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Sign up with GoogleWest Africa Ebola Outbreak [11,313 dead]
- Thread starter LazyLion
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marine1
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Will only be very bad for business.
LazyLion
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I doubt it. There is no Ebola outbreak in Zimbabwe yet. Seems like overkill for now.
LazyLion
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TRADERS WARN OF CHINESE EXODUS FROM EBOLA-HIT SIERRA LEONE
by Frankie TAGGART
Li Luming carefully straightens a table cloth in his empty restaurant in Sierra Leone's capital as he laments the damage Ebola has done to business.
It is a pointless gesture -- the table, like dozens in the "Beijing Restaurant", has not been used for weeks -- but it is important to keep going, to show the staff that it's "business as usual".
A favourite of locals and Chinese expatriates alike for more than a decade, the restaurant has seen just a handful of customers since June.
"With Ebola, everyone is afraid. No one wants to go out," 50-year-old Li tells AFP at the 70-cover eaterie in Freetown's Murray Town district.
Li has been in the capital for two decades but, like many entrepreneurs in the once-thriving and influential Chinese community, he is thinking of packing it in and heading back home.
"Before Ebola, all the Chinese and some foreigners came here to eat. Now nobody comes. We have no customers. We may have to close," he says.
Ebola, a virulent tropical haemorrhagic fever, has claimed almost 1,500 lives since the start of the year in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.
Eastern Sierra Leone has been particularly hard-hit, but a death in Freetown has spread fear that the capital could be in line for a wave of cases.
The quarantining of eight Chinese medical workers was particularly shocking to their compatriots, say members of the community in Freetown.
An exodus by Chinese business would be calamitous for the commercial centre of Sierra Leone, one of the world's poorest countries still struggling to recover from a ruinous 11-year civil war which ended in 2002.
The Chinese embassy estimates the community in Freetown to number only "several hundred", a spokesman told AFP, but its influence extends far beyond its size.
Dozens of Chinese restaurants, hardware stores, machine parts manufacturers and construction firms can be seen across the sprawling city of 1.2 million people.
Chinese contractors have built bridges and roads, Freetown's national stadium, government and parliament offices and a 100-bed hospital close to the capital.
Beijing has invested in agriculture, health care and education in Sierra Leone since 1971, when diplomatic ties were first fostered during Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution in China.
Investment tailed off during the civil war, but China has since emerged as Sierra Leone's second-biggest import and export partner, after the European Union.
Trade between the two countries stood at $109 million by 2010, and total Chinese direct investment amounted to $51.2 million.
Although poverty is widespread in the country, Sierra Leone has mineral riches including diamond resources, gold, bauxite, titanium ore and magnetite iron-ore. These have attracted massive investments.
President Ernest Koroma signed deals with China last year worth $8 billion for huge construction projects, including a new international airport 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Freetown.
With the Ebola crisis likely to continue for months rather than weeks, China's policy of support for Sierra Leone's recovery has never faced a sterner test.
The Chinese embassy has announced an aid package worth $1.6 million to help its host nation through the crisis, but has yet to make a public commitment to Sierra Leone's economy.
The mission told AFP that the effects of the Ebola crisis were "a very sensitive issue", and did not respond to several requests for more detailed comment.
Alimamy Bangura, director of the finance ministry's economic policy and research unit, told AFP that double-digit economic growth in 2012 and 2013 was driven not just by mining but also by the services sector, which is disproportionately dominated by the Chinese in Freetown.
"Tourism is a fast-growing sector in Sierra Leone, but because of the Ebola outbreak investors and visitors are now scared away, and in most of the hotels now the occupancies are very low," he said.
Night clubs, cinemas and bars had been ordered shut to minimise the spread of the epidemic, while restaurants are doing poor business, he said.
Freetown's Lumley Beach district, usually packed day and night with tourists, local diners, street hawkers and sex workers, is unusually quiet.
Staff try to look busy at the China Town Guest House, cleaning floors which no one has dirtied.
"Before Ebola, business came from everywhere, business people as well as tourists," says Lan Lan Jaffa, owner of the 17-room hotel.
The 51-year-old, from southern China, has made good profits since she opened the hotel, a supermarket and an adjoining restaurant with her Lebanese husband 11 years ago.
