Plagues
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Ambulance

The worst Ebola outbreak in history is moving into Africa's cities, confusion and terror spread in its wake

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© Pete Muller/Prime for The Washington PostHeath workers wait to screen travelers for fever and other symptoms of Ebola at a checkpoint on the road between Freetown and Kenema in Sierra Leone.
The dreaded Ebola virus came to the children's hospital in the form of a 4-year-old boy.

His diagnosis became clear three days after he was admitted. The Ola During hospital - the nation's only pediatric center - was forced to close its steel gates. Fear swelled. The boy died. The 30 doctors and nurses who had contact with him were placed in quarantine, forced to nervously wait out the 21 days it can take for the virus to emerge. And remaining staff so far have refused to return to work. They, along with millions of others, are facing the worst Ebola outbreak in history. Already, the hardest-hit West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have reported more than 3,000 cases, including the infections of 240 health-care workers.

Comment: Knowledge protects and ignorance endangers. A terrible virus such as this spreads terror and confusion, but being aware is the best protection that we have. Check out the following for more information:

Pestilence, the Great Plague, and the Tobacco Cure

Vitamin C: A cure for Ebola

And of course there is the matter of strengthening the immune system through adopting a Ketogenic Diet.


Roses

Five co-authors of latest Ebola study killed by virus before research was published

Study found funeral in Guinea may have caused outbreak in Sierra Leone

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© IndependentAcross Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone at least 660 people have died from the worst outbreak yet of the haemorrhagic fever, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said,
Five co-authors of the latest study on Ebola were killed by the virus before their research was published, highlighting the huge risks undertaken by those working to combat its spread.

The study, published on Thursday, discovered the virus has mutated many times during the outbreak in West Africa, making establishing a treatment more difficult.

Mbalu Fonnie, Alex Moigboi, Alice Kovoma, Mohamed Fullah and Sheik Umar Khan worked with lead researchers at Harvard University to examine the current outbreak.

Science Magazine said all five were experienced members of the Kenema Government Hospital's (KGH) Lassa fever team. Lassa fever infections have similar symptoms to Ebola.

Their work sequenced the virus genomes from 78 patients and traced the outbreak in Sierra Leone to a funeral of a healer, which a pregnant Kenema Government Hospital Ebola patient and other women who were also infected had attended.

Comment: Why would contagious Ebola patients be allowed to attend a funeral?


Magnify

Ebola test underway for young girl in Quebec - child in hospital isolation

'Young girl' feeling sick after returning from trip to Sierra Leone
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© Frederick Murphy/DPAThe Ebola virus
A young girl from Gatineau, Que., is in isolation after feeling sick upon returning from visiting family in Sierra Leone, one of the west African countries hard hit by this year's Ebola outbreak.

Dr. Jean-Pierre Courteau, medical officer of health for the Outaouais region, said in an interview with Radio-Canada they're being cautious because of her symptoms but couldn't go into detail. He said they don't believe she came into contact with anyone who had Ebola while in Sierra Leone. "The criteria that is missing is the history of contact with an Ebola case or contact with sick people in health facilities in Africa," Dr. Courteau said.

The girl is in isolation at an undisclosed hospital after coming with her family to a Gatineau emergency room earlier in the day Friday with flu-like symptoms. There is no risk of contamination for medical staff and other people there, Dr. Courteau said. He said testing is being done in Winnipeg and results should be known by Saturday afternoon.

No confirmed Canadian cases

Ebola is a viral disease spread by bodily fluids that causes fever, muscle pain, intense weakness and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Attention

Congo confirms 7 new cases of Ebola in 2nd outbreak - reported number of cases in West Africa explode to 550 in one week

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© Theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com
Health authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have confirmed seven new Ebola cases in the northwestern Equateur Province, bringing up to 13 the number of people who had contracted the deadly virus in the province, a U.N.-run radio station said Friday. "There are now 13 cases affected by the virus...in addition to 16 other suspected cases," Health Minister Felix Kabange was quoted as saying by the Kinshasa-based Okapi radio. He asserted that the outbreak is still confined to Boende area in northern Equateur province, noting that Ebola cases reported recently in Kinshasa and Katanga proved negative. On Monday, Joseph Mboyo Limpoko, government medical inspector in Equateur, told Anadolu Agency that a total of four people countrywide had been confirmed dead from Ebola.

Ebola - a contagious disease for which there is no known treatment or cure - has claimed 1,552 lives in West Africa since the outbreak began in January. Most of the deaths were registered in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Six fatalities have also been confirmed in Nigeria. The tropical fever, which first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the DRC, can be transmitted to humans from wild animals. It also reportedly spreads through contact with the body fluids of infected persons or of those who have died of the disease.

