US President Barack Obama
United
States health authorities said Friday they are sending extra personnel
and resources to Nigeria, which has declared a national emergency as it
battles a deadly outbreak of Ebola for the first time.
“We are
starting to ramp up our staffing in Lagos,” US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention spokesman Tom Skinner told AFP.
“We are
really concerned about Lagos and the potential for spread there, given
the fact that Lagos — and Nigeria for that matter — has never seen
Ebola.”
Nigeria became the fourth West African country involved in
the largest Ebola outbreak in history when a dual US-Liberian citizen
who was infected with Ebola traveled by plane to Lagos on July 20. He
died five days later.
Eight people who came in contact with him have been diagnosed with Ebola, and two have died.
Ebola
has killed 932 people in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria
since March, and has infected more than 1,700 according to the World
Health Organization.
Experts say Ebola is out of control in West
Africa, and the WHO on Friday declared the epidemic an international
health emergency and appealed for global aid.
In Nigeria,
President Goodluck Jonathan declared the control and containment of the
Ebola virus “a national emergency,” his office said in a statement.
He
urged people to avoid large gatherings, and approved the release of
$11.6 million to fund measures against the spread of the virus,
including setting up isolation centers and increasing screening at
borders.
Skinner said CDC personnel are in all affected countries, and that several US personnel already on the ground in Nigeria.
Tom Frieden, Director US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
“We
helped the folks in Lagos set up an emergency operations center similar
to what we do here that can help with organizing the country’s response
to the outbreak,” he said.
Earlier this week, the CDC issued an all-hands alert that allows the agency to direct more funding and staff to the crisis.
CDC
chief Tom Frieden told lawmakers on Thursday that the agency already
has 200 staff working on Ebola response, planned to “increase that
number substantially.”
At the same hearing before a House
subcommittee, Ken Isaacs of the Christian aid group Samaritan’s Purse
warned that the situation in Nigeria was likely to worsen.
“Our
epidemiologists believe that what we are going to see is a spike in the
disease in Nigeria,” said Isaacs, vice president of programs and
government relations.
“It will go quiet for about three weeks and when it comes out, it will come out with a fury.”
The
incubation period of Ebola is 21 days, meaning it can take that long
between initial exposure to the virus and the appearance of symptoms.
People
become contagious as soon as they begin exhibiting symptoms, which
include fever, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes bleeding.
Ebola first emerged in 1976, and there are no treatments or vaccines on the market.
A pair of American missionaries who fell ill with Ebola while treating patients in Liberia were given an experimental serum.
Their health has improved, though experts say it is unclear if the medication is the reason.
Kent
Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol, 60, were flown out of Liberia and are
now being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
“I
am growing stronger every day, and I thank God for his mercy as I have
wrestled with this terrible disease,” Brantly wrote from his isolation
unit Friday.
“I held the hands of countless individuals as this
terrible disease took their lives away from them. I witnessed the horror
firsthand, and I can still remember every face and name.”
