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International Bandits in Guinea Steal Suspected Ebola Blood

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Fri, 2014-11-21 10:28 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                                    Nov. 21, 2014
By Boubacar Diallo

CONAKRY, Guinea — It was a highway robbery but the bandits got more than they bargained for when they stopped a taxi van in Guinea and made off with blood samples that are believed to be infected with the deadly Ebola virus.

A woman runs through a village near Faranah, in Guinea. A coalition of companies and aid groups announced plans Tuesday to test experimental drugs and collect blood plasma from Ebola survivors to treat new victims of the disease in West Africa. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic) Nov. 19, 2014

The Associated Press

Authorities publicly appealed on national radio Friday to the unidentified robbers to hand over the samples that were stolen from the minibus taxi during its 265-kilometer (165-mile) trek from central Kankan prefecture to a test site in southern Gueckedou.

Four Red Cross officials accompanied the samples, that were drawn from a single person and stored in a sealed container, when armed bandits stopped the vehicle the aid group had commissioned near the town of Kissidougou, said Faya Etienne Tolno, a press officer for the Guinea Red Cross.

Read complete story
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bandits-guinea-steal-suspected-ebola-blood-27075985

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
Africa
Conakry
Guinea
General Topic Tags: 
Contagion
Disease
Health
Security
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem
Situation Report
Groups this Group Post belongs to: 
Africa Resilience Initiative
Global Health
Guinea Resilience System
- Private group -

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Sat, 2014-11-22 10:07 — mike kraft

US NEWS and WORLD REPORT                                       Nov.21, 2014

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases... tells U.S. News it does not specifically concern him amid much more important issues.

“It speaks to the society problem,” he says, describing the poor health and governmental infrastructures in West Africa that have contributed to the severity of the Ebola scourge there. 

“There are a lot worse things going on in those countries,” Fauci says. “Health care workers were killed who were trying to take care of people. That’s worse than stealing samples, I should think.”

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/11/21/fauci-stolen-blood-samples-in-guinea-least-of-ebola-worries

howdy folks