But she estimates that turnover is down by more than 70 percent on last year's figures.
"Business is actually very bad now. After May it got worse, June was stable but in July we saw very few guests -- about three or four. In August we have had only one."
Jaffa employs 30 local staff and 14 Chinese, two of whom, frightened by the Ebola outbreak raging in the country's east, decided to go home.
Many in the Chinese community have followed suit, Jaffa tells AFP, leaving the businesses which rely on them without customers.
"We can manage because I own the building and don't pay any rent. But I know about two restaurants that have closed already," she says.
"People are scared and worried and everyone wants to go home. Some people are staying, but many Chinese have gone."
Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 27 Aug 2014 05:58
by Frankie TAGGART
Li Luming carefully straightens a table cloth in his empty restaurant in Sierra Leone's capital as he laments the damage Ebola has done to business.
It is a pointless gesture -- the table, like dozens in the "Beijing Restaurant", has not been used for weeks -- but it is important to keep going, to show the staff that it's "business as usual".
A favourite of locals and Chinese expatriates alike for more than a decade, the restaurant has seen just a handful of customers since June.
"With Ebola, everyone is afraid. No one wants to go out," 50-year-old Li tells AFP at the 70-cover eaterie in Freetown's Murray Town district.
Li has been in the capital for two decades but, like many entrepreneurs in the once-thriving and influential Chinese community, he is thinking of packing it in and heading back home.
"Before Ebola, all the Chinese and some foreigners came here to eat. Now nobody comes. We have no customers. We may have to close," he says.
Ebola, a virulent tropical haemorrhagic fever, has claimed almost 1,500 lives since the start of the year in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.
Eastern Sierra Leone has been particularly hard-hit, but a death in Freetown has spread fear that the capital could be in line for a wave of cases.
The quarantining of eight Chinese medical workers was particularly shocking to their compatriots, say members of the community in Freetown.
An exodus by Chinese business would be calamitous for the commercial centre of Sierra Leone, one of the world's poorest countries still struggling to recover from a ruinous 11-year civil war which ended in 2002.
The Chinese embassy estimates the community in Freetown to number only "several hundred", a spokesman told AFP, but its influence extends far beyond its size.
Dozens of Chinese restaurants, hardware stores, machine parts manufacturers and construction firms can be seen across the sprawling city of 1.2 million people.
Chinese contractors have built bridges and roads, Freetown's national stadium, government and parliament offices and a 100-bed hospital close to the capital.
Beijing has invested in agriculture, health care and education in Sierra Leone since 1971, when diplomatic ties were first fostered during Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution in China.
Investment tailed off during the civil war, but China has since emerged as Sierra Leone's second-biggest import and export partner, after the European Union.
Trade between the two countries stood at $109 million by 2010, and total Chinese direct investment amounted to $51.2 million.
Although poverty is widespread in the country, Sierra Leone has mineral riches including diamond resources, gold, bauxite, titanium ore and magnetite iron-ore. These have attracted massive investments.
President Ernest Koroma signed deals with China last year worth $8 billion for huge construction projects, including a new international airport 60 kilometres (40 miles) from Freetown.
With the Ebola crisis likely to continue for months rather than weeks, China's policy of support for Sierra Leone's recovery has never faced a sterner test.
The Chinese embassy has announced an aid package worth $1.6 million to help its host nation through the crisis, but has yet to make a public commitment to Sierra Leone's economy.
The mission told AFP that the effects of the Ebola crisis were "a very sensitive issue", and did not respond to several requests for more detailed comment.
Alimamy Bangura, director of the finance ministry's economic policy and research unit, told AFP that double-digit economic growth in 2012 and 2013 was driven not just by mining but also by the services sector, which is disproportionately dominated by the Chinese in Freetown.
"Tourism is a fast-growing sector in Sierra Leone, but because of the Ebola outbreak investors and visitors are now scared away, and in most of the hotels now the occupancies are very low," he said.
Night clubs, cinemas and bars had been ordered shut to minimise the spread of the epidemic, while restaurants are doing poor business, he said.
Freetown's Lumley Beach district, usually packed day and night with tourists, local diners, street hawkers and sex workers, is unusually quiet.
