This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/amber-vinson-dallas-nurse-leaving-hospital-after-ebola-cure/2014/10/28/d37e7fae-5e95-11e4-8b9e-2ccdac31a031_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Amber Vinson, Dallas nurse, leaves hospital after Ebola cure Obama assails Ebola quarantines, saying they are based on fear, not facts
(about 6 hours later)
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. President Obama on Tuesday forcefully rejected the idea of a quarantine for medical workers returning from Ebola-affected countries, arguing that such an approach would undermine the broader effort to eliminate the epidemic altogether.
“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. Politicians in the United States, including the president, have come under increasing pressure to curtail the movements of medical personnel returning from Ebola-affected regions after Craig Spencer — a doctor who had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea — was diagnosed with the virus 10 days after he returned home to New York City.
While the president did not directly criticize New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) for imposing mandatory quarantines on health workers coming back from West Africa, he made clear that he thought those moves were a bad idea and were not based on the best medical information.
“We don’t just react based on our fears. We react based on facts and judgment and making smart decisions,” Obama said, just after placing a call to members of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), which has been in West Africa since the first week of August.
The notably assertive presidential response came as the country enters the final campaign stretch before next week’s midterm elections. While the president has sometimes refrained from taking on his critics, he took the unusual step of addressing the Ebola issue with reporters just before boarding Air Force One to depart for a campaign event in Wisconsin.
Calling the DART team “the strategic and operational backbone of America’s response” in the region, Obama said the effort was starting to have an impact, especially in Liberia.
“So we don’t want to discourage our health-care workers from going to the front lines and dealing with this in an effective way,” he said. “The point is this disease can be contained. It will be defeated.”
On Wednesday, Obama will convene a meeting at the White House with doctors and public health workers who have either returned from treating Ebola patients in Africa or are on their way there. The president said he convened the session not only to thank them “but to make sure that we’re getting input from them, based on the science, based on the facts, based on experience, about how the battle to deal with Ebola is going and how our policies can support the incredible heroism that they are showing.”
Obama’s comments came as the second Dallas nurse infected with Ebola has been cured and appeared at a triumphant news conference Tuesday to mark her release from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
“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 died of Ebola on Oct. 8.
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.”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.”
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. The recovery of Vinson leaves Spencer as the only person in the United States known to have an active case of Ebola. He remains isolated in what New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center 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. A 5-year-old boy who had been admitted with a fever has been cleared of Ebola; his symptoms were caused by a respiratory infection, the New York 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. The president, who spoke to Vinson by phone Thursday, said her recovery speaks to the success the U.S. medical system has in containing the virus’s spread. “Of the seven Americans treated for Ebola, all have survived,” he said.
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 dating to the beginning of the outbreak at the end of last year, 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 Liberia, according to the WHO, the number of new cases has dropped in recent weeks.
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 administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, told The Washington 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.”
“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.”
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 there is still great uncertainty about 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 be concerned.
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.”“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. The virus has a history of subsiding then flaring 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: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%.” “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 at 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. On Tuesday the three largest organizations representing America’s hospitals, nurses and physicians endorsed guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommend state and local officials closely monitor but not quarantine returning health workers, based on their level of Ebola exposure.
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. Meanwhile the Joint Chiefs of Staff made a formal recommendation Tuesday to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that he require all U.S. troops returning from West Africa be subjected to 21 days of quarantine-like conditions. If approved by Hagel, the policy would essentially extend to all branches of the armed forces a decision made on Monday by Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, to place several dozen soldiers returning from West Africa under in isolation for 21 days at a base in Italy.
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. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the civilian and military policies differed because there are “a couple of dozen health-care workers a week who are returning to this country from West Africa” compared to “thousands of military service members who have been or will be deployed to West Africa to carry out the mission that the president ordered.”
Opposition party leaders and global health officials have denounced the measure. “It would be wrong to suggest that it would make the American people safer to apply this military policy in a civilian context,” Earnest said. “The science would not back that up.”
“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.” According to Capt. Carter Langston, an Army spokesman in Monrovia, said there are now more than 700 personnel in country.
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. Craig Whitlock contributed to this report.
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.
Related: Quarantine debate turning into a chaotic brawlRelated: Quarantine debate turning into a chaotic brawl