ebola health workers
Africa - Officials in Guinea searching for a team of health workers and journalists who went missing while trying to raise awareness of Ebola have found several bodies. A spokesman for Guinea's government said the bodies included those of three journalists in the team. They went missing after being attacked on Tuesday in a village near the southern city of Nzerekore. More than 2,600 people have now died from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It is the world's worst outbreak of the deadly disease, with officials warning that more than 20,000 people could ultimately be infected. The three doctors and three journalists disappeared after being pelted with stones by residents when they arrived in the village of Wome - near where the Ebola outbreak was first recorded. One of the journalists managed to escape and told reporters that she could hear the villagers looking for them while she was hiding. A government delegation, led by the health minister, had been dispatched to the region but they were unable to reach the village by road because a main bridge had been blocked.

On Thursday night, government spokesman Albert Damantang Camara said eight bodies had been found, including those of three journalists. He said they had been recovered from the septic tank of a primary school in the village, adding that the victims had been "killed in cold blood by the villagers." The reason for the killings is unclear, but correspondents say many people in the region distrust health officials and have refused to co-operate with authorities, fearing that a diagnosis means certain death. Last month, riots erupted in the area of Guinea where the health team went missing after rumors that medics who were disinfecting a market were contaminating people. -BBC

Death toll rises

At least 2,630 people have died in the worst outbreak of Ebola virus in history, which has so far infected at least 5,357 people in West Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday. In an update on the epidemic, which is raging through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and has spread into Nigeria and Senegal, the WHO said there were no signs yet of it slowing. "The upward epidemic trend continues in the three countries that have widespread and intense transmission - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone," the United Nations health agency said. Those three countries account for the vast majority of cases and deaths in the outbreak - 8 others have died in Nigeria, out of 21 cases, and one case has been confirmed in Senegal. The WHO said a surge in Ebola in Liberia is being driven primarily by a continued increase in the number of cases reported in the capital, Monrovia, where 1,210 bed spaces were needed, five times the current capacity. - Reuters

Survivor's blood sold on Black Market

Sierra Leone - As hospitals in nations hardest hit by Ebola struggle to keep up, desperate patients are turning to the black market to buy blood from survivors of the virus, the World Health Organization warned. The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has killed at least 2,400 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - the countries most affected by the virus. Thousands more are infected, and new cases have emerged in Nigeria and Senegal. Blood from survivors, referred to as convalescent serum, is said to have antibodies that can fight the deadly virus. Though unproven, it has provided some promise in fighting a disease with no approved drug to treat it. "Studies suggest blood transfusions from survivors might prevent or treat Ebola virus infection in others, but the results of the studies are still difficult to interpret," the WHO said. "It is not known whether antibodies in the plasma of survivors are sufficient to treat or prevent the disease. More research is needed." Convalescent serum has been used to treat patients, including American aid worker Rick Sacra, who is hospitalized in Omaha, Nebraska. He got blood from Kent Brantly, a fellow American who survived Ebola. Both got infected when they were helping patients in Liberia. - Fox