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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 05:42:50 pm

Title: Ebola news 9/25
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 05:42:50 pm

Third Ebola patient treated in the U.S. free from virus: doctors
Reuters
43 minutes ago



CHICAGO (Reuters) - The third U.S. patient to be treated in the United States for Ebola is now free of the virus, doctors at the Nebraska Medical Center and the patient said in a news conference on Thursday.

"The CDC has declared me safe and free of virus. Thank God. I love you all," Dr. Rick Sacra, 51, a Boston obstetrician who developed Ebola while treating patients as a medical missionary at a hospital in Liberia, told a news conference.

Sacra was treated with an experimental drug called TKM-Ebola made by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp, and also received a "convalescent serum" made up of antibodies taken from the blood of U.S. Ebola survivor and fellow missionary Dr. Kent Brantly.

The fourth unidentified patient with Ebola to be treated in the U.S. is still in treatment at Emory University in Atlanta.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, Editing by Franklin Paul)


http://news.yahoo.com/third-ebola-patient-treated-u-free-virus-doctors-155400398.html (http://news.yahoo.com/third-ebola-patient-treated-u-free-virus-doctors-155400398.html)

Title: Ebola spread stabilising in Guinea as toll nears 3,000 -WHO
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 05:45:15 pm

Ebola spread stabilising in Guinea as toll nears 3,000 -WHO
Reuters
By Tom Miles and Umaru Fofana  2 hours ago


(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/lS38FdFKmsDGZElWSL4WxA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTI5NztweW9mZj0wO3E9Njk7dz00NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_ZA/News/Reuters/2014-09-25T143023Z_1007970001_LYNXNPEA8O0KX_RTROPTP_2_OZATP-UK-HEALTH-EBOLA.JPG)
A social mobilizer from NGO Association des Jeunes Conditionnaires et Manutentionnaires (AJCOM), a UNICEF partner, uses an illustrated printout while speaking with a man about Ebola and best practices to help prevent its spread in Conakry, Guinea, in this handout photo provided by UNICEF taken September 15, 2014. REUTERS/Timothy La Rose/UNICEF/Handout via Reuters



GENEVA/FREETOWN (Reuters) - The spread of Ebola seems to have stabilised in Guinea, one of three West African states worst-hit by the disease, but a lack of beds and resistance in affected communities means its advance continues elsewhere, the World Health Organisation said.

Underscoring drastic measures being taken to halt the worst outbreak on record of the deadly virus, Sierra Leone put three more districts -- home to over a million people and major mining operations -- under indefinite quarantine.

An outbreak that began in a remote corner of Guinea has taken hold of much of neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing nearly 3,000 people in just over six months. Senegal and Nigeria have recorded cases but, for now, contained them.

World leaders and international organisations have warned of a crisis threatening the stability and economies of a string of fragile West African states. But they have also been criticised for doing too little too late.

"The upward epidemic trend continues in Sierra Leone and most probably also in Liberia," the WHO said in its latest update on the disease, which has killed about half of those confirmed and suspected to have been infected.

"However, the situation in Guinea, although still of grave concern, appears to have stabilized: between 75 and 100 new confirmed cases have been reported in each of the past five weeks," it added.

Experts are trying to straighten out data from the ground, where already weak local health systems over been overrun by one of the world's deadliest diseases, muddying information on the current situation.

But most warn that the number of cases recorded so far represents a fraction of the real total, with many victims unable find places to get treated or unwilling to come forward due to fears over the disease.

WHO said earlier this week that the total number of infections could reach 20,000 by November, months earlier than previously forecast. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned between 550,000 and 1.4 million people might be infected in the region by January if nothing was done.


DIFFICULTIES OF ISOLATION

Overnight, Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma announced that the districts of Port Loko and Bombali in the north and Moyamba in the south would be quarantined.

The step means five of the country's 14 districts are now isolated. The districts of Kailahum and Kenema, in the northeast close to Guinea and Liberia, were already quarantined.

"The isolation of districts and chiefdoms will definitely pose great difficulties for our people in those districts," Koroma said. "(But) the life of everyone and the survival of our country take precedence over these difficulties."

The extension of the quarantine follows a nationwide lockdown at the weekend that Koroma said had been a success but exposed "areas of greater challenges", including the need to rapidly build more treatment centres.

Under the new measures, people will be able to travel through quarantined districts during daylight hours so long as they do not stop. The World Food Programme is meant to provide food to residents living there.

The Ebola outbreak comes a decade into Sierra Leone and Liberia's recovery from intertwined civil wars that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1990s.

In this time, both nations have secured billions of dollars in investment, especially from mining firms looking to tap into their vast iron ore reserves.

However, firms operating in the region have appealed to world leaders to do more to fight the outbreak, which they said threatened the region's stability. Border closures and travel bans have hamstrung trade as well as the aid response.

Sierra Leone's new restrictions are likely to hit mining firms. Port Loko is home to London Mining's concession and African Minerals has its rail and port services there.

Axel Addy, Liberia's minister for commerce and industry, said his nation had secured imports of basic food staples until December, but the blow to its mining sector may trigger a recession next year.


SCREENING OUTSIDERS

Having spread slowly at first, a spike in Ebola cases and warnings of exponential spread in recent weeks spooked international leaders into greater pledges of action. The response is slowly picking up momentum.

Governments and organisations from across the world, including the United States, Great Britain, France, China and Cuba, have pledged military and civilian personnel alongside cash and medical supplies. But aid workers say it is still not enough.

The WHO said Liberia had 315 bed spaces for Ebola patients and aid agencies have promised to set up 440 more, but the country needs a further 1,550 beds that nobody has yet offered to provide. In Sierra Leone, 297 planned new beds would almost double existing capacity, but a further 532 were needed.

The lack of beds means those infected with Ebola are still being turned away from hospitals and must be cared for at home, where they risk infecting yet more people.

As a result, part of the aid response is now focusing on setting up care centres in communities and training locals, including 11,000 teachers in Liberia, to educate people about how to combat the disease.

The first 9,000 of a planned 50,000 kits -- containing protective gowns, gloves and masks for family members to look after Ebola sufferers -- arrived in Liberia, according to UNICEF.

However, WHO said these efforts were still being resisted in neglected, remote communities with a distrust of outsiders, like the one where eight members of an Ebola team were killed in a attack in southeast Guinea last week.

"There are reports from Fassankoni, Guinea, that communities have set up roadblocks to screen entering response teams."