NTA

Comment: See also:
  • Are you prepping your diet?
  • Vitamin C - A cure for Ebola



Blackbox

An unusual respiratory virus is striking children in Kansas City, Missouri

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An unusual respiratory virus is striking children in the metro in big numbers. Children's Mercy Hospital is hospitalizing 20 to 30 kids a day with the virus. The hospital is as full now as it is at the height of flu season. This is not the same virus we told you about several weeks ago that can cause meningitis. This one can cause severe breathing trouble. Children's Mercy has seen more than 300 cases in recent days in kids of all ages. Preston Sheldon's mom says he seemed fine when she took him to pre-school Tuesday.

But minutes later, the Grain Valley mom got the call. Her three-year-old son was having trouble breathing. "You could see his ribs, and his stomach was pushing out really hard... I thought it was an asthma attack," said Pam Sheldon. But it was a virus that is inundating Children's Mercy with patients. "To be at winter census is quite unusual in August obviously. To see a virus we've not seen before is unusual, too," said Dr. Mary Anne Jackson, an infectious disease specialist.

It is enterovirus 68. The doctor says it's well-known around the world, but cases have not been seen in Kansas City before. "We have about 10 to 15 percent who have severe illness from this virus which actually acts like asthma exacerbations," said Dr. Jackson. She says about two-thirds of the hospitalized cases are in children like Preston who have a history of asthma or wheezing. But others are having trouble breathing, too. She says the virus will produce an ordinary cold in many kids. What should parents watch for? "The difficulty breathing is a very obvious tip-off sign they need to come into the hospital," said Dr. Jackson.

To try to stop the spread, Children's Mercy has posted signs at security entrances saying children 12 or younger should not visit in-patients. Nor should those with symptoms visit. Dr. Jackson says good hand washing, covering your cough and not sending your child to school if he or she appears sick can help control the spread. There's no anti-viral medicine for enterovirus 68 and no vaccine. Supportive care, including oxygen, has helped Preston. His mom is glad they didn't wait to go to the emergency room. "Cause it can hit really fast. And without medical treatment, it could get really bad," she said. - Fox 4 KC

Syringe

State of Senegal confirms first Ebola case, five more states at risk of outbreak spread

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© Reuters / China Daily
West African state of Senegal has become the region's fifth country to confirm a case of the deadly Ebola virus that has killed more than 1,500 people with the WHO warning that five more states are at risk for spread of the outbreak.

A university student from neighbouring Guinea first asked for medical treatment in Dakar on Tuesday but gave no sign of Ebola, Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told reporters. The student was quarantined the next day after scientists in Guinea notified Senegalese authorities that they are unaware of whereabouts of one person who had had contact with sick people, Seck said.

Seck told the press that the student's condition is "satisfactory," after being tested positive with the deadly virus, but it is still unclear when or how the new victim came to Senegal after the country sealed off its border with Guinea last week. The World Health Organisation has been alerted of the new case.

Meanwhile, some 160 people are being monitored in Nigeria's Port Harcourt after a doctor died from the virus on Thursday.

The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa began last year in Guinea. Since then, the disease has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria and now Senegal. Five more countries were identified as at risk of contracting the virus, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

"The following countries share land borders or major transportation connections with the affected countries and are therefore at risk for spread of the Ebola outbreak: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and Senegal," the agency said, adding it will aid the new states with "surveillance, preparedness and response plan."

Comment: Your best defense against plagues is diet!

See also: Vitamin C - A cure for Ebola


Ambulance

Two Japanese with suspected Ebola symptoms hospitalized in Moldova

Ebola workers
© EPA/FILIP SINGER
Two Japanese citizens with suspected Ebola symptoms were taken from Chisinau airport to a Moldovan clinic on Friday, Moldovan border guard police said.

The passengers had signs similar to the Ebola virus-caused disease, including a high temperature. They confirmed that they began feeling unwell after returning from southern Africa where they were on a business trip, the border guard press service said.

The Japanese citizens flew from Japan to Moldova via Istanbul.

They were taken to the Moldovan National Public Health Centre.

Ambulance

Ebola airborne? WHO investigating how epidemiologist without direct contact with patients contracted the disease

ébola_traje
© AFP
A third top doctor has died from Ebola in Sierra Leone, a government official said Wednesday, as health workers tried to determine how a fourth scientist also contracted the disease before being evacuated to Europe.

The announcements raised worries about Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola, which already has killed more than 1,400 people across West Africa. The World Health Organization said it was sending a team to investigate how the epidemiologist now undergoing treatment in Germany may have contracted the disease that kills more than half its victims.

"The international surge of health workers is extremely important and if something happens, if health workers get infected and it scares off other international health workers from coming, we will be in dire straits," said Christy Feig, director of WHO communications.

Dr. Sahr Rogers had been working at a hospital in the eastern town of Kenema when he contracted Ebola, said Sierra Leonean presidential adviser Ibrahim Ben Kargbo on Wednesday. Two other top doctors already have succumbed to Ebola since the outbreak emerged there earlier this year, including Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, who also treated patients in Kenema.

