Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2015, 06:29:16 pm

Title: Ebola News 1/31
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2015, 06:29:16 pm

Liberia delays school reopening by two weeks as Ebola cases fall
Reuters  8 hours ago


(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/OJLX_xocGMQCcAvOol7e9A--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTMwMDtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz00NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_ZA/News/Reuters/2015-01-31T092234Z_1007970001_LYNXMPEB0U021_RTROPTP_2_OZATP-HEALTH-EBOLA-EDUCATION.JPG)
A school official takes a pupil's temperature using an infrared digital laser thermometer in front of the school premises, at the resumption of private schools, in Lagos in this September 22, 2014 file photo. REUTERS/Akintunde Akinleye



MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia said on Friday it would delay reopening schools for two weeks in order to better prepare safety measures against the Ebola virus, which has killed more than 3,650 people in the country but now appears to be receding.

Liberian schools, shut since August due to the outbreak, had initially been scheduled to reopen on Feb. 2, but the education ministry said it had pushed back that date to allow parents and students more time to prepare.

A ministry statement said it wanted to "raise awareness about safety protocols, logistics and training requirements", adding: "Actual teaching will begin on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015."

Some Liberian opposition parties and members of parliament had called for the reopening date to be moved to March 2, concerned that the Ebola epidemic is not yet fully under control.

Liberia and its neighbours Sierra Leone and Guinea have been hardest hit in the worst outbreak of the viral haemorrhagic fever on record.

The epidemic has killed 8,810 people in total out of 22,092 cases, mostly in the three countries, since it was first identified early last year.

The number of Ebola infections and deaths has fallen sharply in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the past few weeks, with just 20 deaths recorded in Liberia in the 21 days to Jan. 25, according to the World Health Organisation, raising hopes that the disease is gradually being brought under control.

Guinea reopened schools earlier this month, while Sierra Leone plans to reopen its schools in March.


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-delays-school-reopening-two-weeks-ebola-cases-092234791--business.html (http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-delays-school-reopening-two-weeks-ebola-cases-092234791--business.html)

Title: Africa looks to extend new disaster insurance to Ebola-like epidemics
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2015, 06:37:58 pm

Africa looks to extend new disaster insurance to Ebola-like epidemics
Reuters
By Daniel Flynn  January 30, 2015 11:55 AM



DAKAR (Reuters) - African countries want to extend a new catastrophe insurance fund, which made its first payout of $25 million this month, to include protection against epidemics in the wake of the devastating Ebola outbreak.

The African Risk Capacity (ARC) agency, a specialized body of the African Union, launched a scheme last year to insure against natural disasters. It is an effort to break Africa's reliance on foreign aid and address the impact of climate change by using innovative financial techniques.

The ARC paid $25 million in its first year of operations to Senegal, Mauritania and Niger to mitigate the effects of a severe drought in the arid Sahel region south of the Sahara -- well above the $8 million in premiums paid by those countries.

The other African nation to take out a policy, Kenya, paid $9 million but received no insurance payment.

Richard Wilcox, the ARC's director general, said that its success so far had encouraged 12 countries to sign up for policies for the second year.

African states, he said, have also approached ARC to develop insurance against epidemics after the Ebola outbreak in West Africa killed more than 8,800 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- severely damaging their economies.

“The scale of the Ebola crisis in those three countries was a wake-up call to everybody,” Wilcox said, and his agency was working with virologists and other experts to design a system of coverage.

"Technically, this is much harder than the weather risk because with weather we have 30 years of reliable data. Disease outbreaks are much rarer.”

The World Bank estimates the three countries hardest-hit by Ebola will lose $1.6 billion in economic output this year. Mining companies have suspended expansion plans, agricultural production has slumped and tourists have avoided the region.

ARC was capitalized using $200 million from the British and German development institutions. That money will be paid back without interest in 20 years time, allowing the ARC to offer below-market premiums to African states.

By pooling disaster risks across east and west Africa, which have uncorrelated rainfall patterns, the ARC is also able to undercut commercial insurers. On top of drought coverage, the fund will offer cyclone and flood insurance next year.

