Posted on 08/12/2014 4:35:18 AM PDT by Covenantor
Miguel Pajares, a Spanish priest who contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia, has died of the disease. He was the first European Ebola patient to be flown back to Europe for treatment.
The 75-year-old Roman Catholic priest has died in a Madrid hospital, Spanish authorities confirmed on Tuesday. Pajares, who contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia - one of the hardest hit countries in the current outbreak - was airlifted from Liberia on August 7. He had been working for an NGO in the Liberian capital Monrovia.
Pajares was one of only three people who have been treated with an experimental US serum called ZMapp. Two American missionary workers who fell ill with Ebola while working in Monrovia last month were also given the treatment after returning to the US. On Monday, US President Barack Obama and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a request by Liberia for the experimental drug, made by Californian firm Mapp Biopharmaceutical, to be shipped the West African country.
Liberia's Information Minister Lewis Brown told the Reuters news agency that Liberia will receive just enough of the drug to treat two infected doctors. Brown said Liberia's Health Ministry had contacted Mapp Biopharmaceutical, and asked the FDA to quickly approve its export.
The doctors had consented in writing to the treatment, the minister told Reuters.
Also on Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said 1,013 people had been killed by the Ebola virus worldwide and a further 1,848 had been infected. Ebola is a type of hemorrhagic fever that is often fatal. It is highly contagious, but not airborne. The infection is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people.
Ebola ping
Thanks for posting, Covenator. R.I.P. Miguel Pajares. Condolences to family and friends.
Has anyone heard any update on the two that were flown to the USA?
May all the angels in heaven rejoice at his return.
A link to this post has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
God in deed welcome people like this priest home. However, neither the priest nor any person is returning. Only Jesus returned to heaven, for only he left there for an earthly sojourn. The rest of us are seeing heaven for the first time, mortals enjoying an eternity of joy because of God leaving heaven to live, die, resume life and return to his home, now our home. Thank God for this priest!
Bring Out Your Dead
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
How long until Ann Coulter comes out with an article slamming Spanish Missionaries???
This bit was published just today.
http://news.asiaone.com/news/yourhealth/american-woman-ebola-smiling-says-son
WASHINGTON - The American woman who was sickened with the dangerous Ebola virus while working with a Christian aid group in Liberia is getting better and is even smiling, her son said Tuesday.
Nancy Writebol, 60, was evacuated from Monrovia last week and was wheeled on a stretcher into a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
“When she came in on Tuesday last week, we were really concerned that she wasn’t going to make it,” Jeremy Writebol said on NBC’s Today Show.
“To see her wheeled out of the ambulance and in, I was on the floor sobbing.”
Writebol and American doctor Kent Brantly are among the more than 1,700 people who have been sickened by the latest Ebola virus outbreak, which has killed more than 1,00 people in West Africa since March.
They both received doses of an experimental drug for Ebola. Brantly, 33, was seen stepping out of the ambulance and walking on his own.
Writebol was in poorer condition than Brantly on arrival, but has since improved. Her son said he is able to visit her twice a day.
Due to concerns about contagion, he can only look at her through a hospital window, as doctors and nurses treating her don protective gear from head to toe.
“We’ve seen her get physically better, her eyes brighten up, smiling, even joking a little bit,” he said, adding that doctors have told him they are cautiously optimistic about her recovery.
Writebol’s husband, David, returned to the United States from Liberia on Monday. He remains in isolation, checking his own temperature multiple times a day for signs of fever....
Yup, have to agree with you. If the underlying reason was observation and testing I’m sure CDC has in its inventory a whizbang movable isolation chamber and field lab. Europe is accessible for more refined assay of air transported samples which are much easier controlled.
RIP.
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