08/16/2014 14:47 GMT - by Frankie TAGGART

KAILAHUN, August 16, 2014 (AFP) - Virologists call it the "hot zone" -- nature's version of a nuclear ground zero, the centre of an onslaught by one of the most deadly biological agents ever known to humankind.

Kailahun, a poor but resourceful trading post like any other in Sierra Leone until a few short months ago, has found itself at the epicentre of the worst-ever outbreak of the feared Ebola virus.

No one gets in and no one leaves the eastern districts of Kailahun and neighbouring Kenema without special government dispensation, as part of an emergency quarantine.

"You cannot mess about here: this virus will kill you. One mistake, one wrong move, and you're dead -- that's it," a senior aid worker in Kailahun tells AFP.

The death toll from an Ebola outbreak that began at the start of the year stands at 1,145 in four afflicted west African countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria.

Kailahun, the traditional home of around 30,000 mainly Mende tribespeople, and Kenema account for the lion's share of Sierra Leone's 810 cases and 384 deaths.

By Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Associated Press AUGUST 17, 2014

Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected patients and took items including bloody sheets and mattresses.

A Liberian health worker spoke with families in a classroom now used as an Ebola isolation ward on Friday in Monrovia, Liberia. People suspected of contracting the Ebola virus are being brought to the center, a closed primary school, while larger facilities are being built to house the surging number of patients. John Moore/Getty Images

nytimes.com - by Sheri Fink -August 16, 2014

cdc.gov - August 13, 2014

More than 50 CDC experts battling Ebola in Africa

Hundreds of public health professionals working 24/7 in support

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now has more than 50 disease detectives and other highly trained experts battling Ebola on the ground in West Africa – successfully deploying in less than two weeks the surge of help it promised within 30 days.

CDC’s Emergency Operations Center is also at its highest level of alert.  This means more than 350 CDC U.S. staff are working on logistics, communications, analytics, management, and other support functions to support the response 24/7.

“We are fulfilling our promise to the people of West Africa, Americans, and the world, that CDC would quickly ramp up its efforts to help bring the worst Ebola outbreak in history under control,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.  “We know how to stop Ebola.  It won’t be easy or fast, but working together with our U.S. and international partners and country leadership, together we are doing it.”

By Drew Hinshaw - Aug. 16, 2014 2:43 a.m. ET

Health Workers Believe Ebola's Toll on Staff Could Be Mitigated With More Basic Hospital Supplies

SERGEANT KOLLIE TOWN, Liberia—Rubber gloves were nearly as scarce as doctors in this part of rural Liberia, so Melvin Korkor would swaddle his hands in plastic grocery bags to deliver babies.

His staff didn't bother even with those when a woman in her 30s stopped by complaining of a headache. Five nurses, a lab technician—then a local woman who was helping out—cared for her with their bare hands.

Within weeks, all of them died. The woman with a headache, they learned too late, had Ebola.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/ebola-doctors-with-no-rubber-gloves-1408142137

who.int - August 14, 2014

cnn.com by Faith Karimi - August 15, 2014

(CNN) -- The magnitude of the Ebola crisis in West Africa is "vastly" underestimated, the World Health Organization warned this week, as the death toll steadily climbed. . .

. . . "The outbreak is expected to continue for some time," the WHO said in a statement Thursday. "Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak."

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - WHO Ebola news - Statement - August 14, 2014

More than 1,000 people have died, with Sierra Leona, Guinea and Liberia worst-affected and two deaths in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an International Public Health Emergency.

Ebola outbreak

Researchers from the New England Journal of Medicine have traced the outbreak to a two-year-old girl, who died on 6 December 2013 in a small village in south-eastern Guinea.

Cumulative death toll

The WHO has published updates on the spread of the virus in each of the countries affected.

By Abby Phillip August 13

Melvin Korkor thought the hardest fight had already been won.

Weeks after contracting Ebola — most likely from a sick patient — Korkor, a Liberian doctor, was able to walk out of a treatment center in Lofa with a clean bill of health, according to Voice of America.

He was one of the lucky ones to survive the deadly disease.

But since leaving the hospital, Korkor has been fighting another difficult battle: Overcoming Ebola-survivor stigma — which, he told a Liberian radio station, "is worse than the fever."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/08/13/they-survived-ebola-now-they-are-shunned/

Press Statement

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2014/230613.htm

UN News Center - un.org - 13 August 2014

13 August 2014 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today convened a United Nations system-wide coordination meeting in response to the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa, which is now affecting more than 1 million people in the so-called “hot zone of disease transmission” on the borders of the three countries most impacted by the disease.

According to the latest update issued today by the World Health Organization (WHO), between 10 and 11 August, 128 new cases of Ebola virus disease, as well as 56 deaths, were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, bringing the total number of cases to 1,975 and deaths to 1,069.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48478#.U-3pimPQr6c

One day in 1996, boys from a village in northern Gabon brought home a chimpanzee they found dead in the forest. The villagers butchered it for food.

That act set off an Ebola outbreak that killed 21 people, according to the World Health Organization.

Years later, on a reporting trip in Gabon, author David Quammen met two men from the village who were there during the outbreak.

At the time Ebola was ravaging their village and their families, they noticed something strange. In the forest nearby, 13 gorillas lay dead.

http://www.voanews.com/content/ebola-also-devastates-wild-ape-population/2411749.html

The Canadian Press

Aug 12, 2014 5:47 PM ET

A made-in-Canada experimental Ebola vaccine will be offered for use in the West African outbreak response, the Public Health Agency of Canada revealed Tuesday.

The news comes hours after the World Health Organization said a panel of experts advised that it would be ethical to use untested drugs and vaccines in this raging epidemic, which is several times larger than any previous outbreak.

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