By making use of reinsurance, ARC was only liable for the first $15 million in payments this year -- meaning that it received $2 million more in premiums than it paid out. On an average year, it would expect to do even better, Wilcox said.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich)


http://news.yahoo.com/africa-looks-extend-disaster-insurance-ebola-epidemics-165517108.html (http://news.yahoo.com/africa-looks-extend-disaster-insurance-ebola-epidemics-165517108.html)

Title: Ebola reveals shortcomings of African solidarity
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2015, 06:44:05 pm

Ebola reveals shortcomings of African solidarity
AFP
By Karim Lebhour with Frankie Taggart in Dakar  2 hours ago


(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/5zHzxlOJs9dlDSPcda8piw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzOTtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/c10c592a29ba09132116c2bc58ec4de939174122.jpg)
A health worker checks the body temperature of a fan during Ebola before the African Cup of Nations match between Cameroon and Ivory Coast in Malabo on January 28, 2015 (AFP Photo/Issouf Sanogo)



Addis Ababa (AFP) - As Africa's leaders meet in Ethiopia to discuss the Ebola crisis, expectations of firm action will be tempered by criticism over the continent's poor record in the early stages of the epidemic.

The outbreak is a priority on the agenda of the 54-nation African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa on Saturday, yet the bloc is still smarting from criticism that it reacted too slowly to the outbreak.

Health workers and cash have flooded in from the United States, Britain and even Cuba as part of a UN-led surge to battle an epidemic which has seen nearly 9,000 deaths in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Yet it was only in September -- 10 months after the virus emerged and a month after it was declared a "health emergency of international concern" -- that the AU held an emergency summit.

The three hardest-hit nations have expressed disappointment that their continental neighbours seemed initially to be much quicker to shut borders and ban flights than to deploy resources.

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma hinted at his disillusionment in August when he greeted a $500,000 donation from Gambia with an ill-disguised dig at his other African neighbours.


(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/Naz1tCZtiMa481kUA_4dfg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzNTtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/6af213c6fe226193755cb8b8531997ed24380277.jpg)
Medecins Sans Frontieres agents work at the ELWA III Ebola Management Center in Monrovia on January 27, 2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)


"In moments like this, we will remember our friends including those that are rallying round us and those that show true spirit of African solidarity," he said.

He added that "we expect African countries and organisations including ECOWAS and the African Union to rally round and show solidarity which the Gambian president has demonstrated".


- 'Un-African travel bans' -

A week earlier Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, a senior official, had expressed "shock" that South Africa had donated a mobile testing laboratory on one hand while banning Sierra Leoneans on the other.

The hurt was shared in Liberia where Musa Bility, head of the national football association, told AFP in August that travel bans imposed by several neighbours were "un-African".


(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/.hwiTMWOZO7WdEd68DGepA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzNjtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/06de11e58d6c36f431fde03506eab55fedd3be4e.jpg)
A Medecins Sans Frontieres agent prepares to burn pieces of a dismantled tent on January 27, 2015 after the first section of the ELWA III Ebola Management Center in Monrovia was decomissioned (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)


Nelson Mandela's widow Graca Machel was more explicit when she blasted African leaders in November for an "inadequate" response to Ebola which demonstrated a lack of regard for human life.

The AU itself has recognised its shortcomings. At the height of the epidemic, members had deployed just 100 volunteers to west Africa, a quarter of the number provided by Cuba alone.

"With the wisdom of hindsight, our responses at all levels -- continental, global and national -– were slow, and often knee-jerk reactions that did not always help the situation," the bloc's chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma admitted at a meeting with the heads of the United Nations and World Bank on October 28.

Politicians and aid agencies have noted a better response since, however, with 800 of 1,000 volunteers pledged in October now in place.


- Danger of complacency -

(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/siTz0KufquLfxSHeuAdymw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzNjtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/59a5cbf41145939245c8c9c625e570a8e103cf30.jpg)
Red cross workers carry the body of an Ebola victim at the victim's funeral in Monrovia, on January 5, 2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)


In November, the AU set up a crisis fund alongside the African Development Bank and regional business leaders, with some $28 million pledged.

AU leaders in Ethiopia are discussing the economic recovery of countries affected by Ebola, setting up a "solidarity fund" and planning a proposed African Centre for Disease Control.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday laboratory-confirmed Ebola infections had dropped below 100 new cases a week for the first time in more than six months.

The WHO said it had shifted its efforts from slowing the spread to stamping it out completely.

Meanwhile Guinea's President Alpha Conde has warned that the retreat of the virus has brought with it the danger of complacency.

"We have to see how to compensate for the damage that Ebola has inflicted on our economy and our finances," he told AFP last week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, which brings together 2,500 of the world's most influential business and political leaders.

