Data published overnight into Tuesday showed the outbreak has recorded a total of 4,381 confirmed cases, including 2,011 deaths.

The grim toll comes nearly three months since the outbreak was declared on May 15. While it took about nine weeks for the outbreak to record 1,000 deaths, it’s taken just around three weeks to record the additional 1,000 deaths, showing how fast the health crisis is moving beyond the control of responders.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congo-ebola-death-toll-2000-outbreak-fastest-spreading/?fbclid=IwY2xjawTquzhwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR6hCBljDneI9BCVGUHy5i_LR39dS58Ut_0DkqLbdqOLVkqC7Y5eBsgBsrJUig_aem_P7-0SVpLUGuBOnjM03oyag

The post Congo Ebola death toll tops 2,000 as outbreak becomes fastest spreading on record first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Ebola deaths in eastern Congo rise to 131, WHO voices deep concern first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Africa’s top public health body said on Thursday there was a risk the outbreak, which was declared a month ago, could spread but that it was manageable.

The government has introduced a three-week lockdown around the epicentre of the outbreak of the Sudan variant of the Ebola virus in central Uganda. The measuresinclude an overnight curfew, restrictions on movement and the closure of places of worship and entertainment.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/uganda-says-ebola-outbreak-should-be-over-by-year-end-2022-10-21/

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[Disclaimer]

The post Uganda says Ebola outbreak should be over by year-end first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The overall death rate of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa may have been underestimated, with new research finding survivors could have a five times higher death rate after leaving the hospital than the general population.

An outbreak of Ebola is currently raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 3,000 cases of the viral disease have occurred over the past year, including more than 2,000 deaths.

The new study focuses on 1,130 Guinean survivors of the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the largest such outbreak ever recorded. These patients were tracked from early December 2015 to the end of September 2016. During that time, 59 died in the first year after hospital discharge.

That 5.2 percent death rate was five times higher than what would be expected in the general Guinean population, according to the study. It was published Sept. 4 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

“Our findings highlight the need to strengthen Ebola survivor programs, particularly as the number of people surviving the infection are increasing,” study author Dr. Ibrahima Soce Fall said in a journal news release.

Fall is the World Health Organization’s assistant director-general for emergency response.

Of the 59 deaths, 37 were initially attributed to kidney failure based on symptoms reported by family members.

There was a lack of documentation or autopsies available to rule out other causes of death, according to the study authors. They called for more research to determine if kidney failure is a common long-term effect of Ebola in survivors.

Fall and his colleagues also said their study confirms that Ebola survivors’ health is highly vulnerable, particularly among those who had prolonged forms of the disease. They said the research suggests that the reported overall death rate for Ebola may have been low.

One of the researchers, Judith Glynn, said the results could “help to guide current and future survivors’ programs and the prioritization of funds in resource-constrained settings.”

For example, “those hospitalized with Ebola for longer may be at greater risk, and could be specifically targeted,” added Glynn, a professor at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in England.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on Ebola.

Source: https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2019/09/05/Ebola-survivors-face-increased-risk-of-death/8191567695114/?sl=1&ur3=

The post Ebola survivors face increased risk of death first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

While the CDC has assured us that we don’t need to worry about Ebola here in the United States, at the same time, it seems that the government is quietly hiring people to screen for the disease at an American airport. It’s certainly not impossible that Ebola could spread to the United States. After all, the World Health Organization did declare the DRC Ebola outbreak an international emergency.

Although they are no longer taking applications, three weeks ago Caduceus Healthcare posted the following ad seeking “entry-level” employees for Dulles International Airport, just outside of Washington, DC.

To screen passengers that have traveled back from Ebola affected nations. This will include checking vital signs, temperature and having passengers fill out questionnaires. This will include tracking and reporting all recovered results.

• Have a current and unrestricted EMT License
• Current BLS
• Must be a US citizen or Green Card holder

Here’s a screenshot of the advertisement just in case it gets memory-holed because we all know how that goes.

It’s important to understand how viruses like Ebola can turn into pandemics. Here’s a hypothetical example.

Is this for real?

The Epoch Times contacted Caduceus Healthcare and spoke to an official at the company.

