Tag: Ebola

Ebola: ‘lifeline of care’ delivered to Sierra Leone

Britain’s latest Ebola aid flight – delivering beds, personal protection suits, tents and vehicles – landed in Sierra Leone capital Freetown yesterday, International Development Secretary Justine Greening has confirmed.

DFID

Aid flights from the UK to Sierra Leone have delivered personnel and vital supplies for the construction and operation of the 92 bed treatment facility in Kerry Town – the first of at least five that the UK is building in the country from scratch.

A team of British military personnel – including logisticians, planners and engineers – are currently on the ground to oversee the construction of the treatment centre.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening said: “The UK continues to deliver essential supplies to control and defeat the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

“This aid will go towards getting the UK’s treatment facility up and running as soon as possible. It will also ensure that heroic health workers working on the front line have the very best protection equipment available to tackle this terrible disease.

“Construction of our treatment centre is now well underway and the first phase will be operational soon. This will provide a lifeline of care to Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.”

Aid supplies delivered so far include: 20 vehicles including ambulances; 75 water tanks; 3 incinerators for disposing of clothing and other materials; 12 generators; personal protection equipment; radio equipment; lighting sets; chlorine for sanitation; latrine slabs; temporary warehouse tents; 14 air conditioning units and isolator equipment.

The vehicles will be used to move blood samples and patients from local communities to the treatment centre. Further aid supplies will be deployed from the Department for International Development’s emergency warehouse in Kemble, Gloucestershire.

The UK has pledged £125 million to support the global effort to contain, control and defeat the disease in Sierra Leone. This includes support for 700 Ebola treatment beds which will provide direct medical care up to 8,800 patients over six months and help to shore up the country’s stretched public health services as they battle to contain the disease. This includes vital supplies such as chlorine and protective clothing for thousands of health workers.

Ebola in Scotland: risk ‘relatively low’ but health chief urges vigilance

Ebola_virus_virionThe Scottish Government Resilience Committee (SGoRR) met last night to discuss preparedness related to the Ebola situation in West Africa. The meeting was chaired by First Minister Alex Salmond.

The First Minister said: “It is crucial our health service is geared up to deal with any potential confirmed cases of Ebola in Scotland.

“That was the basis of the meeting and I am confident our NHS is ready to respond. But we must not only asses our preparedness in Scotland, we must also ensure we are doing all we can to support the efforts to contain the spread of Ebola in West Africa. I have asked for an urgent assessment of what we can do to build on the £500,000 we have already provided to the World Health Organisation and Scotland will do whatever we can to assist.”

Health Secretary Alex Neil was also part of the meeting, along with experts in infectious diseases from Health Protection Scotland and acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Aileen Keel.

Mr Neil said: “Our public health experts, including those at Health Protection Scotland, have been monitoring the position very closely since the outbreak began and putting in place the awareness and advice to ensure our health service is as well prepared as possible to respond.

“While the risk remains relatively low, we are ensuring that we have the robust procedures in place to identify cases rapidly. Our health service also has the expertise and facilities to ensure that confirmed Ebola cases would be contained and isolated effectively minimising any potential spread of the disease.

“Indeed, the CMO has written to clinicians across our NHS today to reinforce the need to be vigilant and take the appropriate steps in any suspected or high risk cases.

“Scotland’s NHS has proved it is well able to cope with infectious diseases in the past, such as swine flu, and I am confident we will be able to respond effectively again.

“We will go on monitoring the situation and maintain a high state of vigilance across our health system. SGoRR will meet again in the coming days to continue to closely monitor developments and ensure robust resilience arrangements are in place.”

Earlier yesterday the Prime Minister chaired a COBR meeting on plans to protect the UK against the Ebola virus and combat the disease in West Africa.

A Number 10 spokesperson said:

“The Prime Minister chaired a COBR meeting on Ebola this afternoon. The attendees included the Chancellor, Home Secretary, Defence Secretary, Health Secretary, Transport Secretary, International Development Secretary, Public Health Minister, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientist and Dr Paul Cosford from Public Health England. The Foreign Secretary in the US and UK team in Sierra Leone joined via a video link.

“The meeting covered both the UK preparedness for potential cases of Ebola in this country and the UK’s efforts to combat the disease in West Africa.

“There was a detailed discussion about plans for protecting the UK against Ebola. The Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, and Dr Paul Cosford set out that the UK had some of the best public health protection systems in the world and the risk to the UK remained low. The Chief Medical Officer detailed the procedures in place for dealing with any Ebola case in the UK, and the training and preparation that had already taken place with key organisations and staff, including ambulance medics, hospitals, NHS 111, GPs and other key public health workers.