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-spread-stabilising-guinea-toll-nears-3-000-143023509--finance.html (http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-spread-stabilising-guinea-toll-nears-3-000-143023509--finance.html)

Title: Mass delivery of Ebola protection kits starts in Liberia
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 06:49:52 pm

Mass delivery of Ebola protection kits starts in Liberia
Reuters
By Misha Hussain  1 hour ago



DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A mass delivery of almost half a million household kits to help stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa began on Thursday with the first batch of 9,000 packages containing gloves, soap and chlorine arriving in Liberia.

With forecasts of a massive escalation in the number of victims in coming months, international aid organizations are stepping up efforts to try to contain the deadly virus at community level, a United Nations official said Thursday.

Nearly 3,000 people have died in the worst outbreak on record of the deadly virus that began in Guinea in March and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control warns up to 1.4 million people could be infected by January without immediate action.

Currently there are no widely available vaccines and cures for Ebola. The kits contain protective gowns, gloves and masks, as well as soap, chlorine and a sprayer, along with instructions on the use and safe disposal of materials.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) plans to distribute kits to up to 400,000 households across Liberia, which is the worst hit country with over 3,280 cases and 1,677 deaths according to the latest WHO figures.

"As we work to urgently get those who are infected into safe places for treatment, this airlift of protection kits will help ensure that Ebola Care Centres and communities have the information and tools they need to safely care for those who fall ill," USAID spokesman Tim Callaghan said in a statement.

Liberia has struggled to stop the spread of Ebola. A decade of civil war as well as poverty and corruption has left health care workers without the equipment or training to be able to control the virus effectively and safely.

Sheldon Yett, representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Liberia, said about 50,000 kits will arrive in the next few months to provide a temporary solution until more treatment centers are built and staff trained.

"The first priority is for more dedicated Ebola treatment facilities and trained staff, but until these are in place, we need to support community efforts to safely care for those who may be infected and cut the transmission cycle of this deadly disease," he said in a statement.

Gayle Smith, the White House's senior director for global development on the National Security Council, said officials have identified 400,000 of the most vulnerable households and are working with community leaders to deliver health care kits.

Funding for the first 50,000 kits has been provided by USAID and the U.S.-based philanthropic organization Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which has committed a US$3.6 million matching contribution to UNICEF to support the airlift.

(Reporting By Misha Hussain, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)


http://news.yahoo.com/mass-delivery-ebola-protection-kits-starts-liberia-155849326.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mass-delivery-ebola-protection-kits-starts-liberia-155849326.html)

Title: World Bank announces $170 million in new funding to fight Ebola
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 06:51:06 pm

World Bank announces $170 million in new funding to fight Ebola
Reuters
2 hours ago



WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday announced it would give another $170 million to help West African countries contain the spread of the Ebola virus, nearly doubling its total contributions to fight an epidemic that has killed nearly 3,000 people.

The funds, which must still be approved by the bank's executive board, will be used for increasing the healthcare workforce, buying supplies and building stronger health systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which have been hardest hit by the disease.

The World Bank, a poverty-fighting institution based in Washington, had previously approved $230 million for the three countries, where resources and health systems have been strained by the worst outbreak of the virus since its discovery four decades ago.

(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)


http://news.yahoo.com/world-bank-announces-170-million-funding-fight-ebola-150348367.html (http://news.yahoo.com/world-bank-announces-170-million-funding-fight-ebola-150348367.html)

Title: Italy stages Ebola evacuation drill _ just in case
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 06:59:20 pm

Italy stages Ebola evacuation drill _ just in case
Associated Press
By NICOLE WINFIELD  11 hours ago


(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/SLnHIZwfnIWu1AB5c2A4ZA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTY0MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9Njk7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/06b0ce7c9d09a225600f6a706700608c.jpg)
Participants into a course to learn how to transport and handle contagious patients use an 'Aircraft Transit Isolator' (ATI) to carry a colleague during a simulation at the military airport of Pratica di Mare, 30 kilometers south of Rome, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. Italy's defense ministry staged the simulated medical evacuation of an Ebola patient Wednesday as part of a three-day training course for Italian military, Red Cross and health care workers. Some of them are on the front lines of Italy's Mare Nostrum rescue operation for thousands of African migrants who are arriving here every day in smugglers' boats. Officials and medical experts insist that the risk that Ebola might spread from Africa to Europe is small. They say Italy's first case of Ebola will most likely be from an Italian doctor or missionary who contracts it while caring for patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea _ the three hardest-hit countries _ and is airlifted home. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)



PRATICA DI MARE AIR BASE, Italy (AP) — The patient, a slight woman in her 30s, lay motionless on the stretcher as a half-dozen men in biohazard suits transferred her from a C-27J cargo plane into an ambulance and then into a mobile hospital isolation ward, never once breaking the plastic seal encasing her.

The exercise put on Wednesday was just a simulation of the procedures that would be used to evacuate an Ebola patient to Italy. But for Italian military, Red Cross and health care workers, it offered essential experience, especially for those on the front lines of the country's sea-rescue operation involving thousands of African migrants who arrive here every day in smugglers' boats.

Italian authorities and medical experts insist that the risk of Ebola spreading from Africa to Europe is small, given that the virus only spreads by direct contact with infected blood or other bodily fluids. They say Italy's first case of Ebola will probably be an Italian doctor or missionary who contracts the disease while caring for patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea — the three hardest-hit countries — and is airlifted home for treatment.

Yet concern runs high: EU health ministers who met this week in Milan spent an entire session discussing Ebola and the EU. They concluded that, while the risk of the disease coming to Europe is low, the EU must improve coordination and prevention measures to better diagnose, transport and treat suspected cases.

"There is an emergency," said Dr. Natale Ceccarelli, who heads the infirmary at the Pratica di Mare air force base south of Rome, where the training course was staged. "If one person is infected, he infects everyone."

Ceccarelli has already flown once to an Italian navy transport ship taking part in the Mare Nostrum rescue operation after a would-be refugee who was picked up at sea was flagged during a routine health screening.


(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Cb3zVv058aLDecA.LQ_Yvg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTcwMztweW9mZj0wO3E9Njk7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/29d8570e9d09a225600f6a7067001326.jpg)
Participants into a course to learn how to transport and handle contagious patients use an 'Aircraft Transit Isolator' (ATI) to carry a colleague during a simulation at the military airport of Pratica di Mare, 30 kilometers south of Rome, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. Italy's defense ministry staged the simulated medical evacuation of an Ebola patient Wednesday as part of a three-day training course for Italian military, Red Cross and health care workers. Some of them are on the front lines of Italy's Mare Nostrum rescue operation for thousands of African migrants who are arriving here every day in smugglers' boats. Officials and medical experts insist that the risk that Ebola might spread from Africa to Europe is small. They say Italy's first case of Ebola will most likely be from an Italian doctor or missionary who contracts it while caring for patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea _ the three hardest-hit countries _ and is airlifted home. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)


The patient was airlifted in one of the same self-contained mobile isolation units used for the defense ministry's simulation drill. He went first to Sicily and then to Rome aboard a C-130 transport plane and was taken immediately to the capital's Spallanzani hospital, which specializes in infectious diseases.

