#News: Nigeria officially Ebola free, WHO says

CNN · Oct 20, 2014, 07:31 PM

(CNN) -- Forty-three people who came into contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan are now officially cleared after not demonstrating any symptoms during a 21-day monitoring period, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Monday.

One more will be cleared later Monday, and four others will complete their 21-day monitoring period soon, he said.

"Thankfully, they are all asymptomatic, and it looks like none of them will get Ebola," said Jenkins, who is overseeing response efforts in Dallas.

Texas officials' conflicting numbers

The news conflicted with information Jenkins provided to CNN on Sunday indicating that all 48 people would be cleared at midnight.

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Christine Wade, a registered nurse at the University of Texas Medical Branch, greets Carnival Magic passengers disembarking in Galveston, Texas, on Sunday, October 19. Nurses met passengers with Ebola virus fact sheets and to answer any questions. A Dallas health care worker was in voluntary isolation, although she had shown no signs of the disease, in her cabin aboard the cruise ship because of her potential contact with the Ebola virus. Spain's Carlos III Hospital, the facility treating nurse's assistant Teresa Romero Ramos, received Ebola test samples from Romero and two other patients on Sunday, October 19, according to the hospital's director. An airplane carrying Nina Pham arrives at an airport in Frederick, Maryland, on Thursday, October 16. Pham is one of the two nurses who were diagnosed with Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national visiting Dallas. Pham is going to be treated at a National Institutes of Health hospital in Maryland. An ambulance carrying Amber Vinson, the second nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola in Texas, arrives at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday, October 15. Boys run from blowing dust as a U.S. military aircraft leaves the construction site of an Ebola treatment center in Tubmanburg, Liberia, on October 15. Health officials say the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the deadliest ever. More than 4,000 people have died there, according to the World Health Organization. Aid workers from the Liberian Medical Renaissance League stage an Ebola awareness event October 15 in Monrovia, Liberia. The group performs street dramas throughout Monrovia to educate the public on Ebola symptoms and how to handle people who are infected with the virus. U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to the media about Ebola during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on October 15. Obama said his administration will respond to new Ebola cases "in a much more aggressive way," taking charge of the issue after the second Texas nurse was diagnosed with the disease. A U.S. Marine looks out from an MV-22 Osprey aircraft before landing at the site of an Ebola treatment center under construction in Tubmanburg on October 15. It is the first of 17 Ebola treatment centers to be built by Liberian army soldiers and American troops as part of the U.S. response to the epidemic. A man dressed in protective clothing treats the front porch of a Dallas apartment where one of the infected nurses resides on Sunday, October 12. Ebola survivors prepare to leave a Doctors Without Borders treatment center after recovering from the virus in Paynesville, Liberia, on October 12. A member of the Liberian army stands near a U.S. aircraft Saturday, October 11, in Tubmanburg. A woman crawls toward the body of her sister as a burial team takes her away for cremation Friday, October 10, in Monrovia. The sister had died from Ebola earlier in the morning while trying to walk to a treatment center, according to her relatives. Ebola survivor Joseph Yensy prepares to be discharged from the Doctors Without Borders treatment center in Paynesville, Liberia, on Sunday, October 5. Sanitized boots dry at the Doctors Without Borders treatment center in Paynesville on October 5. Residents of an Ebola-affected township take home kits distributed by Doctors Without Borders on Saturday, October 4, in New Kru Town, Liberia. The kits, which include buckets, soap, gloves, anti-contamination gowns, plastic bags, a spray bottle and masks, are meant to give people some level of protection if a family member becomes sick. A person peeks out from the Dallas apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, was staying on Friday, October 3. Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian citizen, died Wednesday, October 8, in a Dallas hospital. He came to the country last month to visit his son and his son's mother. A girl cries as community activists approach her outside her Monrovia home on Thursday, October 2, a day after her mother was taken to an Ebola ward. Marie Nyan, whose mother died of Ebola, carries her 2-year-old son, Nathaniel Edward, to an ambulance in the Liberian village of Freeman Reserve on Tuesday, September 30. A health official uses a thermometer Monday, September 29, to screen a Ukrainian crew member on the deck of a cargo ship at the Apapa port in Lagos, Nigeria. Children pray during Sunday service at the Bridgeway Baptist Church in Monrovia on Sunday, September 28. Residents of the St. Paul Bridge neighborhood in Monrovia take a man suspected of having Ebola to a clinic on September 28. Workers move a building into place as part of a new Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on September 28. Medical staff members at the Doctors Without Borders facility in Monrovia burn clothes belonging to Ebola patients on Saturday, September 27. A health worker in Freetown, Sierra Leone, sprays disinfectant around the area where a man sits before loading him into an ambulance on Wednesday, September 24. Medics load an Ebola patient onto a plane at Sierra Leone's Freetown-Lungi International Airport on Monday, September 22. A few people are seen in Freetown during a three-day nationwide lockdown on Sunday, September 21. In an attempt to curb the spread of the Ebola virus, people in Sierra Leone were told to stay in their homes. Supplies wait to be loaded onto an aircraft at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday, September 20. It was the largest single shipment of aid to the Ebola zone to date, and it was coordinated by the Clinton Global Initiative and other U.S. aid organizations. A child stops on a Monrovia street Friday, September 12, to look at a man who is suspected of suffering from Ebola. Health workers on Wednesday, September 10, carry the body of a woman who they suspect died from the Ebola virus in Monrovia. A woman in Monrovia carries the belongings of her husband, who died after he was infected by the Ebola virus. Health workers in Monrovia place a corpse into a body bag on Thursday, September 4. After an Ebola case was confirmed in Senegal, people load cars with household items as they prepare to cross into Guinea from the border town of Diaobe, Senegal, on Wednesday, September 3. Crowds cheer and celebrate in the streets Saturday, August 30, after Liberian authorities reopened the West Point slum in Monrovia. The military had been enforcing a quarantine on West Point, fearing a spread of the Ebola virus. A health worker wearing a protective suit conducts an Ebola prevention drill at the port in Monrovia on Friday, August 29. Volunteers working with the bodies of Ebola victims in Kenema, Sierra Leone, sterilize their uniforms on Sunday, August 24. A guard stands at a checkpoint Saturday, August 23, between the quarantined cities of Kenema and Kailahun in Sierra Leone. A burial team from the Liberian Ministry of Health unloads bodies of Ebola victims onto a funeral pyre at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia, on Friday, August 22. Dr. Kent Brantly leaves Emory University Hospital on Thursday, August 21, after being declared no longer infectious from the Ebola virus. Brantly was one of two American missionaries brought to Emory for treatment of the deadly virus. Family members of West Point district commissioner Miata Flowers flee the slum in Monrovia while being escorted by the Ebola Task Force on Wednesday, August 20. An Ebola Task Force soldier beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine on the West Point slum on August 20. Local residents gather around a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a back alley of the West Point slum on Tuesday, August 19. The boy was one of the patients that was pulled out of a holding center for suspected Ebola patients after the facility was overrun and closed by a mob on August 16. A local clinic then refused to treat Saah, according to residents, because of the danger of infection. Although he was never tested for Ebola, Saah's mother and brother died in the holding center. A burial team wearing protective clothing retrieves the body of a 60-year-old Ebola victim from his home near Monrovia on Sunday, August 17. lija Siafa, 6, stands in the rain with his 10-year-old sister, Josephine, while waiting outside Doctors Without Borders' Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on August 17. The newly built facility will initially have 120 beds, making it the largest-ever facility for Ebola treatment and isolation. Brett Adamson, a staff member from Doctors Without Borders, hands out water to sick Liberians hoping to enter the new Ebola treatment center on August 17. Workers prepare the new Ebola treatment center on August 17. A body, reportedly a victim of Ebola, lies on a street corner in Monrovia on