“The case of Will Pooley had demonstrated the UK’s ability to deal with an identified case without wider infection, with a world-leading specialist unit at The Royal Free. Contingency planning would continue and will include a national exercise and wider resilience training to ensure the UK is fully prepared. The Chief Medical Officer has now issued further advice to medical professionals across the country and would continue to do so in the coming weeks. Information posters for passengers would be put up in UK airports.

“The Prime Minister was updated on the situation on the ground by the UK team in Sierra Leone, where the number of cases continues to rise. The UK was already taking a leading role in the efforts to support the government to deal with the outbreak. Using British expertise and local building contractors, the UK has committed to build at least 5 new Ebola Treatment Facilities with a total of 700 beds near urban centres including Port Loko, Freetown and Makeni.

“The package will help up to nearly 8,800 patients over a 6 month period. The UK was also supporting infection training for workers and support to ensure burial sites, and the Department for International Development is undertaking a rapid trial of 10 local community care units to isolate Ebola cases more quickly, with clinics providing swift and accurate diagnosis and appropriate care.

“It was agreed that the UK will increase the level of support further. This will include more training capacity, new treatment centres and helicopter support.

“750 Ministry of Defence personnel will be deployed in total to help with the establishment of Ebola Treatment Centres and an Ebola Training Academy. This will include:

  • the deployment of RFA Argus to take and support 3 Merlin helicopters, aircrew and engineers in the region to provide crucial transport support to medical teams and aid experts. This will involve around 250 personnel.
  • over 200 military staff will be deployed to run and staff World Health Organisation-led Ebola training facility that will assist in the training of healthcare workers, logisticians and hygiene specialists who are needed to staff treatment units
  • 300 military personnel making up the existing UK taskforce plans focussed on delivering support to the Sierra Leone government.”

Ebola: should we be alarmed?

The Department of Health confirmed yesterday that a British national residing in Sierra Leone has tested positive for Ebola virus infection. Should we be concerned?

s300_Ebola_virus_virionThe simple answer is no, there is no immediate cause for alarm – but the health authorities remain vigilant.

‘the risk of any traveller to West Africa contracting Ebola is very low without direct contact with the blood or body fluids of an infected person.’

 

Professor John Watson, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said: “The overall risk to the public in the UK continues to be very low. Medical experts are currently assessing the situation in Sierra Leone to ensure that appropriate care is provided. We have robust, well-developed and well-tested NHS systems for managing unusual infectious diseases when they arise, supported by a wide range of experts.”

Ebola haemorrhagic fever is a rare but severe disease caused by the Ebola virus. Ebola is highly transmissible by direct contact with organs or bodily fluids of living or dead infected persons and animals.

An Ebola outbreak was first confirmed in Guinea back in February and quickly spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. The outbreak is the world’s deadliest to date.

Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment. The latest outbreak has caused more than 700 deaths since February.

The UK government is closely monitoring the Ebola outbreak – the largest outbreak of the virus in recent times – but said in a statement:

‘This is not an issue that affects the UK directly. We have experienced scientists and doctors including at the Royal Free Infectious Disease Unit, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We also have a lot of experience of dealing with dangerous diseases. The risk of this disease spreading fast in the UK is much lower because of that.

‘The UK government is taking precautionary measures and looking at capability but is confident that the UK has experienced people who are ready to deal with anything if it were to arrive here.’

Following a meeting of government committee COBR, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: “We’ve looked at how we are co-ordinating with our French and American colleagues under the World Health Organisation, we’ve considered what additional measures the UK could take to help control the outbreak in West Africa and we’ve also looked at what measures we need to put in place on a precautionary basis in case any UK nationals in West Africa should become affected by the disease.

We do not, at the moment, think this is an issue that affects the UK directly.”

Guidance has been issued to front line Border Force staff on how to identify and safely deal with suspected cases of Ebola – it makes clear what steps need to be taken should a passenger arrive at the border unwell.

If a person is identified at the border as being a potential carrier they will be immediately referred by a Border Force officer to a specialist medical care provider and reported to public health authorities.

There was a local scare earlier this month when an athlete from Sierra Leone fell ill during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but he tested negative for Ebola. Dr Colin Ramsay, of Health Protection Scotland, said then: “There’s been no programme of actively screening athletes simply because of the Commonwealth Games.

“The situation is that if someone presents with symptoms suggestive of the possibility of Ebola virus infection and who has come from a country affected by the current outbreak – and that’s Sierra Leone and Guinea and Liberia – they would be investigated accordingly and that would involve managing them with a set of standard precautions. People in this sort of situation would be investigated for a number of conditions, not just Ebola.”

No cases of imported Ebola have ever been reported in the UK.

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