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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on November 29, 2014, 06:01:36 pm

Title: Ebola news 11/29
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 29, 2014, 06:01:36 pm

No more Ebola cases in Mali after patient cured: president
Reuters  2 hours ago


(http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Z5WbbsDRqS2SOI4AjS6.AQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTMwMDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz00NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-11-29T145726Z_1_LYNXNPEAAS05O_RTROPTP_2_HEALTH-EBOLA-MALI.JPG)
Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (front) checks on measures preventing the spread of Ebola in Kouremale, at Mali's border with Guinea November 17, 2014. REUTERS/Joe Penney



DAKAR (Reuters) - Mali has no more confirmed cases of Ebola after the last patient known to be suffering from the virus was cured, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said on Saturday.

Mali has registered eight cases of Ebola - seven of them confirmed and one probable - after the virus spread from neighboring Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) said this week.

Six of these people infected have died, the WHO said. A further 285 people who came into contact with them are being monitored but have shown no sign of the disease.

"At this moment, there are no cases of infection (in Mali)," Keita told a summit of francophone nations in Senegal.

"The suspected case turned out to be negative and the day before yesterday we had the good news of the first cured case of Ebola so I can now say zero cases in Mali," he said.

The death toll in the world's worst Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,689 out of 15,935 cases reported in eight countries by Nov. 23, according to the WHO.

All but 15 deaths have been in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - and the three countries have reported 600 new cases in the past week, the WHO's latest update says.

(Reporting by Emma Farge and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Louise Ireland)


http://news.yahoo.com/no-more-ebola-cases-mali-patient-cured-president-145726274.html (http://news.yahoo.com/no-more-ebola-cases-mali-patient-cured-president-145726274.html)

Title: Ebola death toll up, Sierra Leone needs more beds
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 29, 2014, 06:04:51 pm

Ebola death toll up, Sierra Leone needs more beds
Associated Press
By SARAH DiLORENZO  2 hours ago


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Saturday, Oct. 4, 2014, a child suffering from the Ebola virus receives treatment at Makeni Arab Holding Centre in Makeni, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone will soon see a dramatic increase in desperately needed Ebola treatment beds, but it’s still not clear who will staff them, according to the top United Nations official in the fight against the disease.(AP Photo/Tanya Bindra,File)



DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Sierra Leone will soon see a dramatic increase in desperately needed Ebola treatment beds, but it's still not clear who will staff them, according to the top United Nations official in the fight against the disease.

Ebola has sickened more than 16,000 people of whom nearly 7,000 have died, according to figures released by the World Health Organization Friday.

Sierra Leone is now bearing the brunt of the 8-month-old outbreak. In the other hard-hit countries, Liberia and Guinea, WHO says infection rates are stabilizing or declining, but in Sierra Leone, they're soaring. The country has been reporting around 400 to 500 new cases each week for several weeks.

Those cases are concentrated in the capital, Freetown, its surrounding areas and the northern Port Loko district, which together account for about 65 percent of the country's new infections, Anthony Banbury, head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

"The critical gap right now in those locations are beds. It's as simple that: We need more beds," said Banbury, who spoke by telephone from Ghana, where the mission is headquartered. Only about 350 of some 1,200 promised treatment beds are up and running, according to WHO figures.

Five more British-built treatment centers will open next month, tripling the current bed capacity, according to the U.K.'s Department for International Development. One near the capital is already up and running.


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Thursday, Oct. 16, 2014, a healthcare worker in protective gear is sprayed with disinfectant after working in an Ebola treatment center in the west of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone will soon see a dramatic increase in desperately needed Ebola treatment beds, but it’s still not clear who will staff them, according to the top United Nations official in the fight against the disease. (AP Photo/Michael Duff, File)


Still, more beds alone are not enough.

"We're concerned that the partners who have signed up to operate the beds won't be able to operate them in the numbers and timeline really required," Banbury said. He is flying to Sierra Leone this weekend to address that problem.

Sierra Leone is also dogged by unsafe burials. The bodies of Ebola victims are extremely contagious and the touching of dead bodies might be responsible for as much as 50 percent of all new cases, Banbury said.

