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Amber Vinson, Dallas nurse, leaving hospital after Ebola cure Amber Vinson, Dallas nurse, leaves hospital after Ebola cure
(about 1 hour later)
The second Dallas nurse infected with Ebola has been cured and plans to appear on Tuesday at a triumphant press conference at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The second Dallas nurse infected with Ebola has been cured and appeared at a triumphant press conference Tuesday to mark her release from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
The recovery of Amber Joy Vinson, who became infected with the virus while caring for Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan in a Dallas hospital, leaves only one person in America known to have an active case of Ebola. “I’m so grateful to be well. First and foremost, I want to thank God,” said Amber Joy Vinson, 29, who became infected with the virus at a Dallas hospital while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who succumbed to the disease on Oct. 8.
That is Craig Spencer, the doctor who became feverish on Thursday in New York and was immediately transported to Bellevue Hospital. He remains isolated in what health officials have described as serious but stable condition. A boy with a fever tested negative for Ebola at the same hospital on Monday, but is being held for observation. Vinson added, “While this is a day for celebration and gratitude, I ask that we not lose focus on the thousands of families that continue to labor under the burden of this disease in West Africa.”
Duncan, who caught the virus in Liberia but became symptomatic only after arriving in the United States on Sept. 20, died on Oct. 8. Vinson and co-worker Nina Pham are so far the only two people known to have caught the virus from Duncan. Pham was also cured, and was released from an isolation unit at the National Institutes of Health on Friday. The recovery of Vinson leaves only one person in America known to have an active case of Ebola. That is Craig Spencer, the doctor who became feverish on Thursday in New York and was immediately transported to Bellevue Hospital. He remains isolated in what the hospital said Tuesday was serious but stable condition.
A 5-year-old boy who had been admitted with a fever has been cleared of Ebola, his symptoms caused by a respiratory infection, the hospital said.
Vinson and co-worker Nina Pham are so far the only two people known to have caught the virus from Duncan, who became infected in Liberia and developed symptoms in late September after flying to the U.S. Pham also was cured, and was released from an isolation unit at the National Institutes of Health on Friday.
Scores of other health workers in Dallas are still being monitored, as well as people who came into contact with Pham and Vinson. But Dallas officials believe that on Nov. 7 — if no one develops symptoms of the disease — they can declare their city Ebola-free.Scores of other health workers in Dallas are still being monitored, as well as people who came into contact with Pham and Vinson. But Dallas officials believe that on Nov. 7 — if no one develops symptoms of the disease — they can declare their city Ebola-free.
The numbers are catastrophically worse in West Africa, where, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization, there have been more than 10,000 cases so far and nearly 5,000 deaths. The numbers are catastrophically worse in West Africa, where, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization, there have been more than 10,000 cases so far, dating back to the beginning of the outbreak at the end of last year, and nearly 5,000 deaths.
There are, however, scattered signs of progress in containing the epidemic. In Liberia, according to the WHO, the number of new cases has dropped in recent weeks.
“I don’t think we’ve turned the corner but it’s better than exponential growth of new cases,” Rajiv Shah, the director of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told The Post after a recent trip to the region. But he added, “In Sierra Leone we are not yet seeing the kind of trend shift that we’re seeing in Liberia. There’s an urgent need to scale up the effort in Sierra Leone.”
Helen Epstein, a writer specializing in public health who has been in Liberia recently, published an article Monday online in The New York Review of Books saying the decline in new cases there is dramatic, and suggesting that “many Liberians, who at first denied the epidemic was real, have come to their senses and changed their behavior by avoiding direct physical contact with sick or dead people.”
But such signs come amid great uncertainty about data collection and the possible reach of the virus into remote areas and rain forests where disease surveillance has been limited. The official WHO statistics show minimal progress, and disease modelers continue to issue extremely alarming forecasts.
