22 Arrested for Killing Anti-Ebola Campaigners in Guinea

Conakry (Xinhua/NAN) – Guinea’s Justice Minister Cheick Sacko said 22 suspects had been arrested in connection with last week’s killing of eight government  officials.

The eight officials were involved in sensitization of the public against Ebola Virus Disease in the southeast region of Wome.

“The suspected perpetrators of the assassinations will be charged before a special sitting of the Conakry Court of Appeal,” the minister said on Wednesday in Conakry.

He said that those arrested included Labile Haba, a 30-year-old hawker, who was believed to be the head of the operation.

Sacko said other suspects include two residents of Wome who had tried to flee to Cote d’Ivoire, as well as their two colleagues arrested in the town of Gueckedou in Guinea’s southern region.

The justice minister said the suspects, who were arrested a day after the killing of the eight officials, had been questioned by investigators.

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Panic in Liberian villages as two Ebola victims 'rise from the dead'

There's currently panic, fear and confusion in two villages in Nimba County in Liberia after reports that two female Ebola victims have risen from the dead.

According to local reports, 44 year old Dorris Quoi who lived in Hope Village Community and a 67 year old woman identified as Ma Kebeh, died of the Ebola virus and were about to be taken for burial when they resurrected and are now walking among the living.

According to reports in a local newspaper, New Dawn, Ma Kebeh had been indoors for two nights without food and medication before her death, while Dorris had suffered for several weeks before she died alone in her family home. This is the first report of dead Ebola victims resurrecting. Despite some people's reservations about the story being true, it hasn't stopped them from panicking

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EBOLA: 1.4 Million People Could Be Infected – US Centers for Disease Control

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have predicted that 1.4 Million people could be infected with Ebola by January . Ebola could infect a whopping 1.4 Million people by January, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The disturbing predictions were released today, September 23 and according to the New York Times, “in the worst-case scenario, Liberia and Sierra Leone could have 21,000 cases of Ebola by September 30 and 1.4 million cases by Jan. 20 if the disease keeps spreading without effective methods to contain it” The best case scenario, based on the safe and proper burial of the infected dead and effective treatment of 70 percent of patients, would see the epidemic “almost ended” by Jan. 20, the report continues. The current official figures for the outbreak as compiled by the World Health Organization state that there have been 5,843 infections and 2,803 deaths so far.

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China Joins Fight Against Ebola

Chinese Foreign Ministry has announced plans to join the fight against the deadly Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa.

Tribune reports that the ministry’s spokesperson, Hong Lei, who made this known in Beijing on Wednesday, said the country promised to work with other international community in curtailing the disease in the region.

READ ALSO: Celebrities, Activists Hold #BlockEbola Campaign In Lagos

Lei, who further revealed that a 59-member Chinese laboratory team, with 30 doctors and 29 laboratory technicians on Tuesday left Beijing, said: “They will work at the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital to help Sierra Leone improve lab testing.”

According to him, this is the recent effort by China to help the fight against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

The spokesman also stated that China had earlier dispatched medical supplies and 115 medical experts to Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau.

READ ALSO: Obama Refuses To Send Ebola Drug To Africa

Lei, however, pointed out that the move was to show that China and Africa, as friends in need, were friends indeed as well as demonstrate Chinese people’s international humanitarianism.

Meanwhile, the United Nations has also requested the sum of $1billion about N165 billion to help fight the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease EVD, in West Africa.

It would be recalled that on September 14, 2014, in response to the unabated increase in number of deaths recorded so far from the EVD outbreak in West Africa, United States President, Barack Obama, hinted on  plans to boost his country’s involvement in the war against the deadly disease after it initially announced that it has already committed around $100 million to tackle the outbreak by providing protective equipment for healthcare workers, food, water, medical and hygiene equipment.

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Ebola: Rivers, FG Clash On School Resumption Date

The Rivers State government and the Federal Government have clashed over the September 22, schools resumption date as the state government insisted that schools may not yet resume.

According to Vanguard, the state commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker, who made this known on Wednesday, explained that schools in the state may not resume because of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD.

READ ALSO: Hold Jonathan Responsible If Ebola Spreads – APC

The commissioner also revealed that currently, there were about 340 persons under surveillance in the state. He said they want to be certain that the situation had been completely brought under control before schools would be allowed to resume.