Staff try to look busy at the China Town Guest House, cleaning floors which no one has dirtied.
"Before Ebola, business came from everywhere, business people as well as tourists," says Lan Lan Jaffa, owner of the 17-room hotel.
The 51-year-old, from southern China, has made good profits since she opened the hotel, a supermarket and an adjoining restaurant with her Lebanese husband 11 years ago.
But she estimates that turnover is down by more than 70 percent on last year's figures.
"Business is actually very bad now. After May it got worse, June was stable but in July we saw very few guests -- about three or four. In August we have had only one."
Jaffa employs 30 local staff and 14 Chinese, two of whom, frightened by the Ebola outbreak raging in the country's east, decided to go home.
Many in the Chinese community have followed suit, Jaffa tells AFP, leaving the businesses which rely on them without customers.
"We can manage because I own the building and don't pay any rent. But I know about two restaurants that have closed already," she says.
"People are scared and worried and everyone wants to go home. Some people are staying, but many Chinese have gone."
Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 27 Aug 2014 05:58
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
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CANADA PULLING EBOLA LAB TEAM FROM SIERRA LEONE
By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press
Canada is evacuating a three-member mobile laboratory team out of Sierra Leone after people in their hotel were diagnosed with Ebola.
The Public Agency of Canada said late Tuesday none of the team members had any direct contact with the sick individuals and they are not showing any signs of illness. The agency says they will remain in voluntary isolation and be monitored closely.
The agency says the laboratory team was helping to control the outbreak there by helping health care workers diagnosis and rule out infections.
Canada says it will send in another team once it is deemed safe.
The World Health Organization is pulling out its team from the eastern Sierra Leonean city of Kailahun, where an epidemiologist working with the organization was recently infected.
Source : Sapa-AP /gm
Date : 27 Aug 2014 05:55
By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press
Canada is evacuating a three-member mobile laboratory team out of Sierra Leone after people in their hotel were diagnosed with Ebola.
The Public Agency of Canada said late Tuesday none of the team members had any direct contact with the sick individuals and they are not showing any signs of illness. The agency says they will remain in voluntary isolation and be monitored closely.
The agency says the laboratory team was helping to control the outbreak there by helping health care workers diagnosis and rule out infections.
Canada says it will send in another team once it is deemed safe.
The World Health Organization is pulling out its team from the eastern Sierra Leonean city of Kailahun, where an epidemiologist working with the organization was recently infected.
Source : Sapa-AP /gm
Date : 27 Aug 2014 05:55
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
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BA STOPS FLIGHTS TO LIBERIA, SIERRA LEONE UNTIL 2015 OVER EBOLA
British Airways extended to 2015 its suspension of flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone due to concerns about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus it announced on Tuesday.
"British Airways has suspended flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone until 31 December 2014 due to concerns about the public health situation in both countries," the airline said in a statement.
"The safety of our customers, crew and ground teams is always our top priority and we will keep the routes under constant review in the coming weeks."
The airline had previously suspended its flights until September.
Normally, the carrier operates a route four times a week between London's Heathrow airport and Freetown in Sierra Leone, with a connection to the Liberian capital Monrovia.
The airline said customers with tickets booked on those routes could have a refund, rebook for a later date, or rearrange to fly out of Ghana, Kenya or Nigeria.
Over 1,400 people have died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the start of the year in the worst ever outbreak of the virus.
Source : Sapa-AFP /kn
Date : 26 Aug 2014 23:45
British Airways extended to 2015 its suspension of flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone due to concerns about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus it announced on Tuesday.
"British Airways has suspended flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone until 31 December 2014 due to concerns about the public health situation in both countries," the airline said in a statement.
"The safety of our customers, crew and ground teams is always our top priority and we will keep the routes under constant review in the coming weeks."
The airline had previously suspended its flights until September.
Normally, the carrier operates a route four times a week between London's Heathrow airport and Freetown in Sierra Leone, with a connection to the Liberian capital Monrovia.
The airline said customers with tickets booked on those routes could have a refund, rebook for a later date, or rearrange to fly out of Ghana, Kenya or Nigeria.
Over 1,400 people have died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the start of the year in the worst ever outbreak of the virus.
