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Ebola Crisis
Topic Started: 23 Mar 2014, 12:52 AM (2,796 Views)
skibboy
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22 March 2014

Guinea deaths: Ebola blamed for deadly fever outbreak

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Ebola was first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976

The Ebola virus has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever now believed to have killed nearly 60 people in southern Guinea, government officials say.

Scores of cases have been recorded since the outbreak began early last month.

There is no known cure or vaccine for the highly contagious Ebola virus.

It is spread by close personal contact with people who are infected and kills between 25% and 90% of victims.

Symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting.

Outbreaks of Ebola occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests, the World Health Organization says.

Analysts suggest it has never been recorded in Guinea before.

Recent years have seen outbreaks in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

'Overwhelmed'

"We got the first results from Lyon yesterday (Friday) which informed us of the presence of the Ebola virus as the cause of this outbreak," Guinean health ministry official Sakoba Keita told AFP.

"The Ebola fever epidemic raging in southern Guinea since 9 February has left at least 59 dead out of 80 cases identified by our services on the ground."

"We are overwhelmed in the field, we are fighting against this epidemic with all the means we have at our disposal with the help of our partners but it is difficult."

Medical aid charity Medecins sans Frontieres said on Saturday it would strengthen its team in Guinea and fly some 33 tonnes of drugs and isolation equipment in from Belgium and France.

Dr Armand Sprecher, an emergency physician and epidemiologist working with MSF in Guinea, told the BBC that doctors had to identify all patients with the disease and monitor anyone they had been in contact with during their illness.

The latest outbreak could be brought under control if people acted quickly, he said.

"Based on our history with these sorts of outbreaks it will happen. Ideally, sooner rather than later," said Dr Sprecher.

"The more quickly we can contain this the fewer cases we'll have, then the smaller the scale of the epidemic. That's the idea of going in as strong as we can early on."

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skibboy
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Ebola crisis: Liberia confirms fresh cases

4 hours ago

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Liberia was declared free of Ebola in September

Three new cases of Ebola have been confirmed in Liberia less than three months after the country was declared free of the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

The three patients include a 10-year-old boy from Paynesville, a suburb of the capital Monrovia.

All people with the symptom have been isolated, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told the BBC.

Liberia has seen more than 10,000 Ebola cases and more than 4,000 deaths.

The country's Health Minister Bernice Dahn said six of the boy's relatives and other high-risk contacts have been taken to an Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville.

"The hospital is currently decontaminating the unit. All of the healthcare workers who came in contact with the patient have been notified," she said.

On Thursday night, before the new case emerged, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf delivered a speech praising "the resilience" of Liberians in overcoming the epidemic.

The country was first declared Ebola-free on 9 May, but new cases emerged in June resulting in two deaths.

It was declared free of the virus again on 3 September.

Liberia recorded its first Ebola case in March last year and analysts believe the latest cases are a serious set-back for the country.

The new cases in Liberia was announced just days after Guinea, where the epidemic started, said it had no more Ebola cases.

If no more cases are detected for 42 days, it would be declared free of the virus.

Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola on 7 November.

More than 11,000 people have died of the disease since December 2013, the vast majority of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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skibboy
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Ebola global response was 'too slow', say health experts

23 November 2015

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Healthcare workers were among those most at risk of catching Ebola

A slow international response and a failure of leadership were to blame for the "needless suffering and death" caused by the recent Ebola epidemic, an independent panel of global health experts has concluded.

The panel's report, published in The Lancet, said major reforms were needed to prevent future disasters.

More than 11,000 people died in the outbreak, which began in 2013.

The World Health Organization has set out plans for reform.

Ebola cases

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were the countries most badly affected by Ebola.

The independent group of experts, convened by The Harvard Global Health Institute and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said these countries were unable to detect, report and respond rapidly to outbreaks - something which allowed Ebola to develop into "a worldwide crisis".

But the report reserved most criticism for the World Health Organization, saying it was too slow to declare Ebola an international public health emergency - five months after Guinea and Liberia had notified it of outbreaks.

It said the WHO had also failed to meet its responsibilities for responding to the outbreak because of a lack of leadership and accountability.

WHO's director-general Margaret Chan has already said publicly that, with the benefit of hindsight, WHO could have mounted a more robust response.

And she has promised some fundamental changes to the Organization, such as creating a single new programme for health emergencies.

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11,000 people died in the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak

When a global response did eventually materialise, towards the end of 2014, it was deemed to be slow, inflexible to conditions on the ground, inadequately informed and poorly co-ordinated.

"The reputation and credibility of the WHO has suffered a particularly fierce blow," the report said.

The panel also criticised some political leaders for playing down the outbreak and not calling for international help.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Deadliest outbreak

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-Over 11,000 people have died from Ebola since the epidemic erupted in 2014 - a six-fold increase of victims since its discovery in 1976.

-Some scientists say there's a risk the virus may become an ever-present disease in West African society.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Early reporting

The report makes 10 recommendations for improving systems to cope with future outbreaks.

These include calls for a global strategy to help poorer countries monitor and respond to infectious diseases.

Those countries that delay reporting outbreaks and sharing information should be named and shamed, it says.

The report also recommends creating a dedicated centre for outbreak response at the WHO, which has a protected budget.

And a global fund should be set up to finance research and development of drugs and vaccines to treat infectious diseases.

The panel, made up of 20 experts in global health from around the world, was chaired by Prof Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and co-discoverer of the Ebola virus.

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Ebola scientists studied the virus to find drugs that would slow the spread of the disease

He said: "Major reform of national and global systems to respond to epidemics are not only feasible, but also essential so that we do not witness such depths of suffering, death and social and economic havoc in future epidemics."

'Game changer'

Prof Piot added: "The AIDS pandemic put global health on the world's agenda. The Ebola crisis in West Africa should now be an equal game- changer for how the world prevents and responds to epidemics."

Ashish K Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute and a professor of medicine, said: "People at WHO were aware that there was an Ebola outbreak that was getting out of control by spring…
and yet it took until August to declare a public health emergency. The cost of the delay was enormous."

Dr Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said the report offered "some sobering lessons".

"Particularly welcome are the calls for greater investment from governments to build a core capacity to detect, report and respond rapidly to outbreaks, as is the idea of creating a dedicated centre for outbreak response within the WHO," he said.