In a related development, Nicholas Brunet, the Deputy Managing Director, Total E&P, Port Harcourt district, who donated an ambulance and two pickup trucks to the government on behalf of the oil company, described the outbreak of EVD in some West Africa countries as a big challenge to the world.

Meanwhile, Daily Independent had earlier reported that the commissioner for Health, Sampson Parker, said the state government, in collaboration with Emergency Operations Committee (EOC) on Ebola in the state, has earmarked a whooping sum of N1 billion to combat the dreaded Ebola virus disease in the state.

READ ALSO: EBOLA: My Survival Story – Dr. Ada Igonoh Recounts Ordeal

The EOC comprise state Ministry of Health and international partners, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and Centre for Disease Control (CDC).

Meanwhile, Dan Nwomeh, the Special Assistant on Media and Communication to the Minister of Health in his tweets below confirmed that Ebola Virus has been brought under control in Nigeria.The deadly Ebola virus was brought into the country by the late American-Liberian Patrick Sawyer. It would be recalled that Federal Government had earlier announced that primary and secondary schools across the country should resume academic activities on 22 September, 2014. The disease has so far killed seven people across the country. The Nigerian Ministry of Health on September 2, 2014, announced the death of an elderly woman who contracted the deadly virus in Port Harcourt, while on admission in the same hospital wherelate Dr Enemoah died.

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Malaysia Reports Suspected Ebola Case

 

Kuala Lumpur (Xinhua/NAN) A 24-year-old Zimbabwean student is currently under observation for Ebola in eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak, on Monday a local official in Health department said.

The student fell ill on Saturday and had been transferred to Sarawak General Hospital isolation ward from a private hospital.

Sarawak Public Health Assistant Minister, Jerip Susil, said that the student had no related signs to Ebola except for symptoms of high fever.

“We will know for sure if this is Ebola, once the test results is out within a week,’’ he added.

According to the report, the student never left the state, but came into contact with other foreign students who recently returned from their home country.

However, the Malaysian Health Ministry confirmed that there were no confirmed Ebola cases in the country.

 

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Obama To Announce Major Offensive Against Ebola

Following the unabated increase in number of deaths recorded so far from the outbreak of the Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, in West Africa, United States President, Barack Obama, is expected to announce on Tuesday a plan

[caption id="attachment_1863" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Barack Obama.[/caption]

to boost his country’s involvement in the war against the deadly disease.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the plan would involve a greater involvement of the U.S military in tackling the worst recorded outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, the Ebola outbreak has now killed at least 2,400 people, mostly in Liberia, neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone.

It would be recalled that the U.S government recently announced that it has already committed around $100 million to tackle the outbreak by providing protective equipment for healthcare workers, food, water, medical and hygiene equipment.

Latest reports indicate that Obama could on Tuesday ask Congress for an additional $88 million to fund his new proposal.

READ ALSO: Obama Refuses To Send Ebola Drug To Africa

The details of the new plan are expected during Obama’s visit Tuesday to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

“There’s a lot that we’ve been putting toward this, but it is not sufficient,” Lisa Monaco, Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, told the Journal. “So the president has directed a more scaled-up response and that’s what you’re going to hear more about on Tuesday.”

This is coming barely days after Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf appealed to Obama for urgent aid, saying that without it her country would lose the fight against the disease.

READ ALSO: Photo: President Jonathan Poses With The Obamas

The WHO warned a couple of weeks ago that the Ebola outbreak is spreading increasingly in Liberia, where more than half of the deaths have been recorded.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military said recently that it would build a 25-bed portable hospital unit in Liberia to help treat health workers infected by Ebola.

“We think these measures, this enhanced response, will help us bring this under control,” a White House official told the Journal. “The military has unique capabilities in terms of logistical capacities, in terms of manpower, in terms of operating in austere environments.”

Apart from Liberia, no fewer than seven people have died in Nigeria from the Ebola virus disease since the late Liberian diplomat, Patrick Sawyer brought the virus to Lagos on 20 July, and died on 25 July, 2014.

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Ebola: Governor Mimiko Reacts To Resumption Date

Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State has advised schools proprietors and parents to stop agitating for early resumption of schools across the country.

This was announced at the weekend in Akure, the state capital by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, at the public presentation/investiture ceremony of Mr. Bode Akinwumi as the 28th President of the Akure/Owena Lions Clubs for 2014-2015 Lions year, This Day reports.

