Plagues
S


Fireball

Death toll from Ebola in West Africa rises to 603 since February


Yahoo! News
Tue, 15 Jul 2014 07:47 UTC
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© Reuters/Umaru Fofana
The death toll from an Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 603 since February, with at least 68 deaths reported from three countries in the region in the last week alone, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

WHO said there were 85 new cases between July 8-12, highlighting continued high levels of transmission. International and local medics were struggling to get access to communities as many residents feared outsiders were spreading rather than fighting Ebola.

"It's very difficult for us to get into communities where there is hostility to outsiders," WHO spokesman Dan Epstein told a news briefing in Geneva. "We still face rumours, and suspicion and hostility. ... People are isolated, they're afraid, they're scared."

Sierra Leone recorded the highest number of deaths, which include confirmed, probable and suspect cases of Ebola, with 52. Liberia reported 13 and Guinea 3, according to the WHO figures.

Comment:
Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus
Finally catching up - Could the Black Death actually have been an Ebola-like virus?
Ebola outbreak 'most challenging' ever: 90% fatality, no vaccine, cure or treatment
Rats and fleas myth laid to rest as researchers conclude Black Death plague was spread by air-borne pathogens
New Light on the Black Death: The Cosmic Connection

Read More...
Syringe

California officials see spike in whooping cough cases

Tony Lopez
CBS News - Sacramento
Wed, 16 Jul 2014 20:18 UTC
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© Contra Costa Times/Dan HondaWhooping cough vaccine
Little Rebecca Hall hasn't had so much as a fever in her 14 months of life. Her mom Nakayla says it's because she's been diligent with her daughter's immunization schedule.

"It's completely important. she's gotten all of her vaccinations and she hasn't been sick once," she said.

But health officials are concerned, because Yolo County is seeing a spike in whooping cough cases stronger than the rise in other California counties.

"It's most concerning because infants can become seriously ill and die from pertussis," said Dr. Constance Caldwell with the Yolo County Health Department.

She's puzzled by the spike, because nearly 95 percent of kids in Yolo County public schools are vaccinated.

"We have not seen the dramatic decline in the use of vaccine in this county that some other counties have seen," she said.

Comment: Whooping cough evolving in the world thanks to the vaccine
Read more critical information on vaccinations here:

Doctor Calls for Truth on Vaccines
Vaccines: Crossing Immunological Boundaries
Polish study: No historical benefit in vaccines
Parents Distrust, Delay Vaccines, Survey Finds
Historical Data Shows Vaccines are Not what Saved Us
More parents claim vaccine-autism link
Historical Facts About the Dangers (and Failures) of Vaccines

Read More...
Health

Ebola spreads to Freetown, Sierra Leone - WHO concerned virus could go global


Theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com
Sun, 13 Jul 2014 15:31 UTC
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© Seylou/AFP/Getty ImagesDoctors in protective gear work in the isolation ward.
Disease

The worst outbreak of Ebola moved to Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown where an Egyptian was found with the city's first confirmed case of the disease. The unidentified Egyptian national had traveled from Kenema, the largest city in the nation's Eastern Province, and checked into a clinic east of Freetown, Sidie Yahya Tunis, director of Information, Communication and Technology at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, said by phone today.

The person was moved back to the Ebola center in Kenema, he said. "The Ebola disease usually spreads to other places when suspected or confirmed cases in one community move to another, they abandon treatment centers to stay with relatives or they seek treatment outside the Ebola centers," Tunis said. There have been 99 Ebola deaths in Sierra Leone out of 315 laboratory-confirmed cases, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement today. The ministry said yesterday that 92 people had died out of 305 cases. Cases of the hemorrhagic fever have killed more than 540 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in an outbreak that according to the World Health Organization may last another three to four months.

The toll is greater than the 280 people killed in 1976, when the virus was first identified near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The rapid spread of the virus is largely due to people moving across borders as well as cultural practices that are contrary to public health guidelines, such as people touching the body of a deceased relative before the funeral.

Source: Bloomberg
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Attention

The CDC claims to be 'astonished' by lab breaches of anthrax, smallpox and bird flu

Lily Dane
The Daily Sheeple
Sat, 12 Jul 2014 14:58 UTC
A few days ago, word got out that 6 vials of variola, the virus that causes smallpox, were found in a cold storage room that is owned by the Food and Drug Administration on the NIH's Bethesda campus.

That research building was not equipped or approved for storage of deadly pathogens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In addition to the 6 vials that were labeled variola, ten unmarked vials were found...and so far, no one has addressed what those vials may contain, or if they are even being tested.

Yesterday, the CDC announced that at least two of the vials contain viable samples of the deadly smallpox virus.

Comment: We should all feel safer knowing that the Keystone Cops of lab workers are bungling handling some of the most dangerous pathogens known to man.

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Attention

Ebola deaths surge in Sierra Leone and Liberia; 44 new cases, 21 deaths

Stephanie Nebehay
Reuters.com
Fri, 11 Jul 2014 04:26 UTC
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© Reuters/Misha HussainA scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA in order to test for the virus at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou.
Ebola continues to spread in Sierra Leone, Liberia and to a lesser extent in Guinea, with a combined 44 new cases and 21 deaths between July 6-8, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

This brought the total in West Africa's first outbreak of the deadly viral disease to 888 cases including 539 deaths since February, the United Nations agency said.

"The epidemic trend in Liberia and Sierra Leone remains precarious with high numbers of new cases and deaths being reported," the WHO said.