"It's vital that the lessons learned are translated into concrete action if we are to avert another crisis on the scale of Ebola."

A WHO spokeswoman said: "WHO welcomes the report.

"A number of its recommendations cover work that is already being done."

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Ebola crisis: Liberia boy dies after fresh cases

24 November 2015

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Liberia had been declared free of Ebola in September

A 15-year-old boy has died of Ebola in Liberia less than three months after the country was declared free of the virus, officials have told the BBC.

He tested positive last week and died late on Monday at a treatment centre near the capital, Monrovia, Francis Kateh, the chief medical officer, said.

His father and brother are being treated for Ebola at the centre.

Liberia has seen more than 10,000 Ebola cases and more than 4,000 deaths since the West Africa outbreak began in 2013.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has twice declared Liberia to be Ebola-free, once in May and again in September.

The teenage boy's mother and two other siblings have also been admitted to the treatment centre to be monitored, health ministry spokesman Sorbor George said.

He told the BBC that eight healthcare workers "who are at high risk because they came in direct contact with the boy" were also under surveillance.

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia says nearly 160 people are now being monitored since the new cases were confirmed last week.

Radio and television stations have resumed broadcasting Ebola awareness messages, he says.

Civil society groups have also stepped up a campaign to get volunteers to be vaccinated against the disease in a joint US-Liberia Ebola trial, our reporter says.

On Monday, Liberia said the US had agreed to send two experts to the country to help investigate the sequence of the outbreaks.

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Liberia recorded its first Ebola case in March last year and analysts believe the latest cases are a serious set-back for the country.

Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola on 7 November.

More than 11,000 people have died of the disease since December 2013, the vast majority of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

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skibboy
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23 December 2015

Health troubles persist for Ebola survivers: study

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© AFP/File / by Mariëtte Le Roux | Many endured the debilitating after-effects without access to treatment in west African countries stretched beyond their limits by the worst Ebola outbreak in history

PARIS (AFP) - The lucky ones who survive Ebola may suffer potentially blinding vision problems, hearing loss and joint pain for months afterwards, medical experts reported on Wednesday.

Many endured the debilitating after-effects without access to treatment in west African countries stretched beyond their limits by the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

Of 277 survivors examined at a clinic in Sierra Leone, about four months after they were discharged, nearly 80 percent reported joint pain, said the experts.

Sixty percent experienced vision problems, 18 percent suffered eye inflammation that could make them blind, and a quarter reported hearing difficulties.

"The numbers were higher than we initially expected," study lead author Sharmistha Mishra of the University of Toronto told AFP by email.

There had been reports of Ebola after-effects before this outbreak, which started in December 2013.

But the new study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, claimed to be the largest and most detailed yet into the nature of post-Ebola complications, and how widespread they were.

Survivors of the outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea "are experiencing significant long-term effects with potential for long-term disability including visual loss," said Mishra.

The west African outbreak has killed over 11,300 of more than 28,600 people infected.

In the affected countries, not even primary care is readily accessible, the study authors said. and specialist treatment rare,

Sierra Leone had two ophthalmologists at the time of the outbreak.

The team had examined Ebola survivors in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, between March 7 and April 24 this year.

- Lasting consequences -

They found that the higher a patient's "viral load" had been at the height of their illness, the worse the complications afterwards.

And the team uncovered further evidence that Ebola virus may live on in specialised "sanctuary sites" in the body -- including the eye, where it may be the cause of the vision problems many patients had reported.

While Ebola virus clears from the blood within weeks, the UN's World Health Organization (WHO) has previously said it may persist for up to a year in the eye or semen, and in the breast milk of women infected while pregnant.

The WHO website says transmission by survivors, sexually or otherwise, "appears to be rare".

One of the study authors was American doctor Ian Crozier, who fell ill while treating patients in Sierra Leone, recovered, and in whose eye doctors found Ebola virus months after his hospital discharge.

The team pointed out there had been hardly any care for Ebola survivers in the early part of the outbreak due to the overwhelming and urgent challenge of treating the ill.

"These findings emphasise the importance of ongoing clinical follow-up and care of all patients, starting at discharge from an ETU (Ebola treatment unit)," wrote the authors.

They also underscored "the urgent need for the greater provision of ocular (eye) care."

Commenting on the study, Luke Hunt of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine said there was a dire need to rebuild west Africa's shattered health systems.

"The consequences of the world's largest outbreak of EVD extend beyond the immediate effect of the epidemic," he wrote.

by Mariëtte Le Roux

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Ebola outbreak ends in Guinea, says WHO

29 December 2015

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Baby Noubia, Guinea's last Ebola patient, was released from hospital in November

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the end of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, two years after the epidemic began there.

Guineans are expected to celebrate the landmark with concerts and fireworks.

The disease killed more than 2,500 people in the West African state, and a further 9,000 in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Liberia was declared Ebola-free by the WHO in September, and Sierra Leone in November.

However, Liberia has had new cases since the declaration.

A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time.

"It's the best year-end present that God could give to Guinea, and the best news that Guineans could hope for," Ebola survivor Alama Kambou Dore told AFP news agency.

Local health workers echoed a warning from the WHO that vigilance was still vital despite the mood of celebration.

"We have to be very careful, because even if open transmission has been stopped, the disease has not been totally defeated," said Alpha Seny Souhmah, a Guinean health worker and Ebola survivor.

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Ad campaigns have run in countries affected by Ebola calling for an end to stigma

In a statement, the WHO congratulated the Guinean government and people for showing "extraordinary leadership in fighting the epidemic".

But it also noted that there had been 10 new small outbreaks of the virus between March and November.

"The coming months will be absolutely critical," said Dr Bruce Aylward from the WHO's Ebola response team.

"This is the period when the countries need to be sure that they are fully prepared to prevent, detect and respond to any new cases."

The WHO will maintain surveillance and outbreak response teams in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia throughout 2016, Dr Aylward added.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Analysis: Tulip Mazumdar, health correspondent, BBC News

This is another major milestone in the bumpy road to the end of the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

It all started in Guinea when the virus emerged, probably from fruit bats, in a rural community deep in the forest.

Guinea saw far fewer cases than neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, yet the virus has been circulating there for longer than anywhere else.

I remember travelling through Guinea at the height of the outbreak, and there was still a lot of denial about Ebola; people told me it was a made-up disease.

