Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment

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Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment
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By Justin Huggler, Berlin
4:36PM BST 29 Jul 2014

With medical services across Europe on high alert to prevent any risk of the Ebola virus spreading here, a hospital in Germany has agreed to accept an infected patient for treatment.
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He will be kept in a special isolation ward behind three separate air locks. The air inside the ward will be kept at lower pressure than outside, so none can escape ? even though it is not believed Ebola can be transmitted by air.

Doctors and nurses will wear complete protective bodysuits with their own oxygen supplies whenever in contact with him. The suits will be replaced and burned every three hours.
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German doctors agreed to accept the patient after a special request from the World Health Organisation (WHO), but it is not certain he will be able to come to Germany, amid reports he may be too sick to travel.

The patient has not been named, but the confirmation he is a Sierra Leonean national has fuelled speculation he may be Sheikh Umar Khan, one of Africa?s leading ebola experts, who was infected last week.

Dr Khan is one of a number of medics battling the outbreak in West Africa who have themselves become infected.
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Kent Brantly, an American doctor, and Nancy Writebol, an American paramedic, are in serious condition after becoming infected while working at a mission hospital in Liberia.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...y-accepts-infected-patient-for-treatment.html

 

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Re: Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment

Translation Google

July 29, 2014| 19.25

Two Ebola infected patients should to Hamburg

Hamburg / Freetown. Previously, only one Ebola patients mentioned, but now doctors are preparing in Hamburg on two infected before. The situation in West Africa is intensifying, meanwhile: Even doctors have been infected already in patients. But treating Ebola patients in Germany remains uncertain.

For two Infected occur after hospital information from Hamburg now with inquiries. The World Health Organization had requested from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), whether the employee is a health organization could be hosted there. It also admit since Monday a request for a second potential patients from Liberia, told Stefan Schmiedel of the Section Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht Clinic in Hamburg on Tuesday.

In the first patient could be unconfirmed reports that involve the leading Ebola experts Sheik Umar Khan from Sierra Leone, who in his native moved much in the fight against Ebola. "Today it will add nothing new," a spokesman for the Hamburg health authorities said on Tuesday. But he think it rather unlikely that the man will put in the Hanseatic city. The ill person is still not fit for transport.

No details of the second case

The clinic was prepared in a 24-hour standby for the arrival of a possible Ebola patients, he added. He was absolutely sure that there due to the high safety standards no risk of infection of medical personnel and the public. Whether it makes sense to bring Ebola patients from Africa to Europe for the treatment, should be discussed, Schmiedel said. The intensive treatment would cost about EUR 300 000.

"We ultimately do not know what leads to the death of patients," added Prof. Stefan G?nther, head of virology at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine. Intensive Medical care could the mortality rate of Ebola infection may reduce from 70 to 50 or 40 percent; secured but that was not because of insufficient experience were available.
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http://www.rp-online.de/panorama/de...a-patienten-sollen-nach-hamburg-aid-1.4418141

 

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Re: Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment

Translation Google

How Hamburg protects against Ebola virus

And when an Ebola patient flown to Hamburg, which would be the first infected, which is treated in Germany. On the isolation ward at UKE prevails highest level of security.

The World Health Organization (WHO) at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf requested (UKE), whether Ebola patients can be treated from West Africa. For two requests are infected before, said Stefan Schmiedel of the Section Tropical Medicine, Bernhard-Nocht Clinic (BNITM) in Hamburg on Tuesday.

In the first patient could be unconfirmed reports that involve the leading Ebola experts Sheik Umar Khan from Sierra Leone, who in his native moved much in the fight against Ebola. "Today it will add nothing new," a spokesman for the Hamburg health authorities said on Tuesday. But he think it rather unlikely that the man will put in the Hanseatic city. The ill person is still not fit for transport.

For the second case, there is, according to Schmiedel no details. The clinic was prepared in a 24-hour standby for the arrival of a possible Ebola patients, he added. He was absolutely sure that there due to the high safety standards no risk of infection of medical personnel and the public. Whether it makes sense to bring Ebola patients from Africa to Europe for the treatment, should be discussed, Schmiedel said. The intensive treatment would cost about 300,000 euros.

Biosafety Level 4

With highly infectious pathogens, against which there is no vaccine or medication, may be used only in high-security laboratories, also called S4-labs. This classification indicates that a laboratory can perform activities at the highest level of protection - the Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4). This puts Germany in the law Biostoffverordnung fixed. It applies to the protection of workers who have to do with biological materials.

The four stages are according to Regulation "a measure of the level of risk of infection." Biological agents of group 4 are in accordance with the EU labor policy "substances that can cause severe human disease and present a serious hazard to workers; risk of spreading to the community is large in some circumstances, there is usually no effective prophylaxis or treatment . "

Constitutional protection monitors laboratory

The highest security level applies to Ebola virus and requires certain safety precautions ahead: For instance, a lock access leading into the laboratory, the prescribed constant negative pressure of the air there is alarm monitored, the area must be completely sealed, there are special rules on disinfection and sterilization and workers should wear protective clothing and take a shower before they leave the area.

In Germany there are three BSL-4 laboratories - for human medicine in Hamburg and Marburg and for veterinary medicine on the Baltic island of Riems near Greifswald. Another high-security laboratory building the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin right now.

