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Tag: Ebola

  • Ebola: Nigeria, Cameroun, three others for GSK vaccine trials

    Ebola: Nigeria, Cameroun, three others for GSK vaccine trials

    Trials of GlaxoSmithKline’s experimental Ebola vaccine are likely to move to a second phase in Nigeria, Cameroun, Mali, Ghana and Mali in February, later than previously suggested.

    This follows a meeting of national regulators which said they needed more information.

    The World Health Organization (WHO), which hosted a meeting of national regulatory authorities and ethics committees earlier this week, said they had thoroughly discussed all aspects of the proposed trials at the two-day meeting.

    “Reviewing countries requested additional documentation from the manufacturer of the vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline, before authorization of the trials,” the WHO said in a statement.

    Nigeria and the other four countries are expected to receive and review the additional information by the end of next month.

    “If these steps are completed to the satisfaction of the national authorities, Phase II trials are likely to begin in February,” the statement said.

    The GSK vaccine is already undergoing Phase I trials, to check its safety in humans, in Switzerland, Britain, Mali and the United States, and is one of the two leading candidate vaccines for Ebola already undergoing tests.

    The other vaccine, from NewLink Genetics is also still in Phase I trials. One of its trials, in Geneva, was suspended earlier this month after some patients complained of joint pains.

     

     

  • Ban visits Ebola countries, urges respect for health rules

    Ban visits Ebola countries, urges respect for health rules

    United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has started a visit to Ebola-hit countries in West Africa, urging local communities to strictly follow health regulations in the face of signs that traditional funerals are still spreading the disease.

    Ban arrived in Liberia on Friday at the start of a two-day tour of four nations struck by the worst ever outbreak of the deadly haemorrhagic fever, including Sierra Leone, Guinea and Mali.

    The tour aimed to raise the profile of the efforts to fight Ebola and to thank the hundreds of organisations and thousands of health workers who have participated, he said.
    “Our goal is to see the last case identified and cured,” Ban told Reuters.

    “We would like to urge local communities that this is a temporary operation and we fully respect the cultural traditions but at this time it is important to abide by health protocols.”

    Traditional West African practices – such as washing the bodies of the dead by hand at funerals – have helped to spread the fever, which has no known cure.

    The death toll from the nine-month-old epidemic rose to 6,915 as of December 14, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. The virus, which causes vomitting, diarrhea and bleeding in its final stages, is spread by contact with the bodily fluids of the sick.

    Rates of infection are rising fastest in Sierra Leone, which accounts for more than half of the 18,603 confirmed cases of the virus. Infection is spreading rapidly around the coastal capital Freetown, where some aid workers say public information efforts have lagged.

    Sierra Leone launched “Operation Western Area Surge” this week to contain the outbreak – with health workers passing street by street looking for the sick.

    Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it had opened two new Ebola treatment centres in Sierra Leone to cope with the rise in cases – in Freetown and the central town of Magburaka, bringing its total in the country to four.

    “There is still a need to improve messaging about the disease. 70 per cent of people in our Freetown treatment centre got infected at funerals,” Thierry Goffeau, MSF’s emergency coordinator in Sierra Leone, told Reuters.

  • Ebola death toll nears 7,000

    The death toll in the Ebola epidemic has risen to 6,915 out of 18,603 cases as of December 14, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

    There are signs that the increase in incidence in Sierra Leone has slowed, although 327 new cases were confirmed there in the past week, including 125 in the capital Freetown, the WHO said in its latest update.

    “A major operation has been implemented to curb the spread of disease in the west of the country,” Reuters quoted the United Nations’ health agency as saying on the Ebola outbreak.

  • AFCON 2015: Ebola, not threat

    AFCON 2015: Ebola, not threat

    Former African women’s footballer of the year Genoveva Anonma has called for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations to be cancelled over fears of the devastating Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

    Similar to Anonma’s fear of spreading the Ebola virus to her home country, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) had to change host after former host Morocco insisted on a postponement of the tournament, a requested not granted.

    Anonma said: “I am afraid for everyone. They should cancel it for the good of humanity and the good of our country.”

    Following the position of Morocco, government of the Equatorial Guinea insisted it could control the threat and thereby lost the right to Morocco as CAF refused to delay the event.

    The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014, and has rapidly become the deadliest occurrence of the disease since its discovery in 1976.

    The BBC reports that up to 15 December, 6,856 people had been reported as having died from the disease in six countries; Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the United States and Mali. The total number of reported cases is more than 18,000.

