{UAH} IT IS EBOLA - DONT BE DECEIVED BY NRM DENIALS
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New Ebola-Like Strain In Uganda; Madrid Nurse First Case In Europe
Madrid/Kampala (Alliance News) - A Madrid nurse is the first confirmed case of human-to-human transmission of the disease in Europe, Spanish media reported Monday citing health authorities.
In Uganda, the government mobilized response teams and issued a public health alert after a man died of the Ebola-like Marburg virus, a senior health official said.
In Washington, US President Barack Obama said the US would bolster screening of passengers at airports in Africa and the US to halt Ebola's spread after a traveller from Liberia came down with the haemmorrhagic disease in Texas.
The Madrid nurse was confirmed as an Ebola patient after two blood tests came up positive, reported Efe.
She had treated Manuel Garcia Viejo, who contracted the disease as a medical missionary in Sierra Leone, was airlifted back to Madrid and died September 25.
The Health Ministry called an urgent meeting to address the potential crisis, newspaper El Pais reported.
The news comes as international fears grow about the spread of the disease which had been centred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone but has now appeared in the US and Spain.
Obama called for greater international engagement, saying many countries have not stepped up as a aggressively as needed.
"Countries that think that they can sit on the sidelines and just let the US do it, that will result in a less effective response, a less speedy response, and that means that people die," he said.
The US case involves a Liberian man who traveled to Dallas after being exposed to Ebola in his home country. After his condition deteriorated, doctors at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital Monday said he would receive an experimental medicine known as brincidofovir.
A nurse at the Texas hospital had initially turned Thomas Duncan away with Ebola symptoms, even though he told he hospital he had come from Liberia.
The largest nurses union in the US, National Nurses United (NNU), said last week that US nurses do not have the proper training or equipment to handle the virus.
In a survey of 700 registered nurses in 31 states, NNU found that one-third reported that their hospital had insufficient supplies such as face shields and fluid resistant gowns, and 87% said their hospital has not provided proper education on Ebola.
Obama called for US health workers to be educated in identifying the virus.
In Uganda, a 30-year-old radiographer who had worked at Mengo hospital in Kampala died of the Marburg virus on September 28. Eighty people who had been in contact with the victim have been isolated, officials said.
"We are telling the people to be on maximum alert," health services general director Jane Aceng told dpa.
The Marburg virus causes severe bleeding, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. Like Ebola, it is transmitted through bodily fluids. Fatality rates in outbreaks have varied from 24 to 88%.
A number of aid workers who contracted Ebola in West Africa have been transported to their home countries for treatment.
The latest is a Norwegian aid worker who had been working in Sierra Leone and was to be treated at Oslo University Hospital after his expected arrival in Norway on Tuesday, according to the international medical group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and NRK radio.
At least one other medical worker infected in Africa is being treated in Germany. Meanwhile, a Senagelese worker sent to Germany has recovered, as has a French worker airlifted home.
One other Spanish doctor succumbed to the virus after being sent home.
In the US, four health workers and one journalist have been airlifted home after contracting Ebola. Three have, so far, recovered.
Sierra Leone's government plans to deploy more than 780 additional police officers in response to a drastic increase in new Ebola cases over the past few days.
A large police contingent will be stationed in the northern district of Port Loko and southern district of Moyamba - two of the country's Ebola epicentres - to conduct Ebola surveillance and build check points.
The decision comes after national health statistics showed that recorded Ebola deaths had shot up from 557 to 678 on Saturday, indicating 121 deaths in a single day.
The accuracy of the numbers remained unclear. The World Health Organization had already recorded 623 Ebola deaths in Sierra Leone by October 1.
Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea health ministries have reported 7,470 probable, confirmed and suspected cases, and 3,431 deaths as of last week, according to the WHO.
Copyright dpa
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