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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Round-up: New Ebola Death Hits Mali as Liberia Hails Drop in Cases |
| 2014-11-13 |
| [AnNahar] A second person from Mali has died from Ebola, just as hardest-hit Liberia hailed a dramatic drop in infections and the last-known sufferer in the United States was declared cured on Tuesday. The death of a nurse who had treated an Ebola patient from neighboring Guinea came as a blow to authorities in Mali, just as they were beginning to lift quarantine restrictions on more than 100 people exposed to the country's first victim of the virus. The nurse had treated a Guinean patient at a clinic in the capital Bamako who was suffering from kidney failure and later died, medical sources said late Tuesday. Authorities now believe he had Ebola. The case has raised fears of further contamination in Mali as the infection was unrelated to the country's only other Ebola fatality, that of a two-year-old girl. In Liberia there was better news as assistant health minister Tolbert Nyenswah said new cases had dropped from a daily peak of more than 500 to around 50, confirming tentative announcements by experts worldwide of an apparent slowdown in the epidemic. "The numbers of cases are reducing," he told Agence La Belle France Presse, although he added that new cases were still emerging across the country.⨠The largest Ebola outbreak on record has killed some 5,000 people, with Liberia hit hardest and the contagion still raging in neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea. The virus kills around 70 percent of its victims, often shutting down their organs and causing unstoppable bleeding. On Tuesday, Morocco was stripped of hosting football's Africa Cup of Nations and flung out of the competition after insisting that it wanted to postpone the tournament due to fears over the virus. - New York patient 'cured' - In New York, the last known Ebola patient in the United States was released from hospital on Tuesday after being declared cured. Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old emergency room doctor who contracted the virus while treating infected people in West Africa, appeared at a presser with Mayor Bill de Blasio to announce he had been discharged from hospital. "New York City's first and only Ebola case is successfully treated. Dr Spencer is Ebola-free and New York City is Ebola-free," de Blasio proclaimed at the hospital, to cheers and applause. Spencer said he was "healthy and no longer infectious". "My early detection reporting and now recovery from Ebola, speaks to the effectiveness of the protocols that are in place for health staff returning for from West Africa," he said. The U.S. has treated nine victims of the virus, which spreads through contact with infected bodily fluids. A total of 289 people in New York continue to be monitored for possible Ebola symptoms, including Spencer's fiancee and staff who helped treat the doctor. - 'Still skyrocketing' in Sierra Leone - The White House has been at the forefront of the international response to the outbreak, committing hundreds of millions of dollars and announcing plans for Ebola treatment units across Liberia. The first U.S.-built center opened on Monday in Tubmanburg, around 70 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of the capital Monrovia. The day before the announcement of the new Malian case, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had released from isolation 25 of more than 100 people thought to have come into contact with country's first victim. Two-year-old Fanta Conte died after returning from a trip to Guinea. The infection sparked panic as the toddler had traveled by bus and taxi with her grandmother, sister and uncle, making frequent stops on a trip of more than 1,200 kilometers (750 miles). They also spent two hours in the capital Bamako, visiting relatives in a house of 25 people. In Sierra Leone, WHO spokeswoman Winnie Romeril said the outbreak had stabilized in some areas but was "still skyrocketing" in the west of the country. While Kenema, the eastern city at the epicenter of the epidemic, has not recorded new cases for three weeks, the capital Freetown and the nearby town of Hastings are still battling a serious outbreak, Romeril told AFP. She said the official nationwide corpse count of 1,133 was a gross underestimate and the real caseload was likely five times the official figure. "It's not a cover-up by authorities, (it's) just people don't report their cases. This is a serious problem -- they want to keep the bodies and organize traditional burials," she said. The Gambia ... The Gambia is actually surrounded by Senegal on all sides but its west coast. It has a population of about 1.7 million. The difference between the two is that in colonial days Senegal was ruled by La Belle France and The Gambia (so-called because there's only one of it, unlike Guinea, of which there are the Republic of Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, New Guinea, the English coin in circulation between 1663 and 1813, and Guyana, which sounds like it should be another one) was ruled by Britain... , which remains Ebola-free, announced Tuesday it had reopened its land borders to travelers from Sierra Leone and the other Ebola-hit nations. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #4 good idea chris, let those rich oil nations pay for a change! |
| Posted by: anon1 2014-11-13 08:17 |
| #3 2 days ago it was supposedly spiraling out of control in Liberia. Mali seems too me to be the new cause for the WHO too beg donations. Too hell with matching dollarfor dollar its about time for said countries too foot the bill for the entire next 10 billion. |
| Posted by: chris 2014-11-13 08:03 |
| #2 Update: $6.2 billion of YOUR taxes, USA, is going to ebola according to this report. And yet Saudi Arabia richest nation on earth has not contributed a dime. Nor has Oman, nor has Qatar which owns al Jazeera. Nor has the UAE. DON'T do that. Don't take the responsiblity. Say you'll match them dollar for dollar. |
| Posted by: anon1 2014-11-13 01:03 |
| #1 good work. For resources: Mali is up to 4 deaths, according to latest WHO sit rep here NY Times story here tracks the tale of the Grand Imam who died in Mali, whose body was washed and is now the cause of armed guards enforcing quarantine at the Bamako Mosque. Death toll has now topped 5000. |
| Posted by: anon1 2014-11-13 00:31 |