Scott McPherson's Web Presence

by Vincent Mayanja

KAMPALA, Dec 2, 2007 (AFP) - The Ebola outbreak that has killed 18 people in western Uganda appears to be spreading, officials said Sunday, as authorities examined a sample taken from a patient who died in the south of the country.

Government officials told AFP that the disease, which flared in September, had spread to three new zones in the poor Bundibugyo district near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where it killed 26 recently.

Virologists were meanwhile examining a sample taken from a suspected victim who died overnight in Mbarara region, 160 kilometres (100 miles) south-east of the affected district, said Sam Zaramba, the director of medical services.

Health officials said several dozen medics and support staff had fled the Bundibugyo area when their co-workers became infected with the virus in an outbreak that has already killed 18 people and infected 61 others.

But Ambrose Amumpe, a local adminstrator, spoke of a higher death toll, telling AFP: "We started seeing strange illnesses and deaths in the first week of Novemeber. We suspect that up to 30 have died."

Virologists were also investigating an isolated patient in the neighbouring Port Portale district as well as the fatality in Mbarara, near Rwanda which has boosted border surveillance.

"There are fears that the disease has spread," said a top health ministry official, who requested anonymity.

"We are waiting for the results from the samples," he said of the two cases that have spread panic in the east African nation, where an ebola outbreak killed at least 170 people in 2000.

Meanwhile, a doctor who contracted the virus while treating others in Bundibugyo was under observation in the capital's main Mulago hospital, colleagues said.

A team from the Atlanta-based Centres for Disease Control (CDC) is expected in Uganda on Tuesday with equipment to help contain the disease and further the studies on the mystifying virus, the health ministry announced.

The disease, which is fatal in 90 percent of cases, is spread by contact of body fluids, primarily contamination of blood.

Previous Ebola fatalities among medical workers have been blamed on poor sanitation and hygiene in health centres not equipped with protective suits, respirator masks, latex gloves and other necessary safety gear.

Meanwhile, epidemiologists and virologists are in Bundibugyo district to try to trace backwards the source of the virus as part of a campaign to avoid future outbreaks.

"A health ministry team is going round villages educating the public on mode of transmission," Kizanga explained.

Authorities say the outbreak was an unknown strain after analysis was done on tissue samples at the CDC laboratories.

Known Ebola subtypes usually attack capillaries and blood vessel linings, draining the body of blood through openings, leaving the patient to die in shock, doctors say.

But the new Uganda subtype, which provokes high fever, kills victims without much loss of blood.

Generally, patients of all Ebola strains complain of headaches, abdominal pains, fevers, hiccups and bleeding from all body openings and many patients get deranged before they die, doctors say.

The Ebola virus has remained rare and mystifying since it was first discovered in the DRC and Sudan in 1976 and other outbreaks have since hit Ivory Coast and Gabon.

Experts have said the disease, which strikes with an initial ferocity but fades away in months, is usually containable because it kills its victims faster that it can spread to new ones.

Luckly, the virulence of the disease slashes its chances of multiplying and spreading further, they say.

vm-bkb/boc AFP 021534 GMT 12 07

Copyright (c) 2007 Agence France-Presse

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/KHII-79J2YP?OpenDocument

A Reuters story confirms the fears:

UGANDA: Fears of Ebola spread as more cases reported

KAMPALA, 3 December 2007 (IRIN) - Medical authorities in Uganda have expressed concern over the possible spread of the deadly Ebola disease in the western region after suspected cases were reported in two neighbouring districts.

Sam Zaramba, the director of medical services in the health ministry, told IRIN on 3 December that a patient with symptoms similar to those reported in Bundibugyo district, the epicentre of the outbreak, died on 2 December at Mbarara hospital, farther southwest, causing fears that the disease was spreading out of Bundibugyo.

Another suspected case had also been isolated at Virika hospital in Fort Portal district, next to Bundibugyo, Zaramba said.

"We are waiting for the results of the samples for the two suspected victims," he told IRIN by telephone.

Another medical official, who requested anonymity, said: "There is cause to worry when we start getting these cases overshooting and appearing in other areas because this complicates contact surveillance. One medical officer who worked on the first cases but moved to Kampala [the capital] to attend to personal issues has also fallen sick and was admitted to Mulago [the main hospital in Kampala]; we are trying to follow his contacts."