READ ALSO: Medical Practitioners Advise Hospitals Over Ebola Virus

He said the governor urged parents and proprietors to allow the Federal Government exploit all necessary measures in ensuring that the country is free from the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

Adeyanju further revealed that the state government has already put in place measures to contain the spread of the disease in the state. He urged residents to always abide by instruction from medical practitioners in order to avoid contracting the deadly disease.

The commissioner, who expressed optimism that Ebola will be fully contained, said there had been other deadly diseases that have come and gone in the past, and advised that all the was needed is for people to follow the instructions about the disease. He said residents should call if there is any suspicious case of Ebola, and pleaded to residents to always ask questions.

READ ALSO: Ebola: FG Bows To Negative Pressure

“If our students must go back to school, they should not go back in trouble, we should not forget that only one case in Lagos brought problem to the whole country, so there is need for us to be in a hurry about our children’s resumption date” he said.

Following the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria on July 20, 2014, the federal government in its effort to curb the disease from further spreading across the country, directed that school resumption across the country should be postponed.

The decision reportedly sparked a lot of reactions from schools proprietors and parents. On the September 13, 2014, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State cleared the air on theanticipated resumption date for public and private schools as directed by the Federal Government.

It would be recalled that Federal Government had earlier announced that primary and secondary schools across the country should resume academic activities on 22 September,2014

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Ebola: FIFA Pledges Financial Support to West African Countries Affected

Lagos (NAN) President of the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA), Sepp Blatter, on Saturday said the organization would give full support to three West African countries heavily hit by the Ebola Virus Disease.

According to “Inside Games,” an online news provider, Blatter made the pledge at FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

The publication stated that the world football’s governing body said that the issue would be discussed and agreed upon at its next Finance Committee meeting which would hold in France on Sept. 25.

It said that FIFA had decided to dip into its solidarity fund to help Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, all impoverished countries in West Africa, whose citizens had been afflicted by the Ebola disease.

“FIFA said that the additional financial support would be spent in solidarity with United Nations (UN) initiative on the fight against the epidemic.

This announcement, the publication said, came as it emerged that the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, was to serve as the site for two large-scale Ebola treatment units.

It stated that the stadium had been identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the safest and most effective location for the units.

It also said that FIFA would cover the costs of any damage to the Monrovia pitch that might be caused by the treatment units.

The publication also quoted Wilfried Lemke, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General of the UN on Sport for Development and Peace as acknowledging that the Ebola outbreak also had tremendous impact on the sports community.

“National authorities, the UN and the world of sport need to work closely together in order to halt the spread of the disease,” Lemke said.

FIFA recalled that Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Liberia withdrew from the recent Youth Olympic Games in China because of the Ebola crisis.

 

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EBOLA: Liberian Woman in Lagos Commits Suicide by Hanging Because of Ebola fears towards Her (Photos)

The woman found hanging from the tree in the early hours of today September 12th on Bankole Street, Isheri-Oke, Lagos has been identified as a Liberian woman simply called Kate. 







 

 

According to Punch, the woman was a worker in a sachet water factory before she killed herself. A resident of the area said people in the area started to distance themselves from her after the outbreak of Ebola in Lagos which was brought into the country by a Liberian. They also started avoiding her because of her ill health, a situation believed to have frustrated her enough to commit suicide.

“We see her in this neighbourhood every day. I used to see her every day in the dress she died in.She always looked sick but people stopped selling to her after the Ebola outbreak. It could be because she was Liberian and looked sickly. This might have frustrated her.”

 

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The Untold Story Of Ebola Virus

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been described by the World Health Organisation, WHO, and historians to have the potential to cause havoc as much as any plague has ever done in the history of mankind.

According to the WHO, the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, ravaging the West Africa have recorded more than 4,300 cases and 2,300 deaths over the past six months.

Only last week, the United Nations agency warned that, by early October, there may be thousands of new cases per week in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and 

Osterholm claimed the world is in totally uncharted waters and that Mother Nature is the only force in charge of the Ebola virus disease.

Below are full texts of the opinion:

The Ebola epidemic in West Africa has the potential to alter history as much as any plague has ever done.

There have been more than 4,300 cases and 2,300 deaths over the past six months. Last week, the World Health Organization warned that, by early October, there may be thousands of new cases per week in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. What is not getting said publicly, despite briefings and discussions in the inner circles of the world’s public health agencies, is that we are in totally uncharted waters and that Mother Nature is the only force in charge of the crisis at this time.

