Ebola News 12/16

[Buster's Uncle]

Mali ends last quarantines, could be Ebola-free next month
Reuters  4 hours ago



Children watch as a health worker sprays disinfectants outside a mosque in Bamako November 14, 2014. REUTERS/Joe Penney



BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali has released from quarantine the last 13 people being monitored for Ebola, and the country could be declared free of the virus next month if no further cases are recorded, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Mali has recorded six deaths from Ebola, which, according to the latest WHO data published on Monday, has killed some 6,841 people in neighbouring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the worst epidemic of the viral haemorrhagic fever.

Mali's last infected patient recovered and left hospital last week, while the remaining individuals who came in contact with an infected person finished a mandatory 21-day quarantine at midnight on Monday.

"There is no more contact-tracing. No sick person is being treated, and there is no suspected case of Ebola," Abdoulaye Cisse, a spokesman for the WHO told Reuters.

At one point the West African nation had been monitoring over 300 contact cases. If no new Ebola infections are recorded, Mali will be declared free of the disease on Jan. 18, the U.N. health agency said.

Mali's prime minister's office said in a statement that authorities will now keep focus around Ebola awareness and prevention efforts.

Mali became the sixth West African country to record a case of Ebola when a two-year-old girl from Guinea died in October. It was close to being declared Ebola free in November before a second wave of infections.


http://news.yahoo.com/mali-ends-last-quarantines-could-ebola-free-next-143417076.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Guinean capital bans Christmas, New Year celebrations
AFP   1 hour ago



Guinea's health workers wearing protective suit pose at an Ebola Donka treatment centre in Conakry on December 8, 2014 (AFP Photo/Cellou Binani)



Conakry (AFP) - Guinea's capital Conakry has followed Sierra Leone's example in banning public Christmas and New Year celebrations to combat the spread of the Ebola virus.

Only about 10 percent of Guinea's predominantly Muslim population is Christian. But like elsewhere in Africa most people join in year-end celebrations, whatever their beliefs.

"Large-scale gatherings in public places are suspended for the moment," Conakry governor Soriba Sorel Camara announced in a statement.

"Beaches will remain closed" and firecrackers and fireworks are also banned, he added.

Camara appealed to residents to "refrain from anything" that could compromise efforts to contain the spread of Ebola.

That meant avoiding "all gatherings in markets, bus stations, ferry landing stages, hospitals and the airport," he said.

Guinea is one of three west African countries at the epicentre of the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, together with neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Nearly 6,900 people have died since the first case was recorded in southern Guinea a year ago, 99 percent of them in west Africa.

Sierra Leone, which overtook Liberia recently as the country with the highest number of Ebola infections, last week announced a nationwide ban on public Christmas and New Year festivities.


http://news.yahoo.com/guinean-capital-bans-christmas-celebrations-175250702.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Sierra Leone to search for Ebola cases in capital
Associated Press
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY  2 hours ago



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone is planning a house-to-house search for hidden Ebola cases in the capital and surrounding areas in an effort to stem the disease's rampant spread, the government said Tuesday.

The government has periodically restricted movements into and out of hot spots in order to slow Ebola infections. In September, it locked down the entire country to look for sick people. With the disease now spreading fastest in Sierra Leone, authorities are ramping up their response.

In a statement Tuesday, President Ernest Bai Koroma said officials will begin a house-to-house search Wednesday for sick people in the Western Area, which includes Freetown. It was not clear, however, if people had to stay in their homes and, if so, for how long. More than half of new infections are now occurring in the capital and its surrounding areas, the statement said.

In the world's largest Ebola outbreak, around 18,500 people have been infected, mostly in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Of those, more than 6,800 have died.

The epidemic has overwhelmed the health systems in those three countries, where there were too few doctors and nurses to begin with. Hundreds of foreign health workers have flooded into the region to help. Another 187 from Ethiopia have left for the three countries, the African Union said Tuesday. The AU has promised 1,000 health workers from its member states to combat Ebola.

