Health

The World Health Organization has warned about a dramatic rise in the number of Ebola cases if all due measures are not taken to curb the epidemic. The United Nations health agency said in a report issued on Tuesday that the number of cases infected by the deadly virus will rise to 20,000 by November without “drastic improvements in control measures.” “We’ve rather modestly only extended the projections to November 2, but if you go to... January 2, you’re into hundreds of thousands,” said Christopher Dye, the director of strategy at the WHO. The World Health Organization had said in an earlier report that more than 5,700 people have been infected with the deadly virus in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo and over 2,800 people have died from the disease. Dye further noted that the epidemic of the fever might “rumble on as it has for the last few months for the next few years.” The WHO official also said that the “fear is that Ebola will become more or less a permanent feature of the human population.” The UN health agency says the Ebola outbreak has more or less been contained in Senegal and Nigeria and it will take at least six months to be brought under control..

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

23.Sep.2014

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Dozens of dead bodies and about 150 new cases of the Ebola infection have been found after a three-day shutdown in Sierra Leone. This comes after the West African country confined its citizens for 72-hours to stem the deadly outbreak. Emergency services say three days of nationwide shutdown in Sierra Leone to contain the spread of the Ebola virus has come to an end. "We have an overflow of bodies which we still need to bury but this has been an everyday occurrence since the Ebola outbreak.... Now at least we have about 150 new cases," Steven Gaojia, head of the country's emergency operation noted earlier. 

Sierra Leone's health minister says volunteers managed to reach around 80 percent of homes, deeming the action as a success. "We have learnt a lot from the campaign. Although this campaign has ended, there is a possibility we would have a similar one some other time," Health Minister Abubakarr Fofanah said, adding, "I cannot...give you [now] statistics about the total corpses collected during the three-day period as we are...awaiting returns from other parts of the country and this will be made known as soon as the full report is compiled."

Health professionals and critics of the controversial shutdown say it was a poorly planned publicity stunt since health professionals were not trained properly. More than 2,600 people have lost their lives in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia and Guinea so far this year.

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Ngwa Bertrand

22.Sep.2014

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has said West Africa’s deadly Ebola epidemic has killed over 2,800 people so far. According to the UN health agency, more than 5,700 people have been infected with the deadly virus in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo and 2,811 people have died from the disease. The WHO also said the outbreak has more or less been contained in Senegal and Nigeria, and that it will take at least six months to be brought under control. According the health officials on Monday, dozens of dead bodies and about 150 new cases of the Ebola infection have been found after a three-day shutdown in Sierra Leone. This comes after the West African country confined its citizens for 72-hours to stem the deadly outbreak.Emergency services say three days of nationwide shutdown in Sierra Leone to contain the spread of the Ebola virus has come to an end. 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

22.Sep.2014

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The Ebola virus could infect up to 500,000 people by the end of January, says a report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A source familiar with the report’s contents released the figure on condition of anonymity on Friday. The report assumes no additional aid by governments and relief agencies to contain the spread of Ebola. The report is scheduled to be published next week. “CDC is working on a dynamic modeling tool that allows for recalculations of projected Ebola cases over time,” said Barbara Reynolds, spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The US national public health institute “expects to release this interactive tool and a description of its use soon,” she added.

The World Health Organization recently warned that the Ebola epidemic in the West African countries could eventually exceed 20,000 cases before it is brought under control. However, experts say cases are increasing so rapidly that the total number is almost certain to be much higher. According to latest statistics by the WHO, at least 2,630 people have died of Ebola so far, while over 5,350 others are infected. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are the worst hit countries, while Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo have also been affected by the virus. Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

21.Sep.2014

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More than 2,600 people have died in the current Ebola outbreak. The virus has so far infected at least 5,300 people in West Africa since early this year.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Thursday that the Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 2,600 people, showed no signs of slowing, with 700 new cases reported in the last week with data available. Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia account for the vast majority of cases and deaths in the outbreak; eight people have died in Nigeria, out of 21 cases there, and Senegal has so far confirmed one diagnosis.

"The upward epidemic trend continues in the three countries that have widespread and intense transmission: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone," the United Nations health agency announced. WHO officials hope to "bend the curve" in the almost exponential increase in cases within three months.

The latest numbers updated five days of data for Liberia and one for the other countries, and showed no new deaths in Sierra Leone since the previous update. In a separate Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials had reported 40 deaths out of 71 cases by September 15, according to the WHO.

Sierra Leone shutdown

Starting Thursday at midnight (000 UTC), Sierra Leone's 6 million people must stay home, except for thousands of volunteers who will go house-to-house delivering bars of soap and information about how to prevent Ebola. Authorities have said they also expect to discover hundreds of new cases during the Friday-to-Sunday exercise. Sierra Leone's government has prepared screening and treatment centers to accept the expected influx of patients after the shutdown.

Public health experts have focused on isolating the sick and tracking down anyone who may have come into contact with them. Stopping transmission has proved crucial to defeating Ebola, but the current outbreak has ballooned out of control, leading to more stringent measures including travel restrictions, the cordoning off of entire communities and now Sierra Leone's nation-wide lockdown.

Though Ebola has no recognized treatment, doctors have tested out experimental measures in the current outbreak. For instance, some patients have received the blood of Ebola survivors, a measure some scientists think can help patients fight off the virus.

The UN Security Council will discuss Ebola threat later Thursday. In recent weeks, several countries have promised to build treatment centers, send health care workers and deliver supplies.

The United States plans to send 3,000 military personnel to the region and build more than a dozen treatment centers in Liberia. Major General Darryl Williams has already arrived in Monrovia to set up a command center for the operation and survey sites for the clinics, defense officials said.

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Ngwa Bertrand

19.Sep.2014

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Sierra Leone has launched a three-day shutdown in order to prevent the further spread of the deadly Ebola virus in the country.

On Friday, the government of Sierra Leone said the country was observing a shutdown as some 30,000 volunteers were expected to go door-to-door to educate people on the virus. Most of the West African country’s six-million population, with the exception of health professionals and security forces, are to remain indoors during the time period. Despite criticism from some health professionals that the shutdown could backfire, Sierra Leone has insisted on going ahead with the measure. “Rain or shine, the shutdown exercise is going to go ahead. During the three days... the job is going to get done,” Steven Gaojia, the head of the government’s emergency Ebola operation center, said. This comes shortly after the United Nations Security Council urged the world to provide help to the countries affected by Ebola, calling the disease a threat to international peace and security.

According to the World Health Organization, at least 2,630 people have died of Ebola so far, while over 5,350 others are infected.Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses. There is currently no known cure for Ebola. Nigeria has also been hit by the epidemic in addition to Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

19.Sep.2014

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