The next Ebola?

Since the first outbreaks of Ebola virus disease in 1976, there have been numerous other outbreaks in humans across Africa with fatality rates ranging from 50% to 90%. Humans can become infected with the Ebola virus after direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from an infected person or animal. The virus also infects and kills other primates, though fruit bats are suspected to be the most likely carriers of the virus in the wild. In the countries...

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Where did the Ebola Virus come from?

WHERE DID THE EBOLA VIRUS COME FROM?   Ebola is one of about 177 pathogens that are considered to be newly emerging diseases. These diseases are generally zoonotic diseases.  Animal diseases that have jumped species. A familiar example of a zoonotic disease is measles, which is derived from dog distemper.   For the past thirty years, forty-one previously unrecognized human infectious diseases have jumped from their normal animal hosts to human...

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Ebola closed schools reopen across West Africa

Almost 2 million children in Sierra Leone have returned to school after an eight month break due to Ebola. The Government of Sierra Leone and UNICEF along with other partners are working to ensure that children are safe through teacher training, hand-washing and regular temperature checks. Similar safety standards are in place in Liberia and Guinea, where schools reopened in January and February. In Guinea, more than 1.3 million children have returned...

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Ebola Outbreak Leads To Thousands of Malaria Deaths

According to new research, nearly 11,000 extra malaria deaths may have occurred last year due to the disruption of healthcare services in West Africa currently experiencing widespread Ebola virus outbreaks. A further 3,900 deaths may have resulted from interruptions in the delivery of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITN), according to outbreak modelling data published in The Lancet on the eve of World Malaria Day. This suggested the haemorrhagic...

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5.3M Hens to Be Killed to Slow Bird Flu Outbreak

In an effort to stop an outbreak of bird flu that could devastate Iowa’s poultry population, state health officials announced they will destroy up to 5.3 million hens to keep the virus from spreading. The fast-moving virus was confirmed on Monday at a chicken laying facility in Osceola County, Iowa. The birds compromise nearly 10 percent of Iowa’s egg-laying poultry population, according to the Associated Press. However, officials are...

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Ebola Analysis Finds Virus Hasn’t Become Deadlier, Yet

Research from The University of Manchester using cutting edge computer analysis reveals that despite mutating, Ebola hasn’t evolved to become deadlier since the first outbreak 40 years ago. The surprising results demonstrate that whilst a high number of genetic changes have been recorded in the virus, it hasn’t changed at a functional level to become more or less virulent. The findings, published in the journal Virology, demonstrate that the much...

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New Ebola Study Uncovers Potential Drug Target

Every bit of news about a possible therapy is cause for excitement when it comes to Ebola, the deadly viral haemorrhagic fever that is still ravaging West Africa. Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute have hit on a candidate. In a new study in the journal Science, they suggest that tetrandrine, a compound found naturally in Stephania tetrandra, a climbing plant and component of traditional Chinese medicines, could effectively fight...

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Vanderbilt Joins National Effort to Speed Ebola Therapy Testing

Vanderbilt University researchers have joined a multi-center effort led by Pennsylvania-based Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc. to accelerate development of potential antibody therapies against the often-lethal Ebola virus. On Wednesday, Inovio announced it had been awarded an initial two-year, $21-million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, to support the project. Vanderbilt’s share...

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Ebola Orphans Taking Desperate Measures to Survive

Aid workers have warned that Ebola has created a generation of orphans forced into desperate measures to fend for themselves after the disease claimed their parents. A British-run charity says many of the thousands of children stricken by the virus have turned to crime and prostitution simply to care for their siblings. The Street Child charity’s researchers, who surveyed every district in Sierra Leone, first documented the shocking extent...

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10 New Ebola Cases Discovered During Sierra Leone’s Lockdown

Ten new cases of Ebola infections were discovered during Sierra Leone’s nationwide three-day lockdown, but officials claim that the West African nation has reached the “tail end” of the epidemic. Alfred Palo Conteh, head of the country’s Ebola response, said today that during last weekend’s lockdown hundreds of sick people were identified during the door-to-door operation which was also aimed at reminding people how...

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