He called on the International Monetary Fund, which is owed $480 million ($557 million) by the Ebola-hit nations, to forgive the debt, a request which has been backed in part by the United States, IMF's largest shareholder.

"The consequences are extremely serious for our economy. Business executives no longer come to our country," he said.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-reveals-shortcomings-african-solidarity-155031951.html (http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-reveals-shortcomings-african-solidarity-155031951.html)

Title: British health worker being tested for Ebola after needle injury
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2015, 06:49:01 pm

British health worker being tested for Ebola after needle injury
Reuters  6 hours ago


(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/V0qV8E8If3_BV5MxLrdPNg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTMwMDtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz00NTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2015-01-31T115654Z_1_LYNXMPEB0U04V_RTROPTP_2_HEALTH-EBOLA-LIBERIA.JPG)
Suspected carrier of Ebola virus James Flomo sits in isolation with his children after his wife Lorpu Flomo died three days earlier in Monrovia, Liberia, January 21, 2015. REUTERS/James Giahyue



LONDON (Reuters) - A British military healthcare worker was flown back to England from Sierra Leone on Saturday following a needle-stick injury sustained while treating a person with Ebola, the Public Health England (PHE) service said on Saturday.

The patient, who has not been named, has been taken for testing to the Royal Free Hospital in London.

"They are likely to have been exposed to the Ebola virus but, at this time, have not been diagnosed with Ebola and do not have symptoms," PHE said in a statement.

Last week, a British nurse who had been critically ill with Ebola after working in Sierra Leone was discharged from the same hospital after making a full recovery.

The Royal Free, Britain's main center for Ebola cases, also successfully treated British aid worker William Pooley who contracted the virus in West Africa last year.

To date, more than 21,700 cases of Ebola have been reported in nine countries, including nearly 8,650 deaths, according to the World Health Organization, although it said this week it believed the disease was declining.

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)


http://news.yahoo.com/british-health-worker-being-tested-ebola-needle-injury-115532941.html (http://news.yahoo.com/british-health-worker-being-tested-ebola-needle-injury-115532941.html)

Title: Second California patient tests negative for Ebola hours after first
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2015, 06:52:55 pm

Second California patient tests negative for Ebola hours after first
Reuters
By Sharon Bernstein  16 hours ago



SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Two patients hospitalized in Sacramento, California, and tested for possible Ebola infection were found to be free of the deadly virus within hours of each other on Friday.

The first patient, whose case came to light on Thursday, was transferred that day to the University of California-Davis Medical Center from a smaller hospital after having traveled recently in West Africa and exhibiting Ebola-like symptoms, officials said.

Test results for that individual came back negative on Friday morning.

Within hours, the Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center reported it had admitted a second patient for Ebola testing on Wednesday at the request of state public health authorities and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Later on Friday, Kaiser announced that the second patient also had been found to be clear of infection and was being discharged. A UC Davis spokeswoman said its patient remained hospitalized there for the time being.

Health authorities would not say whether they believed the two cases to be related or whether the second patient had traveled recently in West Africa, epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record, as had the first. Kaiser made no mention of any symptoms.

No information about either individual's identity, background or even gender was released.

The back-to-back Ebola inquiries came five months after another person in Sacramento was hospitalized for testing and also found free of the disease.

At least 10 people are known to have been treated for Ebola in the United States, four of them diagnosed with the disease on U.S. soil, during a West African epidemic that has killed at least 8,800 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Only two people are known to have contracted the virus in the United States - both of them nurses who treated an Ebola patient from Liberia who became sick while visiting Dallas. That man, Thomas Duncan, died in October.

The Atlanta-based CDC gave approval to Sacramento County Public Health Department in the past month to test blood samples of potential Ebola cases in its own laboratory rather than requiring samples to be sent to the CDC for analysis, said Laura McCasland, a county spokeswoman said.

The new protocol reduces the turnaround time for such lab results from days to about 24 hours, she said.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Trott and Will Dunham)


http://news.yahoo.com/second-california-patient-tests-negative-ebola-hours-first-000906591.html (http://news.yahoo.com/second-california-patient-tests-negative-ebola-hours-first-000906591.html)

Title: Ebola likely to persist in 2015 as communities resist aid: Red Cross
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2015, 09:46:07 pm

Ebola likely to persist in 2015 as communities resist aid: Red Cross
Reuters
By Stephanie Nebehay  January 30, 2015 9:39 AM


(http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/61wQpYBv_u54FCRuYFCE3w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTQ1MDtpbD1wbGFuZTtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz0yNTA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_ZA/News/Reuters/2015-01-30T143902Z_1007970001_LYNXMPEB0T0NZ_RTROPTP_2_OZATP-HEALTH-EBOLA-REDCROSS.JPG)
Charts cumulative cases and deaths due to the Ebola virus outbreak in west Africa.