Cultural practices call for dead bodies to be washed, and women's bodies are supposed to be prepared by other women. But with very few women on burial teams, Banbury said that it appears people are washing the bodies of women before they call for them to be taken away.

Sierra Leone also needs more burial teams: WHO numbers show that only about a quarter of the teams the country needs are trained and working.

The United Nations had hoped that by Dec. 1, the end of the outbreak would be in sight: Two months ago, it said it wanted to have 70 percent of Ebola cases isolated and 70 percent of dead bodies being safely buried by that date. That would have drastically reduced the two ways people get infected — through contact with the bodily fluids of sick people and corpses.

World Health Organization numbers show they are significantly short of that goal and Banbury acknowledged that the overall goal would not be met. He stressed that tremendous progress has been made, and many places throughout the region would meet or even exceed the targets set.

"As long as there's one person with Ebola out there, then the crisis isn't over and Ebola is a risk to the people of that community, that country, this sub-region, this continent, this world," he said. "Our goal and what we will achieve is getting it down to zero, but there's no doubt it's going to be a long, hard fight."


http://news.yahoo.com/un-more-16-000-people-sickened-ebola-111512296.html (http://news.yahoo.com/un-more-16-000-people-sickened-ebola-111512296.html)

Title: Cuban doctor with Ebola 'improving' in Geneva hospital
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 29, 2014, 06:17:25 pm

Cuban doctor with Ebola 'improving' in Geneva hospital
Reuters  10 hours ago


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An ambulance (2R) carrying Cuban doctor Felix Baez leaves Cointrin airport in Geneva November 21, 2014. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse



HAVANA (Reuters) - The Cuban doctor who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Sierra Leone is improving with each day and eating normally, though he is still weak, a Swiss hospital said on Friday.

Felix Baez, 43, arrived at University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) a week ago for treatment of the disease that has killed more than 5,600 people since March, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Baez is one of 256 Cuban doctors and nurses sent to West Africa to treat patients, a commitment that has won wide international praise for the poor, Caribbean island. "Today, Dr. Felix Baez is still weak and is recovering gradually. He is eating normally and his general condition is improving every day. He is in daily contact with his family," the statement said.

On Tuesday, the hospital had reported a significant decrease in the amount of the virus in his blood. Cuban officials previously said his fever was reduced before traveling from Freetown to Geneva on Nov. 20 and that he had lost his appetite.

Baez has been treated in a special room in an isolated area of the hospital by a team of five specialists employing strict safety protocols. He is the first Cuban known to have contracted Ebola in this outbreak, the worst on record with about 16,000 cases reported.

Some 165 Cuban doctors and nurses have gone to Sierra Leone for six-month missions, with another 53 in Liberia and 38 in Guinea.


http://news.yahoo.com/cuban-doctor-ebola-improving-geneva-hospital-075940736.html (http://news.yahoo.com/cuban-doctor-ebola-improving-geneva-hospital-075940736.html)

Title: Arizona man hospitalized over Ebola concerns tests negative
Post by: Buster's Uncle on November 29, 2014, 06:24:31 pm

Arizona man hospitalized over Ebola concerns tests negative
Reuters  17 hours ago



(Reuters) - A Phoenix man who became ill after returning this week from Sierra Leone, one of the three West African nations hardest hit by an Ebola outbreak, on Friday was taken to a hospital where he tested negative for the virus, officials said.

The 32-year-old man, who was not identified, was transported to the Maricopa Integrated Health System in Phoenix for evaluation after complaining of sickness including dry-heaving and diarrhea, Phoenix Fire Department spokesman Mark Vanacore said.

Lab results were negative for Ebola, but the traveler will continue to be monitored in line with federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, Maricopa County health officials said in a statement.

The man told officials he had traveled to Sierra Leone, but Arizona officials said he had not treated Ebola patients, gone to funeral services or otherwise come into contact with anyone infected with the virus.

His symptoms developed after he returned to the United States on Wednesday.

(Reporting by David Schwartz; Writing by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Mohammad Zargham)


http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-man-hospitalized-over-ebola-concerns-tests-negative-011749096.html (http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-man-hospitalized-over-ebola-concerns-tests-negative-011749096.html)