“We’re a contractor with the federal government; we saw a proposal that came out looking for MPs, PAs, and public health advisers to be at a couple of main hubs at airports,” Jared Beuther, an official at Caduceus Healthcare, told The Epoch Times.“The federal government put out a proposal bid because our company has worked closely with the CDC before and then emergency response, being able to provide them physicians.”“The proposal went out last week, before that they were just reaching out to see if any companies were interested in that position,” Beuther noted. (source)

You know, just casually checking travelers for a deadly hemorrhagic disease. No biggie.

It isn’t just isolated to Washington DC, either.

In the Epoch Times’ very thorough report, they discovered that the Los Angeles Public Department of Health is also looking for someone to handle a potential Ebola outbreak.

The Program Specialist (PS), Public Health Nurse (PHN) in the Hospital Outbreak and Biothreat Response Unit, under the direction of the ACDC physician, will be responsible for leading all components of outbreak investigations that occur in the acute care hospital setting, providing recommendations for outbreak control, and follow-up of infection prevention measures implemented to prevent further disease transmission.Essential Job Functions

• Oversee all aspects of outbreak investigations that occur in the acute care hospital setting.
• Coordinate, direct and manage activities for outbreak investigations, including collecting, organizing, and interpreting clinical and laboratory data, leading site visits, and coordinating laboratory specimens and environmental sampling.
• Develop and write recommendations, letters, and comprehensive investigation reports for outbreak control to facilities.
• Prepare reports summarizing investigations, surveillance trends within Los Angeles County, and other correspondence as needed.
• Lead meetings with facilities and provide technical expertise on communicable disease issues such as healthcare-associated infections (HAI), infection control, multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs), medical device-associated infections, contaminated products, and emerging infectious diseases to healthcare personnel.
• Collaborate and consult with professional organizations and local, state and federal government agencies, such as the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), Health Facilities Licensing and Certification, California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• Develop and update hospital outbreak investigation policies and procedures and infection prevention and control guidelines based on healthcare community standards of practice, established outbreak investigation activities and the Public Health Nursing Practice Model.
• Participate in local, state and national committees that support control and prevention of hospital outbreaks.
• Support outbreak prevention and control activities in acute care facilities
• Directly supervise an Assistant Program Specialist (APS) and provide cross-coverage for biothreat responses (e.g. Ebola, anthrax, botulism, smallpox).

Requirements Must currently be a permanent Los Angeles County employee who holds the payroll item of Program Specialist, Public Health Nurse.  (source)

And of course, here’s another screenshot for the inevitable moment when they take down the post and a bunch of people start screaming in the comments that I made this up.

New York City is likewise concerned.

The Epoch Times reports:

New York City and state health departments carried out a full Ebola drill on April 30 with a mock Ebola patient, noting in a press release, “Given the current outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history with over 1,100 confirmed cases and 700 deaths, it is critical that the healthcare system is prepared to handle an actual case of Ebola or other infectious disease threat. Despite this critical need for readiness, federal funding for Ebola preparedness is set to expire in 2020, placing the future of these emergency response capabilities in jeopardy.”New York carried out its drill a full month before 13 African migrant families that crossed the U.S. southern border moved permanently to New York City. (source)

And there seems to be a trend of drills happening right before the real thing happens, doesn’t there?

How worried should we be?

Honestly, I’m surprised they haven’t done this sooner. Ever since the last Ebola scare, I’ve been troubled by the apparent lack of concern about these types of deadly diseases being passed on by travelers.

At this time, there are no active cases of Ebola in the United States of which we know. There have been some concerning stories about migrant families from Ebola-prone regions crossing our Southern border without much in the way of medical assessment, however, and at this time, I’ve only seen evidence of Dulles International looking for medical professionals to assess travelers for potential Ebola.

But before you panic and go into lockdown, you should understand that at this point, right now, today as I am writing this article, the current Ebola outbreak has been found mostly in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a small handful of cases in Uganda.

This doesn’t mean it could never happen here but it means, for now, things are okay. It would be wise to compare your preps to this article about pandemic readiness and invest in this excellent book, Prepping for a Pandemic.  As well, check out my book, Be Ready For Anything, which has some specific pandemic recommendations as well as general preparedness advice. This is one of those things that could happen suddenly but may never happen at all.

