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Nigeria Food Security Alert August 8, 2014

Sat, 2014-08-09 09:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

fews.net - August 8, 2014

Summary

A food security crisis persists in northeast Nigeria as the ongoing Boko Haram conflict continues to displace populations and disrupt markets, livelihoods and nutrition services. An estimated three quarters of people living in areas worst affected by conflict have fled their homes due to violence since 2013. In Borno, Yobe and northern Adamawa States, Crisis (IPC Phase 3) acute food insecurity will persist through December, despite the main harvest beginning in October. Approximately one million people in areas worst affected by conflict will continue to face food consumption gaps. Access to households affected and/or displaced by conflict needs to improve in order to ensure that food and nonfood assistance reaches food insecure households.

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Nigeria's President Declares State of Emergency Over Ebola Threat

Sat, 2014-08-09 09:19 — Kathy Gilbeaux

news.xinhuanet.com - August 9, 2014

ABUJA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- President Goodluck Jonathan declares a national emergency in a statement on Friday, saying 1.9 billion naira (11.6 million U.S. dollars) will be released to prevent further spread of the Ebola Virus.

He also urged Nigerians to desist from spreading rumors about the virus and advised school owners across the country to consider extending the current holiday.

He directed relevant government agencies to ensure that all possible steps are taken to effectively contain the threat of the Ebola virus in line with international protocols and best practices.

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Ebola: Official MSF Response to WHO Declaring Epidemic an "Extraordinary Event"

Fri, 2014-08-08 17:44 — Kathy Gilbeaux

msf.org.uk - August 8, 2014

In a statement released today, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that West Africa's Ebola epidemic is an "extraordinary event" and now constitutes an international health risk.

"A coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop and reverse the international spread of Ebola," the WHO said in a statement after a two-day meeting of its emergency committee on Ebola.

MSF reaction to WHO Ebola statement

In response, Dr Bart Janssens, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Director of Operations said:

“Declaring Ebola an international public health emergency shows how seriously WHO is taking the current outbreak but statements won’t save lives

“Now we need this statement to translate into immediate action on the ground. For weeks, MSF has been repeating that a massive medical, epidemiological and public health response is desperately needed to saves lives and reverse the course of the epidemic.

“Lives are being lost because the response is too slow.

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Experimental Ebola Serum Grown in Tobacco Leaves

Wed, 2014-08-06 11:16 — Kathy Gilbeaux

webmd.com - by Brenda Goodman - reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD

Aug. 4, 2014 -- ZMapp, the experimental treatment rushed to two Americans infected with Ebola in Africa, is grown in specially modified leaves of tobacco -- a plant better known for harming health than healing.

“We complied with a request from Emory University and Samaritan’s Purse to provide a very limited amount of ZMapp last week,” says David Howard, a spokesman for Reynolds American Services, the parent company of Kentucky BioProcessing. The small biopharma company in Owensboro, KY, has been contracted to grow the drug.

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9 Questions About this New Ebola Drug

Wed, 2014-08-06 09:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

cnn.com - by By Jacque Wilson and Danielle Dellorto - August 5, 2014

(CNN) -- Two American missionary workers infected with the deadly Ebola virus were given an experimental drug that seems to have saved their lives.

Dr. Kent Brantly was given the medication, ZMapp, shortly after telling his doctors he thought he would die, according to a source familiar with his case. Within an hour, doctors say his symptoms -- labored breathing and a widespread rash -- dramatically improved. Nancy Writebol, another missionary working with Samaritan's Purse, received two doses of the medication and has also shown significant improvement, sources say.

As there is no proven treatment and no vaccine for Ebola, this experimental drug is raising lots of questions.

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Nigeria Confirms Doctor as 2nd Ebola Case

Mon, 2014-08-04 11:35 — Elhadj Drame

Nigerian authorities on Monday confirmed a second case of Ebola in Africa's most populous country, an alarming setback as officials across the region battle to stop the spread of a disease that has killed more than 700 people.

Also Monday, health authorities in Liberia ordered that all those who die from Ebola be cremated after communities opposed having the bodies buried nearby. Over the weekend, health authorities in the West African country encountered resistance while trying to bury 22 bodies in Johnsonville, outside the capital Monrovia. Military police helped restore order.

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Living in the shadow of Ebola

Mon, 2014-08-04 00:31 — Elhadj Drame

As West African nations try to stop the deadly Ebola virus from spreading, people living in the affected countries are nervous. In Sierra Leone, communities are keeping a close eye on the exact locations where the disease has emerged.

The posters are crudely drawn and graphic. There's one pasted to the wall of the squat, concrete community centre in Kroo Bay, a slum in the centre of the capital Freetown, the kind of place where you can imagine disease spreading fast.

The houses are built of breeze block and have battered, rusting roofs. The spaces between them are piled with garbage, small children with no shoes tote yellow plastic jerry cans of water through the narrow lanes.

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NOAA-led study shows Alaska fisheries and communities at risk from ocean acidification

Sun, 2014-08-03 14:13 — Maeryn Obley

Image: Petersburg Harbor.

research.noaa.gov - July 29th, 2014

Ocean acidification is driving changes in waters vital to Alaska’s valuable commercial fisheries and subsistence way of life, according to new NOAA-led research that will be published online in Progress in Oceanography.

Many of Alaska’s nutritionally and economically valuable marine fisheries are located in waters that are already experiencing ocean acidification, and will see more in the near future, the study shows. Communities in southeast and southwest Alaska face the highest risk from ocean acidification because they rely heavily on fisheries that are expected to be most affected by ocean acidification, and have underlying factors that make those communities more vulnerable, such as lower incomes and fewer employment opportunities.

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