Health

Officials from the health ministry, the World Health Organization (WHO), and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that 87 bodies had been buried in eleven days in Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, the West African country said it was working with the UN in Kono in its efforts to contain the deadly epidemic. The International Federation of the Red Cross was setting up a treatment center in the Ebola-hit district. The remote area bordering Guinea currently has only one ambulance to transport sick people and blood samples.

The lockdown is the latest such measures adopted by the government after it ordered all businesses in the capital, Freetown, to close in November.The government also declared a nationwide three-day lockdown in September. According to the latest report by the WHO, Ebola has killed some 6,500 people in the three worst hit African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, infecting 17,800 across the eight countries affected since the beginning of the outbreak a year ago. However, the WHO predicts that the number of Ebola victims is likely to be much higher than the official statistics considering the 70-percent mortality rate. The media hype over Ebola comes at a time when thousands of people in Africa and other parts of the world die every day from hunger and preventable diseases.

Culled from Presstv

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Ngwa Bertrand

12.Dec.2014

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The human safety trials started on November 10 in the Swiss city of Geneva and 59 volunteers were vaccinated. On December 2, the Geneva researchers said the first people vaccinated with the shot had reported no serious side effects, except a few had mild fever. However, on Thursday, the team said four patients had experienced joint pains in the second week that had lasted a few days. “The Geneva team has decided to allow time to understand what is happening. This precaution of momentarily suspending the trial is usual and classic in all clinical trials,” the team said.

Meanwhile, Marie-Paule Kieny, vaccine expert with the World Health Organization, said the delay to the trial would allow time to see how extensive the problems are. The vaccine is manufactured by Canadian government laboratories and has been licensed by US companies, Merck and NewLink.

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Ngwa Bertrand

11.Dec.2014

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The nation's attention has shifted away from the lethal Ebola virus because there are no active cases in the U.S., survivor Dr. Kent Brantly said Tuesday, but he urged the American public to remember the fight still rages in West Africa. "We need to be careful that our sense of compassion is not replaced by indifference," Brantly said in response to questions after he was awarded a proclamation at a packed Tarrant County Commissioner's Court meeting, where he received two standing ovations. Brantly, 33, who did his residency at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, became the first U.S. face of Ebola after he contracted the disease in July while serving as a missionary physician in West Africa. He was airlifted to Emory University Hospital and survived, but he said it was a close call.

"Thursday, the 31st of July, I almost died," he said Tuesday. "And my doctors thought I was about to die, my caretakers in the room thought I was about to die, and they sent out the word asking everyone to pray for me. And that was the night I received ZMapp, the experimental drug and I had a very dramatic response to that drug and to that course of prayer that was being lifted up for me around the world." The young doctor, accompanied by his wife, Amber, and their two children, received a proclamation declaring it "Dr. Kent Brantly Day." He and his family have largely stayed out of the public eye as he finished recuperating. Now, he said, "I feel great, I feel great. I feel like my health is back to normal ... just like any other 33-year-old who needs to exercise more and get into shape."

Brantly said he continues to work for Samaritan's Purse, the charity that sent him to West Africa. "My wife and I feel like God has placed a calling in our lives to serve people in great need — that's why we moved to Liberia in the first place. It wasn't to fight Ebola; we moved there before Ebola. Right now, I feel like the best role I can play in fighting Ebola is to stand here and be a voice for the people of West Africa who have no voice here." As of Dec. 6, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 17,834 Ebola cases in West Africa, 11,214 of those confirmed by a laboratory and 6,346 deaths. The first U.S. case of the virus was in Dallas, where Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed in September and died in October. Two nurses — Nina Pham of Fort worth and Amber Vinson of Dallas — contracted the virus from Duncan and survived.

Brantly said he eventually hopes to get back to his earlier work in Liberia, where he delivered babies and took care of other health care needs in the impoverished country before the outbreak. Brantly said he feels he can help more people right now as medical missions adviser for the charity, speaking and working with the organization's leadership on its response to Ebola. And, he said, "I spend as much time as I can with my family."

Speaking before County Commissioners, Brantly thanked the court for being honored. "This is nothing I ever expected and I'm very humbled by this honor," Brantly said. He thanked his friends from the hospital and at the Southside Church of Christ for their emotional and financial assistance. "It was the support of these communities that played such a big role in my recovery," Brantly said. "I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that there are so many others that have done so much more than I have done."

Culled MSN News

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Ngwa Bertrand

10.Dec.2014

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The UN official added that more foreign health workers and specialists were needed in the areas still battling the virus, calling on the international community to provide more treatment units and beds."We can't sit back and say the job is even partially done because...as long as there is infection in a part of an area that could easily spread, it could even spread to places where current infections levels are zero," Nabarro warned.

The UN Ebola envoy also pointed out that there was a drop in transmission rates in Liberia.Sierra Leone faces the most serious outbreak of the disease with reports of up to 100 new cases every day.

Culled from Presstv

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Ngwa Bertrand

09.Dec.2014

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Barack Obama was taken to Walter Reed military hospital in Washington suffering from a continual sore throat, the White House confirmed. The President of the United States has been in persistent pain for “the past couple of weeks”. The condition, which required a fibre optic exam and a CT scan, is thought to have been caused by acid reflux, his doctor Ronny L Jackson said in a statement. The exam “revealed soft tissue swelling in the posterior throat”, he said, adding that he decided a “further evaluation with a routine CT [computerised tomography] scan was prudent”.

The results of the scan were returned as normal. Dr Jackson also confirmed Obama would be treated for acid reflux, the leaking of stomach acid up the throat, which is not considered a serious condition. White House spokesman Josh Earnest stressed that the medical ordeal had been “a matter of convenience for the president, not a matter of urgency”. The health of Presidents, particularly in the run-up to election campaign time, has historically been of media significance. Candidates frequently release medical information and notes from their doctors to the voting public by way of proving that they are in peak condition and are as physically fit to run the country as they are mentally.

Culled from The Independent

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Ngwa Bertrand

08.Dec.2014

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Konoyeima worked at a children's hospital and was under medical treatment at the Hastings Ebola Treatment Center. His death came after two doctors in Sierra Leone died of the virus on Saturday.It was not immediately clear how they had contracted the disease, or if they were involved directly in the treatment of Ebola patients.

As Ebola is transmitted through the bodily fluids of the sick and dead, it is often named as the "caretakers' disease." Hundreds of health workers have been infected by the deadly virus. Overall, Ebola has sickened more than 17,500 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. About 6,200 infected cases have died so far. No effective treatment has been found for Ebola.

Culled from Presstv

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Ngwa Bertrand

07.Dec.2014

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