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WHO: Evidence Shows Ebola Crisis Vastly Underestimated

Sat, 2014-08-16 02:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

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."

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

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Mapping Ebola outbreak

Fri, 2014-08-15 14:02 — JSole

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.

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MSF estimates 6 months to contain Ebola epidemic

Fri, 2014-08-15 13:50 — JSole

Reuters staff report

9:09 a.m. EDT, August 15, 2014

It will take about six months to bring under control the Ebola epidemic, the head of Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) said on Friday, saying the outbreak in West Africa felt like "wartime, is moving, advancing."

"Over the next six months we should get the upper hand on the epidemic, this is my gut feeling," said Joanne Liu, international president of Doctors Without Borders, adding more experts were needed on the ground. "We need people with a hands-on operational mindset," to combat the outbreak."

Liu said she had conveyed those messages to the WHO and "that I think the wake-up call was too late in calling it a public health emergency of international concern."

"I think we have a common understanding on it now," Liu said. "Now we have to find out how that is translated into concrete action in the field ... a statement will save lives only if followed up on the ground."

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http://www.euronews.com/2014/08/13/canada-to-donate-untested-ebola-vaccine-to-help-battle-disease-in-africa/

Read more about MSF estimates 6 months to contain Ebola epidemic
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Canada to donate untested Ebola vaccine to help battle disease in Africa

Wed, 2014-08-13 12:17 — Norea

By Euronews - euronews.com - 13/08 08:41 CET

The move comes after the World Health Organization decided it was ethical in the circumstances to offer untested drugs to people infected by the virus.

The Canadian government has only around 1,500 doses of the vaccine, which it invented a few years ago. It has been effective in animals but has never been tested on humans.

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At Heart of Ebola Outbreak, a Village Frozen by Fear and Death

Tue, 2014-08-12 19:08 — Kathy Gilbeaux

At the center of the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone, the villagers in Njala Ngiema are afraid to return to homes where so many died. Video Credit By Ben C. Solomon on Publish Date August 11, 2014. Image CreditTommy Trenchard for The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Adam Nossiter - August 11, 2014

NJALA NGIEMA, Sierra Leone — The signs of a deadly struggle remain: Scattered around the houses of the Ebola dead lie empty pill packages, their plastic casings punched through. Nearby in the mud are used packets of oral rehydration salts. The pills did not work, and the hurried trip to the hospital, if there was one, came too late.

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The Deadly History of Ebola Outbreaks

Tue, 2014-08-12 04:36 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Volunteers prepare to remove the bodies of people who were suspected of contracting Ebola and died in the community in the village of Pendebu, Sierra Leone, on August 2, 2014. REUTERS/WHO/Tarik Jasarevic

cbsnews.com - By Agata Blaszczak-Boxe - August 11, 2014

The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has rapidly grown into the largest and deadliest in history, claiming more than 960 lives so far in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. The death toll is already more than three times higher than any previous Ebola outbreak. Experts say a number of factors have contributed to making this outbreak so much worse than those that came before.

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Experimental Ebola Drug On Its Way to Liberia

Tue, 2014-08-12 03:32 — Kathy Gilbeaux

cnn.com - by Susannah Cullinane - August 11, 2014

(CNN) -- The government of Liberia says that sample doses of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp will be sent there to treat doctors who have contracted the deadly virus.

The White House and Food and Drug Administration approved the Liberian request for the drug to be made available to them.

Liberia identified itself as the recipient of the drug after the company that makes ZMapp said earlier that its supply was exhausted after fulfilling the request of a West African country, which it did not name.

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Liberia Health System Collapsing as Ebola Spreads

Tue, 2014-08-12 03:05 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Health workers, wearing head-to-toe protective gear, prepare for work, outside an isolation unit in Foya District, Lofa County, Liberia in this July 2014 UNICEF handout photo. REUTERS/Ahmed Jallanzo/UNICEF/Handout via Reuters

reuters.com - by Stella Dawson - August 7, 2014

WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The health care system in Liberia is collapsing, hospitals closing down and medical workers fleeing from the Ebola epidemic, which is poised to worsen, Liberia’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

“People are dying from common diseases because the health care system is collapsing,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan said in an interview with Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“It is going to have a long-term impact, even after this crisis is behind us.”

(ALSO SEE SAME ARTICLE HERE)

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Panel discussion on ethical considerations for use of unregistered interventions for Ebola viral disease

Mon, 2014-08-11 00:41 — Maeryn Obley

who.int - August 8th, 2014

The recent treatment of two health and workers infected with the Ebola virus with experimental medicine has raised questions about whether medicine that has never been tested and shown to be safe in people should be used in the outbreak, and, given the extremely limited amount of medicine available, if it is used, who should receive it.

A number of interventions have been through the laboratory and animal study phases of development. It is likely that ‘first in man’ studies will be conducted over the next 2-4 months. It is also likely that the number of doses available for further study and/or deployment from end 2014 onwards will remain insufficient to meet demand.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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