The Hamburg-based Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine is the largest establishment for tropical diseases in Germany and inaugurated its high-security laboratory in 2009. The BSL-4 area is 150 square meters in size, up to four people can work there.

The lab is sealed with welded stainless steel plates, a vacuum system with two locks and a virus-proof filter system for ventilation. The staff wear full protective suits, which are separately supplied with breathing air, and must shower when leaving the lab with peracetic acid. Because they work with high-risk substances that employees are also monitored by the Protection of the Constitution.

There is no Ebola therapy

In the laboratory, the researchers are experimenting with particularly dangerous fever viruses such as Lassa, Marburg, Crimean-Congo or Ebola virus, in which the patients also suffer bleeding (hemorrhagic fever ). So the scientists are developing detection methods for tropical pathogens that explore the transfer and possible vaccination. The focus is on doing the research on malaria, tuberculosis, SARS, tissue worms and particularly severe fevers.

Since the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa in March, the BNITM has primarily by a mobile laboratory helped operate the employees on behalf of WHO. The laboratory was transported in 25 suitcases to Guinea, where scientists from all over Europe to demonstrate the Ebola virus in patient samples on site.

Should really an Ebola patient can be supplied in Hamburg, the scientists come in BNITM not directly in contact with him - they only work with the blood and are responsible for determining the virus.

Inclusion in isolation station

Sets the infected person would at UKE, which in 2010 set up a center for patients who have been infected for example with the Ebola, Marburg or SARS pathogens. On this isolation station are available in four rooms of six beds for patients with highly infectious diseases.

If an infected flown to Hamburg, which would be the first Ebola patient who is treated in Germany. In an isolation ward of the sufferers would especially get infusions to compensate for fluid loss and to prevent possible organ failure.

Because there are no known active ingredients, is a fight the disease - a so-called causal therapy - currently not possible as the Robert Koch Institute , writes on his website . So doctors can only alleviate the symptoms and try to stabilize the patient - with artificial ventilation, dialysis or blood substitutes.

http://www.welt.de/gesundheit/article130688135/Wie-sich-Hamburg-vor-dem-Ebola-Virus-schuetzt.html

 

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Re: Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment

Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment
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German doctors agreed to accept the patient after a special request from the World Health Organisation (WHO), but it is not certain he will be able to come to Germany, amid reports he may be too sick to travel.

The patient has not been named, but the confirmation he is a Sierra Leonean national has fuelled speculation he may be Sheikh Umar Khan, one of Africa?s leading ebola experts, who was infected last week.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...y-accepts-infected-patient-for-treatment.html

Doctor Sheik Umar Khan died today:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/0...0FY1Z120140729

 

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Re: Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment

What a terrible loss

The 39-year-old Khan, hailed as a "national hero" by the Health Ministry, had been moved to a treatment ward run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the far north of Sierra Leone.

He died less than a week after his diagnosis was announced, and shortly before President Ernest Bai Koroma arrived to visit his treatment centre in the northeastern town of Kailahun.

"It is a big and irreparable loss to Sierra Leone as he was the only specialist the country had in viral haemorrhagic fevers," said the chief medical officer, Brima Kargbo.

RIP Dr. Khan, you served well.

 

[Vibrant62]

Re: Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment

A great loss indeed for everyone. There are few specialist experts in this field anywhere. Too many medics have died already, and it will have impacts on health for the region for years to come, even after this outbreak is brought under control.

 

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Re: Ebola: Germany accepts infected patient for treatment

Treating the Ebola virus in Hamburg
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For Sheik Umar Khan, help came too late. He was supposed to fly on a military transport plane to Hamburg for treatment. The doctor from Sierra Leone, a local folk hero, was being treated at a makeshift hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Kailahun in the eastern region of his home country. Khan caught Ebola after treating hundreds who were infected with the virus.

"We were actually anticipating the patient's arrival over the weekend," Dr. Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, head of the viral diagnostic unit at Hamburg's Bernhard-Nocht-Institute, told the German public broadcaster NDR.

But Khan's arrival in Hamburg was delayed due to his touch-and-go health condition. On Tuesday, his condition rapidly deteriorated, and he succumbed to the virus. Although the clinic in Hamburg didn't have the chance to help Khan, it might take in other Ebola patients from West Africa.
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Last week, the doctors in Hamburg agreed to a request from the World Health Organization (WHO), which asked the clinic to take in two Ebola patients. The city's health authorities activated their contamination unit and declared that they were prepared and could organize the arrival of the patients within a few hours. The plan was for the Hamburg fire department to transport the patients from a specially equipped plane to the university clinic in Hamburg-Eppendorf.
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The university clinic has made six beds available in a segregated part of the facility. In this isolation unit, no liquids, gases or particles in the air can reach the outside world. Access is only possible through three airlocks. In the first, the air pressure is slightly reduced; in the second and the third even more so. That's to ensure clean air from outside is able to come in, but contaminated air from inside is not able to go out. Up until now, the unit has only been used for training.
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Date 30.07.2014
Author Peter Hille / slk
Editor Mark Hallam


Full text:
http://www.dw.de/treating-the-ebola-virus-in-hamburg/a-17821225