    Anonma, who finished top scorer when her country won the African Women’s Championship on home soil in 2008 and 2012, is deeply concerned.

    “There is an 80% risk that the virus could contaminate our country but what can we do? We have to accept it,” the 27-year-old forward told BBC World Service.

    “We are a small country and we don’t want things like this in our country,

    “I have family there. My grandparents, my cousin, my aunt and uncle. My mother and my father are there too – everyone is there.”

    The Equatorial Guinea government and organisers have played down Anonma’s concerns.

    They point to measures being taken to combat the Ebola threat for the finals, which take place between 17 January and 8 February, including:

    • All passengers arriving at Malabo international airport from abroad are having their temperature checked
    • Passengers are being photographed and having their fingerprints taken
    • They must fill in medical history forms and show yellow fever certificates
    • Fans at stadiums are being sprayed with hand sanitizer at the turnstiles
    • 30 Cuban doctors, who are specialists in epidemiology, have been drafted in

    Deputy Sports Minister Ruslan Obiang Nsue told BBC World Service: “If we didn’t have the means to control Ebola we would never have accepted to host the Africa Cup of Nations.

    “The fact we have accepted to host the Africa Cup of Nations it was because we had all the confidence that we had the technical and health means to control Ebola.

    “If something happened here we would take the people that are ill straight away to isolation.”

    Anonma, who plays for Turbine Potsdam in Germany, became the first foreigner to win the Bundesliga top scorer award with 22 goals in the 2011-12 season.

    She was named African Women Footballer of the Year in 2012.

    Although she would prefer it not to be taking place, Anonma hopes the Cup of Nations can alter the image of a country associated with human rights abuses and corruption.

    “Lots of the accusations about Equatorial Guinea are false,” she added. “All the Guinean people are free to do what they want and they do.

    “I think the Cup can help a lot. Organised events bring people in to see our country. They can see bad things, good things, see how the country works.”

  • Sierra Leone overtakes Liberia in Ebola cases

    Sierra Leone overtakes Liberia in Ebola cases

    The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 6,331 in the three worst hit countries, with Sierra Leone overtaking Liberia as the country with the highest number of cases, World Health Organization figures showed on Monday.

    The cumulative number of cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone totalled 17,800, including 7,719 in Liberia and 7,798 in Sierra Leone, WHO said.

    On Friday, WHO put the three countries’ combined death toll at 6,187, out of 17,517 cases.

    Just over half the reported deaths were in Liberia, but the true toll in Sierra Leone, with an estimated fatality rate of 70 percent, is likely to be far higher than the figures show, WHO experts told Reuters.

  • Etisalat, other MNOs partner AU over Ebola

    Etisalat, other MNOs partner AU over Ebola

    Etisalat Nigeria and  other mobile network   operators(MNOs) across Africa are partnering the African Union (AU) Commission to support the fight against Ebola in West Africa.

    The initiative, operating under the hash tag ‘#AfricaAgainstEbola’ will combat the dreaded virus by using an SMS dedicated platform to raise funds for the deployment of African health workers to affected countries.

    At a Business Roundtable on Ebola hosted by the AU, Etisalat alongside other mobile operators committed themselves to support efforts to fight Ebola by unveiling an Africa-wide three –month campaign dubbed “AfricaAgainstEbola”.

    This initiative will focus on donations from members of the public who are customers of the operators and will be channelled into fighting the Ebola virus.

    The AU is leading this effort under its African Union Support to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) mission, which has so far deployed 90 health workers to the three affected countries.

     

     

     

     

    Commenting on the initiative, African Union Commission Chairperson, Her Excellency Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said: “We are conscious of the urgent need for all of us to do more, and to act fast. It is only by acting together will we ensure that our continent and world is free of Ebola. Let me repeat our call to all Africans to lead the global efforts of solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea”.

    Speaking on the partnership, Chief Executive Officer at Etisalat Nigeria, Matthew Willsher said, “At Etisalat Nigeria, we uphold a belief in shared responsibility especially to the society where we operate. Etisalat’s partnership with other operators in the effort to “kick Ebola out of Africa’ reflects the way innovative technology can be used to improve lives. The ability to generate funds through SMS powered by all the operators will support the deployment of Health workers to the affected countries and will go a long way in getting rid of the deadly virus from the African continent”.

    The SMS fundraising campaign will use the short code 7979 with local adaptations where technology requires. Customers will be asked to text ‘Stop Ebola’ to this code in order to donate in their respective countries.