Suspicion is still rife in some communities, and many simply do not trust their government.

Ebola has made a comeback in Liberia after the country twice declared the end of the epidemic, and there is every possibility it could return to Guinea.

It will be up to communities to keep the killer virus at bay, by reporting suspicious deaths and encouraging loved ones to seek treatment if they show symptoms of Ebola.

But medical facilities also need to respond quickly, which will happen for the extra 90-day "heightened surveillance" period.

A key question is what will happen after that, particularly for the thousands of Ebola survivors who are still facing health problems.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


More than 100 health workers also lost their lives in the fight against the disease.

Many survivors still live in fear of the stigma and long-term side effects associated with the virus.

The government in Guinea has blamed the virus for poor economic performance and says it has also caused people to distrust the country's health services.

President Alpha Conde has doubled the health budget since winning re-election in October.

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31 December 2015

What a difference a year makes as Ebola-free zone brings in 2016

FREETOWN (AFP) - Banned from gathering in public as the death toll crept towards five figures, the people of west Africa's Ebola-hit nations could hardly have had a worse New Year's Eve 2014.

Spool forward 12 months however and Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are preparing to party as they usher in 2016 hoping to have seen the back of an epidemic which eventually left more than 11,000 dead over two years.

With Guinea declared free of the outbreak this week, Sierra Leone in the clear since November and Liberia going more than a month with no new infections, the region has much reason for New Year optimism.

Sierra Leone's capital Freetown was shaping up Thursday to reclaim its mantle as host of some of the best New Year's Eve beach parties in Africa as revellers scared away by Ebola began flocking back to its palm-fringed white sand shoreline.

The city of 1.2 million was deserted 12 months ago, with public gatherings and even church services banned as people were confined to their homes amid the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

The national electricity board in the power-starved nation has announced its intention to supply the country with a rare 20 unbroken hours of electricity during the festivities.

- 'No more sorrow' -

Franklyn Smith, 35, is among an estimated 1,000 migrants expected to return home for the holidays.

"By this time last year, regular power supply was unheard of as people worried too much about Ebola, so this New Year's Eve I am going to dance and party until the cock crows," he said, swigging beer jubilantly.

"No more sadness, no more sorrow -- Ebola is gone."

Celebrations away from the beaches will be muted, however, as the country remembers its 4,000 victims from 29,000 Ebola cases across the region.

"We were all tormented as to who would be the next Ebola victim so this time we must give thanks and praise to God for saving our lives," said 90-year-old grandmother Sarian Peters.

Liberia celebrates New Year with hopes high it will be declared free of Ebola transmission in mid-January, after discharging its last two patients on December 3.

Francis Karteh, the chief medical officer and head of the Ebola incident management team, said the climate of fear gripping the country 12 months ago was largely absent.

"There will be no specific measures in various places of gathering as it was the case last year," he told AFP.

- 'Au revoir, Ebola' -

Churches in Monrovia, closed last year with the crisis just passing its peak, are expected to be packed in the Christian-majority country.

"I am going to church tonight with my entire family, first to tell God thank you for saving our lives during the Ebola crisis, and to ask God to continue protecting the family from the deadly disease," said Mary Bono, 56.

Alfred Wesseh, 25, told AFP he would also be attending a church service but added that he would find time to celebrate in a less pious way afterwards, with bars that were shuttered last New Year's Eve expecting a roaring trade.

"From church we are going to a club to wait for the new year to show its face. This is just a prelude," he told AFP as he sat drinking with friends at a bar in downtown Monrovia.

Guinea celebrated early with "Bye bye, au revoir Ebola", a concert in the former French colony's capital Conakry on Wednesday bringing together a host of African stars including Senegalese singer-songwriter Youssou N'Dour.

"Today, after long months of relentless work, with the heroic mobilisation of our Guinean personnel and the indispensable support of the international community, we are beginning to turn the page on Ebola," President Alpha Conde told the jubilant crowd.

by Rod Mac Johnson with Zoom Dosso in Monrovia

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07 January 2016

Shortage of malaria drug points to better tool vs Ebola

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© AFP/File / by Kerry Sheridan | A medical worker relays Ebola patient details and updates to a colleague at an MSF facility in Kailahun, on August 15, 2014

MIAMI (AFP) - As doctors struggled to treat growing numbers of patients during the Ebola crisis in West Africa, the shortage of one helpful drug may have led to the discovery of a better one.

The results of a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine show that Ebola patients given an anti-malarial drug called artesunate-amodiaquine (ASAQ) had a 31 percent lower risk of dying than those given the standard treatment for the mosquito-borne disease.

The results point to a potentially promising treatment for a disease that has no market-approved treatments or cures, as researchers scramble to come up with a vaccine before the next outbreak strikes.

The study came about when a treatment center run by Doctors Without Borders in Foya, Liberia, "ran out of its supply of artemether-lumefantrine (AL) after a sudden spike in admissions to the center" in August 2014, said the report.

Suddenly, 100 cases of confirmed Ebola virus were being admitted each week to what had started as a 10-bed isolation unit in a former refugee transit center.

The substitute drug, artesunate-amodiaquine, was prescribed for all patients with suspected Ebola virus disease who were admitted to the treatment center for a period of 12 days, "with no other known systematic changes in care," said the report.

Anti-malaria medicines are routinely given to suspected Ebola patients because the symptoms of the two illnesses -- including fever, headaches and joint pain -- often overlap.

Once the Ebola epidemic finally ebbed, researchers realized they had a significant group of patients -- 381 in all from June to October 2014 -- whose outcomes they could compare and analyze. Some had taken the standard treatment AL, others had taken ASAQ.

They found that 64.4 percent of the patients in the artemether?lumefantrine group died, compared to 50.7 percent of the patients in the artesunate-amodiaquine group.

The study had some limitations, including that records did not contain information about whether the patients completed their regimen of medication or not.

Also, since the pills are taken orally, some severely ill patients may not have been able to ingest them due to vomiting.

Researchers still do not understand what may make ASAQ more effective at saving lives, or if perhaps the standard drug AL is simply more risky, or more prone to causing death.

"Given the particular context of this study, we must remain cautious about drawing broad conclusions," said co-author Iza Ciglenecki.

"To date, however, ASAQ appears to be a promising path towards an effective treatment. Further preclinical and clinical studies to confirm the effect of ASAQ in reducing the Ebola mortality are urgently needed."

More than 11,000 people died during the West African Ebola epidemic, which lasted almost two years.

by Kerry Sheridan

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14 January 2016

Ebola epidemic is over but expect flare-ups: UN

UNITED NATIONS (UNITED STATES) (AFP) - West Africa can expect flare-ups of Ebola in the coming year even if the world's worst outbreak of the disease will be declared effectively over, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday.

The World Health Organization on Thursday will declare Liberia Ebola-free, joining Guinea and Sierra Leone, which earned that status at the end of last year.

For the first time since the outbreak began in December 2013, all three countries will have registered zero cases in at least 42 days, which is twice the incubation period for the virus.

But in an address to the General Assembly, Ban warned that the virus could resurface, if in limited fashion.

"We can anticipate future flare-ups of Ebola in the coming year," Ban said. "But we also expect the potential and frequency of those flare-ups to decrease over time."

World Health Organization director Margaret Chan said the virus can persist in some Ebola survivors even after they have fully recovered.

Since March of last year, there have been 10 minor flare-ups of infections.

"By the end of this year, we expect that all survivors -- all survivors -- will have cleared the virus from their bodies," Chan said.

More than 28,600 people have been infected by the virus in West Africa and 11,300 have died.

Chan described the next three months as "the most critical," as foreign medical groups shut down operations in West Africa and national health ministries take over, managing disease surveillance and response.

The Ebola outbreak overwhelmed the weak health care systems in the three countries and delivered a major blow to their economies, prompting calls for aid.

Recovery will take time, Chan told the 193-nation assembly, but she asserted that there would be no return to a full-blown epidemic.

"No one will let this virus take off and run away again," she said.

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Liberia Ebola epidemic 'over', ending West African outbreak

14 January 2016

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More than 28,000 people have been infected by Ebola in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone since December 2013

Liberia's Ebola epidemic is over, says the World Health Organization (WHO), effectively putting an end to the world's worst outbreak of the disease.

The "end of active transmission" was declared, after 42 days without a new case in Liberia.

It joins Guinea and Sierra Leone, which earned the status last year.

However, the WHO warned that West Africa may see flare-ups of the virus.

It has killed more than 11,000 people since December 2013.

'Most critical' months

A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time.

The WHO said, in a statement, that "all known chains of transmission have been stopped in West Africa", with no cases reported for at least 42 days in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the three states hardest-hit by the outbreak.

"So much was needed and so much was accomplished by national authorities, heroic health workers, civil society, local and international organizations and generous partners," said WHO chief Margaret Chan.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Analysis: Anne Soy, BBC Africa health correspondent

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Health workers struggled to cope with the outbreak

It is a huge relief that the most devastating outbreak of Ebola is over.

Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea now face the mammoth task of recovery.

The outbreak affected virtually every sector in these three countries.

It exposed their weak health systems, which collapsed under the pressure of the epidemic.

Yet these countries are also badly affected by other deadly diseases, like malaria and tuberculosis, which were mostly ignored during the outbreak.

More than 17,000 Ebola survivors are dealing with a wide range of complications and social stigma.

They include orphans with an uncertain future.

The economies of the three countries were also adversely affected.

Sierra Leone was one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, with double digit growth figures.

But Ebola sank it into severe recession.

The road to complete recovery will be long and treacherous.

It will no doubt continue to test the resilience of the three countries.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Deadliest outbreak

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- Over 11,000 people have died from Ebola since the epidemic erupted in 2014 - a six-fold increase of victims since its discovery in 1976.

- Some scientists say there's a risk the virus may become an ever-present disease in West African society.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


The end of active transmission of Ebola has been declared twice before in Liberia - only for the infection to re-emerge.

WHO said it anticipated "more flare-ups", and Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea "remain at high risk of additional small outbreaks" of Ebola.

"Evidence shows that the virus disappears relatively quickly from survivors, but can remain in the semen of a small number of male survivors for as long as one year, and in rare instances, be transmitted to intimate partners," it added.

Dr Chan described the next three months as "the most critical" for the three West African nations, which accounted for almost all of the deaths from the outbreak.

"By the end of this year, we expect that all survivors will have cleared the virus from their bodies," she was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.


Ebola deaths

Figures up to 13 January 2016

11,315 Deaths - probable, confirmed and suspected (Includes one in the US and six in Mali)

4,809 Liberia

3,955 Sierra Leone

2,536 Guinea

8 Nigeria

Source: WHO


Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said, in a statement, that the end of the "devastating and unprecedented epidemic" was a day of celebration and relief.

"We must all learn from this experience to improve how we respond to future epidemics and to neglected diseases," it added.

MSF was the first to warn of the danger Ebola posed when cases were reported in 2013, while the WHO downplayed the threat.

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Ebola virus: New case emerges in Sierra Leone

15 January 2016

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The Ebola outbreak killed almost 4,000 people in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone officials have confirmed a death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the latest West Africa outbreak over.

The country was declared free of the virus on 7 November, and the region as a whole was cleared when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free on Thursday.

Tests on a person who died in northern Sierra Leone proved positive, an Ebola test centre spokesman told the BBC.

The WHO has warned, however, that more flare-ups are expected.

The Sierra Leone death occurred earlier this week.

Ebola test centre spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis told the BBC that the patient had died in the Tonkolili district.

He had travelled there from Kambia, close to the border with Guinea.

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The tests were conducted by British health experts.

The BBC's Umaru Fofana in the capital Freetown said health officials were now urgently seeking those who had come into contact with the victim.

Close to 4,000 people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, and 11,000 people across the region, since December 2013.

Liberia was the last country to see the end of active transmission of Ebola.

But it had been declared clear twice before, only for the infection to re-emerge.

A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time.

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Ebola: $5m vaccine deal announced

By James Gallagher
Health editor, BBC News website

20 January 2016

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The Vaccine Alliance, Gavi, has signed a $5m (£3.5m) deal for an Ebola vaccine, to protect against future outbreaks of the deadly disease.

The deal commits pharmaceutical company Merck to keeping 300,000 vaccines ready for emergency use or further clinical trials.

It will also submit an application to license the vaccine by the end of 2017, which would the next step towards enabling Gavi to prepare a global stockpile.

More than 11,000 people have died in the latest outbreak in West Africa.

