Cuban Docs Most Under-Appreciated in the Fight Against Ebola

Time magazine named the Ebola fighters as their person of the year, and while Americans came to know Dr. Jerry Brown, Dr. Kent Brantly and others by name … there is one group of those fighters who have gone largely unrecognized. Cuban doctors. They make less than $75 a month, but they are still Cuba‘s most valuable export. “I am proud of you all, this is my team,” Dr. Juan Carlos told his team as they gathered around a prep...

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Ebola’s Lasting Impact On The U.S. Health Care System

Huffington Post- One of the biggest humanitarian tragedies in 2014 has been the Ebola epidemic, which to date has infected 17,942 people and killed 6,388. The epidemic continues in West Africa, and there is no doubt it will impact the governments, economies and people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea for years to come. But while Ebola has affected the U.S. in a much smaller way, the handful of cases that arrived here may also have an enduring...

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Johns Hopkins-Jhpiego Win US Award for Improved Protective Suit to Combat Ebola

An advanced protective suit for healthcare workers who treat Ebola patients, devised by a Johns Hopkins team, has been selected as a winning design in a global competition aimed at quickly getting new tools into the field to combat Ebola, this deadly disease. The Johns Hopkins prototype suit was developed in partnership with Jhpiego, an international health non-profit and university affiliate, and designed to provide improved protection to keep...

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Bodies of Ebola victims found piled up in Sierra Leone hospital

Health officials in Sierra Leone fear a major Ebola outbreak may have gone largely unreported until now in a remote district where the World Health Organization (WHO) said scores of bodies piled up in a hospital. The WHO said on Wednesday that it had sent a response team to the diamond-rich Kono district following a worrying spike in reported Ebola cases in the district, which lies along the country’s eastern border with Guinea. “They...

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1,000 New Cases in Ebola Ravaged Sierra Leone

The country has surpassed Liberia… In the last 21 days, Sierra Leone has reported 1,319 new cases of Ebola virus infections, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.   The country has surpassed Liberia, which has experienced a decrease in cases over the last four weeks with 225 new cases in the last 21 days. Liberia has reported7,719 cases of the disease so far, and Sierra Leone has reported 7,897. Sierra Leone is hardest hit in...

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The Truth about Ebola and Air Travel

You have likely read or heard about the first confirmed case of Ebola in the United States. A man who traveled from Liberia to Dallas via Brussels has been diagnosed with the virus and is in quarantine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the patient “did not have symptoms when leaving West Africa, but developed symptoms approximately four days after arriving in the U.S. on Sept. 20.” Should you be concerned to take...

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IBM, Scripps Want To Enlist Your Smartphone In Fight Against Ebola

IBM has partnered with the Scripps Research Institute in a project that will allow consumers to donate processing power from their Android smartphones and Windows PCs and tablets to power a computing framework researchers are using in the fight against Ebola. To join the effort, dubbed “Outsmart Ebola Together,” individuals simply need to download a free app that connects them to IBM’s World Community Grid, which can rope together hundreds of...

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U.S. Dept of Health gives immunity to Ebola Vaccine manufacturers

(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday offered liability protections to drugmakers rushing to develop Ebola vaccines and urged other countries to follow suit. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell made the announcement as part of the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act in a move aimed at encouraging the development and availability of experimental Ebola vaccines. The...

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Ebola Traps Painkiller Shipment as Economies Unravel

From his office in the Ghanaian coastal city of Tema, Mark Owiredu has an up-close view of how Ebola is ravaging the economies of poorer African nations to the west. Since the outbreak of the disease was identified nine months ago, Owiredu, the general manager for manufacturing of Ernest Chemists Ltd., has seen orders worth as much as $880,000 annually from Sierra Leone and Liberia all but evaporate. With flights into the worst-affected countries...

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What Twitter Can Tell Us About Ebola

The Ebola virus is spreading and mutating, and so is the chatter about it on social media. Luminoso, an MIT Media Lab spinoff that helps companies monitor consumer sentiment, has been tracking tweets about Ebola. Luminoso’s software reveals trends –- some worrisome –- that show how online conversations may be shaping public opinion. Between August 31 and October 15, 2014, Twitter users posted 5.4 million tweets that mentioned Ebola. That’s fewer...

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