Comment: Assuming that becoming infected is dependent on coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person is playing Russian roulette. Ebola may have become airborne and it is time to begin making changes in your diet that can improve your immune system:

Are you prepping your diet?

Scientists stumble across the obvious treatment for Ebola: tobacco


Attention

Ebola mutating very fast! Scientists dig into Ebola's deadly DNA for clues

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© AP Photo/Stephen Gire, ScienceThis undated handout photo provided by the journal Science shows Ebola surveillance at Kenema Governement Hospital is done by polymerase chain reaction, or PCR.
Stephen Gire and other health researchers on the ground in Africa had some hope that the Ebola outbreak was coming under control or at least plateauing in late May. Then came the funeral of a healer in Guinea. More than a dozen of the mourners contracted the disease there, probably by washing or touching the body, and took it to Sierra Leone, according to a new DNA mapping of the Ebola virus that scientists hope will help them understand what makes this killer tick.

"You had this huge burst after it looked like the outbreak was starting to die down," Gire said. "It sort of threw a wrench in the response."

Ebola exploded after that funeral and has now killed at least 1,552 people in West Africa. It's probably more than that, with 40 percent of the cases in the last three weeks, according to the World Health Organization. WHO officials said Thursday the outbreak continues to accelerate and could reach more than 20,000 cases eventually.

Gire and more than 50 colleagues - five of whom died from Ebola while fighting the outbreak in Africa - have mapped the genetic code of this strain of Ebola, and in so doing showed how crucial that May funeral was. They hope to use that to track mutations that could become more worrisome the longer the outbreak lasts. This detailed genetic mapping also could eventually make a bit of a difference in the way doctors spot and fight the disease, especially with work in preliminary vaccines.

On Thursday, officials at the National Institutes of Health announced that they were launching safety trials on a preliminary vaccine for Ebola. Researchers have already checked that still-not-tested vaccine against some of the more than 350 mutations in this strain of Ebola to make sure the changes the disease is making won't undercut science's hurried efforts to fight it, said Pardis Sabeti, a scientist at Harvard University and its affiliated Broad Institute.


Comment: Don't hold your breath. See Facilitating mutations: On the cusp of an Ebola vaccine.


She and Gire, also at Broad and Harvard, are two of the lead authors of a study, published Thursday in the journal Science, that maps the killer disease strain based on specimens collected from 78 patients.

The virus has mutated more than 300 times from previous strains of Ebola, Gire said. Researchers have also pinpointed about 50 places in the genetic code where the virus has changed since this outbreak started. So far, they don't know what any of those mutations mean, but they hope to find out.

Comment: Just by the data explained in this article alone, it is clear that Ebola is mutating very fast and is becoming very deadly. Playing it down is wishful thinking at its best. For more clues, see: Don't miss Vitamin C - A cure for Ebola.


Blackbox

Mystery: infected epidemiologist had no contact with patients, as 3rd doctor dies from Ebola in Sierra Leone

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A third top doctor has died from Ebola in Sierra Leone, a government official said Wednesday, as health workers tried to determine how a fourth scientist also contracted the disease before being evacuated to Europe.

The announcements raised worries about Sierra Leone's fight against Ebola, which already has killed more than 1,400 people across West Africa. The World Health Organization said it was sending a team to investigate how the epidemiologist now undergoing treatment in Germany may have contracted the disease that kills more than half its victims.


Comment: Technically that's true. Killing 90% of people who contract it is in fact more than half. Notice how they are still playing that down? Why not contrast that with H1N1, the little epidemic that could-------n't hurt a fly. Remember all the grave scare mongering? Why aren't they scare mongering now? Ladies and gentlemen, meet the dog that didn't bark.

H1N1 Pandemic Virus Does Not Mutate Into 'Superbug' in Lab Study

H1N1 Death Cluster In Greater Manchester Increases To 12 Ahh, the good old days. You remember when 12 was an epidemic? The cases are now up to 3,000+ with 1,500 DEAD.

Scare Tactics: Ten Dead as H1N1 Flu Returns to Britain

H1N1 Vaccines Too Little, Too Late; Most People Already Exposed and Immune

This is the real deal. The boy has cried wolf too many times? No, it's obviously an attempt to conceal the fact that they wasted all that time and money meant for working on real epidemic procedures to scare monger. Now they've been caught with their pants down.


"The international surge of health workers is extremely important and if something happens, if health workers get infected and it scares off other international health workers from coming, we will be in dire straits," said Christy Feig, director of WHO communications.

Dr. Sahr Rogers had been working at a hospital in the eastern town of Kenema when he contracted Ebola, said Sierra Leonean presidential adviser Ibrahim Ben Kargbo on Wednesday. Two other top doctors already have succumbed to Ebola since the outbreak emerged there earlier this year, including Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, who also treated patients in Kenema.

Comment: For clues, see: