N.J. enforces isolation order for NBC crew
New Jersey officials have issued a mandatory quarantine order for members of an NBC crew that was exposed to a cameraman with Ebola.
The order went into effect Friday night after state health officials said a voluntary 21-day isolation agreement was violated.
Officials with the state Health Department told The Associated Press that the crew remains symptom-free, and there is no reason for concern of exposure to the deadly virus to the community.
Citing privacy concerns, department officials wouldn’t give further details, including who violated the voluntary agreement and how the state learned of the violation.
The NBC crew included medical correspondent Nancy Snyderman, who lives in New Jersey. She was working with Ashoka Mukpo, a cameraman who was infected in West Africa. He is being treated in Nebraska.
Michigan toddler dies from enterovirus
DETROIT – A 21-month-old girl is the first person in Michigan to die from the virus that has caused severe respiratory illness across the country, state health officials said Saturday.
Madeline Reid died Friday afternoon from enterovirus D68, according to Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit. Its chief medical officer, Dr. Rudolph Valentini, said in a statement that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the illness after the Clinton Township girl’s arrival but did not specify which day she arrived.
A New Jersey state medical examiner said last week that a 4-year-old boy died of the virus, and the CDC says five people infected with the virus have died, but it’s not clear what role the virus played. The CDC said in a release this week that the virus has sickened 691 people in 46 states and Washington, D.C.
Enterovirus D68 can cause flu-like symptoms and respiratory problems. The virus can be spread through coughing, sneezing and contact with contaminated surfaces. There is no vaccine or specific treatment.
Protests of shooting continue in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS – More than 1,000 people gathered Saturday for a second day of organized rallies to protest Michael Brown’s death and other fatal police shootings in the St. Louis area and elsewhere.
Marchers started assembling in the morning hours in downtown St. Louis, where later in the day the Cardinals were set to host the San Francisco Giants in the first game of the National League Championship Series.
The crowd was larger than the ones seen at Friday’s protests. The main focus of the march, scheduled to wind through downtown streets for several hours, was on the recent police shootings but participants also embraced causes such as gay rights and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Police officers were stationed around the area.
The four-day event – called Ferguson October – began Friday afternoon with a march outside the St. Louis County prosecutor’s office in Clayton and renewed calls for prosecutor Bob McCulloch to charge Darren Wilson, a white Ferguson officer, in the Aug. 9 death of 18-year-old Brown, who was black and unarmed. A grand jury is reviewing the case.
“I have two sons and a daughter. I want a world for them where the people who are supposed to be community helpers are actually helping, where they can trust those people to protect and serve rather than control and repress,” said Ashlee Wiest-Laird, a church pastor from Boston who attended Saturday’s march in St. Louis.
Associated Press