The sheer scale of the outbreak - the largest in history - led to an unprecedented push on vaccines, which condensed a decade's work into less than a year.

Merck has led trials of the VSV-EBOV vaccine - which combines a fragment of the Ebola virus with another safer virus in order to train the immune system to beat Ebola.

Early evidence from studies in West Africa suggest it may give 100% protection, although more data is still being collected.

'Wake-up call'

Dr Seth Berkley, the chief executive of Gavi, said: "The suffering caused by the Ebola crisis was a wake-up call to many in the global health community.

"New threats require smart solutions, and our innovative financing agreement with Merck will ensure that we are ahead of the curve for future Ebola outbreaks."

Gavi, an alliance of public bodies and companies committed to saving lives through vaccination, announced the advanced-purchase commitment at the World Economic Forum held at Davos in the Swiss Alps.

The $5m paid to Merck will be offset against any vaccines Gavi orders once the shot is licensed.

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The World Health Organization declared West Africa Ebola-free last week, after all of the affected countries had gone 42 days without a case.

But then, just hours later, a death in Sierra Leone was confirmed to be from Ebola.

The WHO has warned more flare-ups are expected.

Dr Jeremy Farrar, the director of the Wellcome Trust medical research charity, said VSV-EBOV had shown "remarkable results" and was one of the "few positive outcomes" to emerge from the epidemic.

He said: "As we saw with the new confirmed case just last week, the Ebola epidemic is likely to have a long tail and it's possible that several more isolated cases will emerge in the coming weeks and months.

"This vaccine, therefore, could still play an important role in containing any additional flare-ups of this outbreak, as well as being available to help prevent future epidemics."

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Ebola outbreak: Sierra Leone clashes over market closure

4 hours ago

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The Ebola outbreak has killed almost 4,000 people in Sierra Leone

Three people protesting about Ebola restrictions in Sierra Leone have been admitted to hospital after clashes with police, a doctor has told the BBC.

The three suffered gunshot wounds and were taken to a hospital in the northern Kambia district, he said.

Riots broke out after police closed a market in Barmoi town, where someone died of Ebola earlier this month.

The police denied firing at the protesters but admitted using teargas after their station was "attacked".

Police commander Francis Hazeley told the BBC that local leaders had agreed to stop trading in Barmoi in order to trace 43 missing people who may have had contact with the 22-year-old student who died of the virus - and stem the spread of it further.

So far only seven people who had contact with her have been found and quarantined, he said.

The commander said some youths in Barmoi were angered that the market day - a mainstay of the town's economy - had been cancelled and attacked and damaged the local police office.

Two of the injured are said to be in a serious condition and need to be taken to the capital, Freetown, for treatment.


Ebola deaths

Figures up to 13 January 2016:

11,315 Deaths - probable, confirmed and suspected (Includes one in the US and six in Mali)

4,809 Liberia

3,955 Sierra Leone

2,536 Guinea

8 Nigeria

Source: WHO


Sierra Leone was declared free of the virus on 7 November, and the epidemic was thought to be at an end after Liberia was pronounced free of Ebola transmissions on 14 January.

But within hours of the declaration, the World Health Organization confirmed the Ebola death in Sierra Leone and a second case has since been identified.

Close to 4,000 people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, and 11,000 people across the region, since December 2013.

A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time.

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03 February 2016

Sierra Leone frees 55 from Ebola quarantine, but seeks 48 others

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© AFP/File | A girl suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus has her temperature checked at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on August 16, 2014

FREETOWN (AFP) - Only four people remained in quarantine in Sierra Leone on Wednesday after 55 others were declared free of the Ebola virus and released from hospital, officials and medical sources said.

But medics were urgently seeking to contact around 50 others for testing, most of them from the northern town of Kambia, health ministry spokesman Harold Williams said.

Sierra Leone was forced to re-open its Ebola treatment centres and relaunch screening systems, including checkpoints on motorways, late last month after two new cases of the tropical virus were confirmed.

"Forty-eight people are still classified as missing and 18 of them are high risk," he said, appealing for them to come forward.

"We are only concerned about whether they are infected so that we can treat them to avoid any possible spreading of the virus," he said.

The remaining four people in quarantine were scheduled to be released on February 11.

There was a carnival atmosphere in the northern city of Magburaka on Wednesday where 33 people left two isolation facilities after being quarantined for three weeks.

Among the group were children, who celebrated after being told they had not shown any symptoms of being infected by the deadly tropical virus.

After their release, the town erupted in jubilation with hundreds of people taking to the streets in t-shirts reading "Stop Ebola" and "Ebola cannot defeat us", some carrying huge amplifiers blaring traditional music while others blew horns carved out of elephant tusks.

"It is good to breathe fresh air outside quarantine and rejoin friends and relatives to resume normal life," said Foday Kandeh, a 68 year-old farmer who grows groundnuts and said he'd missed drinking palm wine.

"It is an ordeal I never want to re-live," said Kadi Sesay, a 19-year-old student.

"Besides missing classes for 21 days, the quarantine period brought all of us together... The happy ending is that none of us tested positive but our thoughts were went into overdrive thinking what if we had," she said.

"Today is a new day for all of us."

Another 22 people were released from isolation facilities in Kambia, among them a herbalist who had initially provided traditional medicine treatments to 22-year-old Marie Jalloh, who died of Ebola on January 12, a day after west Africa had been formally declared free of the deadly tropical virus.

"All of them looked hail and hearty and showed no sign of illness," one health official told AFP.

Among those released on Wednesday was Jalloh's stepfather who was released in the capital Freetown without showing any signs of infection, health monitors told AFP.

The deadliest outbreak in the history of the tropical virus wrecked the economies and health systems of the three worst-hit west African nations after it emerged in southern Guinea 2013.

The outbreak infected almost 29,000 people and killed more than 11,300, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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11 February 2016

Sierra Leone releases last four people from Ebola quarantine

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© AFP/File | Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola transmission on November 7 last year and Guinea on December 29 while Liberia followed on January 14 -- but only after the virus killed more than 11,300 people, according to World Health Organization estimations

FREETOWN (AFP) - Four people who had been in contact with Sierra Leone's last known Ebola case were declared free of the disease and released from quarantine Thursday, health authorities said.

The authorities announced on Tuesday that the Ebola patient, 38-year-old Memunatu Kalokoh, was cured and discharged from hospital.

