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Suffering and song in Sierra Leone's Ebola 'hot zone'

Mon, 2014-08-18 15:00 — Norea

(Carl De Souza, AFP) 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.

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Ebola fears rise in Liberia after hospital looted

Sun, 2014-08-17 18:09 — Elhadj Drame

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.

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With Aid Doctors Gone, Ebola Fight Grows Harder

Sat, 2014-08-16 21:02 — Kathy Gilbeaux

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

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CDC Fighting Ebola at Home and Abroad: Staff Deployed to W Africa, Enhanced Surveillance, Testing, and Guidance in US

Sat, 2014-08-16 20:17 — Kathy Gilbeaux

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.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/16/science/agencies-issue-warnings-over-bogus-ebola-cures.html?_r=0

Agencies Issue Warnings Over Bogus Ebola Cures

Sat, 2014-08-16 07:32 — Norea

A government burial team in Sierra Leone. As Ebola claims more victims, false cures are being marketed toward Africans. Credit Carl De Souza/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. - nytimes.com - AUG. 15, 2014

Panic over Ebola has the makers of dietary supplements aggressively targeting Africans, claiming to have a cure for the lethal virus.

Late this week, both the World Health Organization and the United States Food and Drug Administration issued strong warnings about false Ebola cures. The latter threatened American companies with penalties if they continue making such claims.

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

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Ebola Virus: For Want of Gloves, Doctors Die

Sat, 2014-08-16 07:04 — Norea

In a school building used to quarantine Ebola patients in Monrovia, Liberia, Umu Fambulle stands over her infected husband after he fell. Getty Images

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.

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

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WHO: Evidence Shows Ebola Crisis Vastly Underestimated

Fri, 2014-08-15 22:25 — 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."

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Mapping Ebola outbreak

Fri, 2014-08-15 10:02 — 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 09:50 — 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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