READ ALSO: Nigeria Seeks Local Cure For Ebola

There are two possible future chapters to this story that should keep us up at night.

The first possibility is that the Ebola virus spreads from West Africa to megacities in other regions of the developing world.

This outbreak is very different from the 19 that have occurred in Africa over the past 40 years. It is much easier to control Ebola infections in isolated villages.

But there has been a 300 percent increase in Africa’s population over the last four decades, much of it in large city slums.

What happens when an infected person yet to become ill travels by plane to Lagos, Nairobi, Kinshasa or Mogadishu — or even Karachi, Jakarta, Mexico City or Dhaka?

The second possibility is one that virologists are loath to discuss openly but are definitely considering in private: that an Ebola virus could mutate to become transmissible through the air.

However, on Thursday, 11 September, 2014, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, USA, Michael T. Osterholm, in an opinion piece he wrote for the New York Times, revealed that there are things about the Ebola virus that are not getting said publicly despite briefings and discussions in the inner circles of the world’s public health agencies.

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Bill Gates Offers Nigeria, other Countries N8billion to Fight Ebola

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced it will be donating $50million (N8billion) to support the efforts of Nigeria and other West African countries hit by the Ebola Virus outbreak in containing the spread of the deadly virus.



Announcing this in a statement issued today September 10th, the foundation said the money will be immediately released to the United Nations agencies and international organizations that are involved in the Ebola fight to enable them and national governments purchase needed supplies and scale up emergency operations. Continue…

Th foundation also announced the immediate release of an additional $2million to the various Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to support incident management, treatment, and health care system strengthening during this epidemic.

The foundation also pledged to work with private and public organizations to facilitate the speedy development of therapies, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be effective in treating patients and preventing further transmission of the disease.

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Rivers State Government Sends 3 People to Ebola Treatment Center

The Rivers Commissioner for Health, Sampson Parker, on Sunday in Port Harcourt said three persons have been moved to the state’s treatment centre for observation on the Ebola disease.

Parker told newsmen the patients are a doctor, a pharmacist and a woman who had contact with Dr Ike Enemuo, who died of Ebola on Aug. 22.

Enemuo was a Port Harcourt-based medical practitioner who treated an ECOWAS diplomat with the Ebola virus.

“We now have three patients at the treatment centre which is at Oduoha, Emohua local government area. The centre, which is about 25 kilometres east of Port Harcourt, has the capacity to treat patients.

“The three are a pharmacist at the Sam-Steel Hospital, a doctor who worked with the late Enemuo, and a lady who was at the Good Heart Hospital while Enemuo was there.

“However, they have not been confirmed to have the virus, and we are waiting for the result of investigation (Ebola test),’’ he said.

Parker said while the wife of Enemuo tested positive to Ebola, her condition was stable at a treatment centre in Lagos.

“Also, Enemuo’s three-month-old baby is alive and well,’’ he said.

The commissioner said government had traced 200 persons who had contact with the ECOWAS diplomat who was in Port Harcourt for Ebola treatment and Enemuo who treated him.

“Of this number, we are still to be in touch with about 60 of them. But 50 of them, who are high risk, have been identified. We are still on them and none has shown any symptoms.

“We are concentrating on the names. We have to capture them in our activities. But the good news is that we have been making good progress in checking the spread of Ebola,’’ he said.

Parker said Ebola patients who came out early for treatment at the Lagos centre have survived and had been cleared.

“Only the ones who hid themselves, going from one church to the other until they deteriorated so much, passed on.

“We must let the public know that anyone, in one way or the other, who had  primary or secondary contact with Dr Enemuo or the clinics and the hotel, should voluntarily contact us.

“Their having had contact with those people doesn’t mean that they are infected. All we need is just to observe them, and if there is anything, they should let us know.

“But they have to know that the chances of survival are very high, because all the people who went to the Lagos centre early were treated and cleared,’’ he said.

Parker said the state government had decontaminated a number of places related to those who had come in contact with the Ebola victims.

“These are the clinic of late Dr Enemuo, another clinic where he was treated, the hotel used by Enemuo to treat the ECOWAS diplomat, the morgue at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital and corpses at the morgue,’’ he said.

The commissioner also said the Ebola treatment centre at Oduoha had been decontaminated.

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