Health News – Page 13

UN Chief Heading to West Africa to See Ebola Response

Written on December 18, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Government News, Health News, World News.

(By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press) The UN chief will leave Wednesday night and visit hard-hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as well as Mali. He will also visit Ghana, where the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response is headquartered. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he’s heading to West Africa to demonstrate the U.N.’s solidarity with the countries most affected by the Ebola outbreak and to see for himself how...

Increased Use of Ebola Survivors Could Turn the Tide In the Fight Against the Epidemic in West Africa

Written on December 18, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, World News.

The increased use of Ebola survivors could be the turning point in the fight against the epidemic in West Africa and reducing it. At least two emergency physicians Joshua Epstein and Lauren Sauer from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland are convinced. While hundreds of foreign volunteers are in the affected countries, they emphasize in the journal “Nature” that Ebola survivors, who are most likely immune to the disease...

One of Sierra Leone’s head doctors dies of Ebola

Written on December 18, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, World News.

Dec 18 (Reuters) – One of Sierra Leone’s leading doctors died of Ebola on Thursday, hours after the arrival in the country of an experimental drug that could have been used to treat him, the chief medical officer said. Victor Willoughby was diagnosed with Ebola last week after he treated a man with organ-related problems. The patient, a senior banker, was later diagnosed with Ebola and has since died. The drug, ZMab, was transported...

China approves experimental Ebola vaccine for clinical trials

Written on December 18, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Health News, World News.

(Reuters) – China has approved a domestically developed experimental Ebola vaccine for clinical trials, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, citing the People’s Liberation Army logistics unit. Scientists around the world are racing to develop Ebola vaccines after the world’s worst outbreak of the virus, which has killed more than 6,000 people in West Africa this year. The Chinese vaccine is being developed by the...

There Are 53 Drugs That Could Treat Ebola

Written on December 17, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Health News, Treatments.

(Time-Alexandra Sifferlin) Scientists have identified 53 existing drugs that could be effective in fighting Ebola, according to newly published research. There is currently no vaccine or drug available to treat the disease, which is one of the primary reasons the virus has been able to infect 18,603 people so far, and kill 6,915. A vaccine is undergoing clinical trials in humans, but a drug to treat people who already have the disease is critically...

Drugmakers Rush to Test New Ebola Vaccine

Written on December 17, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Health News, Treatments.

While developing drugs to cure Ebola is crucial to end the current epidemic, a vaccine that prevents the infection altogether is the end-game for viral outbreaks – a way to protect healthcare workers on the front lines and to prevent future outbreaks. It typically takes 10 or 20 years to develop and test a vaccine and get it to market. But in Ebola’s case, this time frame has been compressed into a matter of months, bringing pharmaceutical companies,...

5 Million Kids Out of School Due to Ebola

Written on December 17, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Government News, Health News.

Children from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia are still out of school. Here’s what’s being done… Public schools in Guinea have been closed since March. Schools in Sierra Leone and Liberia never opened after the summer holiday. All told, the children’s rights and emergency relief group UNICEF estimates that 5 million children ages 3 to 17 are out of school due to Ebola. “This Ebola crisis has been predominantly seen as a health...

Burials continue despite ‘cancelled’ Christmas in Sierra Leone

Written on December 17, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Opinion News.

Ebola Diary: After a week in West Africa, Sarah Boseley concludes that not enough is yet known about the virus, except that it must be eradicated. A large group of men, women and children, all in their best clothes, is gathered in the yard of a house in Wellington, an Ebola-hit western area of Freetown. The dresses and headscarves are bright but the faces are sombre. Alie Kamara, the owner of the house, died this morning and lies inside. He will...

Johns Hopkins team wins award for improved Ebola suit

Written on December 17, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Health News, USA News.

Johns Hopkins University Center for Bioengineering Innovation & Design and Jhpiego (Washington Post) For health-care workers taking care of Ebola patients in West Africa, one of the biggest logistical problems has been the “moon suits” they must wear to protect against being infected by the deadly virus. The suits are hot. Taking them off is a meticulous, multistep process that can leave no room for error. Now, a protective ebola suit designed...

Doctor cured of Ebola will return to Liberia

Written on December 16, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Science News, Treatments.

(BOSTON) — A Massachusetts doctor cured of Ebola said Tuesday that he’s returning to Liberia, the West African country where he contracted the virus, in January to resume working at a medical mission. Dr. Richard Sacra said that he plans to spend four weeks at ELWA Hospital, a clinic outside Monrovia where he had contracted the deadly virus in August. Sacra spent weeks in treatment at an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital before returning home on Sept....