. We would know that by looking at … what is happening in Africa. That is why we have scientists from the CDC on the ground tracking that.”
Frieden pointed to evidence that there is very little proof of a human virus ever mutating to the point it transmits in an entirely different way.
“We have so many problems with Ebola, let’s not make another one that, of course, is theoretically possible but is pretty way down on the list of likely issues,” infectious diseases expert William Schaffner told Scientific American.
For the first time, someone has been infected with Ebola outside the African continent.
A Spanish nurse who treated a missionary and priest returned from West Africa after contracting the virus has been confirmed to have the same strain of Ebola as the priest.
“We are working in coordination to give the best care to the patient and to guarantee the safety of all citizens,” Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato told reporters on Monday. The nurse, whose name was not released, is reportedly in stable condition.
The woman’s husband and two others have been placed in isolation and at least two dozen others who had close contact with the woman are under observation by health officials. The hospital where she worked is also examining any other health care workers that had contact with the priest.
Worldwide, at least 370 health care workers have been infected with the disease while treating patients connected to this outbreak.
Journalist Ashoka Mukpo, the fifth American known to have the virus, has arrived in Nebraska and is receiving treatment. Mukpo said that he believes he was infected when he was splashed while spray-washing a vehicle where someone had died from Ebola.
The Dallas area infected patient, Eric Duncan, is in critical condition.