Africa

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen inside Oxitec laboratory in Campinas, Brazil, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker

Reuters - by Stephanie Nebehay - February 2, 2016

GENEVA, Feb 2 (Reuters) - The Zika virus linked to a microcephaly outbreak in Latin America could spread to Africa and Asia, and the World Health Organization will set up monitoring sites in the poorest countries with the highest birth rates, it said on Tuesday.

. . . ”Most important, we need to set up surveillance sites in low- and middle- income countries so that we can detect any change in the reporting patterns of microcephaly at an early stage," said Dr. Anthony Costello, WHO director for maternal, child and adolescent health.

A WHO global response unit "using all the lessons we've learned from the Ebola crisis" has been set up, he said. Some 20 to 30 'sentinel sites' for surveillance could be established worldwide, mainly in poor countries lacking robust health systems.

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Pilanesburg National Park, three hours from Johannesburg in South Africa, has been ravaged by drought. Zebras roam the game reserve on November 12, 2015.  PHOTOGRAPH BY WENDY KOCH, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

The UN meeting will focus on developed countries’ plans to curb global warming, but it could give Africa money to embrace clean energy.

nationalgeographic.com - by Wendy Koch - November 23, 2015

A landmark UN report says rising temperatures will “amplify existing stress on water availability” in Africa—a continent that’s contributed little to climate change but is reeling from its impacts. . . .

. . . Countries have pledged to cut their planet-warming emissions of greenhouse gases. Richer nations have also pledged $100 billion a year to help poorer ones adapt to climate change and adopt clean sources of energy.

“Africa could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of COP21,” UN’s Vincent Kitio said at National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge forum this month in Johannesburg on sub-Saharan Africa’s future.

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submitted by George Hurlburt

Zoom Dosso / AFP / Getty Images

It’s been more than 42 days since the last case – although officials warn that it is likely to return.

CLICK HERE - WHO - Latest Ebola outbreak over in Liberia; West Africa is at zero, but new flare-ups are likely to occur

buzzfeed.com - by Tom Chivers - January 14, 2016

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Liberia is free of Ebola.

The west African country hasn’t seen a new case in 42 days. That’s the measure the WHO uses to determine whether an outbreak is still ongoing.

It means that, for the first time since December 2013, the whole of West Africa (and the world) is free of the disease.

It’s been the worst Ebola outbreak in history, killing at least 11,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

However, the WHO warns that new cases are likely.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES   By Sheri Fink, MD             January 7, 2007

A treatment once considered among the most promising for Ebola patients was not found to be effective in a study performed in Guinea, researchers reported Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.