Source : Sapa-AFP /kn
Date : 26 Aug 2014 23:45
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
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SECOND WHO WORKER INFECTED WITH EBOLA EVACUATED TO GERMANY
A second World Health Organization (WHO) staff member has been infected with Ebola in West Africa and will be evacuated to Germany, health officials said Wednesday.
The announcement comes a day after the WHO shut a laboratory in Sierra Leone, after a Senegalese epidemiologist was infected with the deadly virus.
The unnamed WHO worker will be treated in a university hospital in Hamburg-Eppendorf, hospital spokesman Rico Schmidt told dpa.
The patient was expected to land in the northern city of Hamburg Wednesday and be transferred to the hospital in an isolated emergency vehicle.
It was unclear in which West African country the WHO worker had been infected with the virus.
The Ebola death toll across West Africa had risen to 1,427 by August 23, according to the WHO, with a total of 2,615 suspected or confirmed cases in the region.
Ebola causes massive haemorrhaging and has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent. The disease is transmitted through contact with blood and other bodily fluids.
Source : Sapa-dpa /gq
Date : 27 Aug 2014 09:57
A second World Health Organization (WHO) staff member has been infected with Ebola in West Africa and will be evacuated to Germany, health officials said Wednesday.
The announcement comes a day after the WHO shut a laboratory in Sierra Leone, after a Senegalese epidemiologist was infected with the deadly virus.
The unnamed WHO worker will be treated in a university hospital in Hamburg-Eppendorf, hospital spokesman Rico Schmidt told dpa.
The patient was expected to land in the northern city of Hamburg Wednesday and be transferred to the hospital in an isolated emergency vehicle.
It was unclear in which West African country the WHO worker had been infected with the virus.
The Ebola death toll across West Africa had risen to 1,427 by August 23, according to the WHO, with a total of 2,615 suspected or confirmed cases in the region.
Ebola causes massive haemorrhaging and has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent. The disease is transmitted through contact with blood and other bodily fluids.
Source : Sapa-dpa /gq
Date : 27 Aug 2014 09:57
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
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NIGERIA CONFIRMS EBOLA DEATH IN OIL CITY OF PORT HARCOURT
Nigeria on Thursday said that a doctor had died from Ebola in the southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt in the first case of the deadly virus outside the financial hub, Lagos.
Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the medic died on August 22 after treating a patient who had contact with a Liberian-American man, who brought the virus into Nigeria and died in a Lagos hospital on July 25.
"Following the report of this death by the doctor's widow the next day, the case had been thoroughly investigated and laboratory analysis showed that this doctor died from EVD (Ebola Virus Disease)," he told reporters in Abuja.
Source : Sapa-AFP /aa
Date : 28 Aug 2014 10:54
Nigeria on Thursday said that a doctor had died from Ebola in the southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt in the first case of the deadly virus outside the financial hub, Lagos.
Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the medic died on August 22 after treating a patient who had contact with a Liberian-American man, who brought the virus into Nigeria and died in a Lagos hospital on July 25.
"Following the report of this death by the doctor's widow the next day, the case had been thoroughly investigated and laboratory analysis showed that this doctor died from EVD (Ebola Virus Disease)," he told reporters in Abuja.
Source : Sapa-AFP /aa
Date : 28 Aug 2014 10:54
LazyLion
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EBOLA DEATH TOLL RISES TO 1,552, WITH 3,062 CASES: WHO
The death toll from the Ebola outbreak tearing through West Africa has passed the 1,500 mark while the number of cases has soared past 3,000, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
As of August 26, 1,552 people had died from the murderous epidemic that reared its head at the beginning of the year, while 3,062 had become infected, the UN's health body said.
On August 20, the toll stood at 1,427 deaths out of 2,600 cases.
Source : Sapa-AFP /ma
Date : 28 Aug 2014 11:36
The death toll from the Ebola outbreak tearing through West Africa has passed the 1,500 mark while the number of cases has soared past 3,000, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
As of August 26, 1,552 people had died from the murderous epidemic that reared its head at the beginning of the year, while 3,062 had become infected, the UN's health body said.
On August 20, the toll stood at 1,427 deaths out of 2,600 cases.
