Italy’s first Ebola victim is flown into Rome in specially sealed plane

A doctor who became Italy’s first Ebola victim after contracting the virus in Sierra Leone arrived back in his home country in a specially sealed military plane this morning. He was flown into the military airport of Pratica di Mare, outside the capital Rome, and taken to a nearby hospital for infectious diseases, where he will receive specialist treatment. The unidentified doctor, who reports say is 50-years-old, was working for the charity...

Continue reading

Notable Absence of New Ebola Quarantines at New York Area Airports

A day after a doctor who had returned from Guinea about a week earlier became New York’s first Ebola case, the governors of New York and New Jersey announced that they would begin quarantining travelers who had been in contact with Ebola patients in West Africa. The move, which went beyond federal policy, drew protests from medical aid groups and the Obama administration, who said it would penalize people who were trying to contain Ebola and discourage...

Continue reading

The Race for an Ebola Vaccine

Over the summer, as it became clear that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was one of the worst public-health emergencies in recent memory, executives at Merck met at the company’s New Jersey headquarters to figure out how to respond. Public-health organizations were also getting in touch with people at Merck, asking for help. At several meetings, the executives cycled through the possibilities: Should they donate medicines? Financially support...

Continue reading

Mali Attempts to Shut Down Ebola Transmission Chain

BAMAKO/KOUREMALE, MALI— Senegal and Nigeria were able to stop small Ebola outbreaks by closely monitoring those who had contact with the sick person and quickly isolating anyone with symptoms. Mali is scrambling to do the same now, almost a month after a 70-year-old Guinean imam sought treatment at a clinic in Bamako. Five people have already died. Mali confirmed a sixth related Ebola case Saturday; a female relative of a nurse who treated the...

Continue reading

U.S. quarantine moves hurting Ebola response in Africa: Harvard

(Reuters) – Moves by some U.S. states to isolate medical workers returning from fighting Ebola in West Africa could worsen the global health crisis by discouraging badly needed new volunteers, according to health experts at Harvard University. Ebola has killed more than 5,450 people in West Africa since March in the disease’s worst outbreak on record, striking hardest in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, which are among the world’s...

Continue reading

Who Will Pay Ebola Patients’ Medical Bills in the U.S.?

The arrival of Ebola in the United States this year led to an unprecedented medical response involving experimental drugs, round-the-clock care and layers upon layers of protective gear. And none of it has been cheap. Nine people have been treated for the virus in the U.S. since August. Seven recovered. The National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, which treated one of them, estimates treatment for patients diagnosed with Ebola costs $50,000...

Continue reading

47 dead as plague spreads to Madagascar capital

Madagascar said Monday it was trying to contain an outbreak of plague — similar to the Black Death that swept medieval Europe — that has killed 47 people and is spreading to the capital Antananarivo. The health ministry said there had been 138 suspected cases since the beginning of the year, and warned the death toll was likely to rise in coming months… (read more)

Continue reading

World must learn lessons of Ebola to stop future epidemics, says Bill Gates

Microsoft founder warns MPs that international community must prepare for outbreaks of other, more transmissive diseases. The world has “a very significant chance” to halt the Ebola epidemic in west Africa, Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates has said. But speaking to MPs and peers in the Palace of Westminster Gates warned it was vital to learn the lessons from the current outbreak to ensure the world is ready for other, more virulent...

Continue reading