National

4 More Aid Workers Flown Back to US for Ebola Monitoring

Published

10 years ago

March 18, 2015

In this Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014 file photo, a child stands near a sign advising of a quarantined home in an effort to combat the spread of the Ebola virus in Port Loko, Sierra Leone. On Tuesday, March 17, 2015, health officials said four more medical aid workers have been flown from West Africa to the United States, for monitoring for Ebola. The latest arrivals bring to 16 the number of aid workers evacuated in the last week from Sierra Leone. (AP Photo/Michael Duff, File)

MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Four more American aid workers arrived back in the United States on Tuesday from West Africa to be monitored for Ebola, health officials said.

The latest arrivals bring to 15 the number of aid workers who have returned from Sierra Leone since Friday. None of them have been diagnosed with Ebola, but they will be isolated and monitored during the next three weeks for signs of the disease.

Officials have released few details, citing patient privacy. But all are connected to — or had direct physical contact with — another American who came down with Ebola last week in Africa. The unidentified man is in critical condition at a National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

The other aid workers are staying near the Maryland hospital or hospitals in Atlanta and Omaha with special isolation units — in case they become sick, according to officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The sick American works with Partners in Health, a Boston-based international aid organization that has been treating patients in Liberia and Sierra Leone since November. Organization officials did not respond to calls and emails from The Associated Press on Monday or Tuesday. In a statement Tuesday, co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer said the group is working with the CDC and others to investigate how the man was infected. The Ebola virus is spread through contact with a sick patient’s blood or bodily fluids.

The World Health Organization estimates the virus has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. While deaths have slowed dramatically in recent months, the virus appears stubbornly entrenched in parts of Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Since last summer, several U.S. aid workers have gotten Ebola and have been flown back to the U.S. for care. A few other individuals have returned for monitoring; none got sick.

The aid workers who have returned since Friday are by far the largest group. And more may be on their way later this week, CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben said Tuesday.

The sick American worker was working at a government hospital in Port Loko in western Sierra Leone. But medical superintendent Dr. Peter George said the hospital hasn’t had any Ebola cases for quite some time. He said it’s likely the man also worked at a nearby Ebola treatment center, which George also manages. George said a Partners in Health colleague told him the American passed out while at the hospital.

“At that time, nobody knew it was Ebola, so they assisted him,” he said.

Everyone who was working on the ward with the man is now being monitored, George said. He said that many of the foreigners working in Port Loko, including some of the Americans, live at the same tent camp. He did not know if the sick health worker was living there.

___

Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 2- 8, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 2 – 8, 2025

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6 days ago

July 7, 2025

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Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

Published

1 week ago

July 3, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.