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MSF estimates 6 months to contain Ebola epidemic

Fri, 2014-08-15 09:50 — JSole
Reuters staff report

9:09 a.m. EDT, August 15, 2014

It will take about six months to bring under control the Ebola epidemic, the head of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans  Frontieres) said on Friday, saying the outbreak in West Africa felt like "wartime, is moving, advancing."

"Over the next six months we should get the upper hand on the epidemic, this is my gut feeling," said Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders, adding more experts were needed on the ground. "We need people with a hands-on operational mindset," to combat the outbreak."

Liu said she had conveyed those messages to the WHO and "that I think the wake-up call was too late in calling it a public health emergency of international concern."

"I think we have a common understanding on it now," Liu said. "Now we have to find out how that is translated into concrete action in the field ... a statement will save lives only if followed up on the ground."

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They survived Ebola. Now they are shunned.

Fri, 2014-08-15 07:50 — Norea

By Abby Phillip August 13

Melvin Korkor thought the hardest fight had already been won.

Weeks after contracting Ebola — most likely from a sick patient — Korkor, a Liberian doctor, was able to walk out of a treatment center in Lofa with a clean bill of health, according to Voice of America.

He was one of the lucky ones to survive the deadly disease.

But since leaving the hospital, Korkor has been fighting another difficult battle: Overcoming Ebola-survivor stigma — which, he told a Liberian radio station, "is worse than the fever."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/08/13/they-survived-ebola-now-they-are-shunned/

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Guinea Declares Public Health Emergency Over Ebola

Fri, 2014-08-15 07:34 — Norea

Liberian policemen, right, dressed in riot gear disperse a crowd of people that blocked a main road after the body of someone suspected of dying from the Ebola virus was not removed by health workers in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Aug. 14, 2014.

VOA News - August 14, 2014 1:59 PM

Guinea has declared a public health emergency over the Ebola epidemic and is sending health workers to all affected border points, a government official said.

An estimated 377 people have died in Guinea since the world's worst outbreak of Ebola began in March in remote parts of a border region next to Sierra Leone and Liberia.

http://www.voanews.com/content/nigeria-confirms-11th-case-of-ebola/2413025.html

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U.S. Orders Departure of Eligible Family Members from Sierra Leone

Fri, 2014-08-15 07:25 — Norea

Department of State SealPress Statement

Marie Harf
Deputy Department Spokesperson, Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC
August 14, 2014
 
At the recommendation of the U.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone, the State Department today ordered the departure from Freetown of all eligible family members (EFMs) not employed by post. The Embassy recommended this step out of an abundance of caution, following the determination by the Department’s Medical Office that there is a lack of options for routine health care services at major medical facilities due to the Ebola outbreak.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/230613.htm

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Ebola: UN health agency says more than 1 million people affected by outbreak

Fri, 2014-08-15 07:19 — Norea

Ebola in West Africa poses a great threat to development. Photo: UNDPUN News Center - un.org - 13 August 2014

13 August 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today convened a United Nations system-wide coordination meeting in response to the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which is now affecting more than 1 million people in the so-called “hot zone of disease transmission” on the borders of the three countries most impacted by the disease.

According to the latest update issued today by the World Health Organization (WHO), between 10 and 11 August, 128 new cases of Ebola virus disease, as well as 56 deaths, were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, bringing the total number of cases to 1,975 and deaths to 1,069.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48478#.U-3pimPQr6c

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Only the facts: Ebola experimental drugs

Fri, 2014-08-15 07:05 — Norea
 

By Caleb Hellerman, CNN
August 14, 2014 -- Updated 1122 GMT (1922 HKT)

(CNN) -- The race to develop an effective treatment or vaccine against Ebola is on as the largest outbreak in history continues to spread in West Africa. Meanwhile, questions about whether unproven treatments are appropriate to use, and who should get them, are inspiring passion and resentment.

On Wednesday, an Iowa-based company called NewLink said it has enough doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine to begin clinical trials in the next few weeks, if such trials are approved. Meanwhile, a shipment of 800 to 1,000 doses of the vaccine, known as VSV-EBOV, were delivered to health officials in Liberia, as a donation from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/14/health/ebola-vaccine-drugs-faq/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

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Ebola Also Devastates Wild Ape Population

Thu, 2014-08-14 22:45 — Norea

Mrithi, a 20-year-old male western lowland gorilla.

Steve Baragona - August 13, 2014 9:03 AM

One day in 1996, boys from a village in northern Gabon brought home a chimpanzee they found dead in the forest. The villagers butchered it for food.

That act set off an Ebola outbreak that killed 21 people, according to the World Health Organization.

Years later, on a reporting trip in Gabon, author David Quammen met two men from the village who were there during the outbreak.

At the time Ebola was ravaging their village and their families, they noticed something strange. In the forest nearby, 13 gorillas lay dead.

http://www.voanews.com/content/ebola-also-devastates-wild-ape-population/2411749.html

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Indian doctors in Nigeria Ebola row free to leave, says hospital

Thu, 2014-08-14 06:47 — Maeryn Obley

A female immigration officer uses an infrared digital laser thermometer to take the temperature of a female passenger at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja August 11, 2014. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Image: A female immigration officer uses an infrared digital laser thermometer to take the temperature of a female passenger at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja August 11, 2014. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

trust.org - August 12th, 2014 - Nita Bhalla

Four Indian doctors in Nigeria say they are being forced to treat cases of Ebola against their will and have accused their employers of taking away their passports to stop them leaving the country, the Hindustan Times reported on Tuesday.

However, the hospital in the Nigerian capital Abuja where the doctors are working denied the claims, pointing out there were no cases of Ebola in the city.

The doctors said they were ordered not to leave the Primus Hospital despite their fear of contracting the deadly disease, the newspaper reported.

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Canada to donate untested Ebola vaccine to help battle disease in Africa

Wed, 2014-08-13 08:17 — Norea

By Euronews - euronews.com - 13/08 08:41 CET

The move comes after the World Health Organization decided it was ethical in the circumstances to offer untested drugs to people infected by the virus.

The Canadian government has only around 1,500 doses of the vaccine, which it invented a few years ago. It has been effective in animals but has never been tested on humans. 

http://www.euronews.com/2014/08/13/canada-to-donate-untested-ebola-vaccine-to-help-battle-disease-in-africa/

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Canada offers experimental Ebola vaccine VSV-EBOV to West Africa

Wed, 2014-08-13 07:08 — Elhadj Drame

The Canadian Press

Aug 12, 2014 5:47 PM ET

A made-in-Canada experimental Ebola vaccine will be offered for use in the West African outbreak response, the Public Health Agency of Canada revealed Tuesday.

The news comes hours after the World Health Organization said a panel of experts advised that it would be ethical to use untested drugs and vaccines in this raging epidemic, which is several times larger than any previous outbreak.

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