From South China Morning Post

Patient, who was working at treatment centre in Sierra Leone, to be flown on RAF jet to London

(AP) The first British citizen confirmed to be infected with the deadly Ebola disease was being evacuated from Sierra Leone on a jet sent by the Royal Air Force, a Sierra Leone official said yesterday.

The World Health Organisation was also considering medical evacuation for an international health worker who has become infected in Sierra Leone, the UN health agency said.

Neither patient was identified by name, and the nationality of the infected WHO employee was not given.

The British patient was working at an Ebola treatment centre in eastern Sierra Leone, the region most affected by the outbreak, said Sidie Yayah Tunis, director of communications for the Sierra Leone health ministry.

The two cases highlight the risks facing health workers on the front lines of the battle against Ebola, which has killed more than 1,400 people across West Africa, according to the latest WHO figures.

“This is the first time someone working under the aegis of WHO has fallen ill with the disease,” the WHO said, adding that more than 225 health workers have been infected and nearly 130 have died from Ebola during the current outbreak.

The British patient was transported via ambulance to Sierra Leone’s main airport in the town of Lungi, Tunis said.

Britain’s Department of Health said the patient was being flown on a specially equipped RAF transport plane to Northolt air base in London.

He will be treated at London’s Royal Free Hospital, which has an isolation unit for infectious disease.

The department said in a statement that the patient “is not currently seriously unwell”.

“The overall risk to the public in the UK continues to be very low,” said John Watson, England’s deputy chief medical officer. “Medical experts are currently assessing the situation in Sierra Leone to ensure that appropriate care is provided”.

The World Health Organisation says Sierra Leone has recorded 910 Ebola cases and 392 deaths. The Sierra Leone government says there have been 881 cases and 333 deaths. In Kenema, where the Briton was working, the government has recorded 303 cases.

Two Americans and a Spanish medical worker have already been evacuated from Liberia and given ZMapp, an experimental and unproven treatment for Ebola. The Americans have recovered and been discharged while the Spaniard died.

The drug supply is now exhausted, the US manufacturer has said.

Sierra Leone has passed a law threatening jail time for anyone caught hiding an Ebola patient, a common practice that the World Health Organisation believes has contributed to underestimation of the disease outbreak.

The law, passed on Friday, imposed terms of up to two years for violators, said legislator Ansumana Jaiah Kaikai. It now goes for presidential approval.

He said the measure was necessary to compel residents to cooperate with officials, noting that some residents had resisted steps to combat Ebola and build isolation centres in communities.

THIRD OF FLIGHTS TO EBOLA-HIT NATIONS CANCELLED

Airlines have cancelled more than a third of international flights to three west African countries over fears that an outbreak of the Ebola virus could spread.

Of 590 monthly flights scheduled to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, 216 have been cancelled, OAG, an airline data provider, reported. Although 14 cases of Ebola have been reported in Nigeria, flights to and from the country have not been affected.

African countries are introducing measures to stop Ebola from spreading: on Thursday South Africa banned travellers from Ebola-stricken countries from entering the country; Senegal closed its border with Guinea on Friday as a preventative measure, while Chad has closed its border with Nigeria.

Air Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria’s Arik Air, Togo’s ASKY Airlines, British Airways, Emirates Airlines and Kenya Airways have together cancelled 76 flights to Guinea, 70 to Liberia and 70 to Sierra Leone.

Kenya Airways’ flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone have been stopped after Kenya’s ministry of health recommended a temporary ban. These cancellations came despite the World Health Organisation urging airlines to keep routes going.

The UN health agency does not support any ban on international travel or trade. Quarantining the affected countries would damage their economies and increase food shortages, it said. The nations affected by the epidemic, which began in March, were already suffering with shortages of fuel, food and basic supplies, it said.

Brussels Airlines, the only European carrier to serve all three affected countries, said it would continue flights, but Air France crews refused to board flights destined for Ebola-affected countries last week, raising fears that it could scrap routes.

British Airways, which has halted flights to Sierra Leone and Liberia, will review matters at the end of the month.

For more on this story go to: http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1580366/british-citizen-ebola-being-evacuated-sierra-leone

Related story:

Ebola kills Liberia doctor despite ZMapp treatment

From BBC

A Liberian Ministry of Health worker checks people for Ebola symptoms at a checkpoint near the international airport on August 24, 2014 near Dolo Town, Liberia. Liberia has had more Ebola deaths than any other country this year

A Liberian doctor has died despite taking an experimental anti-Ebola drug, Liberia’s information minister says.

Abraham Borbor was one of three doctors in Liberia who had been given ZMapp and were showing signs of recovery.

ZMapp has been credited with helping several patients recover, including two US doctors.

More than 1,400 people have died from Ebola this year in four West African countries – Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

Dr Borbor “was showing signs of improvement but yesterday (Sunday) he took a turn for the worse,” Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told the BBC.

“What this means for the drugs, I don’t know,” the minister added, without giving further details.

It is believed Dr Borbor died in the capital Monrovia. He was the deputy chief medical doctor at the country’s largest hospital.

Liberia has recently imposed a quarantine in parts of Monrovia to try to stop the spread of the virus.

Last Thursday, police fired live rounds and tear gas during protests among residents of the city’s West Point slum.

Liberia has seen the most deaths – more than 570 – in what is now the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

UK isolation case

In a separate development on Monday, a UK volunteer nurse is being treated at a London hospital after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone – the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the virus in the current outbreak.

William Pooley, 29, returned to the UK on Sunday and is being kept in a special isolation unit.

Supplies of Zmapp are thought to have been used up and he is not currently being treated with the drug.

However, officials have not ruled the use of Zmapp or similar treatments.

His family said he was receiving “excellent care”.

Meanwhile, Japan said it was ready to allow shipments of an experimental anti-viral drug to help combat the Ebola outbreak.

It is not clear whether T-705 (or Avigan) will actually work against Ebola, and no monkey or human trials of the drug have been done, the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Tokyo reports.

T-705 was developed by Japan’s Toyama Chemicals company for use against new strains of influenza. It was approved by the Japanese government earlier this year.

A company spokesman says the firm believes the similarity between flu viruses and Ebola means Avigan could be effective.

Japan says it is ready to ship Avigan even without approval by the World Health Organization.

Prison term warning

Ebola is spread between humans through direct contact with infected body fluids and several doctors and health workers have died.

It is one of the world’s deadliest diseases, with up to 90% of cases resulting in death, although in the current outbreak the rate is about 55%.

The speed and extent of the outbreak was “unprecedented”, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week.

An estimated 2,615 people in West Africa have been infected with Ebola since March.

On Saturday, Sierra Leone’s parliament passed a new law making it a criminal offence to hide Ebola patients.

If approved by the president, those caught face up to two years in prison.

IMAGES:

A Liberian Ministry of Health worker checks people for Ebola symptoms at a checkpoint near the international airport on August 24, 2014 near Dolo Town, Liberia. Liberia has had more Ebola deaths than any other country this year

A health worker offers water to a woman with Ebola in Kenema, Sierra Leone, in July 2014. Sierra Leone’s parliament has passed a new law making it a criminal offence to hide Ebola patients

Members of Liberia’s Ebola Task Force ride in the back of a pickup as they enforce a quarantine on the West Point slum on 20 August 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia Liberia’s police, army and fire service are being used to enforce the Ebola quarantine in Monrovia

William Pooley worked earlier this year as a volunteer at The Shepherd’s Hospice in Sierra Leone

For more on this story go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28925491