West Africa - Page 2

Sierra Leone Officially Declared Ebola-Free

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.

The Associated Press

Study: Male Survivors Can Carry Ebola for up to Nine Months

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.

ebola-victim Abbas DullehAP

Obama Deploys Troops to Cameroon to Fight Boko Haram

President Obama announced Wednesday that 300 U.S. troops will be deployed to Cameroon to fight the ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram terrorist group. The troops will work to establish a base from which to fly Predator drones into the northeast Nigerian enclave in which Boko Haram is headquartered.

cameroon-soldiers

Boko Haram Attacks Sweep Nigerian Capital, Niger, Chad

Following multiple attacks in its stronghold of northeast Borno state, ISIS affiliate Boko Haram has bombed multiple targets in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, as well as attacking Niger and Chad, both member nations of a military coalition formed to destroy the terrorist group.

Vanguard Newspapers/Twitter

The Last Frontier in Africa’s Ebola War: Sex Among Survivors

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.

AFP PHOTO / ZOOM DOSSO

Ebola: 500+ Quarantined in Once-Cured Sierra Leone Village

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.

Ebola Case in Sierra Leone AP Photo

WHO Baffled as Source of New Ebola Outbreak in Liberia Still a Mystery

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.

REUTERS/BAZ RATNER

Sierra Leone: Mothers Refuse to Vaccinate Children for Fear of Resurgent Ebola

Doctors in Port Loko, a northwestern region of Sierra Leone outside Freetown, are reporting a significant drop in the number of mothers bringing their children to hospitals for routine vaccinations. The mothers, they say, fear exposing their children to a resurgent Ebola virus, and in keeping them from hospitals are risking triggering the spread of polio or measles.

The Associated Press

Boko Haram Fuses with ISIS in Dangerous New Alliance

After swearing allegiance to ISIS in March, the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram has now gone a step further, adopting the new name of the “Islamic State’s West Africa Province,” or ISWAP. The title change is more than semantic, and galvanizes the radical Islamist forces in Africa and the Middle East.

AP Photo

Fort Hood Soldiers Begin Ebola Screening Process After Liberia

Fort Hood, Texas, has received its first eighty-seven Ebola warriors who have returned home after helping to fight the deadly disease in Liberia. Most of the soldiers are members who are permanently assigned to Fort Hood, but some are from Fort Carson, Colorado. The soldiers now begin a twenty-one day monitoring period to ensure none of them returned carrying the deadly virus.

Ebola Monitoring of Fort Hood Soldiers

Liberia ‘Abolishes’ Cremation as Ebola Resurges on Border

While it has mostly disappeared from mainstream media headlines in the United States, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa appears to be no nearer to an end. Liberia, a nation that had proclaimed near-victory against the virus, reported a resurgence of cases near its border with Sierra Leone, but pushed on with a ban on cremation triggered by public demand.

REUTERS/BAZ RATNER