Source : Sapa-AFP /ma
Date : 28 Aug 2014 11:36
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
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UN: EBOLA CASES COULD EVENTUALLY REACH 20,000
By JOHN HEILPRIN
The World Health Organization says the Ebola outbreak in West Africa eventually could exceed 20,000 cases, more than 6 times as many as now.
A new study by the U.N. health agency also assumes that in many hard-hit areas, the actual number of cases may be two to four times higher than is currently reported.
The agency on Thursday published new figures saying that 1,552 people have now died from the Ebola virus from among 3,069 cases reported so far.
Source : Sapa-AP /ma
Date : 28 Aug 2014 12:23
By JOHN HEILPRIN
The World Health Organization says the Ebola outbreak in West Africa eventually could exceed 20,000 cases, more than 6 times as many as now.
A new study by the U.N. health agency also assumes that in many hard-hit areas, the actual number of cases may be two to four times higher than is currently reported.
The agency on Thursday published new figures saying that 1,552 people have now died from the Ebola virus from among 3,069 cases reported so far.
Source : Sapa-AP /ma
Date : 28 Aug 2014 12:23
Ockie
Resident Lead Bender
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Unless extraordinary measures are implemented, why would it stop at 20 000? If anything, the more people are infected, especially in densely poplated mega cities the more it will snowball and pick up speed?
Anonymous_Coward
Well-Known Member
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Was Patrick Sawyer a member of the Freemasons?
Cius
Executive Member
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How many people have died from secondary effects such as quarantine induced starvation, people avoiding clinics and dying from some other treatable disease etc? I recon the panic the disease is causing will cause desperate measures and the death toll from the knock on effects will be higher than that of Ebola itself.
Kornhub
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Zimbabwe can't conduct Ebola tests - ministry
http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe-cant-conduct-Ebola-tests-ministry-20140829
http://www.news24.com/Africa/Zimbabwe/Zimbabwe-cant-conduct-Ebola-tests-ministry-20140829
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
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NO EBOLA CASES IN SA: DEPT
There are no Ebola cases reported or confirmed in South Africa, the health department said on Friday.
This was while the total number of cases in the current outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone had risen to 3069 probable and confirmed cases, spokesman Popo Maja said in a statement.
There had been 1552 deaths.
"The outbreak continues to accelerate. More than 40 percent of the total number of cases have occurred within the past 21 days," he said.
"However, most cases are concentrated in only a few localities. The overall death rate is 52 percent. It ranges from 42 percent in Sierra Leone to 66 percent in Guinea."
A separate Ebola outbreak, not related to the one in west Africa, was laboratory confirmed on Tuesday by the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It was also detailed in a separate edition of the Disease Outbreak News of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"A detailed analysis by [the] WHO of exactly where transmission is occurring -- by district level -- and of time trends is ongoing," Maja said.
"Preliminary results show that cases are still concentrated -- 62 percent of all reported cases since the beginning of the outbreak -- in the epicentre of the outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where cases continue to rise."
Capital cities were of particular concern, owing to their population density and repercussions for travel and trade.
The WHO and its partner organisations were on the ground establishing Ebola treatment centres, and strengthening capacity for laboratory testing, contact tracing, social mobilisation, safe burials, and non-Ebola health care.
"The WHO continues to monitor for reports of rumoured or suspected cases from countries around the world and systematic verification of these cases is ongoing," Maja said.
"Countries are encouraged to continue engaging in active surveillance and preparedness activities."
The health department continued to monitor the situation and would keep South African citizens informed, he said.
Source : Sapa /aw/jk/lp/jje
Date : 29 Aug 2014 14:33
There are no Ebola cases reported or confirmed in South Africa, the health department said on Friday.
This was while the total number of cases in the current outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone had risen to 3069 probable and confirmed cases, spokesman Popo Maja said in a statement.
There had been 1552 deaths.
"The outbreak continues to accelerate. More than 40 percent of the total number of cases have occurred within the past 21 days," he said.
"However, most cases are concentrated in only a few localities. The overall death rate is 52 percent. It ranges from 42 percent in Sierra Leone to 66 percent in Guinea."