It turned out he had monkeypox, a virus similar to smallpox, not Ebola.

Ebola is believed to have infected more than 5,800 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria and Senegal. Compared with swine flu, the number of infections is relatively small. But the World Health Organization has declared the outbreak an international public health emergency, and U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered up to 3,000 troops to be deployed to West Africa to build field hospitals and train medical staff.

Britain and France — which both have colonial ties to the region — have pledged to build treatment centers in Sierra Leone and Guinea. Italy has pledged to build a 90-bed treatment center in Sierra Leone, send experts from Spallanzani and give 1.5 million euros for the WHO to buy equipment and medicine.

Italy also has isolation units developed by a British engineer that are big enough for doctors to stabilize a patient on long-haul flights. Physicians can attach intravenous drips through the plastic sheeting without breaking the protective seal or even intubate a patient. Other European countries use smaller, simpler units that are suitable only for short flights, Ceccarelli said.


(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nfHXCtOwTJGDezsxPjgo3Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTY1NTtweW9mZj0wO3E9Njk7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/a251d4c59d07a225600f6a706700bfa1.jpg)
Participants into a course to learn how to transport and handle contagious patients use an 'Aircraft Transit Isolator' (ATI) to carry a colleague during a simulation at the military airport of Pratica di Mare, 30 kilometers south of Rome, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014. Italy's defense ministry staged the simulated medical evacuation of an Ebola patient Wednesday as part of a three-day training course for Italian military, Red Cross and health care workers. Some of them are on the front lines of Italy's Mare Nostrum rescue operation for thousands of African migrants who are arriving here every day in smugglers' boats. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)


"It's very nice to have that option," said Dr. Benjamin Neuman, a virologist at the University of Reading in Britain. "Right now, there's a limited range" for transport, preventing patients with late-stage Ebola from being evacuated if the distances are too long or if they are already vomiting blood or suffering from diarrhea.

Italy has had the units on hand since 2005 and has used them 11 times to extract Italians suffering from dengue in Congo and hemorrhagic fever in Nepal, said Lt. Col. Marco Lastillo, an air force medic. The defense ministry stages the training courses twice a year, but added this extra session at the request of the health ministry because of the Ebola threat.

"This capacity that we have created for ourselves should be put to everyone's disposition," Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti told reporters at the base after watching the students perform the biohazard evacuation drill. She insisted that Italy's migrant crisis posed no particular Ebola threat, saying the medical screenings done in the Mare Nostrum operation would prevent any infected people from reaching the general population.

One of the students taking the course was Massimo Mazzieri, a volunteer with the Knights of Malta, the Catholic association that has a medical-relief corps working in war zones and natural disasters around the world, and with African migrants arriving in Italy. He and his classmates staged the drill, meticulously making sure the patient was passed from mobile isolation unit to mobile isolation unit without breaking the seal holding her germs inside.

"In this particular moment, Ebola is really on our minds, maybe a bit excessively," he said. "But we are ready."

___

Associated Press medical writer Maria Cheng contributed from London.


http://news.yahoo.com/italy-stages-ebola-evacuation-drill-just-case-064719383.html (http://news.yahoo.com/italy-stages-ebola-evacuation-drill-just-case-064719383.html)

Title: 3rd US Ebola patient released from hospital
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 07:03:16 pm

3rd US Ebola patient released from hospital
Associated Press
By JOSH FUNK  9 minutes ago


(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/eDoTbSEuGZfu3QmqtvfyqA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQxNDtweG9mZj01MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9Njk7dz03MzY-/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/video/video.associatedpressfree.com/ac6d679aa33f839e5528a6a53a292b00)
The third American aid worker who contracted Ebola in West Africa was released Thursday from a Nebraska hospital. Dr. Rick Sacra said he was still very weak but never felt like he wouldn't make it. (Sept. 25)



OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The third American aid worker who contracted Ebola in Africa was released Thursday from a Nebraska hospital.

An elated Dr. Rick Sacra said at a news conference that the federal Centers from Disease Control and Prevention had cleared him of the Ebola virus. He left the isolation unit at the Nebraska Medical Center on Thursday morning.

"I feel great, except that I am extremely weak," Sacra said.

The 51-year-old doctor from Worcester, Massachusetts, will likely return to Africa someday to help, but he said he expects a long recovery ahead based on what his friend and fellow Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly told him.

"I never felt like I was not going to make it. The care was so excellent, so speedy and so prompt," said Sacra, who contracted Ebola while working at a hospital in Liberia with the North Carolina-based charity SIM and arrived in Omaha on Sept. 5.

The World Health Organization says the Ebola virus is believed to have killed more than 2,900 people in West Africa. Sacra said he's not sure exactly when he became infected with the virus, but he was taking care of very sick pregnant women and delivering babies, including performing several cesarean sections.


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Former Ebola patient Dr. Richard Sacra participates in a news conference at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. Dr. Sacra who was treated at the medical center the last three weeks has left his room in the biocontainment unit and will head home soon. The CDC confirmed that two separate blood samples taken from Dr. Sacra 24 hours apart show the Ebola virus is no longer in his bloodstream. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)


"Unfortunately, what we discovered is this epidemic is so widespread and the numbers are so high that sometimes people who don't have the classic symptoms that you're looking for — that the WHO was training us on — sometimes those people have Ebola," Sacra said.

Governments are scrambling to contain the disease outbreak, and the United States has promised to send 3,000 soldiers to the region to help. Sacra added that the "odds I'll end up back (in Liberia) are pretty high."

Debbie Sacra spent most of the news conference watching her husband of 29 years instead of the room full of reporters and hospital workers. The two shared their first hug in roughly two months Thursday morning. "It was great to get a hug," she said.

The Sacras planned to return home to Massachusetts soon, but they declined to discuss their exact travel plans. Rick Sacra said he was looking forward to taking his dog for a long walk, but Debbie said more rest would be in order.

Two other American aid workers who contracted Ebola — including Brantly — were treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, and were released after recovering. A fourth American with Ebola is still being treated in Atlanta.

Dr. Phil Smith has said Sacra received an experimental Tekmira Pharmaceuticals drug called TKM-Ebola for a week after he arrived in Omaha, as well as two blood transfusions from Brantly. The transfusions are believed to help a patient fight off the Ebola virus because the survivor's blood carries antibodies for the disease.