Just one confirmed new case had been reported during the past week in Guinea, where the WHO said it was closely monitoring the situation. There has been resistance among some communities to measures recommended to control the outbreak, such as precautions during traditional burial ceremonies.

Comment:
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection
Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus

Read More...
Attention

UN warns Ebola outbreak could become a pandemic

Jerome R. Corsi
WND
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 08:43 UTC
ebola workers
© unknown
Health ministers from 11 West African countries began a two-day Emergency Ministerial meeting in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday amid concern the outbreak of the Ebola virus that began in Ghana could spread across their region as an uncontrolled pandemic.

In a statement distributed at the United Nations, the World Health Organization, WHO, classified the current Ebola outbreak as the worst ever.

The outbreak traces back to cases appearing in rural Guinea in March, which spread across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. So far, a total of 750 cases and 455 deaths have been reported in the affected countries, according to WHO
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Ambulance

Crisis talks begin in western African nations as Ebola deaths rise 38 percent

Nana Boakye-Yiadom
Medical Express
Wed, 02 Jul 2014 09:40 UTC
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© Cellou Binani/AFP/Getty ImagesThe isolation ward for Ebola patients at a hospital in Conakry, Guinea.
Health ministers from across western Africa met on Wednesday to plan "drastic action" against the world's deadliest-ever Ebola epidemic as dozens of new cases continued to emerge.

There have been 759 confirmed or suspected cases of the haemorrhagic fever in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, with 467 people dead.

The new death toll represented a rise of 129 - or 38 percent - since the UN agency's last bulletin given just a week ago.

"This makes the ongoing Ebola outbreak the largest in terms of the number of cases and deaths as well as geographical spread," the WHO said in a statement announcing the two-day conference, which opened in Ghana's capital Accra, with 11 west African health ministers attending.

"Decisions taken at this meeting will be critical in addressing the current and future outbreaks," it said.

Since the region's first ever epidemic of the deadly and highly contagious fever broke out in Guinea in January, the WHO has sent in more than 150 experts to help tackle the regional crisis.

Comment: For more details on Ebola's similarity to the Black Death and possible cosmic (cometary) connection see:
Black Death found to be Ebola-like virus
New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection

Read More...
Ambulance

West Africa Ebola outbreak 'out of control' and 'unprecedented' says Doctors Without Borders

Sarah Dilorenzo
The Associated Press
Fri, 20 Jun 2014 16:21 UTC
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© AP
The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa is "totally out of control," according to a senior official for Doctors Without Borders, who says the medical group is stretched to the limit in responding.

The outbreak has caused more deaths than any other of the disease, said another official with the medical charity. Ebola has been linked to more than 330 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the World Health Organization.

International organizations and the governments involved need to send in more health experts and increase public education messages about how to stop the spread of the disease, Bart Janssens, the director of operations for the medical group in Brussels, told The Associated Press on Friday.

"The reality is clear that the epidemic is now in a second wave," Janssens said. "And, for me, it is totally out of control."

Comment: See:
  • New Light on the Black Death: The Viral and Cosmic Connection

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Fireball 4

Cyclical plague: Remains of 'End of the World' epidemic found in Ancient Egypt

Owen Jarus
Live Science
Mon, 16 Jun 2014 11:14 UTC
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© Associazione Culturale per lo Studio dell’Egitto e del Sudan
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of an epidemic in Egypt so terrible that one ancient writer believed the world was coming to an end.

Working at the Funerary Complex of Harwa and Akhimenru in the west bank of the ancient city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor) in Egypt, the team of the Italian Archaeological Mission to Luxor (MAIL) found bodies covered with a thick layer of lime (historically used as a disinfectant). The researchers also found three kilns where the lime was produced, as well as a giant bonfire containing human remains, where many of the plague victims were incinerated.

Pottery remains found in the kilns allowed researchers to date the grisly operation to the third century A.D., a time when a series of epidemics now dubbed the "Plague of Cyprian" ravaged the Roman Empire, which included Egypt. Saint Cyprian was a bishop of Carthage (a city in Tunisia) who described the plague as signaling the end of the world.

Occurring between roughly A.D. 250-271, the plague "according to some sources killed more than 5,000 people a day in Rome alone," wrote Francesco Tiradritti, director of the MAIL, in the latest issue of Egyptian Archaeology, a magazine published by the Egypt Exploration Society.

Comment: For a much broader perspective, you may read Earth Changes and the Human Cosmic Connection: The Secret History of the World - Book 3 by Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk, also available here.

For more historical background, you may also read Laura Knight-Jadczyk's Comets and the Horns of Moses (The Secret History of the World, volume 2), also available here.

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Attention

Antibiotic-resistant superbug has made its way into the food supply

Lindsay Abrams
Salon
Thu, 12 Jun 2014 08:48 UTC
Researchers discovered carbapenem-resistant bacteria in raw squid for the first time.
superbug
© Image Wizard/Shutterstock
A dangerous "superbug" has made its way into the North American food supply for the first time, Canadian researchers announced Wednesday. Routine testing of raw squid, imported from South Korea, revealed a strain of bacteria resistant to carbapenems, a class of antibiotics used to treat life-threatening infections.

This is concerning because carbapenems are a "last resort" antibiotic, one doctors turn to when common antibiotics fail. Health officials have been watching them closely; in April, the World Health Organization warned that antibiotic resistance had become a serious, global threat to public health, listing the spread of carbapanem resistance as a main reason for that.
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