She was the primary carer of Marie Jalloh, who died of the disease on January 12 in the northern town of Magburaka.

Four contacts who had been residing in the same quarantine zone as Kalokoh when she became ill were placed under observation.

"The four, all women, were quarantined because they were residing in the same compound with the aunt of the index case involving 22-years-old Marie Jalloh, who was diagnosed positive and later died from Ebola in January", Foday Dafai, director of disease prevention and control at the health ministry, told AFP.

"All of them were tested before they were released and they showed no signs and symptoms of the virus. With their release, nobody is in quarantine nor admitted in any hospital for Ebola".

Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola transmission on November 7 last year and Guinea on December 29 while Liberia followed on January 14 -- but only after the virus killed more than 11,300 people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimations, triggering a global health alert.

The WHO has been warning of the possibility of a recurrence and stressing the importance of a quick, effective response to potential new cases.

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15 February 2016

Russia says its Ebola vaccine 'effective' in initial tests

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© AFP/File | A woman gets vaccinated on March 10, 2015 in Conakry during the first clinical trials of the VSV-EBOV vaccine, as the World Health Organization has authorised the fast-track development of anti-ebola drugs

GENEVA (AFP) - Russia's health minister said Monday that an Ebola vaccine developed by the country over the last 15 months had shown encouraging results and would undergo further testing in West Africa.

"Phases one and two of testing were managed in Russia with volunteers and showed that the vaccine was very effective," health minister Veronika Skovortsova told reporters in Geneva.

Skovortsova said the vaccine GamEvac-Combi, developed at a government vaccine research institute, would now be put to additional tests in Guinea.

The West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been hardest-hit by the worst-ever Ebola outbreak which has killed more than 11,300 people since December 2013.

The Russian minister made the comments ahead of a meeting Tuesday with the UN's World Health Organization chief Margaret Chan.

The WHO is hoping to study the Russian findings before giving an opinion on the new vaccine.

WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told AFP in an email that the UN agency was aware that "Russian regulatory authorities had approved an anti-Ebola vaccine.

"The WHO secretariat is actively hoping for the possibility to study the data," regarding the performance of the vaccine, she added.

According to the Russian official, the preliminary testing showed limited side effects in isolated cases, including headaches and slight body temperature rises.

Russian officials at the briefing who led the testing said the sequential injections led to surge in antibody production among the trial subjects.

So far no approved vaccine or treatment for Ebola exists and the WHO has authorised the fast-track development of drugs.

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Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey flown to London hospital

5 hours ago

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Pauline Cafferkey is being taken to the Royal Free Hospital in London

Scots nurse Pauline Cafferkey has been flown to London after being admitted to hospital in Glasgow for a third time since contracting Ebola.

The 40-year-old from South Lanarkshire had been in a "stable" condition at Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

She was put on an RAF Hercules aircraft which took her to London where she was taken to the Royal Free Hospital.

Ms Cafferkey was treated there twice in 2015 after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone the previous year.

A spokesman for the Royal Free said she had been transferred to the hospital "due to a late complication from her previous infection by the Ebola virus".

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Ms Cafferkey was flown to London from Glasgow Airport in this RAF Hercules

The spokesman added: "She will now be treated by the hospital's infectious diseases team under nationally agreed guidelines.

"The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic so the risk to the general public remains low and the NHS has well established and practised infection control procedures in place."

Public health

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said Ms Cafferkey had been admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow "under routine monitoring by the Infectious Diseases Unit".

The health board said she was "undergoing further investigations and her condition remains stable".

Scottish Health Secretary Shona Robison said: "I'd like to thank the expert NHS staff in Glasgow who have looked after her and helped with her transfer to the Royal Free Hospital, where Pauline has been treated before and where clinicians agreed it would be best to continue her treatment."

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Pauline Cafferkey is in hospital for a third time since contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone in 2014

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A RAF ambulance was given a police escort as it transferred Ms Cafferkey to the Royal Free

The nurse, from Halfway, Cambuslang, contracted the virus while working as part of a British team at the Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre.

She spent almost a month in isolation at the Royal Free at the beginning of 2015 after the virus was detected when she arrived back in the UK.

Ms Cafferkey was later discharged after apparently making a full recovery, and in March 2015 returned to work as a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre in South Lanarkshire.

In October last year it was discovered that Ebola was still present in her body, with health officials later confirming she had been diagnosed with meningitis caused by the virus.

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Ms Cafferkey worked at Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre in 2014

Bodily tissues can harbour the Ebola infection months after the person appears to have fully recovered.

Dr Derek Gatherer, lecturer in the Division of Biomedical and Life Sciences at Lancaster University, said it was "now becoming clear that Ebola is a far more complex disease than we previously imagined".

He said: "The meningitis that Ms Cafferkey suffered from at the end of last year is one of the most serious complications of all, as it can be life-threatening.

"The other main rare serious complication is inflammation of the eyes (conjunctivitis and/or uveitis) which can lead to blindness, especially if supportive treatments are unavailable."

Dr Gatherer said major post-recovery complications included "joint aches, headaches and general tiredness which can last for months".

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Ebola 'devastates long-term health'

By James Gallagher
Health editor, BBC News website

25 February 2016

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Most people who survive an Ebola infection will have long-lasting health problems, say doctors from the US National Institutes of Health.

Their studies on survivors in Liberia showed large numbers had developed weakness, memory loss and depressive symptoms in the six months after being discharged from an Ebola unit.

Other patients were "actively suicidal" or still having hallucinations.

More than 17,000 people in West Africa have survived Ebola infection.

The evidence, being presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Neurology, is an early glimpse at a much wider study of long-term health problems after Ebola.

The initial analysis, on 82 survivors, showed most had had severe neurological problems at the height of the infection, including meningitis, hallucinations or falling into a coma.

Six months later, new long-term problems had developed.

About two-thirds had body weakness, while regular headaches, depressive symptoms and memory loss were found in half of patients.

Two of the patients had been actively suicidal at the time of the assessment.

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Dr Lauren Bowen, from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, told the BBC: "It was pretty striking, this is a young population of patients, and we wouldn't expect to have seen these sorts of problems.

"When people had memory loss, it tended to affect their daily living, with some feeling they couldn't return to school or normal jobs, some had terrible sleeping problems.

"Ebola hasn't gone away for these people."