Sacra also received supportive care including IV fluids and aggressive electrolyte management, and his own immune system fought the virus.

Doctors have said that the combination of treatments Sacra received makes it difficult to know what helped him fight off Ebola. But they noted Thursday that they've been sharing lessons from his case with organizations responding to the outbreak, especially the potential benefits of early IV fluids.


http://news.yahoo.com/nebraska-doctors-ebola-patient-135345012.html (http://news.yahoo.com/nebraska-doctors-ebola-patient-135345012.html)

Title: Ebola toll nears 3,000, but spread in Guinea stabilises
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 07:07:16 pm

Ebola toll nears 3,000, but spread in Guinea stabilises
Reuters
By Tom Miles  7 hours ago


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A U.N. convoy of soldiers passes a screen displaying a message on Ebola on a street in Abidjan August 14, 2014. REUTERS/Luc Gnago



GENEVA (Reuters) - The exponential spread of the Ebola outbreak that has now killed almost 3,000 people in West Africa may have been checked in Guinea, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

But a dire lack of beds and community resistance in some areas are helping the disease to continue spreading, while efforts to straighten out muddled data are gradually revealing an epidemic even more deadly than it had appeared.

The WHO said 2,917 people have died of Ebola out of 6,263 cases in the five West African countries affected by the disease as at the end of Sept 21.

Compared with the WHO's previous update, the latest data showed 99 more deaths in Liberia since Sept 17, but only four new deaths recorded in Sierra Leone since Sept 19 and only three new deaths in Guinea since Sept 20.

The proportion of cases that occurred in the past 21 days - the incubation period of the virus - has also fallen in all three countries, suggesting that the spread of the disease may be slowing.

"The upward epidemic trend continues in Sierra Leone and most probably also in Liberia," the WHO said. "However, the situation in Guinea, although still of grave concern, appears to have stabilized: between 75 and 100 new confirmed cases have been reported in each of the past five weeks."

The WHO said Liberia had 315 bed spaces for Ebola patients and aid agencies had promised to set up 440 more, but the country needed a further 1,550 beds that nobody had yet offered to provide. In Sierra Leone, 297 planned new beds would almost double existing capacity, but a further 532 were needed.

With too few beds and a huge shortage of expertise, the effort to tackle Ebola has switched to setting up care centres in communities and training locals, including 11,000 teachers in Liberia, to educate people about how to combat the disease.

In Sierra Leone, 75 percent of targeted households have been reached by "social mobilisers". But in some areas of Guinea, where an Ebola team was killed last week, there was still resistance to such efforts, the WHO said.

"For example, there are reports from Fassankoni, Guinea, that communities have set up roadblocks to screen entering response teams," it said.

The risk of infection among health workers is also much higher than previously thought. A recount has shown 81 have died in Sierra Leone out of 113 who caught the disease - a 72 percent death rate, instead of a 40 percent rate previously reported.

The WHO said its latest data did not yet include the cases and deaths found during a three-day lockdown in Sierra Leone.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-toll-nears-3-000-spread-guinea-stabilises-102748097.html (http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-toll-nears-3-000-spread-guinea-stabilises-102748097.html)

Title: Sierra Leone quarantines three more districts in fight against Ebola
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 07:08:56 pm

Sierra Leone quarantines three more districts in fight against Ebola
Reuters
11 minutes ago



FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone has put three more districts under indefinite quarantine in a bid to fight Ebola, President Ernest Bai Koroma said in a statement, which means five of the country's 14 districts have now been isolated.

The quarantined districts include Port Loko and Bombali in the north and Moyamba in the south, according to a statement Koroma gave late on Wednesday.

"The isolation of districts and chiefdoms will definitely pose great difficulties for our people in those districts," Koroma said. "(But) the life of everyone and the survival of our country take precedence over these difficulties."

The World Health Organisation said on Thursday the death toll for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the worst on record, has killed 2,917 people this year, including nearly 600 people in Sierra Leone.

Iron ore miner African Minerals has its rail and port services in Port Loko district but the company said that it had not been impacted in any way by the restrictions.

"African Minerals’ vehicles and iron ore trains are also not restricted," it said.

London Mining, which has an iron ore concession in Port Loko district, was not immediately available for comment on the new measures.

The move follows a three-day countrywide lockdown at the weekend that Koroma said had been a success but exposed "areas of greater challenges".

(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall and Janet Lawrence)


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-quarantines-three-more-districts-fight-against-083752880--finance.html (http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-quarantines-three-more-districts-fight-against-083752880--finance.html)

Title: Sierra Leone quarantines 2 million to fight Ebola
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 07:13:06 pm

Sierra Leone quarantines 2 million to fight Ebola
Associated Press
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY  33 minutes ago


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In this photo taken on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, a woman suspected of suffering from the Ebola virus sits in an ambulance in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone restricted travel Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 in three more "hotspots" of Ebola where more than 1 million people live, meaning about a third of the country's population is now under quarantine. Sierra Leone is one of the hardest hit countries in the Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa that is believed to have killed more than 2,900 people, according to World Health Organization tolls published Thursday. (AP Photo/ Tanya Bindra)



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone on Thursday took the dramatic step of sealing off districts where more than 1 million people live as it and other West African countries struggle to control the Ebola outbreak that has claimed thousands of lives.

With three new districts under quarantine, about one-third of Sierra Leone's 6 million people are now living in areas where their movements are heavily restricted. In parts of Sierra Leone and in neighboring Liberia where these cordons have been used in this outbreak, food prices have soared, some markets have shut and the delivery of goods has slowed.

"There is a desperate need to step up our response to this dreaded disease," the Sierra Leone government said. "The prognosis is that without additional interventions or changes in community behavior, the numbers will increase exponentially and the situation will rapidly deteriorate."

President Barack Obama warned a meeting at the United Nations on Thursday that the world is not doing enough to stop the outbreak, saying there is "a significant gap between where we are and where we need to be."

The Ebola outbreak, the world's largest ever, has hit Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea hardest and is believed to have sickened more than 6,200 people. Senegal and Nigeria have also had Ebola cases, but it appears the disease has been contained in those countries.

U.S. health officials warn that the number of infected people could explode to 1.4 million by mid-January, adding that the outbreak could peak well below that if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.


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In this photo taken on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, a healthcare worker sprays disinfectant in the area they found a man suspected of suffering from the Ebola virus in Kenema, Sierra Leone, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. Sierra Leone restricted travel Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 in three more "hotspots" of Ebola where more than 1 million people live, meaning about a third of the country's population is now under quarantine. Sierra Leone is one of the hardest hit countries in the Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa that is believed to have killed more than 2,900 people, according to World Health Organization tolls published Thursday. (AP Photo/ Tanya Bindra)


The outbreak's unprecedented scale and geographic spread have pushed governments to impose severe measures like the cordons, but the disease has continued to overwhelm efforts to contain it.

