Breaking News – Page 9

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...

Good News: Mali has not had a case of Ebola for three weeks

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

WEST AFRICA-Thursday 18 December 2014 – 11:16am GENEVA – Mali has not had a case of Ebola for three weeks, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, completing one of the two incubation periods the country needs to be declared free of the virus. “No new cases have been reported in Mali since 24 November.” The UN agency said in its latest situation report on the outbreak focused on west Africa. It added: “The...

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...

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...