However, when the government becomes publicly concerned, I always pay a little more attention and wonder what they know that we do not.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-09-03/why-federal-govt-hiring-ebola-airport-screeners

The post Why Is The Federal Govt. Hiring “Ebola Airport Screeners?” first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A total of 3,004 people have reported symptoms of hemorrhagic fever in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo since Aug. 1 of last year, according to Congolese health officials, and 2,899 of those individuals have tested positive for Ebola virus disease, which is transmitted through contact with blood or secretions from an infected person and causes an often-fatal type of hemorrhagic fever.

There have been 2,006 deaths so far, including 1,901 people who died from confirmed cases of Ebola. The other deaths are considered probable cases. Just over 900 people sickened with the virus have recovered so far, according to Congolese health officials.

The grim milestone comes a month after the World Health Organization (WHO), the global health arm of the United Nations, declared the ongoing outbreak an international emergency. The WHO’s director-general has described the outbreak as more complex than the deadlier 2014-2016 epidemic in West Africa due to the region’s political and security instability, attacks on health workers, a highly mobile population and community mistrust and misinformation.

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Hugh Kinsella Cunningham/EPA via Shutterstock

This is the 10th Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the most severe there since 1976 when scientists first identified the virus near the eponymous Ebola River. It’s also one of the worst on record anywhere, second only to the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in multiple West African nations that infected 28,652 people and killed 11,325, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The current outbreak is now spread across three eastern Congolese provinces that share international borders with South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.

On Thursday, Uganda’s Ministry of Health said that a 9-year-old Congolese girl with Ebola had traveled across the border to Uganda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with her mother to seek medical care. The child has been placed in isolation at an Ebola treatment center that was set up in a nearby Ugandan town in preparation for cross-border cases, according to the health ministry.

Although the average number of new cases reported per week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has dipped slightly during the last few weeks, the number of affected areashas increased.

Cases have been identified in new geographical areas in recent weeks, though the epidemic’s epicenter is North Kivu province, where conflict and limited infrastructure has hampered the response.

A technical committee running the Ebola response and reporting directly to the Congolese president organized two days of training this week with health workers in the country’s capital, Kinshasa, to help prevent the potential spread of the virus there and prepare for the response by strengthening the city’s entry checkpoints. There are currently no suspected cases of Ebola in Kinshasa, which is some 1,700 miles west of the outbreak’s epicenter, according to a press release from the committee on Thursday.

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Jerome Delay/AP, FILE

Dr. Benoit Kebela, a Congolese epidemiologist on the committee, said the only effective weapon to stopping the spread of the virus is community involvement.

“It is community ownership that will stop this 10th epidemic,” Kebela said in a statement Thursday. “In the city of Kinshasa, there are community leaders such as street leaders, localities, neighborhoods, communes and the whole community with whom we can put an end to this epidemic.”

Bob Kitchen, vice president for emergencies at the International Rescue Committee, one of the aid groups on the ground assisting Congolese health officials, told ABC News in a statement Thursday that many people in the affected areas are “afraid to seek treatment for illnesses, worried they will be sent to an Ebola treatment center where they fear they could contract the disease.”

The “lack of community acceptance” remains the greatest obstacle to containing the outbreak, Kitchen said.

“Building trust with the community doesn’t just mean dialogue with the affected population,” he added. “It means working with the community to adapt the response and address the overall needs they are facing inside and outside of the Ebola outbreak.”

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The Associated Press

An experimental Ebola vaccine developed by American pharmaceutical company Merck that was tested in the West Africa epidemic was approved for use in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a week after the outbreak was declared last year. More than 206,000 people in the current outbreak zone have received the experimental vaccine since Aug. 8, 2018, according to Congolese health officials.

Meanwhile, two of four experimental treatments being tested in the outbreak are now being offered to all patients after showing promise in saving lives. Preliminary findings from a randomized controlled trial that began last November in four Ebola treatment centers in North Kivu indicated that patients receiving either of two antibody-based therapies, known as REGN-EB3 and mAb114, had a greater chance of survival compared to those receiving two other experiential drugs, known as ZMapp and remdesivir.

After a meeting to review the initial results, an independent monitoring board recommended all future patients be offered either REGN-EB3 or mAb114, while the other two treatments be stopped.

“From now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable,” Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director-general of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s National Institute for Biomedical Research, which is co-sponsoring the clinical study, told reporters during a telephone briefing earlier this month.

But the epidemic is still not under control. Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a medical charity which is providing care for Ebola patients in collaboration with Congolese authorities, said it is “extremely concerned about the lack of visibility on the actual epidemiological situation,” since a high number of Ebola deaths are being reported from where people live, rather than from treatment centers, in recent weeks.

“Many people have died of Ebola in their communities before they could be identified, diagnosed, and admitted for treatment of the disease,” MSF said in a statement Thursday. “Roughly a third of Ebola-related deaths have been diagnosed only post-mortem, which is a clear indication the response to the epidemic is failing in identifying and tracing people who’ve potentially contracted Ebola.”

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/worlds-2nd-largest-ebola-outbreak-surpasses-3000-cases/story?id=65261822

The post World’s 2nd-largest Ebola outbreak surpasses 3,000 cases first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Credit: Getty Images

The World Health Organization last week drew global attention to a nearly year-old outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), calling it a “public health emergency of international concern.” The designation signals a public health risk to other countries and indicates that a coordinated international response might be needed. The agency based its decision in part on the first confirmed case of Ebola in Goma, a DRC city of nearly two million people on the country’s eastern border with Rwanda. That shift raises the risk that the disease could spread internationally.

This Ebola outbreak is the second-worst on record, with roughly 2,500 documented cases of people with Ebola virus disease and about 1,700 deaths so far. The situation has been compounded by deadly violence against health care workers and mistrust of outside medical authorities. In recommending the emergency declaration, a WHO committee emphasized “disappointment about delays in funding,” as well as the need to protect people’s livelihoods by “keeping transport routes and borders open.” A coordinated response to the outbreak is under way, including distribution of a new vaccine, but the committee says more work is needed to help people and communities affected by Ebola.

Chandy John, president of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, is an infectious disease expert who has not studied Ebola specifically but has studied outbreaks of other infectious diseases, including malaria. Scientific American spoke with him about what the emergency declaration aims to accomplish, as well as the biggest challenges in turning the tide against the current outbreak.

What is the WHO hoping to achieve with this emergency declaration about the outbreak?

There has been a coordinated international response, mostly organized by the WHO, but they’ve noticed that despite numerous recommendations for increased resources, the global community hasn’t contributed what they feel is necessary for this outbreak. An announcement like this puts it front and center that there is a need for a coordinated international response. And it’s a crisis, so both the coordination and the balance of resources that are needed are higher than for usual public health problems. And hopefully, that means that more resources will then be devoted to it.

When you say resources, are we talking about money, staff, vaccines or all of the above?

Money, for sure, but their real problem is with security and with health workers being killed. So, we need countries contributing to a United Nations presence there that could provide security to health workers that are at risk, as well as the ability to deploy more vaccine, the ability to make more vaccine, and funds for local health workers. So yes, it’s all of the above.

Do you think this type of declaration by the WHO will have an impact on the outbreak in terms of those measures?

Yeah, I think that everybody believes it will. There have been calls for this from a number of groups prior to this. This designation has not been used very often. But a lot of groups felt that we really needed to move ahead to this, partially because people feel that once the outbreak is declared as a PHEIC [Public Health Emergency of International Concern], countries are more likely to step up on contributing resources. So I hope that happens.

Can you talk about what we might do to stem the violence against health care workers and whether this declaration could help?

The groups or forces on the ground—it doesn’t necessarily need to be armed forces—can provide security to health workers so they don’t feel that their lives are at risk when they go into these communities. That’s one thing. But another is getting groups to talk about what’s happening there and understanding the social science of the situation: what the fears are, why people are doing this.

Is there mistrust of both the public health response and of the vaccine being administered?

There’s suspicion of health workers, and in some areas, there is suspicion of vaccines. But by and large, as the vaccine has been given out, it has mostly been accepted. So now, it’s more a question of supply than fear of vaccination. Merck, which makes the vaccine, is committed to doubling the supply by 2020. But it still may not be enough for all who need it. There is also a second vaccine by Johnson & Johnson that they would like to study, but so far that hasn’t been approved for study in the DRC. It’s new, and it doesn’t have the same track record as the other one, so they would be studying the vaccine and its efficacy. But in the long term, if we could use it and see that if it was efficacious, that might be part of the solution. The amount of the current vaccine that can be supplied is in the hundreds of thousands of doses. And that will work for certain vaccination strategies, but for broader vaccination strategies, you might need more than that. Because the supply has been relatively constrained, they’ve been using an adjusted smaller dose that seems to still give an adequate response. So, that’s one of the ways in which they’ve been kind of extending the vaccine.

Can you say more about the tipping point that prompted the emergency declaration?

There’s one particular area which is the epicenter of the outbreak—46 percent of cases in the last three weeks have been reported from there and it seems to be continuing there. The fact that they haven’t been able to get it under control in that area was a factor. But I think the person who traveled to Goma and then was in Goma and ill, is kind of front and center of the WHO’s report on the emergency declaration. That would seem to be the biggest thing that may have pushed towards this.

How concerned should we be about Ebola outbreaks spreading internationally?

During the previous outbreak, cases were transmitted internationally and caused a panic. In the U.S., it cost in the billions of dollars for a very small number of cases in 2014. It’s potentially a plane ride away. And I don’t mean that in a scaremongering way, but just to say that diseases now know no borders. What’s happening in the DRC matters to the U.S. for the health of our citizenry. And that’s a reason why we really need to dedicate U.S. dollars to this effort.

Are there other steps that should be taken to stem the outbreak?

I think a lot of it is an extension of what’s being done already and doing it in additional areas. Part of it is investigating what’s happening in the communities, how people understand the disease, how people understand the role of health care workers, the screening at cross-border areas. I also think that there are things on-site that need to be investigated, such as how to prevent infections that are transmitted in hospitals, because people go to the hospital and perceive that they just die there. That’s part of why people are suspicious of health care workers—they’re typically from outside, they’re coming in and working at these places where people go to die. Also, are there ways that the extremely restricting protective gear can be altered, and yet leave health care workers safe? Because it’s basically like being in a spacesuit in extremely hot weather on land—it’s very difficult to stay in that protective gear for a long period of time.

About the Author
Tanya Lewis

Tanya Lewis is an associate editor at Scientific American who covers health and medicine.

The post Why the WHO’s Emergency Declaration for Ebola Is a Big Deal first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A WHO expert committee declined on three previous occasions to advise the United Nations health agency to make the declaration for this outbreak, even though other experts say it has long met the required conditions. More than 1,600 people have died since August in the second-deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, which is unfolding in a region described as a war zone.

A declaration of a global health emergency often brings greater international attention and aid, along with concerns that nervous governments might overreact with border closures.

The declaration comes days after a single case was confirmed in Goma, a major regional crossroads in northeastern Congo on the Rwandan border, with an international airport. Also, a sick Congolese fish trader traveled to Uganda and back while symptomatic — and later died of Ebola.

While the risk of regional spread remains high, the risk outside the region remains low, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after the announcement in Geneva.

The international emergency “should not be used to stigmatize or penalize the very people who are most in need of our help,” he said. Tedros insisted that the declaration was not made to raise more money — even though WHO estimated “hundreds of millions” of dollars would be needed to stop the epidemic.

Dr. Joanne Liu, president of Doctors Without Borders, said she hoped the emergency designation would prompt a radical reset of Ebola response efforts.

“The reality check is that a year into the epidemic, it’s still not under control, and we are not where we should be,” she said. “We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results.”

Liu said vaccination strategies should be broadened and that more efforts should be made to build trust within communities.

The U.S. Agency for International Development applauded the WHO decision and said USAID officials would “continue to scale up life-saving support” to end the outbreak.

This is the fifth such declaration in history. Previous emergencies were declared for the devastating 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people, the emergence of Zika in the Americas, the swine flu pandemic and polio.

WHO defines a global emergency as an “extraordinary event” that constitutes a risk to other countries and requires a coordinated international response. Last month, the outbreak spilled across the border for the first time when a family brought the virus into Uganda after attending the burial in Congo of an infected relative. Even then, the expert committee advised against a declaration.

Alexandra Phelan, a global health expert at Georgetown University Law Center, said Wednesday’s declaration was long overdue.

“This essentially serves as a call to the international community that they have to step up appropriate financial and technical support,” she said but warned that countries should be wary of imposing travel or trade restrictions.

Such restrictions “would actually restrict the flow of goods and health care workers into affected countries so they are counterproductive,” she said. Future emergency declarations might be perceived as punishment and “might result in other countries not reporting outbreaks in the future, which puts us all at greater risk.”

WHO had been heavily criticized for its sluggish response to the West Africa outbreak, which it repeatedly declined to declare a global emergency until the virus was spreading explosively in three countries and nearly 1,000 people were dead. Internal documents later showed WHO held off partly out of fear a declaration would anger the countries involved and hurt their economies.

The organization’s emergency committee will meet again within three months to assess the situation. Committee members will review whether the outbreak is still a global emergency and whether other measures are needed.

Wednesday’s announcement prompted fear in eastern Congo, where many do business across borders and travel overseas.

“I am vaccinated and I protect myself against Ebola,” said Zoe Kibwana, a 46-year-old shoe salesman who does business in Uganda, just 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Beni. “Closing the borders would handicap our economy. The health ministry and WHO need to end this epidemic as soon as possible.”

The current outbreak is spreading in a turbulent Congo border region where dozens of rebel groups are active and where Ebola had not been experienced before. Efforts to contain the virus have been hurt by mistrust among wary locals that has prompted deadly attacks on health workers. Some infected people have deliberately evaded health authorities.

The pastor who brought Ebola to Goma used several fake names to conceal his identity on his way to the city, Congolese officials said. WHO on Tuesday said the man had died and health workers were scrambling to trace dozens of his contacts, including those who had traveled on the same bus.

Congo’s minister of health resisted the characterization of the outbreak as a health emergency.

“We accept the decision of the committee of experts but one hopes that it’s a decision that wasn’t made under pressure of certain groups that want to use this as a way to raise funds for certain humanitarian actors,” said Dr. Oly Ilunga.

Those working in the field say the outbreak is clearly taking a turn for the worse despite advances that include the widespread use of an experimental but effective Ebola vaccine.

Dr. Maurice Kakule was one of the first people to survive the current outbreak after he fell ill while treating a woman last July before the outbreak had even been declared.

“What is clear is that Ebola is an emergency because the epidemic persists despite every possible effort to educate people,” he told the Geneva meeting.

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Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writers Krista Larson and Al-Hadji Kudra Maliro in Beni, Congo, and Saleh Mwanamilongo in Kinshasa, Congo, also contributed to this report.

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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Source: https://wtop.com/national/2019/07/ebola-outbreak-in-congo-declared-a-global-health-emergency/

The post Ebola outbreak in Congo declared a global health emergency first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Countless migrants from the Congo and Angola are continuing to pour into San Antonio, Texas as local officials are expressing their concerns over a lack of resources to handle the situation.

A group of about 350 migrants have arrived so far in the Lone Star State, many of whom are saying they traveled by boat from Africa to Ecuador, then headed north through Central America, Mexico and eventually arrived at the U.S. southern border.

Upon their arrival, immigration authorities said members in the group immediately claimed asylum. The migrants were then bused to San Antonio, where they are currently waiting for further assistance from city and state officials to aid them in reaching their primary destination (which is unknown at this time).

Local news outlets are reporting Travis Park Church and the Frank Garrett Multi-Service Center are assisting in housing the African migrants until a more long-term plan can be put in place.

Another 200 to 300 migrants from the region are expected to arrive in the city at any time.

Facebook account ‘The New Revolution II’ posted a message on Sunday giving their take on the situation:

It appears that Congolese migrants fleeing their Ebola-stricken country are being sent to San Antonio, Texas after making their way to the U.S. via Ecuador.

They aren’t ‘asylum seekers’ – they had to pass through multiple countries in which they would have been safe before getting here. This is not how the asylum system is supposed to work.

