U.S. restricts passenger arrivals from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea to five airports
Spanish nurse's aide is free of the Ebola virus after another test, doctors say
National Institutes of Health has begun testing Ebola vaccine
WHO hopes to start vaccine trials in West Africa by January 2015
CNN
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The Spanish nurse’s aide who contracted Ebola after treating virus-stricken patients in Madrid is now free of the virus, her doctors announced Tuesday after another test on her.
Teresa Romero Ramos is clear of Ebola, physicians at Carlos III hospital said.
She received an initial test, which turned up no virus in her blood, doctors said Sunday. More tests were administered to be sure she was virus-free.
While Spain welcomes the good news about Ebola, the United States is doing more to help prevent the spread of the virus. The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that all arriving passengers from West African countries that Ebola has hit hardest – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – must land in one of the five U.S. airports that have enhanced Ebola screening.
Those airports are New York’s John F. Kennedy International; D.C.’s Washington Dulles; New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International; Chicago’s O’Hare International; and Hartsfield-Jackson International in Atlanta.
On its website, the Department of Homeland Security shows how many people have been screened and then taken to health care facilities for further checks. JFK appears to be outpacing the other airports in screenings.
Also Tuesday, the World Health Organization announced that testing was underway at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland for an Ebola vaccine; and a trial for a second vaccine, initially developed in Canada, has started at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
From Thomas Eric Duncan's Facebook
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Thomas Eric Duncan is a Liberian resident who flew to Dallas to visit family and friends. He was the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States. He passed away on October 8.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Nina Pham/From Facebook
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Nina Pham, 26, is a Dallas nurse involved in Duncan's care who was diagnosed with Ebola, marking the first known transmission of Ebola in the United States. She had on a gown, gloves, mask and a shield during her multiple visits with Duncan, but there was a breach in protocol, health officials said.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Akron Public Schools
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Amber Vinson, 29, was the second nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola after treating Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
EPA/PACMA
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
A nurse's assistant identified as Teresa Romero Ramos tested positive for Ebola after treating a Spanish missionary with the deadly virus in Madrid, Spain. Her case is the first recorded transmission of Ebola outside of West Africa during this outbreak.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Johnny Clark/AP
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden has led the effort to evacuate and treat American patients and has helped U.S. hospitals prepare for a possible outbreak at home. The CDC also has teams working in West Africa assisting with contact tracing and infection control.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Dr. Kent Brantly contracted Ebola while working as the medical director for Samaritan's Purse Ebola Care Center in Monrovia, Liberia. He was the first person to be treated with the experimental drug ZMapp and was the first patient to be brought home to the United States.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Chris Keane/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Nancy Writebol is an American missionary with SIM USA who also contracted Ebola in Liberia. She, too, was given ZMapp and flown back to the United States for treatment.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
ALAIN GROSCLAUDE/AFP/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Dr. Margaret Chan has been the World Health Organization's director-general since 2006. Originally from China, she has a strong background in communicable diseases and infection control.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has overseen the state's response to Duncan's case. State and local health officials are working with the CDC to monitor around 50 individuals who had contact with the Ebola patient while he was contagious.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
UMMS
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
American Dr. Rick Sacra was delivering babies in a hospital in Liberia when he contracted Ebola. He was the first Ebola patient to be treated in The Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Facebook
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
American Ashoka Mukpo is a freelance cameraman who was working for NBC News in Liberia when he became ill with Ebola symptoms. He was flown to The Nebraska Medical Center on October 6.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
John Moore/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been very outspoken about the international community's response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Liberia has had the most cases and deaths of all the countries affected by the outbreak.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Alpha Conde is the president of Guinea, which has had more than 1,100 cases, including 739 deaths.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Ernest Bai Koroma is the president of Sierra Leone, which has had more than 2,400 cases, including 623 deaths.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
AP
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
The well-known Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, left, died after contracting Ebola while helping patients in Sierra Leone.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone/AP
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Joanne Liu is the international president of Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders. MSF has been on the ground in West Africa since the outbreak started and has played a key role in treating thousands of patients in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
San Juan de Dios Order/AP
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo was diagnosed with Ebola while working in Sierra Leone. He was flown back to Spain for treatment before he died. A nurse's assistant who treated him in Spain is believed to have contracted the virus as well.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
courtesy sawyer family
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Patrick Sawyer collapsed after getting off a plane in Lagos, Nigeria, and later died. Health officials believe he was the start of the small outbreak in that country.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
John Bonifield/CNN
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Dr. Gorbee Logan is one of two doctors for more than 85,000 people in Bomi County, Liberia. Logan says he has successfully treated Ebola patients with anti-retroviral drugs, which are commonly used to treat HIV.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
John Bonifield/CNN
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Fatu Kekula has cared for four family members who had Ebola, keeping three alive without infecting herself using trash bags, rubber boots and a mask.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
PASCAL GUYOT/AFP/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams is commander of the U.S. military's Operation United Assistance in West Africa. The U.S. will be sending around 3,600 troops to the region to help fight the Ebola outbreak.
