Last week, when we reported [3]on the latest breakout of a mysterious Ebola-like disease, which had claimed at least 70 people's live at last check, we were skeptical by the WHO's attempts to mask the fact that an Ebola outbreak is something else entirely, in a desperate attempt to avoid the panic that would inevitably result from the confirmation that the Ebola virus has officially made its way into the fifth country, this time the second largest African nation by surface area, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
As Reuters reported at the time, citing a WHO spokesman who had sent an email to the news agency, "this is not Ebola" to which we mused: "perhaps the WHO is fibbing just a bit to prevent another all out panic. If not Ebola then what? According to WHO, the deaths are the result of an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, a disease prevalent in... dogs?
We concluded: "So is the WHO simply trying to prevent the spread of panic and deny that Ebola has now spread to the second largest country in Africa? We will surely find out soon enough, especially if the WHO, too, advises the population "to keep calm and BTFD"..."
Three days later we have the answer and sure enough, as we suspected the WHO was indeed lying.
Reuters confirms [4]: Democratic Republic of Congo declared an Ebola outbreak in its northern Equateur province on Sunday after two out of eight cases tested came back positive for the deadly virus, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said. A mysterious disease has killed dozens of people in Equateur in recent weeks but the World Health Organization had said on Thursday it was not Ebola.
"I declare an Ebola epidemic in the region of Djera, in the territory of Boende in the province of Equateur," Kabange Numbi told a news conference.
The region lies about 1,200 km (750 miles) north of the capital Kinshasa.
Numbi said that one of the two cases that tested positive was for the Sudanese strain of the disease, while the other was a mixture between the Sudanese and the Zaire strain -- the most lethal variety. The outbreak in West Africa that has killed at least 1,427 people in West Africa since March is the Zaire strain.
The World Health Organization said on Thursday that the disease which had killed at least 70 people in Equateur was a kind of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis.
Sadly, this simply means that the WHO is just the latest global organization willing to sacrifice its credibility in order to avoid the spread of social panic, even though the truth always emerges in the end, and when society realizes it can't even trust those mandated with telling the truth, the end panic is orders of magnitude worse.
One wonders: if the WHO was lying about this what other critical development is the organization fabricating and/or covering up?
And in a gruesome and very ironic twist, CNN reports [5] that it was the very same World Health Organization, whose worker has fallen ill from Ebola for the very first time. The health worker is in Sierra Leone and receiving care, the WHO said, but provided no further details.
That's not all: separately, a British citizen infected with the virus in Sierra Leone is being flown home in a specially equipped C17 Royal Air Force plane.
Plane carrying first British #Ebola [6] patient has landed at RAF Northolt in London
— Sky News Newsdesk (@SkyNewsBreak) August 24, 2014 [7]
Nigerian doctors, who had been on nationwide strike, have decided "due to the national health emergency" to return to work Monday. And meanwhile, Ivory Coast announced Saturday that it's closing its borders in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa as the official death toll (excluding 'shadow zones') reaches 1,427; and over 2600 cases as Liberia cases literally explode.
As CNN reports [5], a WHO health worker has become infected..
For the first time, a worker with the World Health Organization has fallen ill from Ebola, the WHO told CNN on Sunday.
The health worker is in Sierra Leone and receiving care, the WHO said. No further details were given immediately.
As WHO states: [8]
Since the beginning of the international response to the outbreak in March, WHO has deployed nearly 400 people from across the Organization and from partners in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) to help respond to the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. This is the first time someone working under the aegis of WHO has fallen ill with the disease.
The Ebola virus is spread through contact with bodily fluids and people giving care or working around infected patients are known to be a high risk group. In the past six months of the outbreak, more than 225 health workers have fallen ill and nearly 130 have lost their lives to the disease they were working to contain.
Which again makes one wonder - just how easily is this disease really spread if nearly half a year after the start of the epidemic the world's most protected individuals can catch it despite all protective measures?
And separately...
a British citizen infected with the virus in Sierra Leone is being flown home, the British Department of Health announced Sunday.
The man, simply identified as William, lives in the West African nation in a home established by an American university for researchers.
He is a volunteer nurse in Kenema Government Hospital, where he was working with Ebola patients, according to Dr. Robert Garry of Tulane University.
...
The UK government said a specially equipped C17 Royal Air Force plane would transport the patient, who would be transferred to an isolation unit at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.
"UK hospitals have a proven record of dealing with imported infectious diseases and this patient will be isolated and will receive the best care possible," said deputy chief medical officer John Watson in a press release.
Meanwhile:
Ivory Coast announced Saturday that it's closing its borders in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Prime Minister Daniel Duncan signed the order that closes the land borders Ivory Coast shares with Guinea and Liberia.
The borders will remain closed until further notice in an effort to prevent the Ebola virus from spreading into its territory, according to the government statement.
Finally, Nigerian doctors announced they will return to work after ending a nationwide strike:
- NIGERIAN DOCTORS END NATIONWIDE STRIKE, TO RESUME WORK TOMORROW
- NIGERIAN DOCTORS END STRIKE DUE TO NATIONAL HEALTH EMERGENCY
- DOCTORS TO RETURN TO WORK WHILE CONTINUING NEGOTIATIONS
- NIGERIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT OBEMBE COMMENTS IN ABUJA
And visually, Liberian deaths and cases have exploded
[9]