Saturday, August 16. Liberian police depart after firing shots in the air while trying to protect an Ebola burial team in the West Point slum of Monrovia on August 16. A crowd of several hundred local residents reportedly drove away the burial team and their police escort. The mob then forced open an Ebola isolation ward and took patients out, saying the Ebola epidemic is a hoax. A crowd enters the grounds of an Ebola isolation center in the West Point slum on August 16. The mob was reportedly shouting, "No Ebola in West Point." A health worker disinfects a corpse after a man died in a classroom being used as an Ebola isolation ward Friday, August 15, in Monrovia. A boy tries to prepare his father before they are taken to an Ebola isolation ward August 15 in Monrovia. Kenyan health officials take passengers' temperature as they arrive at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Thursday, August 14, in Nairobi, Kenya. A hearse carries the coffin of Spanish priest Miguel Pajares after he died at a Madrid hospital on Tuesday, August 12. Pajares, 75, contracted Ebola while he was working as a missionary in Liberia. Health workers in Kenema screen people for the Ebola virus on Saturday, August 9, before they enter the Kenema Government Hospital. Paramedics in protective suits move Pajares, the infected Spanish priest, at Carlos III Hospital in Madrid on Thursday, August 7. He died five days later. Nurses carry the body of an Ebola victim from a house outside Monrovia on Wednesday, August 6. A Nigerian health official wears protective gear August 6 at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta sit in on a conference call about Ebola with CDC team members deployed in West Africa on Tuesday, August 5. Aid worker Nancy Writebol, wearing a protective suit, gets wheeled on a gurney into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on August 5. A medical plane flew Writebol from Liberia to the United States after she and her colleague Dr. Kent Brantly were infected with the Ebola virus in the West African country. Nigerian health officials are on hand to screen passengers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport on Monday, August 4. Nurses wearing protective clothing are sprayed with disinfectant Friday, August 1, in Monrovia after they prepared the bodies of Ebola victims for burial. A nurse disinfects the waiting area at the ELWA Hospital in Monrovia on Monday, July 28. In this photo provided by Samaritan's Purse, Dr. Kent Brantly, left, treats an Ebola patient in Monrovia. On July 26, the North Carolina-based group said Brantly tested positive for the disease. Days later, Brantly arrived in Georgia to be treated at an Atlanta hospital, becoming the first Ebola patient to knowingly be treated in the United States. A doctor puts on protective gear at the treatment center in Kailahun on Sunday, July 20. Members of Doctors Without Borders adjust tents in the isolation area in Kailahun on July 20. Boots dry in the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 20. Dr. Jose Rovira of the World Health Organization takes a swab from a suspected Ebola victim in Pendembu, Sierra Leone, on Friday, July 18. Red Cross volunteers disinfect each other with chlorine after removing the body of an Ebola victim from a house in Pendembu on July 18. A doctor works in the field laboratory at the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on Thursday, July 17. Doctors Without Borders staff prepare to enter the isolation ward at an Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 17. Dr. Mohamed Vandi of the Kenema Government Hospital trains community volunteers who will aim to educate people about Ebola in Sierra Leone. A woman has her temperature taken at a screening checkpoint on the road out of Kenema on Wednesday, July 9. A member of Doctors Without Borders puts on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry on Saturday, June 28. Airport employees check passengers in Conakry before they leave the country on Thursday, April 10. A Guinea-Bissau customs official watches arrivals from Conakry on Tuesday, April 8. Egidia Almeida, a nurse in Guinea-Bissau, scans a Guinean citizen coming from Conakry on April 8. A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA and test for the virus Thursday, April 3, at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou, Guinea. Health specialists work Monday, March 31, at an isolation ward for patients at the facility in southern Guinea. 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Photos: The Ebola epidemic Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings also provided numbers that conflicted with Jenkins' information from Sunday. Jenkins told CNN that in addition to the 48 people whose quarantine was ending Monday, there were 75 health workers being monitored.