Photos: Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images
Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? —
Valerie Amos, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, has been leading the U.N.'s response to the outbreak.
The goal is to launch vaccine trials in West Africa by January, said Dr. Marie Paule Kieny, the WHO’s assistant director general for health systems and innovation.
The initial vaccine tests are being given to volunteers in countries such as Mali, the United States and England. It is impossible to get Ebola from the vaccines, Kieny said, because they do not contain enough of the virus’s genetic material. But “there is no vaccine that has no side effects at all,” she added.
It’s not clear when vaccines could be distributed to the masses. That won’t be determined until after test results come in. When the testing reaches West Africa, candidates could include relatives of infected Ebola patients, Kieny said.
Debate over experimental drugs
The WHO said it is also visiting sites in the three countries most devastated by Ebola – Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia – to see which treatment centers could participate in the testing of experimental Ebola drugs.
But there is debate among medical ethicists about the drug trials – namely, whether to use placebos in testing.
While some say placebos are necessary to gauge the effectiveness of drugs, others say it’s unethical to withhold treatment for a disease with a mortality rate of about 50%.
CDC gives new guidelines
The news from the WHO comes a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated Ebola guidelines, focusing on better protecting health care workers.
Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the CDC, stressed the importance of more training and supervision, and he said no skin should be exposed when workers are wearing personal protective equipment, or PPE.
“We’re increasing the margin of safety with a real consensus guideline that has three key changes. One, training, practicing – demonstrated hands-on experience so that the health care workers are comfortable donning and doffing PPE. Two, no skin exposure. Three, observation of every single step, putting on and taking off the PPE,” Frieden said.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
Ebola survivor Jeremra Cooper, 16, wipes his face from the heat while in the low-risk section of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Ebola treatment center in Paynesville, Liberia, on Thursday, October 16. The eighth grade student said he lost six family members to the Ebola epidemic before coming down sick with the disease himself and being sent to the MSF center, where he recovered after one month.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
Survivor Ami Subah, a 39-year-old midwife, said she thinks she caught Ebola when she delivered a baby boy from a sick mother. The boy, she said, survived, but the mother died. She said she has not had work since her recovery, due to the stigma of having had Ebola. "Nobody will even let me draw water from the community well," she said.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
Mohammed Wah, a 23-year-old construction worker, said that Ebola killed five members of his extended family and he thinks he contracted the disease while caring for his nephew.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
James Mulbah, 2, stands with his mother, Tamah Mulbah, 28, who also recovered from Ebola in the low-risk section of the Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment center in Paynesville, Liberia.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
Survivors Anthony Naileh, 46, and his wife Bendu Naileh, 34, pose October 16 in Paynesville, Liberia. Anthony said he is a stenographer at the Liberian Senate and plans to go back to work for the January session. Bendu, a nurse, said she thought she caught Ebola after laying her hands in prayer on a nephew who had the disease in August. She then sickened her husband, who cared for her.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
Mohammed Bah, 39, said he lost his wife, mother, father and sister to Ebola. He said he spent a week at the MSF center recovering from the disease. Like many other Ebola survivors, he said that the stigma of having had Ebola has been difficult. "I've been rejected by everyone. I'm alone with my two children," he said.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
Survivor Benetha Coleman, 24, said that her husband and two children died from the disease.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
Eric Forkpa, a 23-year-old college student majoring in civil engineering, said he thinks he caught Ebola while caring for his sick uncle, who died of the disease. He spent 18 days at the MSF center recovering from the virus.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
Survivor Moses Lansanah, 30, said he lost his pregnant fiance, Amifete, who was 9 months pregnant with his child, when she died of Ebola.
Photos: Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors
John Moore/Getty Images
Portraits, stories of Ebola survivors —
John Massani, 27, said that Ebola killed six members of his extended family and he thinks he contracted the disease while caring for a sick relative.
