Health News – Page 12

Ebola-Stricken Families to Receive Cash Payments

Written on December 22, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

In 2015, the three Ebola-affected countries will start offering cash payments for families hit by Ebola, as well as survivors having trouble re-acclimating to society out of stigma for the disease. Every aspect of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone’s societies have taken a hit from Ebola, and the disease has shocked what were once fragile but growing economies. Public spaces are now forbidden, so markets are empty, tourists are no longer traveling...

World Health Organization say recorded Ebola deaths top 7,000

Written on December 22, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, Personal Safety, Travel, World News.

(Time-CONAKRY, Guinea) — The worst Ebola outbreak on record has now killed more than 7,000 people, with many of the latest deaths reported in Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization said as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon continued his tour of Ebola-affected countries in West Africa on Saturday. The three countries hit hardest by Ebola have now recorded 7,373 deaths, up from 6,900 on Wednesday, according to WHO figures posted online...

Spending cuts blamed for Ebola outbreak in West Africa

Written on December 22, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

It had led to “under-funded, insufficiently staffed, and poorly prepared health systems” in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, they said. The IMF denied the allegation. The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever has so far killed more than 7,300 people, mostly in the three states. “A major reason why the Ebola outbreak spread so rapidly was the weakness of healthcare systems in the region, and it would be unfortunate if underlying causes...

Officials threaten arrest over unsafe Ebola burial practices

Written on December 22, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, Personal Safety.

(VOA News) With Ebola having killed more than 2,000 people in Sierra Leone, and unsafe burial practices possibly being responsible for up to 70 percent of new infections, officials said they are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to clamp down on traditional burials in the country. Officials have even threatened to jail people – once it’s clear they have not caught the disease – who prepare the corpses of their loved...

Chikungunya: Another infectious disease the world is ignoring

Written on December 21, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Featured, Health News, Science News.

It’s a tale scientists are tired of telling: a disease that’s been carefully watched and studied for years is suddenly infecting an unprecedented number of people while promising drugs and vaccines sit on shelved, unfunded. This time it’s not Ebola but a mosquito-borne disease called chikungunya, which causes debilitating joint pain and has infected more than 1 million people just this year. Originating in Africa, the virus has rapidly spread into...

Over 1,000 Americans infected with plague in the last 100 years

Written on December 20, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, Personal Safety, USA News.

Fleas that bites rodents infected with the bacteria that cause the plague can transmit the disease to people. People may think of the plague as a disease from centuries past, but more than 1,000 people in the United States have become infected with plague in the last 100 years, according to a new study. The researchers examined cases of plague in the United States from 1900 to 2012. During that time period, there were 1,006 cases of plague, in...

UN chief urges respect for Ebola health rules

Written on December 19, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Government News, Health News, World News.

(Reuters) – UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, starting a visit to Ebola-hit states in West Africa on Friday, urged their people to set aside traditional practices like washing the dead by hand so as to help end an epidemic that has killed nearly 7,000 people. Ban said he hoped to use his two-day tour of the region – his first since the outbreak was detected in March – to raise the profile of the fight against the disease and to...

GSK Ebola vaccine trial moving to wider phase in February

Written on December 19, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Featured, Health News, Science News.

(Reuters) – Trials of GlaxoSmithKline’s experimental Ebola vaccine are likely to move to a second phase in February, later than previously suggested, after a meeting of national regulators said they needed more information. The World Health Organization, which hosted a meeting of national regulatory authorities and ethics committees earlier this week, said they had thoroughly discussed all aspects of the proposed trials at the two-day...

Critically ill Doctor cured by experimental Ebola drug

Written on December 19, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Featured, Health News, Science News, World News.

A prototype anti-Ebola drug has helped a critically ill doctor from Sierra Leone, according to the latest study. The medic, who was flown to a German hospital in September with severe Ebola symptoms and discharged a month later, fully recovered. The study, published in medical journal The Lancet, has urged clinical evaluation of the treatment. The 38-year-old doctor was airlifted and transferred to Frankfurt University Hospital in September, showing...

2 Ebola Patients = 3,000 Pounds of Medical Waste

Written on December 18, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Personal Safety, USA News.

By Dr. Sanjay Gupta – Ebola was a practice run. We may see more cases in this country, but we know now that our public health system can contain it. SARS was also a practice run. So was bird flu. None turned into the pandemic we feared. But health experts agree that one day we will be confronted with a dangerous infectious disease that we cannot contain. Are we ready for it? Jay Varkey, MD, is a specialist in infectious diseases at Emory...