MONROVIA (Reuters) – The last four cases of Ebola in Liberia were discharged from a treatment clinic in the capital of Monrovia on Monday, meaning there were no more confirmed carriers of the deadly virus in the West African country.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The UN’s emergency Ebola response headquarters in Ghana’s capital, Accra, is to close as the outbreak slows.
A nurse employed by a health NGO who returned from work in Sierra Leone has become the first person to test positive for Ebola in Italy, officials confirmed on Wednesday.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Saturday that Liberia is now officially free of the deadly Ebola virus, closing the case on an epidemic that killed thousands in the west African nation.
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.
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.
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the head of the United Nations mission against the Ebola virus in Africa, told the BBC he expects the outbreak that began in February 2014 to be vanquished “by the end of the summer.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported Ebola cases in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea rose last week for the first time in several weeks.
After West Africans suffered from nearly 22,000 infections and 9,000 casualties, physicians began large-scale human testing of two potential Ebola vaccines on Monday.
World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show a significant drop in cases of Ebola in Guinea, Liberia, and even beleaguered Sierra Leone, indicating a potential–though not guaranteed–end of an outbreak that has taken thousands of lives and affected millions.
Members of the Texas National Guard deployed to Liberia have opened an Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) near the town of Buchanan. The soldiers are deployed under Operation United Assistance as part of the 36th Engineer Brigade from Fort Hood, Texas.
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.
EMBO Molecular Medicine released a study that claims insectivorous free-tailed bats sparked the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
The United Kingdom confirmed its first positive Ebola case in Scotland.
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.
On Monday, Liberian health officials an outbreak of new Ebola cases, near the country’s border with Sierra Leone.
Monrovia (AFP) – The Ebola epidemic has cast a dark shadow over Christmas this year in Liberia, where small businesses are especially feeling the pinch.
Nearly nine months, 6,915 deaths, and 18,603 cases later, the United Nations is ready to take some action on the Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced a tour of the stricken West African countries—Sierra Leone, Liberia, and