___

Associated Press writer Elias Meseret in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-search-ebola-cases-capital-145724599.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Massachusetts doctor cured of Ebola returning to Liberia
Associated Press
By PHILIP MARCELO  11 minutes ago



Dr. Rick Sacra, an American doctor who contracted the Ebola virus in Africa tells members of the media he intends to return to Africa in January at the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2014. Sacra took part in an event where Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced a $1 million grant to a partnership of local life sciences companies, nonprofits and academic institutions lead by Diagnostics For All, a nonprofit organization, attempting to speed up the launch of an rapid Ebola detection tool already in development. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)



BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts doctor cured of Ebola said Tuesday that he's returning to Liberia, the West African country where he contracted the virus, in January to resume working at a medical mission.

Dr. Richard Sacra said that he plans to spend four weeks at ELWA Hospital, a clinic outside Monrovia where he had contracted the deadly virus in August.

Sacra spent weeks in treatment at an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital before returning home on Sept. 25. The University of Massachusetts Medical School faculty member has worked in medical missions in Liberia for more than 20 years, including the North Carolina-based charity SIM, which founded ELWA Hospital.

Sacra, who was one of at least 10 people so far treated for Ebola in the U.S., says he "feels great" and that doctors have said he's now effectively immune to Ebola, which has no vaccine.

"I'm not hearing a lot of pushback from home," Sacra said. "I've been working there for years, and my risk at this point is no different than it was before because I'm immune to Ebola."

Sacra has said he's not sure exactly when he became infected. He had been caring for pregnant women not suspected to have Ebola and delivering babies, including performing several cesarean sections.

He said ELWA Hospital, which stands for Eternal Love Winning Africa, has changed its protocols following his illness.

"Even if we haven't suspected Ebola in that patient, we're now wearing full protective gear at our facility for deliveries," he said. "When we're doing surgeries, we're now getting bleached down at the end, which we weren't doing before."

Sacra, who expressed a desire to return to Liberia almost as soon as he recovered, made the comments following a Tuesday news conference at the Statehouse announcing a $1 million state grant to help develop a faster, more accurate test for diagnosing Ebola.

Gov. Deval Patrick said the investment, made through the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, a quasi-public state agency, will assure the state and its major research institutions will play a central role in saving many lives from Ebola, which has killed 6,400 people during the most recent outbreak in West Africa.


http://news.yahoo.com/massachusetts-doctor-cured-ebola-returning-liberia-190604832.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ethiopian health workers arrive in Liberia to help fight Ebola
Reuters  2 minutes ago



Health workers enter an Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia, December 16, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue



MONROVIA (Reuters) - Scores of Ethiopian health workers arrived in Liberia on Tuesday to bolster the response to an Ebola outbreak that the government says it wants to stamp out before Christmas.

The 87 doctors and nurses will join an African Union (AU) mission against the worst Ebola outbreak on record, which has killed more than 6,800 people in Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea.

They will join more than 175 Nigerian medics deployed to Liberia and Sierra Leone earlier this month.

"The aim of the AU is to support the government on the progress so far made. We want to expand on it, to make sure that the community also supports it," said Major-General Julius Oketta, who head's the AU Ebola mission.

The bulk of the African Union's efforts in Liberia focus on Montserrado County, which is home to the country's capital and largest city Monrovia.

Once the country hardest hit by the disease, Liberia has seen a sharp decline in new infections, spawning optimism that the outbreak there may be coming to an end.

“The campaign, getting to zero before Christmas, continues," said Liberia's assistant health minister Tolbert Nyenswah. "We are still having between five to 10 cases per day in Liberia, and that is huge."

(Reporting by James Harding Giahyue; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Grant McCool)


http://news.yahoo.com/ethiopian-health-workers-arrive-liberia-help-fight-ebola-225614614.html