In an address to Sierra Leone on Wednesday night, President Ernest Bai Koroma put Port Loko, Bombali, and Moyamba districts under isolation with immediate effect, allowing only people delivering essential services to enter and circulate within these areas. The restrictions will remain in place until the chain of transmission is broken, officials said.

In other parts of Sierra Leone, including the capital, Freetown, homes will be put under quarantine when cases are identified, according to a government statement. Security forces surrounded a house in a Freetown slum on Wednesday, quarantining residents inside, after a popular herbalist who lived there died from Ebola. The forces will ensure that no one leaves or enters until it's clear that no one else in the house has been infected.

Two districts near the outbreak's epicenter — Kenema and Kailahun — were isolated about two months ago. In all, the movement of more than 2 million people is now restricted in Sierra Leone.

A sharp increase of cases in the capital is driving the outbreak's spread in Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization said Thursday, also noting that the three districts newly cordoned off are experiencing increased infections.


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In this photo taken on Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, healthcare workers spray disinfectant to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus in Kenema, Sierra Leone, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014. Sierra Leone restricted travel Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 in three more "hotspots" of Ebola where more than 1 million people live, meaning about a third of the country's population is now under quarantine. Sierra Leone is one of the hardest hit countries in the Ebola outbreak sweeping West Africa that is believed to have killed more than 2,900 people, according to World Health Organization tolls published Thursday. (AP Photo/ Tanya Bindra)


Restricting the movement in these "hotspots" could help to prevent the disease from spreading to new areas, but there's not much evidence on how this sort of measure works in an Ebola outbreak, said Sebastian Funk, lecturer in infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

"If transmission of Ebola mostly happens at home, it could make things worse. And it could also potentially seed mistrust and cause people to hide cases," he said. "It may buy you some time but it is probably not going to stop the epidemic."

Liberia, the country hardest-hit by the disease, cordoned off a large slum in its capital Monrovia at one point to slow transmission.

But it has continued to see cases balloon in the city. On Thursday, frustrated residents of Monrovia gathered outside the city's newest treatment center where patients sometimes had to wait for hours to be admitted.

"It is kind of pathetic to come and then see patients lying all on the ground and nobody to even see them," said resident Abraham Sesay.

Liberia alone needs 1,500 more beds to treat Ebola patients than are being set up, WHO said Thursday. Dr. Frank Mahoney, head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention team in Liberia, said at a news conference that teams were racing to meet that need.

"But they (the increasing number of cases) have been outpacing our ability to set them up," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar, Senegal, Maria Cheng in London, Wade Williams in Monrovia, Liberia, and Julie Pace at the United Nations contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-cordon-off-3-areas-stop-ebola-085631264.html (http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-cordon-off-3-areas-stop-ebola-085631264.html)

Title: Sierra Leone quarantines one million ahead of UN Ebola talks
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 07:17:56 pm

Sierra Leone quarantines one million ahead of UN Ebola talks
AFP
By Rod Mac Johnson  1 hour ago


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The deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has infected almost 6,200 people in west Africa and killed nearly half of them, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures (AFP Photo/Carl de Souza)



Freetown (AFP) - Sierra Leone began a quarantine of more than one million people Thursday in the largest open-ended lockdown in the Ebola outbreak, as world leaders met to discuss the crisis at the United Nations.

The northern districts of Port Loko and Bombali have been closed off indefinitely along with the southern district of Moyamba -- effectively sealing in around 1.2 million people.

With the eastern districts of Kenema and Kailahun already under quarantine, more than a third of the population of six million -- in five of the nation's 14 districts -- now finds itself unable to move freely.

The president said 12 of the county's 149 tribal chiefdoms -- much smaller administrative areas than districts -- were also to be placed in quarantine, although the total population in these areas was not immediately clear.

"The isolation of districts and chiefdoms will definitely pose great difficulty but the lives of everyone and the survival of our country takes precedence over these difficulties," President Ernest Bai Koroma told the nation in a televised address late Wednesday.

The deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has infected more than 6,200 people in west Africa and killed nearly half of them, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures.


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The deadly Ebola outbreak has killed more than 2,917 people in West Africa (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)


- 'Horrific suffering' -

The virus can fell its victims within days, causing rampant fever, severe muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea and -- in many cases -- unstoppable internal and external bleeding.

In Sierra Leone, Ebola has infected 1,940 people, killing 593, by the WHO count, but the UN agency has warned the number of cases across the region could explode in the coming months without an urgent response.

World leaders were due to attend a meeting in New York on Ebola convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later Thursday, with Koroma and Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf connected by video link.

The meeting -- part of the United Nations General Assembly -- will hear from US President Barack Obama and world leaders are expected to pledge help for efforts to try to contain the spread of the virus.


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Only essential workers such as health professionals were exempt from the 72-hour shutdown in Sierra Leone (AFP Photo/Carl De Souza)


Obama, who is sending 3,000 troops to west Africa to help health workers battle the contagion, urged other countries Wednesday to get behind a broader international effort.

"As we speak, America is deploying our doctors and scientists -- supported by our military -- to help contain the outbreak of Ebola and pursue new treatments," Obama told the 193-member assembly.


- Ending the outbreak -

"But we need a broader effort to stop a disease that could kill hundreds of thousands, inflict horrific suffering, destabilise economies and move rapidly across borders."

The WHO warned Tuesday that without quicker prevention efforts, hundreds of thousands could be infected with Ebola by the end of the year.


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A girl cries outside a new Ebola treatment centre that opened in the Liberian capital Monrovia on September 23, 2014 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)


The US Centers for Disease Control estimated that cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone could rocket to 1.4 million by January -- in a worst-case scenario based on data obtained before the world ramped up its response.

Sierra Leone has revealed that around 100 bodies and 200 patients were collected from homes during a nationwide three-day lockdown and house-to-house information campaign which ended on Sunday.

Koroma said in his televised address the temporary curfew had prompted the new quarantine -- which is expected to remain in place until the crisis is under control.

The lockdown was "line with our people's avowed commitment to support extra measures to end the Ebola outbreak", Koroma said.

Residents contacted by AFP in the affected districts were divided over whether the quarantine was a positive development, although most agreed it had come as a shock.


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Liberian Red Cross health workers, wearing protective suits, carry the body of a 18-old-month baby, victim of the Ebola virus in a district of Monrovia on September 12, 2014 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)


"The community is in a sombre mood, as no one expected this development so soon," said Momodu Barrie, a resident of Makeni, the main town in Bombali and home town of the president.

