EBOLA SCARE IN TnT: Trinidad health authorities say Nigerian student has malaria, not Ebola

Ebola Update: CDC Lab Error May Have Caused Exposure {VIDEO}

In a statement, the Ministry said that it “wished to advise that there is no suspected case of Ebola in Trinidad and Tobago at this time”.

It said that on Friday, the Nigerian student was seen at the Accident & Emergency Department of the St James Medical Complex and was transferred to the Port of Spain General Hospital for further management.”

The Ministry of Health said that the student had complained of fever and vomiting but he had not travelled outside of Nigeria for over one year prior to arriving in Trinidad earlier this month.

“The patient is suspected to have malaria and is stable and investigations were performed to confirm this diagnosis,” the statement said, reminding locals that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had declared Nigeria to be free of Ebola.

It said that restrictions on persons travelling from Nigeria to Trinidad and Tobago were lifted since October 22, 2014.

“Travel restrictions, however, remain in effect for countries with widespread Ebola” and also assured that “health personnel at points of entry and medical institutions remain vigilant for imported cases of Ebola. The Ministry of Health also wishes to reaffirm our commitment to collaborating with other stake-holders with the common goal of protecting the health of the people of Trinidad and Tobago”.

There is no known cure for the Ebola virus which has killed more than 7,000 people mainly in West Africa

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Christmas cancelled in Sierra Leone over Ebola fears

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First Caribbean national tests positive for Ebola

Soldiers will be out on the streets, ensuring that people stay in their homes that day. 

The Ebola virus is still wreaking havoc in the country. More than 1,300 people have been infected in Sierra Leone in the past three weeks.

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Cuba now biggest single medical force in African Ebola battle + Ship denied entry to St Vincent following report of crew exhibiting Ebola symptoms

A Cuban doctor on the frontlines of the battle against Ebola in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the virus, becoming the first Caribbean national known to have contracted the deadly disease.

Dr Felix Baez,  a specialist in internal medicine, is one of 165 Cuban medical professionals who have been treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone since early October.

The doctors and nurses stationed in Sierra Leone are part of a Cuban contingent of 256 medical volunteers deployed in West Africa to help combat the world’s worst-ever Ebola outbreak that has so far claimed the lives of well over 5,000 people.

Another 53 Cuban medical professionals are stationed in Liberia, while 38 are currently serving in Guinea.

A further 205 Cuban medics have completed training in preparation for deployment to the West African countries worst-hit by the killer virus.

Dr Baez, the first of the Cuban contingent to contract the disease, had a fever on Sunday and tested positive on Monday after being taken to Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, according to Cuba’s official website Cubadebate, which was citing a health ministry statement.

The 43-year-old doctor has not shown complications and is “hemodynamically stable,” the statement said.

“Our collaborator is being tended to by a team of British professionals with experience in treating patients who have displayed the disease and they have maintained constant communication with our brigade,” the statement revealed.

Dr Baez, who was being treated at a Red Cross centre near Freetown, was reportedly scheduled to be flown to Geneva for further treatment.

Cuba’s rapid and generous response to the killer epidemic in West Africa has been lauded internationally as more substantial than contributions from many wealthy countries. Among those praising Cuba have been its longstanding foes in Washington.

The Communist Caribbean nation of 11 million people has practised “medical diplomacy” via its “ejercito de batas blancas” (army of white coats) since Fidel Castro came to power in the 1959 revolution. Fellow revolutionary and medical doctor Ernesto “Che” Guevara is credited with providing much of the inspiration for the international medical initiative.

While Cuba provides free disaster relief around the world, it also routinely trades the services of doctors for cash or goods. The country receives an estimated 100,000 barrels of oil daily from Venezuela where some 30,000 Cuban medical professionals are posted.

Since 1960, Cuba has sent 135,000 health workers overseas for emergency response or to work in under-served communities. At present, the country has more than 50,000 doctors and nurses in 67 countries, according to the health ministry.

Meanwhile, the oil-rich West African country of Equatorial Guinea has hired 50 Cuban doctors to contain the outbreak of Ebola during the Africa Cup of Nations next year, an official source said.

Guinea took over the organisation of the continental football tournament at short notice last week when Morocco forfeited the right to host the event after expressing fears over the transmission of the virus by visiting supporters and requesting a postponement.

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Cuba has distinguished itself on the world stage by becoming the biggest single provider of healthcare workers to the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the relatively small Caribbean country has contributed more than the Red Cross or richer nations.

“Cuba has provided the numbers and the people,” said Jose Luis Di Fabio, the WHO representative on the communist Caribbean island.

“There are more human resources from Cuba than from many, many NGOs [non-governmental organisations] put together.”

Cuba’s large-scale deployment of medical staff to fight the devastating West African Ebola epidemic continued last week with 91 Cuban doctors and nurses arriving in Liberia and Guinea.

Cuba has already deployed 165 medical workers to Sierra Leone, bringing its total presence in the three countries to 256.

Havana has pledged more health professionals to combat the deadly disease than any other government, with 461 Cuban doctors and nurses receiving specialist training for the mission to the affected countries.

