News – Page 16

Ebola: Facing Death Without Spreading Disease

Written on December 12, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, World News.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The most “intense” Ebola epidemic in the world, as the World Health Organization puts it, can now be found in Sierra Leone, which is witnessing more than 500 laboratory-confirmed new cases per week, and hundreds more suspected and uncounted infections. The virus is spreading all over the country, but about half of new cases are arising in the capital city of Freetown and neighboring districts. When I was in Freetown three...

Ebola Outbreak Will Take Several More Months to Contain: U.N.

Written on December 12, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Government News, Health News, World News.

Helen Regan The U.N. goal of containing 100% of Ebola cases by Jan. 1 will not be met. The U.N.’s special envoy on Ebola said Thursday that it would be several months before the ebola outbreak in West Africa is under control. Dr. David Nabarro said international governments as well as local communities had taken a “massive shift” in responding to the crisis over the past four month, the Associated Press reports. However, he noted that more needed...

Health partners unite to build stronger Ebola health systems

Written on December 12, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Government News, Health News, World News.

WHO – 12 DECEMEBR 2014 ¦ GENEVA – On 10-11 December 2014, Ministers of Health and Finance of Ebola-affected countries, international organizations and development partners assembled for a high-level meeting on how to strengthen systems of health in Ebola-affected countries and agreed on what needs to be done to rebuild and strengthen essential ebola health services in these countries. “People in Ebola-affected countries are dying –...

Sierra Leone Grapples With Spike in Ebola Numbers, Fears Underreporting

Written on December 12, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, World News.

The outbreak of the Ebola virus continues to devastate Sierra Leone, where the number of cases are spiking and humanitarian organizations reported discovering piles of dead bodies in a remote hospital earlier this month. “Guinea has stabilized, Liberia seems to have stabilized, but we are still spiking up,” Vandi Chidi Minah, Sierra Leone’s ambassador to the United Nations, told Newsweek on Thursday. Minah said spikes in neglected areas that “seem...

Antibiotic-resistant superbugs could be world’s top killers by 2050

Written on December 11, 2014. Posted in Breaking News.

Left unchecked, antibiotic resistance will kill 10 million per year by 2050, a new report finds. An economist crunched the numbers on the rise of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs,” and what he found foresees crisis in the very near future. If left unchecked, he warns, the cost, in loss of both global wealth and lives, would be truly astronomical. Antibiotic-resistant infections are already killing hundreds of thousands of people a year; in the very...

Worst Ebola outbreak in history: What you need to know

Written on December 11, 2014. Posted in Breaking News.

More than 6,000 people have died as the virus spread from Guinea to other countries in West Africa. International flights took the disease as far as Spain and the United States, and international organizations have mobilized to contain it. Explore the outbreak and its effects through the graphics below. The Ebola outbreak began in Guinea at the end of 2013 with a 2-year-old boy who may have gotten the virus from eating the meat of infected monkeys,...

1,000 New Cases in Ebola Ravaged Sierra Leone

Written on December 11, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Government News, Health News, World News.

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...

Bush meat trade is major Ebola risk to Scotland

Written on December 11, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Science News, World News.

SCOTLAND’S top microbiologist has warned that the secret trade in bush meat poses the biggest risk of the deadly Ebola virus coming into the country. Professor Hugh Pennington said people importing monkey and fruit bat meat was a more likely way for the disease to come here than via an infected airline passenger. The emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen said much of the meat ended up being sold “under the counter” in...

A Case Of Mistaken Identity Sends Healthy Boy To An Ebola Ward

Written on December 10, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, World News.

As part of Sierra Leone’s broader effort to contain the deadly Ebola virus, the country opened a new ambulance dispatch center in September in the capital, Freetown. Along with a new Ebola hotline, the center is considered an important step forward in the war on Ebola. But on the center’s second day of operation, a series of errors put the life of an apparently healthy 14-year-old boy at risk. The dispatch center is situated in a meeting...

Airport screenings haven’t turned up any Ebola patients

Written on December 10, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Personal Safety, Travel.

Airport screenings of travelers from West Africa haven’t turned up anyone with Ebola, health officials announced Tuesday. U.S. officials screened nearly 2,000 travelers for Ebola symptoms over 31 days in October and November, according to a report Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only seven travelers with symptoms were referred to the CDC for medical exams, and none had the disease, the report says. Although two...