"It caught people with their pants down but the red lights were already flashing, with the high toll of deaths occuring over the past few weeks."

In Port Loko, ferry operator Brima Sillah said he had accepted fairs to take people around the coast to Freetown.

"I have used up the money -- how can I find a way to give them it back?" he said.

The quarantine has also caught out people from the affected districts who were in Freetown when it was imposed.

"I left Port Loko only yesterday and there were no signs that this was going to happen," said Lamarana Sowe.

"I was shocked when I went to the motor park this morning to board a vehicle for Lunsar and found no transport available. Now I cannot go back."

The WHO said on Thursday 6,263 people had been infected since the virus first emerged in southern Guinea in December, and that 2,917 had died.

Liberia, the worst-hit nation with 1,677 deaths, announced in a statement from the presidency on Wednesday that China had pledged $1 million to help it fight the epidemic.


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-quarantines-one-million-ahead-un-ebola-095913410.html (http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-quarantines-one-million-ahead-un-ebola-095913410.html)

Title: Second American doctor recovers from Ebola
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 07:34:09 pm

Second American doctor recovers from Ebola
AFP
By Kerry Sheridan  20 minutes ago


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This undated file photo courtesy of SIM shows Dr. Rick Sacra, the American doctor who was infected with Ebola in Liberia, has recovered and was released from the hospital on September 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/)



Washington (AFP) - American doctor Rick Sacra, a 51-year-old Christian missionary who was infected with Ebola in Liberia, has recovered and was released from a US hospital on Thursday.

"I am so happy to be here with all of you today on the occasion of my release from the hospital," he told reporters three weeks after he was evacuated for treatment at Nebraska Medical Center.

"The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has declared me safe and free of virus," said Sacra, thanking God, his family, his medical team and those who prayed for him while he was ill.

The family physician was infected on August 29 while working in a maternity ward in Liberia, one of several West African nations that have been hit hard by the world's largest Ebola outbreak.

Sacra, a married father of three, told reporters he thinks the infection may have occurred when he was performing a C-section on a woman who had come down with the virus.

He said although he is not an obstetrician, he was helping out because of short staffing and the absence of resources that have overwhelmed the nation as it struggles with mounting cases of Ebola.

Ebola is transmitted by close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. The virus causes fever, vomiting, diarrhea and sometimes fatal bleeding.

The Ebola epidemic has now infected nearly 6,300 people in West Africa and killed nearly half of them, according to the World Health Organization.

Sacra was flown on September 5 to Nebraska Medical Center, where he was given an experimental drug called TKM-Ebola.

He was also given a plasma transfusion from another American doctor, Kent Brantly, who recovered from the virus earlier this year.

When Brantly was sickened with Ebola in Monrovia, he also received blood from a child who had recovered from the hemorrhagic virus, as well as a different experimental drug called ZMapp.

Global health experts have agreed that blood therapies and convalescent serums can be used to fight Ebola immediately, while safety trials begin for potential vaccines.

There is no drug or vaccine on the market to treat Ebola.

In its latest update, the UN health agency said a total of 6,263 people had been infected across five west African countries and that 2,917 had died.

Sacra said he remained optimistic throughout his illness and received excellent care.

"I feel great, except that I am extremely weak," he said.

As part of his recovery, he has been riding an exercise bike, and is now able to manage five minutes a day.


http://news.yahoo.com/second-american-doctor-recovers-ebola-180107516.html (http://news.yahoo.com/second-american-doctor-recovers-ebola-180107516.html)

Title: World urged to do more to battle Ebola
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 07:38:45 pm

World urged to do more to battle Ebola
AFP
By Carole Landry  29 minutes ago


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A photo taken on August 13, 2014 shows a woman walking past signs warning of Ebola in Freetown (AFP Photo/Carl de Souza)



United Nations (United States) (AFP) - World leaders were asked Thursday to pledge urgently needed aid to battle Ebola in West Africa as Sierra Leone quarantined one million people in a desperate bid to beat back the deadly virus.

US President Barack Obama warned that not enough was being done to tackle the crisis that has left close to 3,000 dead and is spreading at an alarming pace.

"We are not moving fast enough. We are not doing enough," Obama told a meeting at the United Nations.

"Right now, everybody has the best of intentions, but people are not putting the kinds of resources necessary to put a stop to this epidemic."

The meeting was called by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to ramp up the international response after the Security Council last week declared the outbreak a threat to world peace and security.

Health systems in the worst-hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been overwhelmed and the United Nations has repeatedly appealed for more doctors, nurses, medical equipment and supplies to be sent to West Africa.

Sick patients are being turned away from health centers due to the lack of beds and families are traumatized by medical orders to pull away from sick relatives.

"The world can and must stop Ebola now," Ban said in his address to the meeting. "Today, it is time for the international community to step up."

Sierra Leone on Thursday took the drastic step of putting more than one million people in five districts under quarantine-- the largest open-ended lockdown in the Ebola outbreak.


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A JFK Hospital guard waits to greet patients, some suspected of suffering from the Ebola virus, in Monrovia on September 25, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)


The northern districts of Port Loko and Bombali have been closed off indefinitely along with the southern district of Moyamba -- effectively sealing in around 1.2 million people.

With the eastern districts of Kenema and Kailahun already under quarantine, more than a third of the population of six million -- in five of the nation's 14 districts -- now finds itself unable to move freely.


- 'Enemy disease' -

"My country is at the battlefront of one of the biggest life and death challenges facing the global human community," Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma told the meeting by video link from Freetown.

"Ebola is not only a disease of Sierra Leone and its neighbors, it is a disease of the world."

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, the worst-hit country, thanked donors in an address by video-link from Monrovia, and vowed: "We are fighting back."

The Liberian president recalled that her country was emerging from years of conflict and that the epidemic threatened to wipe out peace gains.

"Today, we face perhaps the greatest challenge, for we cannot allow the projection of a worst case scenario that over 100,000 of our innocent citizens will die from an enemy disease they do not understand," she said.

Canada announced it will contribute $27 million dollars to the effort and France said it has set aside 70 million euros in a battle that the United Nations estimates will require close to one billion dollars.

The United States is sending 3,000 troops to Liberia to help health workers battle the contagion and has mobilized its experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help beat back the virus.

The CDC estimates that cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone could rocket to 1.4 million by January -- in a worst-case scenario based on data obtained before the world ramped up its response.


- 'Potential meltdown' -

World Bank president Jim Kim said the "spread, the magnitude and the complexity of the Ebola crisis is like nothing we have ever seen before" and warned that it could lead to the "potential meltdown of the continent."

