Health

 Russian Health Minister has revealed that her country will make available three Ebola vaccines.  Veronika Skvortsova told Russian news channels today that the Ebola vaccines will be ready within the next six months. Said Madam Veronika:  "We have created three vaccines... and we think they will be ready in the next six months."

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Ngwa Bertrand

11.Oct.2014

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A national exercise to test Britain's readiness for an Ebola outbreak will take place today. Government ministers will join dozens of medical professionals from hospitals, the ambulance service and Public Health England for the eight-hour exercise in locations across the country. Actors will simulate symptoms of the deadly virus to test the response of emergency services, while some staff will wear personal protective equipment. A simulated meeting of the Government's Cobra emergency committee will also be held, chaired by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt. The exercise was ordered by David Cameron as part of the UK's contingency plan against Ebola, which has killed more than 4,000 people in West Africa. It comes after the Prime Minister was forced to defend the decision to introduce enhanced screening for the virus at major airports and terminals, saying it had been taken on "medical advice". Questions have been raised about the checks, which are to take place at Heathrow, Gatwick and Eurostar rail terminals, with a spokesman for Gatwick saying that the airport had not been given any instructions about how the screening should be carried out. The move was also criticised by health experts, with one describing it as a "complete waste of time", while Labour MP Keith Vaz said the lack of precise information available about the screening was "shambolic".

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Ngwa Bertrand

11.Oct.2014

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A Guinean man quarantined in Brazil out of fear that he was infected with Ebola does not have the deadly disease, health officials announced Saturday after medical test results came in. "The health ministry says that diagnostic testing on the patient suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus is negative," a government statement said. "He's in good condition, and does not have a fever," said the statement adding, however, that he remains in isolation. The 47-year-old man had arrived from Africa last month. He checked into a clinic in the town of Cascavel complaining of fever on Wednesday.

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Ngwa Bertrand

11.Oct.2014

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Foreign Office (FCO) officials are investigating reports that a British national has died in Macedonia of suspected Ebola. If confirmed it would be the first death of a UK national from Ebola, although British nurse Will Pooley was cured of the deadly virus last month. The news came as Downing Street said enhanced screening for Ebola will be introduced at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports and Eurostar terminals following advice from the Chief Medical Officer. An FCO spokesman said: "We are aware of the reports and are urgently looking into them." Mr Pooley, from Suffolk, became the first Briton to contract the virus after working as a volunteer nurse in Sierra Leone, which is one of the worst-hit countries of the current outbreak. He was flown back to Britain on August 24 and recovered after being treated in an isolation unit at London's Royal Free Hospital. Meanwhile, new enhanced screening techniques will be introduced for passengers travelling from the main Ebola affected regions in west Africa - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - to give Britain an additional level of protection from the deadly virus.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

10.Oct.2014

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Concern is mounting across the world as the killer Ebola virus is spreading to other continents after claiming almost 4,000 lives in West Africa. More people across the globe are being diagnosed with the deadly Ebola infection, including two cases in the US, one in Spain, and a recent finding in Australia.A 50-year-old nurse in Australia has become the latest victim of the virus after she developed symptoms following a visit to Sierra Leone. Meanwhile in Europe, Germany admitted a third Ebola patient, a Sudanese doctor, for treatment after taking care of two World Health Organization (WHO) employees who were infected with the disease. In Spain, a nurse indentified as Teresa Romero by Spanish media fell ill earlier this week after caring for two elderly missionaries who lost their lives because of the fatal virus upon their return from West Africa. Authorities in the United States have began screening people at airports over the spillover of the virus.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

09.Oct.2014

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the spread of the deadly Ebola virus across Europe is almost inevitable. The WHO's European director, Zsuzsanna Jakab, made the comments on Tuesday, just hours after Europe's first case of Ebola infection was confirmed in Spain. "Such imported cases and similar events as have happened in Spain will happen also in the future, most likely," Jakab told reporters, adding, "It is quite unavoidable... that such incidents will happen in the future because of the extensive travel both from Europe to the affected countries and the other way around." Jakab went on to say that European health workers were at the highest level of risk, but "the most important thing in our view is that Europe is still at low risk and that the western part of the European region particularly is the best prepared in the world to respond to viral hemorrhagic fevers including Ebola.” According to Spanish health officials, four other people, apart from Spanish nurse Teresa Romero, who are suspected of having contracted the virus, have been placed under quarantine in an attempt to prevent the spread of the virus. On Tuesday, Romero, who treated two Ebola victims at a Madrid hospital, became the first person to contract the deadly virus outside of West Africa where the epidemic claimed the lives of thousands.The Ebola death toll in West Africa has risen to over 3,400, with more than half of the victims in Liberia.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

08.Oct.2014

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