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Fears Held Over Ebola's Spread in Worst-Ever Outbreak

      

There are fears Ebola has spread to a fifth country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, as sub-Saharan African authorities take drastic steps to keep population centres safe from the worst-ever Ebola outbreak.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Broadcast: 25/08/2014 - Reporter: Martin Cuddihy

. . . GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, ELIZABETH R. GRIFFIN RESEARCH FOUNDATION: It's heartbreaking. For being involved in infectious diseases prevention and control for years, what I'm hearing on the news, what I'm reading and the conversations that I'm having with colleagues in West Africa, it's absolutely heartbreaking.

MARTIN CUDDIHY: Gavin MacGregor-Skinner is an Australian expert in public health and emergency responses. He's now based in Washington, DC, but is preparing to leave for Nigeria. He says technology is making a big difference in how quickly authorities can react.

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Democratic Republic of Congo Declares Ebola Outbreak in Northern Equateur Province

reuters.com - (Reporting by Bienvenu-Marie Bakumanya; Writing by Daniel Flynn; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
August 24, 2014

(Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo declared an Ebola outbreak in its northern Equateur province on Sunday after two out of eight cases tested came back positive for the deadly virus, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said.

A mysterious disease has killed dozens of people in Equateur in recent weeks but the World Health Organization had said on Thursday it was not Ebola.

"I declare an Ebola epidemic in the region of Djera, in the territory of Boende in the province of Equateur," Kabange Numbi told a news conference. . .

. . . Numbi said that one of the two cases that tested positive was for the Sudanese strain of the disease, while the other was a mixture between the Sudanese and the Zaire strain -- the most lethal variety.

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Last Ebola-Free Region of Liberia Falls to Virus

reliefweb.int - by Zoom DOSSO with Selim SAHEB ETTABA in Dakar

MONROVIA, August 22, 2014 (AFP) - Every region of Liberia has now been hit by Ebola, officials said Friday, as the World Health Organization warned the fight against the worst-ever outbreak of the killer disease would take months.

After seeing people fall to the deadly virus in area after area, Liberia said two people had succumbed to the virus in Sinoe province, the last Ebola-free bastion in a country that has seen the biggest toll . . .

. . . The virus has spread relentlessly through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and Nigeria has also been affected despite showing some progress in fighting the epidemic . . .

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Ebola - Existence of an Invisible Caseload of Patients Who are Not Being Detected by the Surveillance System

Photo: CDC

As Ebola outbreak grows, WHO notes case-count difficulties

cidrap.umn.edu - by Robert Roos - August 22, 2014

. . . the World Health Organization (WHO) conceded that the size of the epidemic has been underestimated and cited a list of reasons for that, from concealment and denial of cases to the closing of treatment centers and clinics. . .

. . . The WHO also said that in parts of Liberia, newly opened treatment facilities have been immediately flooded with patients, many of whom were not previously identified. "This phenomenon strongly suggests the existence of an invisible caseload of patients who are not being detected by the surveillance system."

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WHO says 70 die from illness in Congo, denies Ebola link

reuters.com - (Reporting by Bienvenu Bakumanya and Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn/Mark Heinrich)
August 21, 2014

(Reuters) - At least 70 people have died in northern Democratic Republic of Congo from an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, denying that the illness was Ebola.

A WHO report dated Thursday and seen by Reuters said that 592 people had contracted the disease, of whom 70 died. Five health care workers, including one doctor, are among the dead.

"This is not Ebola," a WHO spokesman said in an email to Reuters on Thursday.

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Clashes Erupt as Liberia Sets an Ebola Quarantine

AUG. 20, 2014

The New York Times

MONROVIA, Liberia — Soldiers and police officers in riot gear blocked the roads. Even the waterfront was cordoned off, with the coast guard stopping residents from setting out in canoes. The entire neighborhood, a sprawling slum with tens of thousands of people, awoke Wednesday morning to find that it was under strict quarantine in the government’s halting fight against Ebola.

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Liberia President Declares Ebola Curfew

      

In this undated handout photo provided by Medecins Sans Frontieres, local staff and healthcare workers for Doctors Without Borders, exit an isolation ward in Guekedou, Guinea. For doctors and nurses fighting Ebola in West Africa, working in head-to-toe protective gear in muddy health clinics is often the least of their problems, as many also struggle to convince people they are there to stop Ebola, not spread it. (AP Photo/MSF)

ap.org - by JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH - August 19, 2014

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- Liberia's president declared a curfew and ordered security forces to quarantine a slum home to at least 50,000 people late Tuesday as the West African country battled to stop the spread of Ebola in the capital. . .

. . . Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf announced late Tuesday that a curfew is going into place from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. Security forces also will be ensuring no one goes in or out of West Point, a slum in the capital where angry residents attacked an Ebola observation center over the weekend.

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Ebola Crisis: 3 Receiving Untested Ebola Drug in Liberia Improving

      

A girl suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus has her temperature checked at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Although the outbreak began in Guinea, Liberia has now recorded the highest number of deaths and Sierra Leone the most cases. (Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty)

Ebola situation is 'less alarming' in Guinea than it is in Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO says

cbc.ca - Associated Press - August 19, 2014

Three Liberian health workers receiving an experimental drug for Ebola are showing signs of recovery, officials said Tuesday, though medical experts caution it is not certain if the drug is effective. . .

. . . The three Liberians are being treated with the last known doses of ZMapp, a drug that had earlier been given to two infected Americans and a Spaniard. The Americans are also improving, but the Spaniard died.

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MSF Begins Admitting Patients to Ebola Center in Monrovia, Liberia

      

A Doctors Without Borders staffer supervises as construction workers complete the new Ebola treatment center on August 17, 2014 near Monrovia, Liberia.  John Moore—Getty Images

doctorswithoutborders.org - August 18, 2014

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) admitted nine patients today into its newly constructed ELWA 3 Ebola Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia, beginning a process of scaling up operations at the 120-bed facility.

An Ebola outbreak continues to rage virtually unchecked in this city of approximately one million people, far exceeding the capacity of the few medical facilities accepting Ebola patients. Much of the city’s health system has shut down over fears of Ebola among staff members and patients, leaving many people without treatment for other conditions.

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