Health

Liberia may be witnessing a decline in the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, despite the fact that the fight against the disease is far from over, the World Health Organization (WHO) says. Fresh data have confirmed that there have been no new cases of Ebola in Liberia recently, with death cases falling, said Bruce Aylward, the WHO assistant director general, in the capital, Monrovia, on Wednesday. Hospital beds have also become available in Monrovia and Lofa County, he added. The WHO official also stated that figures show that “there are less of Ebola dead burials right now.” Aylward said the Ebola Treatment Center Units, also known as ETCs, new admissions and bed occupancy rates are “seeing a downward trend.” He warned that the sudden positive trend would still have to be confirmed since Liberia remains the worst-hit by the pandemic disease.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

30.Oct.2014

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For $34 (plus $5.49 shipping), you can purchase a personal protective kit on Amazon that will probably do nothing to protect you against Ebola. Fortunately, there hasn't been an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. and your chances of catching it—even without the kit—are virtually zero. But that hasn't stopped sales of this kind of equipment from skyrocketing in the past month. Sales of the kit—which includes a full-body suit, eye protection, two surgical masks, two pairs of gloves, booties, and duct tape—jumped 393 percent on Amazon following the diagnosis of the first Ebola case in New York City on Thursday evening. Sales of one body suit skyrocketed 131,000 percent in 24 hours after the diagnosis of the first Ebola patient in the U.S. The attempt to make money off of panic surrounding new disease outbreaks is nothing new: The H1N1 outbreak in 2009 resulted in the sale of products like "Tamiflu" pills from India and "magic wands," while the SARS epidemic in 2003 led companies to hike the price of face masks. "[What we're seeing with Ebola] fits into previous outbreaks," said Thomas Bollyky, global health, economics, and development senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The necessary ingredients to this type of profiteering are twofold: panic and novelty. In times of uncertainty, people search out information, and if they're still nervous, they'll search it out from unconventional sources, which are what's happening here." The Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission are actively monitoring fraudulent claims and urging consumers to report any they might encounter. If there is an express or implied claim that the product prevents or treats Ebola, that would be cause for intervention, as there are currently no FDA-approved vaccines or prescription or over-the-counter drugs to fight the virus.

 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Oct.2014

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The number of the people infected with Ebola virus has exceeded 10,000, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) figures show. The UN health agency said on Saturday that the number of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases has risen to 10,141. The disease has already claimed 4,922 lives. New figures reflect no change in Liberia’s case toll, likely due to many people having been unable or too frightened to seek medical care. Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia have taken the brunt of the spread of the disease, which is running amok in West Africa. Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, and sweat. It has killed around two-thirds of those it has infected over the last four decades, with two outbreaks registering fatality rates approaching 90 percent. The media hype surrounding the epidemic, however, comes at a time when thousands of people in Africa and other parts of the world fall victim to malnutrition and contagious diseases on an almost daily basis. Mainstream Western media, though, address very little attention to such issues.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

26.Oct.2014

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Two US states have ordered a mandatory quarantine for medics who have treated Ebola patients in West Africa. Speaking at a joint press conference in Manhattan on Friday, the governors of New Jersey and New York announced a 21-day quarantine for all doctors and other travellers who have had contact with people infected with the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa. “These actions that we are taking are necessary to protect the health of the people of New Jersey and New York,” said New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. “Governor Cuomo and I agreed quarantine was the right way to go. We have the legal authority to do it. We are doing it.”They also announced additional screening protocols at JFK and Newark international airports. “A voluntary Ebola quarantine is not enough. This is too serious a public health situation. I think increasing the screening procedures is necessary and reduces the risk to New Yorkers and people in New Jersey,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.The governors made the decision a day after Dr. Craig Spencer tested positive for Ebola upon returning to New York after treating patients in Guinea.Health officials are trying to locate every person that came into contact with him.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Oct.2014

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Mali's president has said he remained calm after revelations that a two-year-old girl infected with Ebola travelled on public transport while contagious, stating that her journey and potential contacts had already been traced. The girl travelled hundreds of kilometres through Mali by bus - including a stop in the capital Bamako - potentially exposing many people to the virus, before she died in the western town of Kayes on Friday. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said that the girl's grandmother had made a mistake by going to a funeral in Guinea, where more than 900 people have died of Ebola, and bringing her back. "We are paying dearly for this," he said. "But I think this will cause more fear than anything else. The case was quickly contained. We will do everything we can to avoid panic," he told France's RFI radio station. Keita said landlocked Mali would not close its border with Guinea. "Guinea is Mali's neighbour. We have a shared border that we did not close and we will not close," he said. Land-locked Mali relies on the ports of neighbouring Senegal, Guinea and Ivory Coast as gateways for much of its import needs. Health experts said the girl had Ebola-like symptoms and travelled for four days before she was eventually diagnosed with the disease on October 23. Ebola victims are contagious as soon as symptoms show. Local and international Ebola experts are sending teams to Mali to try to contain the outbreak in the sixth West African nation to record Ebola this year.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Oct.2014

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Oct.2014

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