The World Bank warned in a recent report of potentially catastrophic economic losses from the outbreak and pledged $400 million to fight the outbreak.

The virus can fell its victims within days, causing rampant fever, severe muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea and -- in many cases -- unstoppable internal and external bleeding.


http://news.yahoo.com/world-urged-more-battle-ebola-180206581.html (http://news.yahoo.com/world-urged-more-battle-ebola-180206581.html)

Title: World must do more to battle Ebola in West Africa: Obama
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 08:16:23 pm

World must do more to battle Ebola in West Africa: Obama
Reuters
By Michelle Nichols and Umaru Fofana  1 hour ago


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Health workers surround an Ebola patient who escaped from quarantine from Monrovia's Elwa hospital, in the centre of Paynesville in this still image taken from a September 1, 2014 video. REUTERS/Reuters TV



NEW YORK/FREETOWN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday called on more nations to help fight the world's worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, saying hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake.

The warning came shortly after the World Health Organisation gave a rare hint of optimism in the West African crisis, announcing that the spread of the disease in Guinea appeared to have stabilised.

Sierra Leone put three more districts -- home to over a million people and major mining operations -- under indefinite quarantine.

An outbreak that began in a remote corner of Guinea has taken hold of much of neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing nearly 3,000 people in just over six months. Senegal and Nigeria have recorded cases but, for now, contained the spread of Ebola.

"More nations need to contribute critical assets and capabilities -- whether it's air transport, medical evacuation, health care workers, equipment or treatment," Obama told a meeting on Ebola on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

"If unchecked, this epidemic could kill hundreds of thousands of people in the coming months."

Weak health systems have been overrun by one of the deadliest diseases, and reliable information on its spread is scarce. But most experts warn that the number of cases recorded so far represents a fraction of the true total, with many victims unable or unwilling to come forward for treatment.

WHO said earlier this week the total number of infections could reach 20,000 by November, months earlier than previously forecast. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned between 550,000 and 1.4 million people might be infected in the region by January if nothing was done.

The United States is deploying 3,000 soldiers to build treatment centres and train local medics. Other nations, including Britain, France, China and Cuba, have pledged military and civilian personnel alongside cash and medical supplies.

The World Bank has said it will give an additional $170 million to support medics and healthcare systems in the region.

"The reality on the ground today is this: the promised surge has not yet delivered," said Joanne Liu, international president of Medecins Sans Frontieres, a medical charity that has been treating patients in the region for months.

Speaking at the same meeting as Obama in New York, Liu said the sick were desperate, aid workers were exhausted and infection rates were doubling every three weeks.


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A health worker brings a woman suspected of having contracted the Ebola virus to an ambulance in Monrovia, Liberia, September 15, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue


"Our 150-bed facility in Monrovia opens for just thirty minutes each morning. Only a few people are admitted -- to fill beds made empty by those who died overnight," she said.


GUINEA "STABILISING"

In one of its regular briefings on the crisis, the WHO said Guinea offered a ray of hope.

"The upward epidemic trend continues in Sierra Leone and most probably also in Liberia," it said.

"However, the situation in Guinea, although still of grave concern, appears to have stabilized: between 75 and 100 new confirmed cases have been reported in each of the past five weeks."

Overnight, Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma announced the districts of Port Loko and Bombali in the north and Moyamba in the south would be quarantined. Five of the country's 14 districts have now been quarantined.

"The isolation of districts and chiefdoms will definitely pose great difficulties for our people in those districts," Koroma said. "(But) the life of everyone and the survival of our country take precedence over these difficulties."

Under the new measures, people will be able to travel through quarantined districts during daylight hours so long as they do not stop. The World Food Programme is meant to provide food to residents living there.

The Ebola outbreak comes a decade into Sierra Leone and Liberia's recovery from civil wars that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1990s.

Since then both nations have secured billions of dollars in investment, especially from mining firms looking to tap into their vast iron ore reserves.

But border closures and travel bans caused by Ebola have hamstrung trade.

Iron ore miner African Minerals has rail and port services in Port Loko district but the company said it had not been impacted in any way by the new restrictions.

London Mining, which operates in the area too, did not have an immediate comment.

Axel Addy, Liberia's minister for commerce and industry, said his nation had secured imports of basic food staples until December, but the blow to its mining sector may trigger a recession next year.

A Spanish priest who caught Ebola in Sierra Leone has died after being repatriated, Spanish authorities said.


DISTRUST OF OUTSIDERS

Ebola spread slowly at first but warnings of exponential spread in recent weeks have spooked international leaders into pledging more action.

But the crisis appears to be outpacing the response.

The WHO said Liberia had 315 bed spaces for Ebola patients and aid agencies had promised to set up 440 more, but the country needs a further 1,550. In Sierra Leone, 297 planned new beds would almost double existing capacity, but a further 532 were needed.

The lack of beds means many people infected with Ebola are being turned away from hospitals and must be cared for at home, where they risk infecting yet more people.

As a result, part of the aid response is focusing on setting up care centres in communities and training locals, including 11,000 teachers in Liberia, to educate people about how to combat the disease.

The first 9,000 of a planned 50,000 kits -- containing protective gowns, gloves and masks for family members to look after Ebola sufferers -- arrived in Liberia.

WHO said such efforts were still being resisted in remote communities with a distrust of outsiders, like the one where local people killed eight members of an Ebola team in southeast Guinea last week.

"There are reports from Fassankoni, Guinea, that communities have set up roadblocks to screen entering response teams," it said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Miles and Stephanie Ulmer-Nebehay in Geneva and Karin Strohecker in London; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Andrew Roche)


http://news.yahoo.com/world-must-more-battle-ebola-west-africa-obama-180129625--finance.html (http://news.yahoo.com/world-must-more-battle-ebola-west-africa-obama-180129625--finance.html)

Title: Obama says 'significant gap' in global effort to fight Ebola
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 08:18:39 pm

Obama says 'significant gap' in global effort to fight Ebola
Reuters
By Michelle Nichols  2 hours ago


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U.S. President Barack Obama speaks during a meeting with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn (not pictured) in New York September 25, 2014. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque



UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama warned on Thursday that there was still a "significant gap between where we are and where we need to be" in the international response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and appealed for more countries to help.

An outbreak that began in a remote corner of Guinea has taken hold of much of neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing nearly 3,000 people in just over six months. Senegal and Nigeria have recorded cases but, for now, contained them.

"Stopping Ebola is a priority for the United States," Obama told a meeting on Ebola on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. "More nations need to contribute critical assets and capabilities, whether it's air transport, medical evacuation, health care workers, equipment, or treatment.