Several dozen medics and support staff have fled western Uganda after their co-workers became infected with the virus in an outbreak that has already killed 16 people and infected at least 58 others.

A government official in Bundibugyo, Samuel Kazinga, said a quarantine had been declared in all homes in the district that had registered a case in order to control contacts and ease monitoring.

"We are mobilising the public to take precautionary measures through public announcements on the radio and talking to people through community [leaders]," Kazinga said.

He said Bundibugyo had appealed for help but efforts to contain the outbreak, which began in September although it was only identified as Ebola last week, have been hampered by lack of medical personnel.

"We have a shortage of health workers and we need more because those who were there on the ground have been infected: two doctors, a medical officer and a nurse. We are trying to get more medical workers to go to the region and help in the fight," said Zaramba.

Zaramba had initially said two more patients succumbed to the virus on 1 December, bringing the toll to 18. But the health ministry on 3 December revised the number back to 16, saying the two deaths had since been confirmed as due to other causes.

"Cumulatively, we now have 16 deaths and 58 cases," he said.

Patients were quarantined in Bundibugyo hospital's isolation ward near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has had outbreaks of the virulent disease in the past.

"Those admitted are mainly health workers and those who attended to the patients," Zaramba said.

Previous Ebola fatalities among medical workers have been blamed on poor sanitation and hygiene in health centres that lack protective suits, masks, latex gloves and other equipment.

Ebola spreads through body fluids, particularly blood, putting health workers without protective gear at risk. Ebola sub-types usually attack capillaries and blood vessel linings, so patients lose blood rapidly, and die of shock, doctors say.

The new Uganda subtype kills patients by provoking high fever, but without much loss of blood. There is no vaccine or cure for Ebola.

"The situation is not yet under control," Zaramba said. "The main challenge we are facing is detecting cases and following up on those who had contact with the patients."

A team of epidemiologists and virologists arrived in the region on 1 December to try to retrace the source of the virus as part of a campaign to avoid future epidemics.

Authorities said a team of pathogen experts from the Centers for Disease Control in the US were expected in the country on 4 December to beef up the local response to the disease, including bringing laboratory facilities to detect infections more easily.

An outbreak killed at least 170 people in Uganda's northern Gulu district in 2000. Another recent outbreak killed at least 26 people in DRC's West Kasai region.

The Ebola virus was first identified in 1976 in Sudan and in a nearby region of DRC, then Zaire. Outbreaks of Ebola have also occurred in the Ivory Coast and Gabon.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/ff3ff6324a4c21610e994ccf2bca140a.htm?&_lite_=1

And New Vision reports on the spread of Ebola Uganda to two cities:

Ebola - Mbarara, Fort Portal Put On High Alert
New Vision (Kampala)

NEWS
2 December 2007
Posted to the web 3 December 2007
Kampala

SIX more people have been confirmed infected with the deadly Ebola virus, health officials said yesterday. This puts the number of infected people at 58, sixteen of whom have died since the outbreak of the deadly disease in August.

The Commissioner for Health Services in the health ministry, Dr. Sam Okware, said the six new cases were admitted at Bundibugyo Hospital after they attended the burial of an Ebola victim. Another two suspected cases were yesterday reported in Fort Portal.

A 13-year-old school boy came from Kyenjojo district with the mother yesterday morning and was admitted to Virika hospital, according to the Kabarole district director of medical services, Dr. Joa Okech. The boy, who was only identified as Katusabe, was temporarily admitted to Virika, where he was resuscitated and transferred to Buhinga Hospital.

At Virika, the outpatient room was turned into an emergency ward to accommodate the boy. When the New Vision visited the ward, the door to the room bore a warning: "Do not enter unprotected".

The second patient, a woman, also reported to Virika late afternoon, but she was sent to Buhinga hospital, according Dr. Musa Walakira, who is handling the cases. The woman's identity could not be readily established.

"She was vomiting blood when she went to Virika, so they suspected Ebola and sent her to Buhinga Government Referral Hospital where an isolation centre has been set up. Another suspected patient bled to death in Mbarara yesterday," Dr. Okware said.