A separate Ebola outbreak, not related to the one in west Africa, was laboratory confirmed on Tuesday by the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It was also detailed in a separate edition of the Disease Outbreak News of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
"A detailed analysis by [the] WHO of exactly where transmission is occurring -- by district level -- and of time trends is ongoing," Maja said.
"Preliminary results show that cases are still concentrated -- 62 percent of all reported cases since the beginning of the outbreak -- in the epicentre of the outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where cases continue to rise."
Capital cities were of particular concern, owing to their population density and repercussions for travel and trade.
The WHO and its partner organisations were on the ground establishing Ebola treatment centres, and strengthening capacity for laboratory testing, contact tracing, social mobilisation, safe burials, and non-Ebola health care.
"The WHO continues to monitor for reports of rumoured or suspected cases from countries around the world and systematic verification of these cases is ongoing," Maja said.
"Countries are encouraged to continue engaging in active surveillance and preparedness activities."
The health department continued to monitor the situation and would keep South African citizens informed, he said.
Source : Sapa /aw/jk/lp/jje
Date : 29 Aug 2014 14:33
The_Assimilator
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Ebola, now coming to a Senegal near you...
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/29/health/ebola-outbreak-senegal/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/29/health/ebola-outbreak-senegal/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
CNN said:
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
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- Mar 17, 2005
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Ebola outbreak: Senegal confirms first case
Read More....
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28983554
Read More....
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28983554
LazyLion
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- 105,605
NIGERIA MONITORS 160 AFTER EBOLA KILLS DOCTOR IN OIL CITY
Some 160 people are being medically monitored in Nigeria's oil-producing hub Port Harcourt after a doctor died from the virus, the local government said on Friday.
"As of today, none of them has shown symptoms of any kind. We are in touch with them constantly and they also call us to tell us their condition," Rivers State health commissioner Sampson Parker told a news conference in the city.
The Nigerian government announced on Thursday that the doctor was Nigeria's sixth person to die from the haemorrhagic fever and the first outside the country's biggest city, Lagos.
Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers state, is the centre of Nigeria's oil industry and is home to a number of oil majors, including Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, France's Total and US firm Chevron.
The doctor, Ikyke Samuel Enuemo, fell ill after treating an official from the ECOWAS regional bloc, who travelled to the city after coming into contact with a Liberian-American man who brought the virus into Nigeria and died on July 25.
The official slipped through the surveillance net in Lagos. He was brought back to Lagos but found to have recovered from the virus, health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.
Enuemo's wife, who gave birth only three months ago, is ill with symptoms of the disease and has been placed in quarantine.
She requested to be moved out of Port Harcourt for "emotional reasons" and has been taken to an isolation unit in Lagos for further observation and treatment, Parker told reporters.
"She is also a doctor. Her three-month-old baby is alive and well. The result of the test conducted on her (for Ebola) is not yet out," he added.
Six people have died of the disease in Africa's most populous country.
Specialists from the World Health Organization, the United States and Britain have joined experts from the Nigerian government in Rivers State to check the spread of the virus.
Rivers state has a quarantine centre at Oduoha, about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of the city as well as a special isolation ward for Ebola patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).
Neither has received any patient, Parker said.
A mobile laboratory has arrived in the city while the hotel where the ECOWAS official was treated has been decontaminated, as have the hospital where Enuemo was treated, his house and the morgue at UPTH.
Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 29 Aug 2014 17:48
Some 160 people are being medically monitored in Nigeria's oil-producing hub Port Harcourt after a doctor died from the virus, the local government said on Friday.
"As of today, none of them has shown symptoms of any kind. We are in touch with them constantly and they also call us to tell us their condition," Rivers State health commissioner Sampson Parker told a news conference in the city.
The Nigerian government announced on Thursday that the doctor was Nigeria's sixth person to die from the haemorrhagic fever and the first outside the country's biggest city, Lagos.
Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers state, is the centre of Nigeria's oil industry and is home to a number of oil majors, including Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, France's Total and US firm Chevron.
The doctor, Ikyke Samuel Enuemo, fell ill after treating an official from the ECOWAS regional bloc, who travelled to the city after coming into contact with a Liberian-American man who brought the virus into Nigeria and died on July 25.
The official slipped through the surveillance net in Lagos. He was brought back to Lagos but found to have recovered from the virus, health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.
