WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014 HEALTH & SCIENCE Britain starts screening

LONDON: Britain began screening passen- Meanwhile British troops were loading up ger arrivals at London Heathrow Airport for the RFA Argus, which will set sail for Sierra Ebola yesterday as the Royal Navy loaded a Leone later this week to help in efforts to ship with supplies for epidemic-stricken contain the outbreak. The civilian-staffed Sierra Leone. The checks at Heathrow military medical support ship is docked in Terminal One will be expanded by the end Falmouth, southwest England. of next week to the rest of Britain’s main air It will travel with three Merlin helicopters, hub, as well as London Gatwick Airport, and aircrew and engineers to provide transport Eurostar railway stations linking London and and support to medical teams and aid work- southeast England to France and Belgium. ers. Captain David Eagles, the ship’s com- Although there are currently no direct manding officer, said the vessel would be flights to Britain from the worst-affected used to transfer personnel, aid and equip- countries, passengers whose journeys origi- ment throughout the affected region. The nated there will have their temperature tak- ship, with some 350 people on board, will en and be asked about any potential contact take around 10 days to reach west Africa, he with Ebola patients. Any possible carriers told Sky News television. Troops with land- will then undergo a clinical assessment and ing craft will escort personnel ashore and if necessary be transferred to hospital. protect teams deployed on the ground. Heathrow Terminal One receives around Ebola patients will not be brought aboard, 85 percent of all arrivals from the hardest-hit and any member of the ship’s company countries. The worst-ever Ebola epidemic thought to have come into contact with vic- has already claimed more than 4,000 lives, tims would be sent to treatment facilities largely in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. onshore. —AFP

GERMANY: An ambulance enters the St Georg Clinic yesterday in Leipzig, eastern Germany, where a Sudanese doctor, a UN employee infected with the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa, arrived for treatment six days before. UN health worker dies of Ebola in Germany ahead of UN talks States must ‘rethink’ its approach to Ebola

BERLIN: A UN health worker has died of Ebola in during the night “despite intensive medical care ments and rapid delivery of assistance by the Germany as the international community pre- and the best efforts by medical staff”. A WHO international community”, the White House said pared to hold talks on the crisis yesterday. The spokesman in Geneva said he was a UN volun- in a statement. death of the 56-year-old Sudanese man, who teer. German health officials said last Thursday Obama and French President Francois arrived in Germany from Liberia last week for he was Sudanese. The UN announced the follow- Hollande also issued a joint call for “stepped-up” treatment, highlighted the global struggle ing day that it had quarantined 41 personnel global efforts to combat the disease. In the face against what officials have termed the worst from its Liberia mission, including 20 soldiers. of panic that was “spreading faster than the health crisis of modern times. The United Germany has also treated two other Ebola virus”, the WHO issued a stark warning over the Nations was due to hold talks on the spread of patients infected in Sierra Leone a Senegalese crisis. “I have never seen a health event threaten the hemorrhagic virus, a day after US President expert who was treated in Hamburg and the very survival of societies and governments in Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki- released on October 4, and a Ugandan doctor already very poor countries,” said WHO chief moon called for the international anti-Ebola now being treated in Frankfurt. Margaret Chan in a statement delivered on her DALLAS: Protect Environmental workers move disposal barrels to a staging drive to be stepped up. behalf at a conference in Manila. area outside the apartment of a healthcare worker who treated Ebola patient The Ebola epidemic has killed more than ‘No-one taking care of us’ Ninety-five Liberian health workers have died Thomas Eric Duncan and tested positive for the disease, Monday. —AP photos 4,000 people this year, mostly in Guinea, Sierra After measures were introduced in the US so far in the epidemic, and their surviving col- Leone and Liberia, prompting the World Health and Canada, Britain began screening for Ebola at leagues want pay commensurate to the acute risk of dealing with Ebola, which spreads Health officials urge through contact with bodily fluids and for which there is no vaccine or widely available treatment. In the Liberian capital Monrovia, a hospital hospitals to ‘think Ebola’ patient quoted on local radio described scenes of desolation, with the sick deserted by striking DALLAS: Federal health officials on treat Ebola patients, Frieden said. staffers. “We are at the Ebola Treatment Unit and Monday urged the nation’s hospitals to When asked how many health care no-one is taking care of us,” the unnamed man “think Ebola” and launched a review of workers are being checked, Frieden said said. “Last night several patients died. Those procedures for treating patients, while officials “don’t have a number.” Health offi- who can walk are trying to escape by climbing medical records showed that an infected cials have relied on a “self-monitoring” sys- over the fence.” Journalists have been banned nurse repeatedly visited the room of tem when it comes to U.S. health care from Liberia’s Ebola clinics, making the situation a Liberian man as he was dying from the workers who care for isolated Ebola there difficult to ascertain. disease. The World Health Organization patients. They expect workers to report called the outbreak “the most severe, any potential exposures to the virus and US must ‘rethink’ approach acute health emergency seen in modern watch themselves for symptoms. Both cases of contamination reported so far times.” Nurse Nina Pham was among outside Africa-in Spain last week and now in the about 70 staff members at Texas Health Protective gear United States-have involved health workers who Presbyterian Hospital who were involved Besides the workers, health officials fell ill despite stringent safety protocols sur- in Thomas Eric Duncan’s care after he was continue to track 48 people who were in rounding Ebola. US health authorities said the hospitalized, according to the records. contact with Duncan before he was admit- United States must “rethink” its approach to They drew his blood, put tubes down his ted to the hospital and placed in isolation. Ebola after a female nurse in Texas contracted throat and wiped up his diarrhea. They They are monitoring one person the nurse the virus, in the first case of contamination on US analyzed his urine and wiped saliva from was in contact with while she was in an soil. his lips, even after he had lost conscious- infectious state. None has exhibited symp- Health authorities said the woman-identified GERMANY: A photo taken on October 9, 2014 shows Chief doctor Bernhard Ruf and ness. toms, Frieden said. The case involving by local media as 26-year-old Nina Pham-tested senior physician Thomas Grunewald at a press conference at the St Georg Clinic in The 26-year-old was in his room often Pham raised questions about assurances positive after caring for a Liberian Ebola patient, Leipzig, eastern Germany, upon arrival for treatment of a Sudanese doctor, a UN from the day he was placed in intensive by American health officials that the dis- Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on Wednesday. care until the day before he died last ease will be contained and that any US employee infected with the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa. —AFP photos The nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital week. Pham and other health care workers hospital should be able to treat it. Dr in Dallas is in isolation and said to be in a stable wore protective gear, including gowns, Organization (WHO) to brand it “the most severe Heathrow Airport, the first of a number of condition. gloves, masks and face shields - and some- acute public health emergency in modern London airports and Eurostar rail hubs where Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato was due to times full-body suits - when caring for times”. At least two cases of contamination have travelers from the worst-hit countries of west appear before parliament to face questions over Duncan, but Pham became the first per- been reported beyond west Africa, in the US and Africa will be questioned and have their temper- the infection of the nurse, Teresa Romero, who son to contract the disease within the Europe. ature tested. Health workers in Liberia mean- caught the Ebola virus in a Madrid hospital after United States. Her family told Dallas televi- The German clinic in the eastern city of while pressed on with a strike demanding dan- caring for two missionaries with Ebola. She sion station WFAA on Monday that she Leipzig, one of three in the country to have ger money to treat Ebola patients. Obama and remains in a “very serious condition”, according was the health care worker with Ebola. A treated Ebola patients, said the man had died Ban called yesterday for “more robust commit- to a crisis cell set up after the case —-AFP rector at her family’s church, Hung Le, told The Associated Press that Pham’s mother told him Pham has the virus. The Texas Christian University nursing China military-linked firm eyes school graduate was monitoring her own temperature and went to the hospital Friday night when she discovered she had quick approval of drug to cure Ebola a low fever. She was in isolation and in sta- ble condition, health officials said. By SHANGHAI: A Chinese drugmaker with close close military ties. The firm, which claims to be monkeys, which give a closer immune Monday evening, she had received a military ties is seeking fast-track approval for a China’s third largest prescription drugmaker, response to that of humans, and have been transfusion of plasma from , a drug that it says can cure Ebola, as China joins was originally a military scientific unit, which used to treat human patients with the disease. Texas physician who survived the virus, the race to help treat a deadly outbreak of a was spun off into its current form in 2001. “We JK-05 has not yet undergone clinical trials, but according to her pastor and the nonprofit disease that has spread from Africa to the have a myriad of connections with the military Sihuan management said the firm was actively medical mission group Samaritan’s Purse. United States and Europe. Sihuan medical science units and have developed lots working towards clinical tests of the drug, Since