He said ministry of health officials picked blood samples for testing. He said he had also instructed a quick burial of the body.

Meanwhile, the head of Nyahuka Health Centre 4 in Bundibugyo district, Dr. Richard Ssesanga Kaddu, his deputy Jonah Kule and two medical officers have been isolated after they complained that they felt unwell.

Okware, explained that Ssesanga was isolated at his home in Bundibugyo, while Kule who had traveled to Kampala, was put in the ministry's isolation facility in the city.

He could not say whether Ssesanga, Kule, Kisughu, an enrolled nurse and Amon Kule, an ophthalmic officer, were infected with Ebola.

"We have taken specimen from them and it will be sometime before we can tell," he said, before adding that the medical officers were improving steadily.

He lamented that there was a shortage of medical personnel in Bundibugyo, affecting the out-patients department most. "We need additional personnel to run the hospitals."

Dr. Scot, a missionary, now heads the case management unit, while the two isolation units have each got seven personnel.

In Fort Portal, a district task force has been set up comprising the top district officials, medical personnel and some NGOs to handle the Ebola emergency.

In addition, two isolation centres have been set up, one at Buhinga in Fort-Portal town, the other at Bukuku, about 10km on Fort-Portal Bundibugyo road.

The RDC, Kakonge Kambarage, said they suspected that there could be more infected people who are still in the incubation period.

An official from the US Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta is set to collect samples from the patients in Fort-Portal today for testing.

The Minister of Defence, Dr. Crispus Kiyonga is also in Fort-Portal and Kasese to sensitise the population about the virus.

Kiyonga on Saturday asked local leaders to start public awareness campaigns.

"Once infected with Ebola, chances of survival are 50%," the former health minister told sub-county and town council leaders at Virina Gardens in Kasese town.

He advised that Ebola victims be buried in fluid-proof bags soon after they die. He asked the public to look out for such symptoms as headache, high fever, a rash, red eyes, bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Participants expressed fear that the virus could be incubating in Kasese and Kabarole among people who have been going Bundibugyo to bury their relatives since the disease outbreak in August.

Meanwhile, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has given sh45m to Bundibugyo district to fight the disease, the chief administrative officer, Elias Byamungu, said on Saturday. Byamungu said other agencies, including Oxfam, had agreed to offer more support.

Uganda was last hit by an Ebola epidemic in 2000, when 425 people caught it and just over half of them died, including Dr. Mathew Lukwiya. An outbreak in neighbouring Congo this year infected up to 264 people, killing 187.

Reported by Anne Mugisa, John Thawite, Matthias Mugisha and Bizimungu Kisakye

http://allafrica.com/stories/200712030011.html

One doctor who will NOT be making the trip -- unless he goes to collect samples to kill us all -- is Dr. Eric F. Pianka.  Dr. Pianka, an ecologist (of course), belongs to this curious and extremely dangerous group of people who think the only good human is a dead human.  Remember the recent news story about a woman who aborted her fetus and then had herself sterilized, because she thought childbirth was selfish and she wanted the human race to depopulate and ultimately disappear?  To her, Dr. Pianka must be a God-like character.  Dr. Pianka teaches at the University of Texas, which could learn a thing or two from Colorado about running nutcases out of its institutions.

Anyway, this Dr. Pianka believes that an easily transmissible, human-to-human Ebola strain; a mutated Ebola Reston, which is considered the only airborne variant -- would do Gaia a favor by killing off 90% of the Earth's population. 

Thankfully, someone in Washington heard about this idiot, and now the Feds are paying close attention to him.  Of course, this means we all are doomed.  Here is a story from last year regarding this dangerous person:

AUSTIN, April 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Ebola, a form of hemorrhagic fever in which the internal organs of the victim liquefy, has one of the highest rates of fatality of any known contagious disease at approximately 80-90% and is one of the most contagious diseases known to medical science. It is also high on the list of possible bio-terror weapons of concern to international law enforcement and military security agencies. Tom Clancy’s thriller novel, Rainbow Six describes a group of radical environmentalists that wants to rid the world of people using a modified version of Ebola.

All of which is why the FBI is interested in talking to Texas ecologist and herpetologist, Dr. Eric R. Pianka, who suggested at a meeting of the Texas Academy of Sciences that an airborne version of Ebola that would wipe out 90% of the human population was the solution to the human “overpopulation problem.”

This week, Pianka has been in the Texas media saying that he was not advocating bio-terrorism, but also told the Austin Statesman that he is meeting with local FBI officials in response to complaints that he is advocating biological terrorism.

“Someone has reported me as a terrorist,” he said. “They think I'm forming a cadre of people to release the airborne Ebola virus into the air. That I'm the leader and my students are the followers.”

On the day he was named by the Academy as 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist, Pianka declared that AIDS was not killing off the surplus human population fast enough. What is needed, he said, is Ebola to kill 5.8 billion of the world’s 6 billion plus humans. The speech received a prolonged standing ovation at the Academy’s annual meeting at Lamar University in Beaumont.

The Seguin Gazette quotes Pianka saying, “Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine.” 

 “[Disease] will control the scourge of humanity,” Pianka said in his March 3 speech. “We're looking forward to a huge collapse.” He said, “We've grown fat, apathetic and miserable,” and described the world as a “fat, human biomass.”

The syllabus for one of Pianka’s courses reads, “Although [Ebola Zaire] Kills 9 out of 10 people, outbreaks have so far been unable to become epidemics because they are currently spread only by direct physical contact with infected blood…Ebola Reston, is airborne, and it is only a matter of time until Ebola Zaire evolves the capacity to be airborne.”

The speech was first reported by popular science and computer writer, Forrest Mims III on the website of the Citizen Scientist. Mims said he was concerned that in this age of international security tensions, “fertile young minds,” might take Pianka’s assertions as suggestions.

One class evaluation for one of Pianka’s courses shows the enthusiasm with which his ideas are received by ‘fertile young minds. Two quoted by the Seguin Gazette read, “the most incredible class I ever had” and “Pianka is a GOD!”

After the talk, student blogger, Brenna McConnell, who attended the Academy talk wrote, “He’s basically advocating for the death for all but 10 percent of the current population. And at the risk of sounding just as radical, I think he’s right.” (bold mine)

To the possibility that someone would actually go with the idea, Pianka said, “Good terrorists would be taking [Ebola Reston and Ebola Zaire] so that they had microbes they could let loose on the Earth that would kill 90 percent of people.”

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/apr/06040603.html

I draw attention to the fact the good Doctor Pianka has not taken the step himself to reduce the human population by one.  Of course, he won't.  Neither will Osama bin Laden, nor any other coward.  They will simply try to influence these impressionable young people to do it themselves, while they stand in the shadows, claiming no responsibility whatsoever.

http://www.sas.org/tcs/weeklyIssues_2006/2006-04-07/feature1p/index.html has the story and commentary.  The caption from the Website is evidence enough that the state of Texas has gone MAD.

Dr. Eric R. Pianka and an unidentified woman from the University of Texas at Arlington following a recent speech before the Texas Academy of Science in which Pianka endorsed airborne Ebola as an efficient means for eliminating 90 percent of the world's population. Pianka received an enthusiastic and prolonged standing ovation. Later he received more applause from a banquet hall filled with more than 400 people when the president of the Texas Academy of Science presented him with a plaque naming him 2006 Distinguished Texas Scientist. Photograph copyright 2006 by Forrest M. Mims III.

No doubt Dr. Pianka's favorite movie is 12 Monkeys, the chilling Terry Gilliam post-apolcalyptic sci-fi classic starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt.  Recall the plot?

From IMDB: An unknown and lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict (Willis) reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemic (who he's told was spread by a mysterious "Army of the Twelve Monkeys") and locate the virus before it mutates so that scientists can study it.

Sounds like Dr. Pianka is a budding general in the army.  Hope the Feds' wiretaps are digital quality.  I normally don't advocate such government behavior, and after all, peoples' ideas are theirs.  But this guy deserves watching.  He is ultimately more dangerous than bin Laden, because at least bin Laden wants to convert us all to Islam and take us all to the Eighth Century.  Pianka simply wants eons of non-human bliss and is telling anyone who will listen how to do it.  This all should serve as evidence that the most dangerous people to our way of life are right here, in our own neighborhoods, and some of them are indoctrinating our children. The problem is, some of these kids might change their majors and take up careers as microbiologists.