Health authorities acknowledged
Tuesday that they did not immediately quarantine
a sick airline passenger who later died of Ebola,
announcing that eight health workers who had
direct contact with him were now in isolation with
symptoms of the disease.
Ebola, which can cause victims to bleed from the
eyes and mouths before a grisly death, has killed
nearly 900 people across four countries in West
Africa, a deeply impoverished region with severely
limited medical resources.
The outbreak, which emerged in March, spread to
Nigeria in late July when Patrick Sawyer, a 40-
year-old American of Liberian descent, flew from
Liberia's capital to the megacity of Lagos. The
announcement that Sawyer was not immediately
quarantined underscores concerns that West
Africa is ill-equipped to contain such a disease.
By contrast, two American aid workers who were
infected with Ebola in Liberia received an
experimental drug and were flown in a chartered
jet to Atlanta, where they are being treated in a
hospital isolation unit. Ebola concerns in the U.S.
have led some worried people to hospital
emergency rooms, and prompted Ebola testing of
at least six patients, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The
tests that have completed have all been negative,
the federal agency said Tuesday.
Experts say people infected with Ebola can spread
the disease only through their bodily fluids and
after they show symptoms. Since the incubation
period can last up to three weeks, some of the
Nigerians who treated Sawyer are only now
showing signs of illness that can mimic many
common tropical illnesses — fever, muscle aches
and vomiting.
Initially authorities told reporters that the risk of
any exposure to others was minimal because
Sawyer was whisked into isolation after arriving
at the airport with symptoms of Ebola.
But Lagos state health commissioner Jide Idris
said Tuesday that the nature of his disease "was
not known" the first day, and only after further
investigation did they suspect Ebola. Sawyer's
sister had died in Liberia from the disease, which
has no proven cure or treatment.
"They went back to the history and they were like
'Oh, this is Liberia,' and that's why he was put
into isolation," he told reporters. "So even in that
window period it was possible that some of these
people got infected."
A doctor who cared for Sawyer has tested
positive for the disease, and seven other health
workers are now showing symptoms so have
been placed in isolation. They are among 14
people who had "serious direct contact" with
Sawyer, most of them at the hospital, Idris said.
Authorities say they are also following the
conditions of 56 other people who had "primary
contact" with Sawyer — presumably less at risk
than those in the first group.
Ben Neuman, a virologist and Ebola expert at
Britain's University of Reading, said doctors
during an outbreak save lives "by responding
bravely and quickly when someone is sick." That
involves a measure of risk, as is seen now by the
exposure in Nigeria.
"The thing to watch going forward is how this
changes infection control practices in Nigeria and
around the world if a situation like this occurs
again," he said.
The official death toll for the worst-ever outbreak
of Ebola now stands at 887, according to the
World Health Organization. All but Sawyer have
died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where
government officials said hundreds of troops were
being deployed across the country to enforce
quarantines.
Three of six missionaries in isolation in a Liberian
hospital have tested positive for the virus,
including Spanish priest Miguel Pajares, according
to Spain's San Juan de Dios hospital order, a
Catholic humanitarian group that runs hospitals
around the world.
Health officials in Nigeria, Africa's most populous
nation, worked to prevent the virus from
spreading in Lagos, where millions of people live
in densely crowded conditions. The Lagos state
health commissioner acknowledged that state
health authorities need volunteers to help track
down the people who may have come into
contact with the eight suspected cases in
quarantine.
"You may have two family contacts, you may
have many family contacts," he said. "You need
people who will go out and chase all these
people."
Meanwhile, the second American Ebola patient
arrived Tuesday in Atlanta from Liberia. Nancy
Writebol, 59, was taken to Emory University
Hospital, where she joined Dr. Kent Brantly, who
arrived from Saturday.
Both aid workers were infected despite taking
precautions as they treated Ebola patients at a
clinic in Liberia.
Family members said both Americans have been
improving after taking the experimental drug; the
hospital has not released any information on their
conditions. Writebol's employer, the SIM charity,
said Tuesday that she remains in serious but
stable condition.
The experimental treatment the two were given
was developed with U.S. military funding by a
San Diego company, using antibodies from lab
animals that had been injected with parts of the
Ebola virus. Tobacco plants in Kentucky are being
used to make the drug, which hasn't yet been
tested in humans.
It's impossible to know whether the drug saved
these workers, stressed Dr. Tom Frieden, direct of
the CDC in Atlanta.
"Every medicine has risks and benefits," he said
to reporters at a health symposium in Kentucky.
"Until we do a study, we don't know if it helps, if
it hurts, or if it doesn't make any difference."
If this treatment works, it could create pressure
to speed through testing and production to help
contain the disease in Africa. Dozens of African
heads of state were meeting with President
Barack Obama on Tuesday at a summit in
Washington. But it could take years before any
treatment can be proven to be effective and safe.
