World News – Page 14

Ebola costs Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone $2 billion: World Bank

Written on December 3, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Government News, World News.

WASHINGTON/MONROVIA – The World Bank on Tuesday pledged further assistance to Liberia, the country worst hit by Ebola, and revealed that the epidemic would cost more than $2 billion across the region, causing once-booming economies to slow down or shrink. The report comes as the World Bank Group’s president, Jim Yong Kim, begins a two-day visit to West Africa to discuss ways of addressing the outbreak, which has already killed more...

Ebola crisis: Appeal to reopen schools

Written on December 3, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, World News.

Schools need to rapidly reopen in three Ebola-hit West African states as some five million children are being denied an education, a campaign group says. Education had become “one of the first casualties of the crisis” in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, it added. The “most marginalised” would bear the brunt of the crisis for generations to come if “safe schools” were not reopened, the group said. Ebola was...

General Health Systems Damaged by Ebola in West Africa

Written on December 2, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, World News.

GENEVA – The World Health Organization reports the spread of Ebola is having a damaging impact on the delivery of health services for people suffering from other illnesses in the three severely affected Ebola countries in West Africa. And it says one of the root causes of the rapid spread of Ebola in the region is linked to the weakness in the health systems of the three heavily infected countries. Ebola has killed about 6,000 people. But...

WHO says Liberia wrongly added 1,000 deaths to Ebola toll

Written on December 2, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Government News, Health News, World News.

Dec 1 (Reuters) – A surge in Ebola deaths reported by the World Health Organization at the weekend was due to about 1,000 Liberian deaths wrongly ascribed to the disease that would be removed, WHO assistant director general Bruce Aylward said on Monday. “Liberia’s figures came in but they’ve since said these were actually non-Ebola deaths that were reported as part of our Ebola deaths and we will be taking them off. So...

WHO congratulates Spain on ending Ebola transmission

Written on December 2, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Travel, World News.

Today the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declares the Ebola outbreak in Spain over and commends the country on its diligence to end transmission of the virus. On 6 October 2014, the Spanish National Reference Laboratory confirmed the first human-to-human transmission of Ebola virus disease outside Africa in a healthcare worker. The healthcare worker had been part of a team at La Paz-Carlos III Hospital providing medical care for a...

Ebola is crippling the economies of three countries

Written on December 2, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Government News, Health News, World News.

The international response to Ebola is still too slow and piecemeal, Doctors Without Borders warned Tuesday, as officials said the disease is crippling the economies of the three West African countries hardest hit. Ebola has infected nearly 17,000 people, of which about 6,000 have died, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of infections are in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, poor countries that have been left to handle...

Ebola crisis: Struggling to change behaviour in Sierra Leone

Written on December 1, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, World News.

For weeks it has been the same here in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. Every day the Ebola burial teams – now well organised and promptly dispatched – collect about 60 bodies from around the city and its crowded suburbs. Some days it is 50, sometimes as many as 80… (read more)

WHO Will Miss Ebola Targets It Set for Dec 1

Written on December 1, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Government News, Health News, World News.

Two months ago, the World Health Organization launched an ambitious plan to stop the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa, aiming to isolate 70 percent of the sick and safely bury 70 percent of the victims in the three hardest-hit countries ? Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone ? by December 1. Only Guinea is on track to meet the December 1 goal, according to an update from WHO… (read more)

4 Things Working With HIV Can Teach Us About Fighting Ebola

Written on December 1, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Science News, World News.

(RNS) Every year on Dec. 1, World AIDS Day focuses attention on the disease that last year infected another 2.1 million people and took more than 1.5 million lives, according to UNAIDS. After 26 years of World AIDS Days, the death toll stands at a staggering 39 million. And yet, within the HIV/AIDS community there is optimism. Many believe new infections can be stopped completely, and the annual death toll has been cut in half… (read mo...

Ebola Now Preoccupies Once-Skeptical Leader in Guinea

Written on December 1, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Government News, World News.

CONAKRY, Guinea — The phone rang. It was the president. “The ambulances? Yes, excellency, we need at least 15 to cover our needs,” the nation’s harried Ebola czar answered. But the president of Guinea was just getting started, calling back a few minutes later. “Yes, excellency, to transport the samples, we need good vehicles,” the Ebola czar answered patiently… (read more)