Enuemo's wife, who gave birth only three months ago, is ill with symptoms of the disease and has been placed in quarantine.
She requested to be moved out of Port Harcourt for "emotional reasons" and has been taken to an isolation unit in Lagos for further observation and treatment, Parker told reporters.
"She is also a doctor. Her three-month-old baby is alive and well. The result of the test conducted on her (for Ebola) is not yet out," he added.
Six people have died of the disease in Africa's most populous country.
Specialists from the World Health Organization, the United States and Britain have joined experts from the Nigerian government in Rivers State to check the spread of the virus.
Rivers state has a quarantine centre at Oduoha, about 25 kilometres (16 miles) east of the city as well as a special isolation ward for Ebola patients at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH).
Neither has received any patient, Parker said.
A mobile laboratory has arrived in the city while the hotel where the ECOWAS official was treated has been decontaminated, as have the hospital where Enuemo was treated, his house and the morgue at UPTH.
Source : Sapa-AFP /lk
Date : 29 Aug 2014 17:48
MickeyD
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EBOLA HITS 5TH WAFRICAN STATE AS SENEGAL CONFIRMS FIRST CASE
by MALICK BA
The Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 1,500 people across West Africa spread to a fifth country in the region on Friday with the first confirmed case of the deadly virus in Senegal.
The case marks the first time a new country has been hit by the outbreak since July and comes a day after the World Health Organization warned the number of infections was increasing rapidly.
Scientists meanwhile said the first human trials of a potential vaccine would start next week using a product made by pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline and the US government.
On Friday, scientists writing in the journal Nature said 18 lab monkeys given high doses of the Ebola virus fully recovered after being given the prototype drug ZMapp, which reversed bleeding in the animals.
ZMapp has been given to a handful of frontline health workers who have contracted Ebola, two of whom have recovered, and two of whom have died. Three others are still receiving the treatment.
Senegal's health ministry said the country's first Ebola patient was a young Guinean man who was immediately quarantined at a Dakar hospital, where he was in a "satisfactory condition".
The man is believed to have been infected in Guinea's capital Conakry, and may have travelled to Senegal before Dakar closed its land border with Guinea on August 21.
Authorities are now scrabbling to piece together where he went and who he encountered, in a bid to halt the spread of the deadly virus.
New figures released by the WHO on Thursday revealed the massive scale of the crisis, which it said indicated a "rapid increase still in the intensity of transmission" that could cost at least $490 million (370 million euros) to tackle.
In a sign that affected countries are struggling to stop its spread, the UN agency said the number of cases could exceed 20,000 before the epidemic is brought under control.
Never before has there been an Ebola outbreak so large, nor has the virus -- which was first detected in 1976 -- ever infected people in West Africa until now.
As of August 26, 1,552 people had been confirmed dead from Ebola in four countries -- Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.
Liberia was the worst affected with 694 deaths; 422 people have died in Sierra Leone; and 430 in Guinea, where the virus emerged at the start of the year. Nigeria has now recorded six deaths.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has also confirmed two cases of Ebola, but officials there insist it is unconnected to the current outbreak in West Africa.
Sierra Leone President Ernest Koroma on Friday sacked health minister Miatta Kargbo.
A presidential statement read on state television said the decision was made "in order to create a conducive environment for more efficient and effective handling of the Ebola outbreak."
Nigeria's latest death -- in the southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt -- was the first outside its biggest city, Lagos, and dashed hopes that the country had successfully contained the virus.
The victim, a doctor named Ikyke Samuel Enuemo, is believed to have caught the virus from a patient he treated who travelled to the city after coming into contact with an infected Liberian-American man.
Some 160 people are now under surveillance in Port Harcourt following the doctor's death, the local government said on Friday.
Meanwhile a curfew was imposed in N'Zerekore, Guinea's second-largest city, a day after 20 people were injured during a protest by market stall holders against a team of health workers sent, without notice, to spray their market with disinfectant.
In a bid to stop the spread of the virus, many African governments have sought to ringfence Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
But member states of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS complained Thursday that some of the security measures taken by other countries, including travel bans, had unfairly hit the region.
