The world is facing increasing fears again over the latest updates of EBOLA outbreak. While Nigeria has successfully contained the virus, US government dreads the continuing emergence of the deadly virus in its nation. As a result, US President Barack Obama cancelled his trips to convene an emergency cabinet meeting over the second infected Texas nurse who was recently transferred in Atlanta hospital.
Nigeria will be declared EBOLA-free in less than a week after containing the virus that has killed over 4,000 people. In an Independent UK report, eight out of the 20 infected patients in the nation had died but no new cases have emerged since Sept. 8. According to the World Health Organization, Nigeria has less than a week of the 42-day period needed to be able to confirm that the West African nation has indeed suppressed its EBOLA outbreak.
Meanwhile, in the United States, President Obama has called an urgent cabinet meeting after a second hospital staff was diagnosed with the EBOLA virus, a day after she had traveled on an internal US commercial flight with over a hundred passengers. It is the latest update over the feared outbreak in the US. The Texas nurse is now in isolation at a hospital in Atlanta.
According to CBS News, the second Dallas-based nurse who was recently diagnosed with EBOLA after treating a man who later died of the virus arrived in Atlanta for treatment Wednesday night. The outbreak has infected thousands of people in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, Spain and the US. But with Nigeria's control over the virus, its government's updated response has been keenly monitored around the world.
As the EBOLA outbreak continues to ravage other West African nations, the US administration admitted inadequacies in the government's response to the deadly virus as lawmakers called for more immediate action to contain the spread of the virus in its territory. According to the Wall Street Journal, Obama tried to control the consequences from the diagnosis of the second updated case confined in Atlanta. He ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send a rapid response team to manage the handling of any future infections in the US within 24 hours of diagnosis.
In line with the latest updates about the widespread EBOLA outbreak, Obama also guaranteed after his emergency cabinet meeting that he will review every step of the government's response since the emergence of the first case in the US. Just like in Nigeria, the president said US officials will be more aggressive in monitoring incidents where the virus could possibly spread and apply lessons learned from outward failures in its actions to any future cases. He also pointed out the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta where the second patient is being treated, has strictly followed the protocols in handling EBOLA-infected patients.
As per The Guardian, Nigeria's success over the containment of EBOLA had grabbed attention from US officials. President Obama hopes to prevent more transmission of the virus in America. But he did not criticize CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden for what seemed to have gone wrong that allowed two nurses in Texas to be infected. As an update after the cabinet meeting, New York Times reported the president reassured that the virus did not pose a significant threat for a potential outbreak in the US. He also added that he even came in close contact with healthcare personnel who treated EBOLA patients at a hospital in Atlanta.
Through an Oct. 7 updated CDC information, Nigeria has now been downgraded to a Level 1 watch by the agency because of the reduced risk of EBOLA virus transmission. Meanwhile, President Obama sought to increase the pressure on other nations to respond more aggressively to the ongoing outbreak raging in West Africa. He even cautioned if the world allow the virus to spread out of control in that region, then it will globally spread.
There are no shortcuts in wiping out EBOLA that have infected thousands in Nigeria, Spain, the US and other West African nations. And as Obama said, urgent global support is significant to control the outbreak. And with the increasing updates on new cases, the world should remain vigilant of the danger that EBOLA can bring which may threaten the world's best and equipped treatment centers including Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