The epidemic has killed well over 5,000 people and infected thousands more in West Africa, with the Red Cross, which is trying to tackle Ebola in Sierra Leone, saying the scale of the outbreak is so vast that it is now retrieving at least 100 corpses daily.

“We cannot see our brothers from Africa in difficult times and remain there with our arms folded,” the Cuban Ambassador to Liberia, Jorge Lefebre Nicolas, told Reuters news agency.

Cuba’s rapid and generous response to the killer epidemic has been lauded by humanitarian agencies, as well as its longstanding foes in Washington.

“The international response has been slow … The virus is spreading faster than we’re all setting up. It’s good that the Cubans are coming. We need more countries to step up,” Sean Casey, director of the International Medical Corps’ emergency response team in Liberia told the French news agency AFP.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry broke the ice of decades of frosty relations with the communist state when he praised Cuba for its “impressive” efforts to tackle Ebola.

“Cuba, a country of just 11 million people, has sent 165 health professionals and it plans to send nearly 300 more,” he told foreign diplomats in Washington.

US officials went on to say that they were happy to be cooperating with Havana.

“We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with Cuba to confront the Ebola outbreak. Cuba is making significant contributions by sending hundreds of health workers to Africa,” a state department source told AFP.

“In that spirit, the US department of state is communicating with all members of the international community, including Cuba, involved in this global effort through multilateral channels such as the World Health Organisation as well as diplomatic briefings.”

The apparent thawing of icy relations was also demonstrated by an article by Fidel Castro in state media announcing that Cuba would “gladly cooperate with American personnel” on Ebola. The sentiment was echoed a few days later by his brother, Raúl, who succeeded him as Cuba’s

president eight years ago.

Since 1960, Cuba has sent 135,000 health workers overseas for emergency response or to work in under-served communities. Cuba has 50,000 doctors and nurses working in 66 countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia, according to the health ministry.

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Ship denied entry to St Vincent following report of crew exhibiting Ebola symptoms

Kenton X. Chance

St. Vincent and the Grenadines earlier this month denied an oil tanker entry into its territorial waters after being informed that two crewmembers were exhibiting symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus, Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has said.

Gonsalves told Parliament that on October 14, he had received a call from the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Godfred Pompey, indicating that the oil tanker, the Noble Spirit, had also been denied entry into Jamaica because two Pilipino nationals, who boarded the tanker at Houston, Texas on October 10, had high fever and vomiting.

Health authorities warn that high fever and vomiting are among the symptoms of the Ebola virus which has killed nearly 5,000 people in West Africa. There is no known cure.

Gonsalves who is also Minister of National Security, said the tanker was scheduled to call at the port here at 11.p.m. (local time) on October 14, and that he had instructed the Coastguard, the Signal Station and all the relevant agencies that the vessel would not be permitted to enter St. Vincent and the Grenadines territorial waters.

“It turns out that when it came down from St. Lucia, we allowed it innocent passage, it changed its course and went to Barbados, and was not allowed to land in Barbados.”

Gonsalves told lawmakers that he didn’t consider it “necessary and desirable to talk to the people about that — certainly not at that time.”

He said that from the outside the waters of Barbados, the vessel went to Equatorial Guinea.

“Mr. Speaker, Honourable Members, you see the potential for harm. It (Ebola virus) would be on any vessel, which comes in at any place in our archipelago of islands.

“So, I can’t start to talk about complete readiness until I have that sorted out in every respect. I am at a particular level of readiness, but not as yet at a level which I could say we are fully prepared; I can’t say that. No place in the region, and the great United States of America, it is for you to judge, not me, with all their resources, as to whether they were prepared.”

Gonsalves said he was informed by the communication department of the Office of the Prime Minister that because he told the ALBA Ebola summit in Cuba last week that St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the rest of the Caribbean were unprepared for Ebola, it has been taken “as something that we are not doing anything.

“But we are doing far more than other countries in the region, certainly in the OECS. That is why what we have done, the OECS conference recently has adopted what we have done as the template in going forward with Ebola,” Gonsalves said.

“But, Mr. Speaker, if I go to a conference, an ALBA conference on Ebola, am I going to go there with any false pride and say ‘We have been doing remarkably well, we don’t need any assistance, we can handle things on our own’?

“Well, I would be a complete and utter fool and I would also be dishonest,” Gonsalves said, noting that the island has 25 points of entry, which have to be monitored.

“And the point I was making at the ALBA conference is that we are an archipelagic state. We have in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, here in the Caribbean, a greater problem than any country here in CARICOM save and except the Bahamas. They have more islands on which people are inhabited than we have.”

Gonsalves also told Parliament that in his presentation to the Ebola summit, he made the point to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan-American Health Organization, that in setting out their guidelines, they need to take cognizance of that fact that “not one size fits all sizes”.

Gonsalves also noted that last month, St. Vincent and the Grenadines banned entry for anyone coming out of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

“Well that is not strictly embraced by the WHO and we put in a regime of requiring a PCR Ebola test for anybody who leaves Nigeria, and you must have that test for no earlier than seven days after you have left the country,” he said.

Gonsalves said St. Vincent and the Grenadines has put those things in place while the government is doing the education, training, and setting up the systems internally.

“We have to be on guard, and we have been vigilant from the beginning,” he told Parliament.