Science News – Page 6

Doctor cured of Ebola will return to Liberia

Written on December 16, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Science News, Treatments.

(BOSTON) — A Massachusetts doctor cured of Ebola said Tuesday that he’s returning to Liberia, the West African country where he contracted the virus, in January to resume working at a medical mission. Dr. Richard Sacra said that he plans to spend four weeks at ELWA Hospital, a clinic outside Monrovia where he had contracted the deadly virus in August. Sacra spent weeks in treatment at an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital before returning home on Sept....

3 Months After Ebola Infection the Semen of Survivors Remains Infectious

Written on December 16, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Science News, World News.

Geneva – The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends men who have survived the Ebola infection should abstain from sex for at least three months or to use condoms. Some studies have shown that seminal fluid could contain the Ebola virus possibly up to three months, the UN agency said on Friday. But there is no need to isolate former Ebola patients, according to the WHO.

Potential Ebola Vaccines, Treatments – Improved Mouse Model Will Accelerate Research

Written on December 16, 2014. Posted in Health News, Science News, World News.

CHAPEL HILL, NC – In the war against Ebola, one important hurdle has just been cleared – by a mouse. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues have developed the first genetic strain of mice that can be infected with Ebola and display symptoms similar to those that humans experience. This work, published in the current issue of Science, will significantly improve basic research on Ebola vaccines and treatments,...

Unethical Ebola Quarantines May Encourage People to Lie about Travel to West Africa

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

“Who is going to want to go from the United States to help in West Africa knowing they are going to be in prison for three weeks when they get back?” asks Dr. Craig Klugman, professor and chair of Health Sciences, College of Science and Health. Klugman is a bioethicist and medical anthropologist who researches death and dying. “Probably very few people…” Klugman is also concerned that strict, unethical quarantine procedures...

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...

Ebola survivors crucial to containing the epidemic

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

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Thousands of Ebola survivors with little to no risk of re-infection are critical to controlling the epidemic and training them has the potential to save thousands of lives and decrease the spread of the virus, experts said on Wednesday. Survivors have developed immunity and are effectively the only people in the world protected from the virus, which could allow them to care for the sick without risking...

Why we need to tackle Malaria and Ebola together

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

Mass drug treatment for malaria is a key step towards preventing a rise in the mosquito-borne disease in Ebola-stricken countries and to ease the burden on medical staff, a leading disease control expert said on Tuesday. Sierra Leone began a campaign on Friday to protect 2.4 million people – nearly half its population – from malaria, reducing pressure on health services from people visiting clinics wrongly fearing they have Ebola. “It is a good...

Mutating Ebola Virus Warning: Medical Microbiologist says it’s already changing

Written on December 9, 2014. Posted in Health News, Science News.

While the numbers surrounding the Ebola epidemic in West Africa are scary enough — the death toll is nearing 5,000, and a possible infection rate of 50,000 has been forecast —mutation, a single word, may be more worrisome than all of the virus’s epidemiological statistics put together. According to medical microbiologist Michael McCann, Ph.D., professor of biology and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Joseph’s University...

IBM, Scripps Want To Enlist Your Smartphone In Fight Against Ebola

Written on December 9, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Business News, Science News.

IBM has partnered with the Scripps Research Institute in a project that will allow consumers to donate processing power from their Android smartphones and Windows PCs and tablets to power a computing framework researchers are using in the fight against Ebola. To join the effort, dubbed “Outsmart Ebola Together,” individuals simply need to download a free app that connects them to IBM’s World Community Grid, which can rope together hundreds of...

Sierra Leone Doctors protest after 10 colleagues die from Ebola

Written on December 9, 2014. Posted in Breaking News, Health News, Science News, World News.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Junior doctors in Sierra Leone went on strike Monday to demand better treatment for health workers who become infected withEbola, a health official said. The association representing junior doctors asked the government to make sure life-saving equipment, like dialysis machines, is available to treat infected doctors. The government has promised that a special treatment unit for health care workers will open...