
The men recruited to incinerate the bodies of those killed by the Ebola outbreak in Liberia last year mostly live together in squalor, succumbing to alcohol abuse, as their community rejects them for being involved in the taboo treatment of the dead.
by Frances Martel10 Dec 2015, 11:44 AM PST0

Two months after being declared Ebola-free, the west African nation of Liberia has confirmed the death of a boy who succumbed to the virus, forcing the government to quarantine his family and place hundreds under surveillance.
by Frances Martel25 Nov 2015, 9:06 AM PST0

Cheers erupted and people danced in the streets Saturday as Sierra Leone marked the end of the Ebola outbreak within its borders, although neighboring Guinea still struggles to stamp out the deadly virus that has killed more than 11,000 mostly in West Africa.
by AP10 Nov 2015, 6:13 AM PST0

A new study by the World Health Organization has found that the Ebola virus can live in the semen of survivors for at least nine months, dramatically increasing the risk of sexual transmission of the disease in west Africa, where an outbreak that began in March 2014 has not yet been fully contained.
by Frances Martel15 Oct 2015, 9:55 AM PST0

While Sierra Leone patiently moves towards concluding a 42-day period in which it can be declared Ebola-free, a study shows that deaths continue to skyrocket in the nation not due to Ebola, but of the fear of hospitals left in its aftermath.
by Frances Martel7 Oct 2015, 11:22 AM PST0

700 people in northern Sierra Leone have been quarantined, as the country, recently celebrating the discharge from the hospital of their last Ebola patient, diagnosed a 16-year-old girl with the disease.
by Frances Martel15 Sep 2015, 5:15 PM PST0

The World Health Organization is warning that the time frame in which male Ebola survivors can spread the virus through their semen may be longer than previously anticipated, keeping an outbreak that began in February 2014 alive as those who are considered free of the disease engage in sexual activity.
by Frances Martel11 Sep 2015, 9:00 PM PST0

The government of Sierra Leone received a mere six-day respite from fighting Ebola, as a new case announced today resets the countdown clock to declaring the nation Ebola-free. The body of a 67-year-old woman in remote Kambia district has tested positive for the virus.
by Frances Martel31 Aug 2015, 6:25 PM PST0

The government of Sierra Leone has quarantined 624 people in the past week following the death by Ebola of a man in a town that had not experienced any cases of the deadly virus in months. While the outbreak continues with little natural end in sight, however, scientists have announced a breakthrough vaccine development that could eradicate Ebola for good.
by Frances Martel31 Jul 2015, 11:40 AM PST0

Bellevue Hospital is currently observing an unidentified man for Ebola who recently returned from Africa and came down with a fever.
by Mary Chastain21 Jul 2015, 8:48 PM PST0

A radio soap opera launched in Sierra Leone in January to spread awareness of how to properly defend against Ebola was renewed this week for a third season after the series, funded by a national bank, proved a smash hit.
by Frances Martel16 Jul 2015, 8:17 AM PST0

The United Nations special envoy for Ebola warned today that the outbreak that has taken more than 11,000 lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea is far from over, with 30 people a week being diagnosed with the disease on average. The UN warned that, while the figure appears low compared to the number this time last year, the fact that most cases are people not on watch lists indicates the threat is much larger than it appears.
by Frances Martel13 Jul 2015, 10:36 AM PST0

A new “cluster” of Ebola cases in a coastal region of Liberia has been identified, after a 17-year-old boy, initially misdiagnosed with malaria, was confirmed dead of the virus. Experts have failed to find the source of this new outbreak and are treating it as a separate set of incidents from the massive outbreak that has taken more than 10,000 lives in West Africa since February 2014.
by Frances Martel9 Jul 2015, 7:13 AM PST0

The 17-year-old boy confirmed dead of the Ebola virus in Liberia, ending a 49-day Ebola-free streak for the nation, may be a second patient zero, and not the victim of the Ebola outbreak that began in February 2014 and has taken thousands of lives since then.
by Frances Martel2 Jul 2015, 11:38 AM PST0

The Liberian government announced on Monday that two separate tests had confirmed a 17-year-old boy had died of Ebola on June 28, the first Ebola death in that country in 49 days. The government has quarantined the town where the boy died and announced emergency measures to contain the disease.
by Frances Martel30 Jun 2015, 10:41 AM PST0

A new study has found that, in addition to causing thousands of deaths and continuing nearly unabated in parts of West Africa, the Ebola virus has resulted in at least 74,000 cases of malaria going untreated, with those infected too fearful of being quarantined for Ebola to seek medical care.
by Frances Martel24 Jun 2015, 9:17 AM PST0

Medical workers in Guinea and Sierra Leone reported 31 new cases of Ebola in the pass week, a significant increase following two months of relative decline that had the United Nations close to declaring the outbreak over. Lax monitoring rules and potential smuggling of Ebola patients past medical officials may be to blame, journalists report.
by Frances Martel12 Jun 2015, 9:51 AM PST0

The UN’s emergency Ebola response headquarters in Ghana’s capital, Accra, is to close as the outbreak slows.
by Breitbart News10 Jun 2015, 6:19 AM PST0

Sierra Leone has experienced a dramatic fall in the number of Ebola cases in the nation over the past month, prompting the government to reopen schools and attempt to return civilians to normal daily life. Much has changed in the past year due to the outbreak, including the population of stray dogs, which has doubled to an estimated half a million.
by Frances Martel21 Apr 2015, 8:09 PM PST0

The government of Sierra Leone reopened schools nationwide on Tuesday, after closing them for nine months to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus. President Ernest Koroma’s confidence in reopening the schools is a sign that the Ebola outbreak may be, after a year of international struggle to contain it, nearing an end.
by Frances Martel15 Apr 2015, 9:18 AM PST0

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the medical charity that first alerted the world of the spread of Ebola, has now faulted some national governments as well as the World Health organization for ignoring the warning and throwing roadblocks in the way of eradicating the disease before it grew.
by William Bigelow24 Mar 2015, 4:40 AM PST0

Emails obtained by the Associated Press show discussions among the senior administrators of the World Health Organization from as early as June 2014, in which officials refused to yet declare a state of emergency in west Africa over the Ebola outbreak for fear of angering local governments and interfering with the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.
by Frances Martel20 Mar 2015, 11:06 AM PST0

Samuel Sam-Sumana, the vice president of Sierra Leone, has imposed an Ebola quarantine on himself following the death of his bodyguard upon contracting the lethal virus.
by Frances Martel2 Mar 2015, 6:41 AM PST0

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that, after a brief period of decreased cases, health officials are witnessing an increase in the number of Ebola cases in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone as people resume traditional–and dangerous–burial rituals.
by Frances Martel20 Feb 2015, 7:22 AM PST0

As the number of cases of Ebola begin to rise for the first time in 2015, a new audit has uncovered more than $3 million in funding to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone is wholly unaccounted for. The government has vowed a prompt investigation as it begins to quarantine previously untouched neighborhoods in the capital, Freetown.
by Frances Martel17 Feb 2015, 6:13 AM PST0