Situation Report

c-span.org - August 7, 2014

The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations held a hearing titled, “Combating the Ebola Threat.”

webmd.com - by Brenda Goodman - reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD

Aug. 4, 2014 -- ZMapp, the experimental treatment rushed to two Americans infected with Ebola in Africa, is grown in specially modified leaves of tobacco -- a plant better known for harming health than healing.

“We complied with a request from Emory University and Samaritan’s Purse to provide a very limited amount of ZMapp last week,” says David Howard, a spokesman for Reynolds American Services, the parent company of Kentucky BioProcessing. The small biopharma company in Owensboro, KY, has been contracted to grow the drug.

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cnn.com - by By Jacque Wilson and Danielle Dellorto - August 5, 2014

(CNN) -- Two American missionary workers infected with the deadly Ebola virus were given an experimental drug that seems to have saved their lives.

Dr. Kent Brantly was given the medication, ZMapp, shortly after telling his doctors he thought he would die, according to a source familiar with his case. Within an hour, doctors say his symptoms -- labored breathing and a widespread rash -- dramatically improved. Nancy Writebol, another missionary working with Samaritan's Purse, received two doses of the medication and has also shown significant improvement, sources say.

As there is no proven treatment and no vaccine for Ebola, this experimental drug is raising lots of questions.

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Nepal is among one of the least developed countries that has been exposed to multiple hazards and with one-third of its population living below the poverty line. Not only socio-economic factors, but also geological, topographical and climatic conditions expose Nepal to multiple hazards, most prominently earthquakes, floods, landslides, fires, thunderbolts, windstorms, hailstorm and avalanches. According to official disaster statistics, out of the total number of affected families, floods/landslides and wind-storms/hailstorms have affected the most damage followed by fires and epidemics.