she tested positive for the dis- NEW YORK: This 2010 photo provided Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd has signed of products in cooperation with the AMMS,” which could be shorter than normally required. ease, public-health authorities have inten- by tcu360.com, the yearbook of Texas a tie-up with Chinese research Academy of Che said. AMMS is a research unit of the The drug has also shown promise against dis- sified their monitoring of other Dallas hos- Christian University, shows Nina Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) last week to People’s Liberation Army, China’s armed forces. eases such as influenza and yellow fever. pital workers who cared for Duncan. Pham, 26, who became the first per- Centers for Disease Control and help push the drug called JK-05 through the Che pointed out that a Chinese vaccine Chinese military doctor Wang Hongquan, son to contract the disease within the Prevention Director Tom Frieden said he United States. approval process in China and bring it to mar- against a SARS outbreak a decade ago, also credited with inventing the drug, said on the would not be surprised if another hospital ket. The drug, developed by the academy, is developed by the military, was approved by investors call that JK-05 would first be used to worker who cared for Duncan becomes ill Anthony Fauci, director of the National currently approved for emergency military use the drug regulator rapidly after its application, treat Chinese nationals working in Africa with because Ebola patients become more con- Institute of Allergy and Infectious only. signally that JK-05 could receive similar treat- the disease, but treating non-Chinese would tagious as the disease progresses. Pham’s Diseases, told ABC’s “Good Morning “We believe that we can file to the Chinese ment. “At that time the whole approval require further international approvals. There name appears frequently throughout the America” that federal health authorities Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) before process, clinical components and the period are millions of Chinese nationals living in hundreds of pages of records provided to should consider requiring that Ebola the end of the year,” Sihuan’s chairman Che after was cut right down,” he said. Officials at Africa, with around 10,000 in the worst affected The Associated Press by Duncan’s family. patients be sent only to highly specialized Fengsheng said during an investor call last Sihuan, which is part-owned by Morgan countries - Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. They show she was in his room Oct 7, the “containment” hospitals. week. “They are looking at this very seriously... Stanley, were not available for further com- JK-05 could also be used if Ebola spreads to day before he died. Duncan, who arrived in the US from and we could get on the ‘green light’ track,” he ment on yesterday. China. “We can’t rule out the possibility that it Her notes describe nurses going in and Liberia Sept 20, first sought medical care added. will spread to Asia. Particularly in China now out of Duncan’s room wearing protective for fever and abdominal pain Sept 25. He Sihuan’s drug is only one contender Tested on mice we have lots of connections with different gear to treat him and to mop the floor told a nurse he had traveled from Africa, amongst a number of experimental cures China’s Ebola cure bid still lags some way international cities and many people coming with bleach. She also notes how she and but he was sent home. He returned Sept worldwide to treat Ebola, although if successful behind US-developed ZMapp and TKM-Ebola, and going across our borders,” he said on the other nurses were ensuring Duncan’s “pri- 28 and was placed in isolation because of it would be a huge boon for China’s developing but Sihuan management said the drug has call. Company management and analysts said vacy and comfort,” and providing “emo- suspected Ebola. Among the things the pharmaceutical sector and the country’s soft proven effective during animal testing on mice. an Ebola outbreak in China would further tional support.” Frieden has said a breach CDC will investigate is how the workers power in Africa, an increasingly important part- The drug, which AMMS has been studying and speed up the approval process and develop- of protocol led to the nurse’s infection, but took off protective gear, because remov- ner for the world’s No.2 economy. The current developing already for five years, is similar to ment of the drug. “It is highly likely the Ebola officials are not sure what went wrong. ing it incorrectly can lead to contamina- outbreak, the worst on record of the disease, Japanese flu drug , developed by indication could be approved very quickly if Pham has not been able to point to any tion. Investigators will also look at dialysis specific breach. The CDC is now monitor- and intubation - the insertion of a breath- has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in Fujifilm Holdings Corp, which has been used Ebola was to spread to China,” said Deutsche ing all hospital workers who treated ing tube in a patient’s airway. Both proce- West Africa. effectively to treat patients with Ebola. Bank analyst Jack Hu in an analyst note on Duncan and planned to “double down” on dures have the potential to spread the Che said one of Sihuan’s strengths was its ZMapp and TKM-Ebola have been tested on Sunday. —Reuters training and outreach on how to safely virus. —AP