Infection with Ebola ravages the body. Some of the symptoms could improve with time as the body heals, others may be down to social trauma as many survivors are ostracised from their families and communities.

But other symptoms, including eye problems, indicate damage to the brain, which may not heal.

Sexually active

Meanwhile, data presented earlier, at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, raised concerns about sexual transmission of the virus in survivors.

It indicated 38% of men had tested positive for Ebola in their semen on at least one occasion in the year after recovering.

And in the most extreme case, Ebola had been detected 18 months later.

Yet most survivors reported being sexually active, with only four in every 100 using a condom.

Prof Jimmy Whitworth, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "This is a very important study.

"There is still much to learn about Ebola, including what problems are faced by those who were infected but survived.

"The findings show high levels of mental and neurological problems in the survivors and from the clinical neurological findings these appear to be very real problems."

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28 February 2016

British Ebola survivor discharged from hospital

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© AFP/File | Medical personnel wheel a quarantine tent trolley with Scottish healthcare worker Pauline Cafferkey, who was diagnosed with Ebola after returning to Scotland from Sierra Leone on December 30, 2014

LONDON (AFP) - A British nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone in 2014 was discharged from hospital in London on Sunday, five days after being admitted with complications, a statement said.

Pauline Cafferkey was successfully treated within weeks of her diagnosis but suffered a relapse in October 2015, when she became critically ill with meningitis linked to the deadly virus.

Again, she made a full recovery but on Tuesday she was admitted for a third time to the Royal Free Hospital, Britain's only isolation ward for Ebola, due to a further unspecified complication.

In a statement on Sunday, the hospital said that Cafferkey had now been discharged, adding: "We can confirm that Pauline is not infectious.

"The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic."

Experts warn that Ebola can cause ongoing problems in many survivors, although in most cases the problems seem to improve and become less frequent with time.

More than 11,300 people were killed before the World Health Organization declared last month that the two-year Ebola outbreak in west Africa was over, although Sierra Leone has since recorded new cases.

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01 March 2016

'Low' risk of getting Ebola from survivor: study

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© AFP/File / by Kerry Sheridan | A girl suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus has her temperature checked at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone on August 16, 2014

MIAMI (AFP) - The risk of catching Ebola from a survivor is generally low since the virus disappears from the blood within weeks, but it may persist in semen for many months, researchers said Monday.

Until now, scientists have been uncertain of how to characterize the risk of catching the Ebola virus -- which killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa -- via social contact with survivors who have overcome their illness.

Ebola is known to spread by close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, and can cause fatal hemorrhage, vomiting and diarrhea.

For the latest study, published in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, scientists pored over nearly 6,000 articles on Ebola to find those that documented the virus in survivors' blood, sweat, urine, semen, stool, vomit, vaginal fluids and breast milk.

"We wanted to know how long the Ebola virus persists in different body fluids after people have recovered -- in order to assess how much of a transmission risk those survivors pose to their family, communities and medical professionals," said lead researcher Paul Hunter from the University of East Anglia's Norwich Medical School.

They found that virus typically clears the blood -- considered the major risk for transmission because blood carries a lot of the virus -- within 16 days.

Just five percent of patients carried the virus in their blood after 16 days, and the longest period observed was 29 days.

The virus lingered in the semen of male survivors much longer -- some 70 percent of semen samples from male survivors tested positive for the virus in the first seven months after illness.

In all, the study found just 17 survivors had given semen samples over the seven month period following the onset of infection.

"Apart from saliva and blood, there are potentially important gaps in the information on all bodily fluids," noted the study.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions people to use a condom or abstain from sex after an Ebola infection.

"Because it is not known how long Ebola might be found in the semen of male survivors, they should abstain or use a condom for all sexual activity," according to the CDC website.

The study in PLOS did not weigh in on how to avoid the risks of sexual transmission, but said that "apart from blood and semen, most other body fluids pose a low infectious risk."

Not enough evidence could be found to make a conclusion on breast milk.

Hunter added that the team found no evidence that the virus could re-activate in survivors and become infectious again -- via non-sexual contact -- after the initial illness had passed.

"Consequently transmission from social contact with an Ebola survivor is not something that is likely to be a problem, even if that person is suffering from longer term complications."

by Kerry Sheridan

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17 March 2016

Guinea govt says two people have tested positive for Ebola

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© AFP/File | A health worker walks towards patients under quarantine at the Nongo Ebola treatment centre in Conakry, Guinea on August 21, 2015

CONAKRY (AFP) - Two people from the same family have tested positive for Ebola in Guinea, the government said Thursday, the first re-emergence of the deadly virus in the country since the outbreak there was declared over in late December.

The government's announcement came on the same day that the World Health Organization said the latest flare-up of Ebola in neighbouring Sierra Leone had officially ended.

The virus has claimed over 11,300 lives in west Africa since the outbreak first began in Guinea in December 2013.

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18 March 2016

Ebola clinic reopens in Guinea after virus resurfaces

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© AFP/File | The four confirmed cases are the first in Guinea since the country was declared Ebola free at the end of last year, though a significant number of deaths are believed to have gone unreported

CONAKRY (AFP) - A medical charity confirmed Friday its specialist Ebola clinic has reopened in rural southern Guinea to treat an infected woman and her child after the virus killed at least two of their relatives.

The Alliance For International Medical Action (ALIMA) said the pair were receiving treatment following positive tests for Ebola on Thursday, adding the patients came from a village 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Guinea's second city of Nzerekore.

"We hope that this new episode will be rapidly contained because today the authorities and communities are well versed in the appropriate measures to fight the disease," said Richard Kojan, a Conakry-based doctor for ALIMA.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said Friday Guinean health officials had alerted it to Ebola symptoms in the family's village on March 16, where three people had died in unexplained circumstances in the last few weeks.

The child being treated was a boy aged five, the WHO said.

An expert team was dispatched to conduct tests after the two new diagnoses, and a larger WHO deployment was en route.

"More specialists are expected to arrive in the coming days. Response teams will work to investigate the origin of the new infections and to identify, isolate, vaccinate and monitor all contacts of the new cases and those who died," the world health body said in a statement.

The Guinean government said a quarantined area around the family's home would be established, and announced a door-to-door search for other potential Ebola cases in the district.

The village is in the same region where the first Ebola case of the current outbreak was registered in December 2013.