A number of airlines, including Air France and British Airways, have suspended their services to Freetown and Monrovia, the capitals of Sierra Leone and Liberia respectively.
Bruce Aylward, the WHO's head of emergency programmes, said it was "absolutely vital" that airlines resume flights because bans were hindering the emergency response.
The outbreak has also caused sporting chaos, with Sierra Leone having to field all players for the qualifying games for the African Cup of Nations from outside the country over a growing quarantine.
Morocco, which will host the tournament next year, said on Friday it was launching a national commission tasked with drawing up a health plan to deal with the risk from Ebola.
Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 30 Aug 2014 04:58
by MALICK BA
The Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 1,500 people across West Africa spread to a fifth country in the region on Friday with the first confirmed case of the deadly virus in Senegal.
The case marks the first time a new country has been hit by the outbreak since July and comes a day after the World Health Organization warned the number of infections was increasing rapidly.
Scientists meanwhile said the first human trials of a potential vaccine would start next week using a product made by pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline and the US government.
On Friday, scientists writing in the journal Nature said 18 lab monkeys given high doses of the Ebola virus fully recovered after being given the prototype drug ZMapp, which reversed bleeding in the animals.
ZMapp has been given to a handful of frontline health workers who have contracted Ebola, two of whom have recovered, and two of whom have died. Three others are still receiving the treatment.
Senegal's health ministry said the country's first Ebola patient was a young Guinean man who was immediately quarantined at a Dakar hospital, where he was in a "satisfactory condition".
The man is believed to have been infected in Guinea's capital Conakry, and may have travelled to Senegal before Dakar closed its land border with Guinea on August 21.
Authorities are now scrabbling to piece together where he went and who he encountered, in a bid to halt the spread of the deadly virus.
New figures released by the WHO on Thursday revealed the massive scale of the crisis, which it said indicated a "rapid increase still in the intensity of transmission" that could cost at least $490 million (370 million euros) to tackle.
In a sign that affected countries are struggling to stop its spread, the UN agency said the number of cases could exceed 20,000 before the epidemic is brought under control.
Never before has there been an Ebola outbreak so large, nor has the virus -- which was first detected in 1976 -- ever infected people in West Africa until now.
As of August 26, 1,552 people had been confirmed dead from Ebola in four countries -- Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.
Liberia was the worst affected with 694 deaths; 422 people have died in Sierra Leone; and 430 in Guinea, where the virus emerged at the start of the year. Nigeria has now recorded six deaths.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has also confirmed two cases of Ebola, but officials there insist it is unconnected to the current outbreak in West Africa.
Sierra Leone President Ernest Koroma on Friday sacked health minister Miatta Kargbo.
A presidential statement read on state television said the decision was made "in order to create a conducive environment for more efficient and effective handling of the Ebola outbreak."
Nigeria's latest death -- in the southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt -- was the first outside its biggest city, Lagos, and dashed hopes that the country had successfully contained the virus.
The victim, a doctor named Ikyke Samuel Enuemo, is believed to have caught the virus from a patient he treated who travelled to the city after coming into contact with an infected Liberian-American man.
Some 160 people are now under surveillance in Port Harcourt following the doctor's death, the local government said on Friday.
Meanwhile a curfew was imposed in N'Zerekore, Guinea's second-largest city, a day after 20 people were injured during a protest by market stall holders against a team of health workers sent, without notice, to spray their market with disinfectant.
In a bid to stop the spread of the virus, many African governments have sought to ringfence Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
But member states of the West African regional bloc ECOWAS complained Thursday that some of the security measures taken by other countries, including travel bans, had unfairly hit the region.
A number of airlines, including Air France and British Airways, have suspended their services to Freetown and Monrovia, the capitals of Sierra Leone and Liberia respectively.
Bruce Aylward, the WHO's head of emergency programmes, said it was "absolutely vital" that airlines resume flights because bans were hindering the emergency response.
The outbreak has also caused sporting chaos, with Sierra Leone having to field all players for the qualifying games for the African Cup of Nations from outside the country over a growing quarantine.
Morocco, which will host the tournament next year, said on Friday it was launching a national commission tasked with drawing up a health plan to deal with the risk from Ebola.
Source : Sapa-AFP /gm
Date : 30 Aug 2014 04:58