“Hard to know what’s really going on,” said Joshua Michaud, associate director for Global Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “Maybe it’s only people looking for good news in an ongoing crisis, maybe reporting is worse than ever and we just don’t have good understanding, maybe people are staying away from the treatment units and cases aren’t being counted, or maybe community behaviors actually have changed in the face of the mounting toll to the point where transmission has been reduced.”
The virus has had a tendency to subside then flare back up again. For example, in Kenema and Kailahun districts in Sierra Leone, new cases dropped to zero for several weeks, but then more recently the districts had 23 and 10 cases, respectively, in a single week, the WHO reported.
On Tuesday, Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, is currently touring the region and on Tuesday tweeted out a positive bulletin:
“Just left Sierra Leone: good news in fight vs leading cause of ebola infection: safe burials in Freetown have gone from 30% to nearly 100%.”
The head of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, said Tuesday that an additional 5,000 health care workers are needed immediately to treat Ebola victims in the three countries most afflicted: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.The head of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, said Tuesday that an additional 5,000 health care workers are needed immediately to treat Ebola victims in the three countries most afflicted: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
Speaking in Ethi­o­pia, where he was joined by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Kim pleaded with African leaders not to close their borders in a time when the stricken countries need a massive influx of health care workers.Speaking in Ethi­o­pia, where he was joined by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Kim pleaded with African leaders not to close their borders in a time when the stricken countries need a massive influx of health care workers.
“Right now, I’m very much worried about where we will find those health care workers. With the fear factor going out of control in so many places, I hope health care professionals will understand that when they took their oath to become a health care worker it was precisely for moments like this,” Kim said, according to the Associated Press.“Right now, I’m very much worried about where we will find those health care workers. With the fear factor going out of control in so many places, I hope health care professionals will understand that when they took their oath to become a health care worker it was precisely for moments like this,” Kim said, according to the Associated Press.
The issue of travel restrictions and border closures in Africa carries an echo of what is happening in the United States, where individual states in recent days have developed customized protocols for dealing with travelers from West Africa. The new rules vary from state to state and, in many cases, go beyond the new guidelines announced Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The issue of travel restrictions and border closures in Africa carries an echo of what is happening in the United States, where individual states in recent days have developed customized protocols for dealing with travelers from West Africa. The new rules vary from state to state and, in many cases, go beyond the new guidelines announced Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Australia, a major political controversy has erupted in the wake of an announcement by the Immigration Minister, that the country will not grant visas to travelers from West Africa. It is the first country in the developed world to issue such a blanket ban, according to a Reuters report. Australia will permit holders of permanent Australian visas to return, but only after they first go through a mandatory 21-day quarantine prior to their departure.
Opposition party leaders and global health officials have denounced the measure.
“This is purely just a political decision,” said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney’s Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, according to Reuters. “There is very little scientific evidence or medical rationale why you would choose to do this, and this is the type of politics we find starts to interfere with effective public health measures.”
After Tuesday’s short press conference, Vinson hugged her doctors and nurses at Emory, more than dozen embraces before she left the room to a round of applause.
Vinson’s release marks the fourth Ebola patient that Emory successfully has treated in recent months, beginning with U.S. missionaries Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol.
Her doctor, Bruce Ribner, the medical director of the Infectious Disease Unit, said the hospital had learned a great deal about how to manage the disease and is sharing that information with colleagues in the U.S. and overseas.
Ribner echoed the statements of other public health officials in recent days, saying that the only sure way to stop future cases in the United States is to stem the outbreak in West Africa. He expressed concern over strict quarantine policies for health care workers returning from the affected countries, saying it could deter much-needed volunteers from going in the first place.
Asked why Vinson – and her fellow Dallas colleague Nina Pham – recovered so quickly after being infected, he said doctors can only make educated guesses. He said their youth almost certainly played a role. He also said that because Vinson was wearing protective gear when she treated Dallas patient Thomas Eric Duncan, she likely was exposed to less of the virus than unprotected people who have had close contact with Ebola patients in West Africa.
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