A source close to the local anti-Ebola coordination team told AFP that the two deceased relatives were a married couple who had both shown symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea.

On Thursday the world health body was already warning that a recurrence of the deadly tropical disease -- which has claimed 11,300 lives since December 2013 -- remained a possibility.

The four confirmed cases are the first in Guinea since the country was declared free of Ebola transmission at the end of last year, though a significant number of deaths are believed to have gone unreported.

The WHO refers to these isolated cases as "flare-ups" but maintains the original "chains of transmission" have been stopped in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The Guinea diagnoses came the same day the WHO declared a similar flare-up over in Sierra Leone, announcing there had been no new cases for 42 days -- the length of two Ebola incubation cycles.

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22 March 2016

At least 5 dead in Guinea Ebola flare-up: health officials

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© AFP/File | Health workers wearing protective gear gesture at the Nongo ebola treatment centre in Conakry, Guinea, on August 21, 2015

CONAKRY (AFP) - A flare-up of Ebola in Guinea has killed five people since December when the country was declared free of Ebola transmission, health authorities said Tuesday, confirming two more deaths registered in recent days.

"Since the re-emergence of the disease, we have recorded five deaths, three probable and two confirmed," said Fode Tass Sylla, spokesman for the government's Ebola response unit, adding that 961 people may have come into contact with the victims.

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WHO downgrades Ebola health risk

By Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

5 hours ago

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Ebola is no longer an "extraordinary health event" and the risk of the virus spreading is low, the World Health Organization says.

It means the disease is not thought to be a significant public health threat to countries outside of those affected in West Africa.

A small cluster of cases are still occurring in Guinea, but Sierra Leone and Liberia have not had any in months.

But experts say countries must remain vigilant for new flare ups of Ebola.

There have been 12 of these to date - the most recent on 17 March in Guinea.

The WHO says countries have been able to react to these clusters quickly to contain them.

And all original chains of Ebola transmission have ended in the three West African countries that were plagued by the disease.

Ebola is spread by close physical contact.

The virus is carried in bodily fluids - blood, vomit and saliva - which means people who care for the sick are vulnerable to catching the infection.

It has also been detected in the semen of male survivors, and the WHO says national and international efforts must be intensified to ensure such men can have their semen checked to know if they might still be able to spread the infection.

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And work must continue on the use of Ebola vaccination for intimate and close contacts of those survivors who still carry the virus, says the WHO.

But there should be no restrictions on travel and trade with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - any such measures should be lifted immediately, it says.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


- Worldwide, there have been 28,639 cases of Ebola virus disease and 11,316 deaths at 13 March

- There are over 10,000 Ebola survivors

- More than 800 contacts of recently confirmed Ebola cases in Guinea's southern prefecture of Nzérékoré have been identified and placed under medical monitoring in a bid to contain a new flare-up

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


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30 March 2016

Death toll rises to 7 in Guinea Ebola outbreak

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© AFP/File

CONAKRY (AFP) - A resurgence of Ebola in a rural Guinean community has killed seven people, health officials said Wednesday, even as the World Health Organization voiced confidence that remaining isolated cases could be contained.

The WHO said Tuesday that the Ebola outbreak in West Africa no longer constituted an international emergency, but the announcement of new cases demonstrated the difficulty of managing the aftermath of the virus.

The death of a man, two of his wives and his daughter were announced two weeks ago by the Guinean health authorities, who confirmed Wednesday a third wife and a mother-in-law also died after becoming infected in the village of Koropara.

Polygamy is commonly practised in Guinea.

"On March 30, there are nine registered cases and seven deaths: three suspected and four confirmed," said Fode Tass Sylla, spokesman for Guinea's Ebola response unit.

Outside the family, a man died on March 22 after testing positive for Ebola in the city of Nzerekore.

Two more people -- one suspected case and one confirmed -- were receiving treatment at a dedicated Ebola facility in southern Guinea, not far from the Liberian border, Sylla said.

The country was declared free of Ebola transmission at the end of last year, though a significant number of deaths are believed to have gone unreported and "flare-ups" relating to the persistence of the virus in survivors' bodies pose ongoing challenges.

A WHO Ebola report released Wednesday said the virus present in the blood of one of the confirmed cases was "closely related to (the) virus that circulated in south-eastern Guinea in November 2014".

More than a thousand people who are believed to have come into contact with the victims are being monitored for symptoms and offered support by the authorities, with restrictions placed on their movements.

"Additional cases are likely because of the large number of contacts," the WHO report added.

Those most at risk are also being vaccinated against the virus.

The deadliest-ever outbreak of the tropical disease emerged in the same region as the new cases in December 2013 and went on to kill more than 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The WHO was first alerted to the reappearance of the Ebola symptoms in the family's village on March 16, the same day it declared a similar flare-up over in Sierra Leone.

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New Ebola death in Liberia months after end of outbreak

2016-04-02

A woman has died of Ebola in Liberia, months after the West African nation was declared free of the virus and weeks after neighbouring Guinea also recorded a new flare-up, health officials said on Friday.

The 30-year-old woman was being brought to a hospital in the capital Monrovia on Thursday after falling ill, but died before she arrived, separate statements from Liberia’s health ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

A health official said that she had previously been admitted to a clinic in Paynesville, just east of Monrovia.

“Her blood specimens were taken and tested positive of Ebola. Investigations are ongoing to identify the source of transmission and the line-listing of contacts,” the health ministry statement said.

“The Ministry of Health is encouraging the citizens not to panic in the wake of the new Ebola case,” it said.

More than 11,300 people have died over the past two years in the world’s worst Ebola epidemic, nearly all of them in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

While the WHO said this week that West Africa’s Ebola outbreak no longer constitutes an international public health risk, the region has continued to see small flare-ups even after countries received the all-clear.

This latest case in Liberia marks the third flare-up of Ebola virus disease since its original outbreak was declared over in May.

Most recently, it was declared free of active Ebola transmission in January, having passed 42 days, twice the length of the virus’s incubation period - the time between catching the disease and getting its symptoms - without a new case.

Guinea announced new cases on March 17 just hours after Sierra Leone declared an end of active transmission, a fact that briefly meant that West Africa was officially free of Ebola.

Liberia subsequently closed its border with Guinea, fearing the potential spread of the outbreak onto its territory.

It was not immediately known whether the death in Liberia was linked to the new cases in Guinea.

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