Their claim about Ebola is not unwarranted.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently shows a ‘Level 2’ alert for ‘Ebola in Democratic Republic of the Congo’:

• There is an outbreak of Ebola in the North Kivu (Kivu Nord) and Ituri provinces in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
• Travelers to this area could be infected with Ebola if they come into contact with an infected person’s blood or other body fluids.
• Travelers should seek medical care immediately if they develop fever, headache, body aches, sore throat, diarrhea, weakness, vomiting, stomach pain, rash, or red eyes during or after travel.
• CDC has provided recommendations to ensure workers with potential occupational exposure to Ebola are healthy when they return to the United States.

Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently found one in four Congolese Ebola cases “could be going undetected.” Aljazeera reports:

One-quarter of Ebola infections in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s latest outbreak of the disease may be going undetected.

Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said on Thursday the epidemic was “not out of control, but it is certainly not under control,” with insecurity and community mistrust hampering emergency responders’ efforts.

“We believe we are probably detecting in excess of 75 percent of cases. We may be missing up to a quarter of cases,” Ryan said at a press conference in the Swiss city of Geneva.

“We must get earlier detection of cases, [and] have more exhaustive identification of contacts,” he added.

Apparently more than 2,000 cases – including 1,357 deaths – have been recorded since the outbreak first started last August.

Main Image Credit: News24, iStock

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Source: https://cloverchronicle.com/2019/06/10/hundreds-of-migrants-flee-ebola-stricken-congo-for-san-antonio-texas/

[Disclaimer]

The post Hundreds Of Migrants Flee Ebola-Stricken Congo For San Antonio, Texas first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Countless migrants from the Congo and Angola are continuing to pour into San Antonio, Texas as local officials are expressing their concerns over a lack of resources to handle the situation.

A group of about 350 migrants have arrived so far in the Lone Star State, many of whom are saying they traveled by boat from Africa to Ecuador, then headed north through Central America, Mexico and eventually arrived at the U.S. southern border.

Upon their arrival, immigration authorities said members in the group immediately claimed asylum. The migrants were then bused to San Antonio, where they are currently waiting for further assistance from city and state officials to aid them in reaching their primary destination (which is unknown at this time).

Local news outlets are reporting Travis Park Church and the Frank Garrett Multi-Service Center are assisting in housing the African migrants until a more long-term plan can be put in place.

Another 200 to 300 migrants from the region are expected to arrive in the city at any time.

Facebook account ‘The New Revolution II’ posted a message on Sunday giving their take on the situation:

It appears that Congolese migrants fleeing their Ebola-stricken country are being sent to San Antonio, Texas after making their way to the U.S. via Ecuador.

They aren’t ‘asylum seekers’ – they had to pass through multiple countries in which they would have been safe before getting here. This is not how the asylum system is supposed to work.

Their claim about Ebola is not unwarranted.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently shows a ‘Level 2’ alert for ‘Ebola in Democratic Republic of the Congo’:

• There is an outbreak of Ebola in the North Kivu (Kivu Nord) and Ituri provinces in the northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
• Travelers to this area could be infected with Ebola if they come into contact with an infected person’s blood or other body fluids.
• Travelers should seek medical care immediately if they develop fever, headache, body aches, sore throat, diarrhea, weakness, vomiting, stomach pain, rash, or red eyes during or after travel.
• CDC has provided recommendations to ensure workers with potential occupational exposure to Ebola are healthy when they return to the United States.

Additionally, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently found one in four Congolese Ebola cases “could be going undetected.” Aljazeera reports:

One-quarter of Ebola infections in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s latest outbreak of the disease may be going undetected.Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, said on Thursday the epidemic was “not out of control, but it is certainly not under control,” with insecurity and community mistrust hampering emergency responders’ efforts.“We believe we are probably detecting in excess of 75 percent of cases. We may be missing up to a quarter of cases,” Ryan said at a press conference in the Swiss city of Geneva.“We must get earlier detection of cases, [and] have more exhaustive identification of contacts,” he added.Apparently more than 2,000 cases – including 1,357 deaths – have been recorded since the outbreak first started last August.Main Image Credit: News24, iStock

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Source: https://cloverchronicle.com/2019/06/10/hundreds-of-migrants-flee-ebola-stricken-congo-for-san-antonio-texas/

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