"Make no mistake, Americans"

2007 film "I Am Legend" DVD video:


US Army lieutenant colonel Robert Neville: He's announcing it.










http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2014/11/06/sciency-stuff-read/

AGU Blogosphere


6 NOVEMBER 2014

Some Sciency Stuff You Ought To Read

Posted by Dan Satterfield


The French have a saying: “War is how americans learn geography”. Maybe it should be Ebola is how Americans learn geography.










Yup. I'm never voting again for Orbital Sciences Corporation. Dumb science.










http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141106/af-ebola-treatment-centers-696f9aa2a8.html

excite news


Ebola: Sierra Leone hit by lack of treatment units

Nov 6, 2:28 PM (ET) [ Thursday 06 November 2014 ]

By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY and ANDREW O. SELSKY

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — The 7-year-old boy's family and friends are praying over his body when the men in yellow protective suits, face shields and masks arrive. The boy had died at his home in Freetown. This same day, the collection team goes into a house for the body of another Ebola victim. Family members scream in grief as the workers put the corpse into a black body bag and carry it on a stretcher down a dirt path.

These victims, seen in video released by an international charity, died in their homes because Sierra Leone is desperately short of Ebola treatment centers more than five months after the virus came to the impoverished West African country. Of the three countries hardest hit, the epidemic is currently infecting more people in Sierra Leone.

In the past 21 days there have been 1,174 new Ebola cases in Sierra Leone, almost triple the 398 new cases in Liberia and more than quadruple the 256 new cases in Guinea, according to figures released Wednesday by the World Health Organization.

While Sierra Leone accounts for almost two-thirds of new cases, there are only an estimated 400 beds in Ebola treatment units in the whole country. The international community is slowly responding but many more lives will be lost before the level of assistance approaches the need.

"Patients are being turned away from hospitals, reducing their chance of survival and allowing the disease to spread," said Justine Greening, Britain's international development secretary. She spoke as the first of six treatment centers to be built by Britain was opened Wednesday outside Freetown, the capital.

The total capacity of the 80-bed facility, built of framing covered by white material, will be phased in over coming weeks. On the first day, two males and one girl, who all tested positive for Ebola, were admitted, said Helen Mayelle, a spokeswoman for Save the Children which is managing the unit in Kerry Town.

The rise of new cases in Sierra Leone is particularly startling because its population of 6 million is about half the size of Guinea's 12 million. Liberia, with the smallest population of the three countries with 4.2 million people, has been hardest hit overall, suffering more than half the estimated 4,800 deaths in the outbreak.

Ebola, for which there is no licensed treatment, is spread through contact with bodily fluids. About 70 percent of people who get Ebola have died in this outbreak.

In September, Doctors Without Borders turned a cassava field near Bo, Sierra Leone's second-largest city, into a tented treatment center.

Treatment centers have also been erected in hospitals and a police training school run by Sierra Leonean officials, said Dr. Sarian Kamara of the health ministry. One was just completed in Port Loko, Kamara said. That district, in the northwest, has had among the highest number of Ebola cases at 563, the National Ebola Response Center reported Thursday.

Reported cases in two districts in and around Freetown are surging with a total of 1,261.

Video provided by Concern Worldwide, an international humanitarian organization managing 10 burial teams in Freetown and its suburbs, shows the human toll. After a yellow-suited collection team left with a body, some inconsolable family members collapsed in the mud, their screams sounding throughout the tree-studded neighborhood.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, in charge of WHO's Ebola operational response, said that until more Ebola care facilities are built, "there's a basic standard of care which we can try to provide at the community level that will markedly improve the ability of most people to survive, or a substantial portion of people to survive."

That involves providing a minimum amount of protective gear and teaching how to avoid getting infected, he said.

In neighboring Liberia, Doctors Without Borders has distributed more than 50,000 family protection and home disinfection kits and plans to hand out 20,000 more.

More people should have access to treatment centers, but the disinfection kits are needed for now "because of the weak international response to Ebola," the group said. Doctors Without Borders started the campaign in Liberia when the situation was dire in its capital, said group member Sophie-Jane Madden.

USAID and UNICEF have also distributed thousands of kits in Liberia. CARE International has distributed hygiene packs to 1,100 households in Sierra Leone, including soap and buckets fitted with taps.

Justin Forsyth, CEO of Save the Children, was recently in Sierra Leone. He said he is proud that his organization has worked with British organizations and its army to build and run the new center in Kerry Town.

"But we know we need to redouble our efforts if we are to get ahead of this crisis," he said. "We are in a life and death race against time."










http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29911551

BBC

NEWS UK


5 November 2014 Last updated at 06:32 ET

Ebola outbreak: UK centre opening in Sierra Leone

A British-run facility to treat people with Ebola is opening in Sierra Leone.

The 92-bed site in Kerry Town will be run jointly by the Department for International Development (DfID) and charity Save the Children.

The centre is the first of six which are being constructed by the British government as part of the effort to stop the spread of the disease.

The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee says it has raised £13m for tackling Ebola, a week after its appeal launch.

The DEC, which is made up of 13 British aid charities, is helping to run treatment facilities and care centres.

The British Red Cross's Ebola response manager, John English, described the British public's response as "very generous" and said he hoped it would continue.

Meanwhile in the UK, Manchester Airport has begun screening passengers arriving from the worst-affected countries.

The facility at Kerry Town south of the capital Freetown includes a new blood testing laboratory. Six hundred more beds are planned at UK centres around the country in the coming months.

The centre also provides dedicated beds for infected healthcare workers and separate sites for confirmed and suspected cases.

Save the Children chief executive Justin Forsyth said there was a "race against time" to stop the disease spreading.

He added: "The Ebola crisis that's affecting Sierra Leone, but also Liberia and Guinea, is so enormous.

"We're in a race against time to make sure we can prevent it spreading but also to treat people who have got Ebola and to build on for the future.

"But we've never done something like this treatment centre. It's enormous for us and it was a risky decision, but it's something I feel very proud about."

'Huge impact'

The head of the DfID-led UK Ebola Taskforce, Donal Brown, predicted that the new centres "will have a huge impact".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the facilities were part of a wider strategy that includes community care centres and improved burial practices.

"We are making progress," he said, pointing out that that four weeks ago "very few" bodies were being picked up for burial but now 100% of bodies reported were being buried within 24 hours.

International Development Secretary Justine Greening highlighted the current shortage of beds: "Patients are being turned away from hospitals, reducing their chance of survival and allowing the disease to spread."

British Army engineers and Sierra Leonean construction workers had been "working round the clock" to complete the new treatment centre, she added, with "the potential to save countless lives."

'Overwhelming'

Royal Marines and medics who arrived in Sierra Leone on a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship on 30 October say they have been greeted by an "overwhelming" reception.

RFA Argus also transported food, medical equipment and 32 pick-up trucks to help keep hard-pressed Ebola treatment centres going.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed some 5,000 people. Most of the deaths have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Ebola screening began at London's Heathrow and Gatwick Airports, and at Eurostar terminals, in October.

Manchester Airport has now begun its screening programme for passengers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

People flying into Manchester from the at-risk countries will have their temperature taken, complete a risk questionnaire and receive advice on what to do if they think they have been affected.










http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerrytown


Kerrytown

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kerrytown is a historic district in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is known for its brick streets










2008 film "Jumper" DVD video:

00:04:09


David Rice: [ narrating ] And that's how it happened the first time. One second I'm a goner and the next thing I know I'm at the Ann Arbor public library.



- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 12:11 PM Pacific Time Spokane Valley Washington USA Thursday 06 November 2014