"If we move fast, even if imperfectly, then that could mean the difference between 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 deaths versus hundreds of thousands or even a million deaths," Obama said.

WHO said earlier this week that the total number of infections could reach 20,000 by November, months earlier than previously forecast.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said between 550,000 and 1.4 million people might be infected in West Africa by January if nothing was done.

The World Bank announced at the U.N. meeting it would give an additional $170 million to boost the healthcare workforce and health systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The World Bank had previously approved $230 million for those countries.

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told the meeting by video link that her country was facing perhaps its greatest challenge and while the world had taken some time to adequately respond: "We are fighting back."

She said Liberians had struggled to understand Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever spread through body fluids such as the blood, sweat or vomit of those who are infected with the disease.

"We succumb to fear and anger when we are told that we must back away from a bleeding and vomiting mother or child that our dead loved ones must be taken away by strangers with their bodies never to be seen again or memorialized," she said.

Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma also appealed for more international help.

"Sierra Leone and its sister republics may be at the frontlines of this fight but we require the heavy aerial and ground support of the world to defeat a disease worse than terrorism," he told the meeting, also by video link.

The Ebola outbreak comes a decade into Sierra Leone and Liberia's recovery from intertwined civil wars that killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1990s.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has established a special U.N. mission to help combat Ebola. He said on Thursday that some 4,000 U.N. staff had applied to deploy with the mission to the worst-affected countries.

"The world can and must stop Ebola - now," Ban said.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Grant McCool)


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Title: Canada pledges $27 million to fight Ebola
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 11:11:36 pm

Canada pledges $27 million to fight Ebola
AFP
54 minutes ago


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A girl cries outside the "Island Clinic", a new Ebola treatment centre that opened in Monrovia after the death of her father and her mother by ebola on September 23, 2014 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)



United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Canada announced Thursday it will contribute Can$30 million (US$27 million) to the United Nations and non-government agencies fighting the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

International Development Minister Christian Paradis made the comments in New York where world leaders attended a meeting on the epidemic convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon later Thursday.

In announcing the Canadian contribution, Paradis called for a better coordinated response to the epidemic.

Meanwhile, one thousand doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine offered by Ottawa to the World Health Organization last month are languishing at a Winnipeg lab in Canada's western prairies -- which Paradis also blamed on a poor international coordination so far.

"Canada continues to be deeply concerned by the inadequate coordination efforts at the global level," Paradis said.

"We need to combat the disease, as well as the fear that surrounds it," he said.

"If we are to be successful. We need to be present on the ground and standing in solidarity with the people of west Africa. And we need to ensure that all global efforts are yielding results."

The deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has infected more than 6,200 people in west Africa and killed nearly half of them, according to the World Health Organization's latest figures.

The virus can fell its victims within days, causing rampant fever, severe muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhea and -- in many cases -- unstoppable internal and external bleeding.

The WHO has warned that the number of cases across the region could explode in the coming months without an urgent response.


http://news.yahoo.com/canada-pledges-27-million-fight-ebola-211058168.html (http://news.yahoo.com/canada-pledges-27-million-fight-ebola-211058168.html)

Title: Obama urges world to do more to tackle Ebola
Post by: Buster's Uncle on September 25, 2014, 11:57:21 pm

Obama urges world to do more to tackle Ebola
Associated Press
By JULIE PACE  1 hour ago


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In a chilling assessment of international efforts to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak, President Barack Obama said the world has not done enough to respond to a health crisis that poses a growing threat to regional and global security. (Sept. 25)



UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Barack Obama, in a sober assessment of international efforts to stem a deadly Ebola outbreak, warned a high-level United Nations gathering Thursday that there is a "significant gap" between what's been offered so far and what is actually needed to stem the health crises in West Africa.

The leaders of the hardest-hit nations also appealed for more help, with the president of Sierra Leone calling the Ebola virus "worse than terrorism."

The emergency U.N. session on Ebola reflected the deep concern about an outbreak that has so far killed nearly 3,000 people. U.S. health officials have warned that the number of infected people could explode to at least 1.4 million by mid-January, though they have also cautioned that the totals could peak well below that if efforts to control the outbreak are ramped up.

Despite the grim warnings, Obama said international aid simply is not flowing into West Africa fast enough.

"The outbreak is such where at this point, more people will die," Obama said as he closed out three days of diplomacy at the annual gathering of the U.N. General Assembly. "So this is not one where there should be a lot of wrangling and people waiting to see who else is doing what. Everybody has got to move fast in order for us to make a difference."

On Thursday, top lawmakers in Congress also approved the use of leftover Afghanistan war money to begin funding Obama's $1 billion request to help fight the outbreak.

Obama has come under criticism from some in West Africa for a slow response to the outbreak. He outlined a more robust plan last week, announcing that the U.S. would dispatch 3,000 U.S. troops to Liberia to set up facilities and form training teams to help with the response. The Pentagon mission will involve airlifting personnel, medical supplies and equipment, such as tents to house Ebola victims and isolate people exposed to the virus.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso announced Thursday that the European Union was increasing aid to tackle the outbreak by nearly $40 million.

The Ebola outbreak has hit Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea the hardest, leaving aid groups in the region have scrambled desperately for resources.

"Our 150-bed facility in Monrovia opens for just 30 minutes each morning. Only a few people are admitted, to fill beds made empty by those who died overnight," the president of Doctors Without Borders, Joanne Liu, told the U.N. meeting.

As leaders from West Africa appealed for more help from the international community, they also cast the outbreak as far more than a health crisis.


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President Barack Obama shakes hands with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after speaking about the Ebola epidemic, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014, at the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)


Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, addressing the conference via video, said the outbreak was far more than a health crisis, citing a "precipitous decline in economic activity" as well as the "loss of income and jobs" for people in her country.

President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, who also spoke on a video feed, said his country was facing "life and death challenges" that were worse than the threat of terrorism. His comments appeared to be a veiled reference to the degree to which the threat from Middle East extremists — most notably the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria — has dominated the discussions at the U.N. this week.

Koroma took the dramatic step Thursday of sealing off districts where more than 1 million live in order to try to contain the outbreak.

While Obama touted the assistance the U.S. is providing, he said America alone cannot solve the problem and urged other nations to take similar action.

"We don't have the capacity to do all of this by ourselves," he said. "We don't have enough health workers by ourselves. We can build the infrastructure and the architecture to get help in, but we're going to need others to contribute."

___

Associated Press writers Cara Anna and Edith Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/obama-urges-world-more-tackle-ebola-152051598.html (http://news.yahoo.com/obama-urges-world-more-tackle-ebola-152051598.html)