Conakry - A second spike in Ebola virus cases has panicked residents and health officials in Guinea, who fear a west African outbreak of the killer disease may now be out of control.

"Ebola cases are worrying. We do not know what to expect," Mamady Traore, a trader in the suburbs of the capital Conakry, told AFP on Thursday. "Sometimes you are told it has been [contained] and sometimes you hear it has reappeared in other towns and villages."

According to figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, a total of 398 cases...

A panel of experts called Thursday for minor drugs offences to be decriminalised in west Africa, where trafficking, consumption and production is undermining development and causing a public health crisis.

The West Africa Commission on Drugs (WACD) said current policies were fuelling corruption in a region where the cocaine trade alone, estimated at $1.25 billion (920 million euros) a year, dwarfs the combined budgets of several countries.

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When a team from Tulane University sent a batch of protective clothing and equipment to help workers fighting an outbreak of Ebola virus in Sierra Leone last month, they were fairly confident the 300 or so packs would be enough for a good start.

They couldn’t have predicted what they would be up against.

L'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) a indiqué mercredi que, en moins de six mois, l'épidémie de fièvre Ebola a déjà fait 208 morts parmi 328 cas suspects en Guinée. Un bilan revu à la hausse par rapport au précédent qui faisait état d'un peu moins de 200 personnes décédées.

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youtube.com - by Ousmane Yattara - February 16, 2014

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Certains individus mal intentionnés n’ont aucun mal à transformer un morceau de craie, un peu de farine ou d’amidon en un comprimé ou une pilule. Difficile de dire à l’œil nu s’il s’agit d’un « faux ». L’étiquetage et l’emballage sont souvent imités à la perfection. Le commerce mondial de médicaments de contrefaçon, qui pèse un milliard de dollars, se porte bien en Afrique. Les médicaments contrefaits et de mauvaise qualité inondent les marchés. Se rendre à la pharmacie, c’est un peu jouer à la roulette russe. Choisir la mauvaise boîte peut vous coûter la vie.

En Afrique, selon l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), près de 100 000 décès par...

The United States, China, India, Japan, and Europe all fit within Africa, a continent that lags behind those places in development. When it comes to energy and electricity, this lack of infrastructure or institutionalized energy systems offers some opportunities for renewable sources of energy to enter into a market that is struggling to meet demand.

The International Renewable Energy Agency recently said that Africa’s renewable energy capacity is ....

The symptoms started with headaches, diarrhoea, pains in my back and vomiting.

In March 2014, the World Health Organization was notified of an outbreak of a communicable disease characterized by fever, severe diarrhea, vomiting, and a high fatality rate in Guinea. Virologic investigation identified Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV) as the causative agent. Full-length genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis showed that EBOV from Guinea forms a separate clade in relationship to the known EBOV strains from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gabon. Epidemiologic investigation linked the laboratory-confirmed cases with the presumed first fatality of the outbreak in December 2013. This study demonstrates the emergence of a new EBOV strain in Guinea.

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FILE - In this photo provide by MSF, healthcare workers prepare isolation and treatment areas for Ebola in Gueckedou, Guinea, Mar. 28, 2014.

voanews.com - by Steve Baragona - April 16, 2014

WASHINGTON — The strain of Ebola virus that has killed 121 people in West Africa may have been circulating there undetected for some time, according to a new study. . .
 
. . . They confirmed that it is a member of the Zaire species, which kills most of its victims. Strains of that virus have caused outbreaks previously in Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 
But this virus is a new strain, a previously unknown sister in the Zaire family.
 
Virologist Jens Kuhn at the National Institutes of Health said there may be more.

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odi.org.uk - March 2014

Water will be the main channel through which the impacts of climate change will be felt by people, ecosystems and economies. However, predicting impacts on the availability and quality of freshwater resources, and on water-dependent services and sanitation, remains difficult.

While there is a high level of confidence in the processes linking emissions to global warming, much less is known about how warming will affect changes in rainfall, runoff, groundwater recharge and climate extremes.

This reflects challenges with the downscaling of climate models, but also the significance of intervening factors, such as changes in land cover, which may have a greater influence on local systems and services than climate change. In general, the level of confidence in climate change projections decreases as their potential utility for making decisions on how to adapt increases.

This report presents the findings of research into the risks to delivery of WASH results posed by climate change in Africa, drawing on rapid case study reviews of WASH programming in Malawi, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. A separate Case Study Report provides further detail on country background and findings.

BAMAKO/CONAKRY, April 4 (Reuters) - An angry crowd attacked an Ebola treatment centre in Guinea on Friday, accusing its staff of bringing the deadly disease to the town, Medecins Sans Frontieres said, as Mali identified its first suspected cases.

More than 90 people have already died in Guinea and Liberia in what medical charity MSF, or Doctors without Borders, has warned could turn into an unprecedented epidemic...

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CONAKRY, GUINEA — Health workers in protective hazmat suits treated patients in quarantine centers on Tuesday in a remote corner of Guinea where Ebola has killed at least 60 people in West Africa's first outbreak of the deadly virus in two decades.

Seven patients are being hospitalized at one isolation ward in Gueckedou in southern Guinea, while two others are being treated elsewhere, said Doctors Without Borders. The aid group said it is sending mobile teams into the surrounding countryside in search of people who may have been exposed since the first cases emerged last week.

Africa’s biggest Ebola outbreak in seven years has probably spread from Guinea to neighboring Liberia and also threatens Sierra Leone.

Five people are suspected to have died from the disease in Lofa county in northern Liberia, Bernice Dahn, Liberia’s chief medical officer, said at a briefing yesterday. At least 86 cases and 59 deaths have been recorded across Guinea, the west African country’s health ministry said. The capital, Conakry, hasn’t been affected, government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said.

CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Samples from victims of a viral hemorrhagic fever that has killed more than 50 people in Guinea have tested positive for the Ebola virus, government officials said Sunday, marking the first time an outbreak among humans has been detected in this West African nation. 

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