Rawlings said 120 people were still being monitored. It was unclear how he came up with that total.

Among those in the clear is Duncan's fiancée, Louise Troh. Monday marks the 21st day since her last contact with Duncan, who was the first person to die of the disease in the United States.

"We are so happy this is coming to an end, and we are so grateful that none of us has shown any sign of illness," Troh said in a statement Sunday. "We have lost so much, but we have our lives and we have our faith in God, which always gives us hope."

Texas nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, who helped care for Duncan, remain hospitalized as they battle the virus. Pham is in stable condition at a National Institutes of Health facility in Bethesda, Maryland, according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Vinson is at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Her family has not given permission to make her condition public.

While there are signs of hope in the United States and at least one more country in West Africa -- Nigeria was declared Ebola-free Monday, following an announcement that Senegal is rid of the virus -- Ebola is still spreading rapidly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, health officials report.

More than 4,500 people have died from the virus in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization, which said the region is still suffering from "widespread and intense transmission" because patients don't have access to adequate health care. There's a social crisis, too. Orphans of victims are often abandoned, their relatives terrified of taking them in.

Get up to speed

Here's the latest about the virus from around the world:

Ebola czar begins work this week

Ron Klain, the former chief of staff to two vice U.S. presidents who has been tapped as the Obama administration's "Ebola czar," will begin his new duties Wednesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

Klain is highly regarded at the White House as a good manager with excellent relationships both in the administration and on Capitol Hill. His supervision of the allocation of funds in the stimulus -- at the time an incredible and complicated government undertaking -- is respected in Washington. He does not have any extensive background in health care -- something many Republicans seized on -- but the job is regarded as a managerial challenge.

"He's strong. He's very tough," said CNN political analyst David Gergen. "It's important in this job to be a coordinator; you have to knock heads together. He's tough enough to do that."

Relatives afraid to take in Ebola orphans

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. 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. Amber Vinson, 29, was the second nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola after treating Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Alpha Conde is the president of Guinea, which has had more than 1,100 cases, including 739 deaths. Ernest Bai Koroma is the president of Sierra Leone, which has had more than 2,400 cases, including 623 deaths. The well-known Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, left, died after contracting Ebola while helping patients in Sierra Leone. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? HIDE CAPTION << <

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Spanish nurse's aide now Ebola-free

Washington lawyer named 'Ebola czar' A former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and also to former Vice President Al Gore, Klain is president of Case Holdings and general counsel of Revolution, an investment group. He has clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court and headed up Gore's effort during the 2000 Florida recount.

Nigeria: Ebola is gone

Nigeria was thrust in the Ebola spotlight in July after an infected air traveler introduced the virus to Lagos. The case spurred fears that the disease would spread across the city of 21 million and throughout Africa's most populous country.

In the end, Nigeria confirmed 19 Ebola cases, including seven deaths.

The World Health Organization said an aggressive government response and effective contact tracing helped keep the virus in check.

"This is a spectacular success story that shows that Ebola can be contained," WHO said Monday.

"Such a story can help the many other developing countries that are deeply worried by the prospect of an imported Ebola case," it said. "Many wealthy countries, with outstanding health systems, may have something to learn as well."

Nigerian health officials reached 100% of known contacts in Lagos and 99.8% at the second outbreak site in Port Harcourt, WHO said.

And unlike in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- the combined epicenter of the outbreak -- all identified contacts in Nigeria were physically monitored every day for 21 days, the agency said.

The few who tried to escape the monitoring system were tracked down and returned to finish their required monitoring period.

For WHO to declare an Ebola outbreak over, a country must pass 42 days with active surveillance in place, supported by good diagnostic capacity, and with no new cases detected, the agency said.

The 42-day period is also twice the maximum incubation period for Ebola.

Doctors Without Borders: Worker hasrecovered

A worker with the international organization Doctors Without Borders announced Monday that a staffer in Norway who contracted Ebola in West Africa and was treated in Europe is now free of the virus.

He has been discharged from care, according to Doctors Without Borders' London office.

The organization is not releasing any more information, including the staffer's name or plans, citing patient confidentiality.

Spain: Nurse's aide free of Ebola

Teresa Romero Ramos, who had contracted Ebola after caring for a patient with the deadly disease, is now free of the virus, Spain's Special Ebola Committee said Sunday.

Read more: Aide free of Ebola

A third test came back negative after two earlier tests showed the levels of Ebola in her system were almost nil. Romero has recovered enough to produce antibodies, virus expert Luis Enjuanes told CNN.

But she'll stay in the hospital for days, possibly a few weeks, to recover, Enjuanes said.

U.N. worker dies

An employee with the United Nations' entity for gender equality, U.N. Women, died over the weekend from Ebola, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday. The staffer worked for the organization in Sierra Leone, and the worker's spouse is receiving treatment for the virus, according to Dujarric.

CNN's Al Goodman, Joshua Berlinger, Eliott C. McLaughlin and Bharati Naik contributed to this report.
Source: CNN