Ebola Can Be Contained in 6 Months – Red Cross Official

Beijing – A top Red Cross official says he is confident the Ebola epidemic can be contained within four to six months.

THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT (AP) – Barbara Smith, R.N., demonstrates to fellow healthcare workers the proper techniques for treating and handling Ebola virus patients during an Ebola education session at the Jacob Javits Center in New York on Wednesday.

The secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Elhadj As Sy, told a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday that the time frame is possible if there is “good isolation, good treatment of the cases which are confirmed, good dignified and safe burials of deceased people.”

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people since it emerged 10 months ago. Most of the deaths have been in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

The humanitarian network is holding its four-yearly Asia Pacific regional conference in the Chinese capital.

Infected journalist recovers

In Omaha, Nebraska, an American video journalist who has recovered from Ebola will be released soon from a local hospital.

The Nebraska Medical Center says Ashoka Mukpo is scheduled to be discharged Wednesday morning from the hospital’s biocontainment unit. Medical staff involved in his care plan to speak about his recovery at a news conference.

The hospital said Tuesday that Mukpo’s blood tested negative for the virus. He arrived at the Nebraska Medical Center on Oct. 6 and was the second Ebola patient to be treated there. The first, Dr. Rick Sacra, has also recovered.

Mukpo, of Providence, Rhode Island, contracted the virus while working in Liberia as a freelance cameraman for NBC and other media outlets.

Ebola victim’s sis hints at mismanagement

Over in Forth Worth, Texas, the family of the first Ebola victim to die in the United States says the Dallas hospital that cared for him has refused for weeks to release additional medical records, in a sign the facility mishandled the Liberian man’s treatment.

(Source: Manila Bulletin)