    Ebola has claimed over 5,000 lives across some parts of West Africa since it was first reported in Guinea in December 2013. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), this is the largest outbreak on the continent, affecting mostly Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The campaign will run until the end of February next year.

     

  • Nigerian soldier tests positive for Ebola in Liberia

    Nigerian soldier tests positive for Ebola in Liberia

    A Nigerian soldier on the United Nations’ peace mission in Liberia has tested positive for Ebola, the Associated Press reports.

    He is expected to be flown to the Netherlands for treatment, a Dutch Health Ministry spokeswoman said on Friday.

    The soldier will go into isolation at a “calamity unit” at the University Medical Center Utrecht, according to Inge Freriksen.

    He is due in Amsterdam this weekend and be transferred by ambulance to nearby Utrecht, the AP says.

    Late Thursday, the UN mission announced that the soldier had tested positive for the dreaded disease a day earlier.

    This is the third case of Ebola among mission personnel, according to Karin Landgren, a top UN envoy in the country. The previous two died.

    The mission has so far identified 16 people who came into contact with the soldier, and they have been quarantined, she said. Areas the peacekeeper visited while symptomatic have been decontaminated.

    The man will be the first Ebola patient hospitalized in the Netherlands. He is being treated in a Dutch hospital at the request of the World Health Organization, Freriksen said.

    The Ebola outbreak has sickened nearly 17,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of those, about 6,100 have died.

    The UN force, with about 7,700 troops and police, has been in Liberia since 2003 to bring stability after two civil wars.

  • Ebola: Nigerian medics deployed to Sierra Leone

    Ebola: Nigerian medics deployed to Sierra Leone

    In a bid to help with the response to the outbreak of the ravaging Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in some West African countries, about 100 medical workers are expected to depart Nigeria for Sierra Leone.

    The BBC reports that the medical workers include doctors, scientists and hygienists, who have been trained by the medical aid agency, MSF.

    Nigeria’s commitment is part of an African Union promise to send 1,000 medical workers to Ebola-hit areas by the end of this year.

    The response came a day after residents in the Guinean capital, Conakry, protested about the construction of an Ebola treatment clinic in their district.

    It is no more news that the Ebola outbreak has claimed about 6,000 lives in West Africa this year alone.

    The medical workers from Nigeria are the first part of a contingent of about 250 specialists the West African country is deploying to the three countries worst hit by Ebola – Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

    The workers are expected to stay for between three and six months, Nigerian officials say.

     

  • World Bank to fast track Ebola aid

    The World Bank said on Wednesday it would speed up delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to fight Ebola in West Africa, as Sierra Leone appealed for help in plugging gaps in its response.

    On a visit to Sierra Leone, where the epidemic is spreading fastest, World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, said the lender would accelerate disbursement of $162 million in emergency support to ensure the money was delivered in two years instead of three.

    To help kick-start Sierra Leone’s economy, Kim said the bank would make available an additional $170 million over the next two years, mostly to strengthen infrastructure and agriculture Reuters reports.

    “We’re accelerating our support to Sierra Leone,” Kim said in Freetown, during a tour of Ebola-affected countries in the region.

    The worst known outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever on record has killed more than 6,070 people from 17,145 cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

    Despite Britain deploying hundreds of troops to its former colony, Sierra Leone is lagging behind Guinea and Liberia in its Ebola response, reporting 537 new cases in the week to November 30.

    The WHO said uncertainty about data prevented firm conclusions about progress in eradicating the disease.

    Sierra Leone President, Ernest Bai Koroma, said his country still had less than a third of the 1,500 beds it required and needed an additional four laboratories.

  • Ebola death toll ‘nears’ 7,000

    Ebola death toll ‘nears’ 7,000

    The death toll from the worst Ebola outbreak on record has reached nearly 7,000 in West Africa, the World Health Organization said on Saturday.

    The toll of 6,928 dead showed a leap of just over 1,200 since the WHO released its previous report on Wednesday, Reuters says.

    The United Nations’ health agency did not provide any explanation for the abrupt increase, but the figures, published on its website, appeared to include previously unreported deaths.

    A WHO spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.

    Just over 16,000 people have been diagnosed with Ebola since the outbreak was confirmed in the forests of remote southeastern Guinea in March, according to the WHO data that covered the three hardest-hit countries.

    Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have accounted for all but 15 of the deaths in the outbreak, which has touched five other countries, according to the previous WHO figures.