GENEVA (Reuters) - West Africa will be lucky to wipe out Ebola this year, as the local population remains suspicious of aid workers, especially in Guinea, the Red Cross said on Friday.

The virus is "flaring up" in new areas in the region and not all infections are being reported, said Birte Hald, who leads the Ebola coordination and support unit of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

"We are also seeing that in places like Sierra Leone and especially in Guinea that it is flaring up in new districts all the time, with small new chains of transmission, which means that it's not under control and it could flare up big-time again," Hald told a news briefing in Geneva.

"I think that we should consider ourselves lucky and fortunate if we are able to stop it in 2015," she said.

More than 6,000 Red Cross volunteers are deployed in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, tracing contacts of those infected, isolating suspect cases and ensuring safe burials, she said.

But the Red Cross still has "no access" to some communities in Guinea, Hald said. It saw "quite a number of incidents" of backlash in January.

"There are still communities that think, for instance, Ebola is spreading with spraying chlorine, disinfecting of the houses, and it is the Red Cross team that are coming with the chlorine, so they are making that connection," she said.

To de-escalate tensions, the Red Cross is sending police and authorities a day in advance to prepare villages for the arrival of its teams, she said.

"If we don't get full access in Guinea, then we definitely risk that this will become something permanent. If it's permanent in Guinea, then we know also that it will be in the whole region, because there are porous borders," Hald said.

The number of new confirmed Ebola cases totalled 99 in the week to Jan. 25, the lowest tally since June, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, signalling the tide might have turned against the epidemic. [ID:nL6N0V81XN]. The outbreak has killed 8,810 people out of 22,092 known cases.

Some 27 sub-prefectures in Guinea reported at least one security incident or other form of refusal to cooperate in the week to Jan 21. Two districts in Liberia and four in Sierra Leone reported at least one similar incident, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said on Friday.

The decline in new cases should not lead to complacency, she said: "Because one unsafe burial - only one - can really create a new chain of transmission and cause other cases of Ebola."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Larry King)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-likely-persist-2015-communities-resist-aid-red-143902687.html (http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-likely-persist-2015-communities-resist-aid-red-143902687.html)

Title: Suspected Ebola patient in California tests negative for virus
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 31, 2015, 09:48:09 pm

Suspected Ebola patient in California tests negative for virus
Reuters  23 hours ago



SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Hours after a suspected Ebola patient in Sacramento was found to be free of the virus, a second person hospitalized in California's capital was reported by public health officials on Friday to be undergoing evaluation and testing for the disease.

The second patient was admitted to Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center on Wednesday, a day before the earlier patient came to light, and like the previous case is considered to be at low risk of having contracted the deadly virus, the hospital said in a statement.

There was no immediate word on whether the two cases were linked or whether the second patient had traveled recently in West Africa, the epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record, as had the first. No mention was made of any symptoms.

The previous patient was transferred to the University of California-Davis Medical Center from another hospital in Sacramento on Thursday after exhibiting unspecified Ebola-like symptoms, health officials said.

But test results returned on Friday were negative for infection, they said.

Although the first patient was known to have traveled in West Africa during the past few weeks, no information about the individual's identity, background or even gender was released.

Yet another individual in Sacramento was hospitalized in August as a potential Ebola patient but tested negative days later.

At least 10 people are known to have been treated for Ebola in the United States, four of them diagnosed with the disease on U.S. soil, during a West African epidemic that has killed at least 8,800 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Only two people are known to have contracted the virus in the United States - two nurses who treated an Ebola patient from Liberia who became sick while visiting Dallas. That man, Thomas Duncan, died in October.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta gave approval to Sacramento County in the past month to test blood samples of potential Ebola cases in its own public health laboratory rather than requiring samples to be sent to the CDC for analysis, said Laura McCasland, a spokeswoman for the Sacramento County Department of Public Health.

The new protocol reduces the turnaround time for such lab results from days to about 24 hours, she said.

(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Additional reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Sandra Maler and Will Dunham)


http://news.yahoo.com/suspected-ebola-patient-california-tests-negative-virus-180523320.html (http://news.yahoo.com/suspected-ebola-patient-california-tests-negative-virus-180523320.html)