SAD!!! Liberia Confirms Fresh Cases Of Ebola

Just when we thought we have won the war against Ebola!!!It seems the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Liberia "Ebola free" in a hurry because three new cases of the dreaded virus have been confirmed in Liberia.
The three patients include a 10-year-old boy from Paynesville, a suburb of the capital Monrovia.
The country was first declared Ebola-free on 9 May, but new cases emerged in June resulting in two deaths. It was declared free of the virus again on 3 September.
Liberia recorded its first Ebola case in March last year and analysts believe the latest cases are a serious set-back for the country.

All people with the symptom have been isolated, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told the BBC.

Liberia has seen more than 10,000 Ebola cases and more than 4,000 deaths.
The country's Health Minister Bernice Dahn said six of the boy's relatives and other high-risk contacts have been taken to an Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville.

"The hospital is currently decontaminating the unit. All of the healthcare workers who came in contact with the patient have been notified," she said.
On Thursday night, before the new case emerged, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf delivered a speech praising "the resilience" of Liberians in overcoming the epidemic.

The new cases in Liberia was announced just days after Guinea, where the epidemic started, said it had no more Ebola cases.
If no more cases are detected for 42 days, it would be declared free of the virus.
Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola on 7 November.

More than 11,000 people have died of the disease since December 2013, the vast majority of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

-BBC

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Ebola May Be Transmitted Sexually - WHO Warns

 The World Health Organisation has issued an interim advice on the possibility of Ebola Virus of being sexually transmitted.

 The WHO had directed all Ebola survivors and their sexual partners to receive counselling to guard against possible transmission of the disease.

 This is contained in a statement made available by WHO to newsmen in Lagos on Saturday.

It indicated that the sexual transmission of the Ebola Virus had yet to be established.

WHO said, “The sexual transmission of the Ebola Virus from males to females is a strong possibility, but has not yet been proven; less probable, but theoretically possible.

“Studies have shown that Ebola virus can be isolated from semen up to 82 days after symptom onset.

“A recent case investigation identified genetic material (RNA) from the virus by nucleic acid amplification tests (such as RT-PCR) 199 days after symptom onset.

“This is well beyond the period of virus detecting ability in the blood of survivors and long after recovery from illness.

“The detection of virus genetic material many months after symptom onset is assumed to reflect the continuing, or at least very recent, presence of live and potentially transmissible Ebola virus.”

More surveillance data and research are needed on the risks of sexual transmission and particularly on the prevalence of viable and transmissible virus in semen over time, WHO said.

WHO recommends that, in the interim, all Ebola survivors and their sexual partners should receive counselling.

It added that this is to ensure safe sexual practices until their semen has twice tested negative; and survivors should be provided with condoms.

“Ebola survivors and their sexual partners should either abstain from all types of sex or observe safe sex through correct and consistent condom use until their semen has twice tested negative.

“Having tested negative, survivors can safely resume normal sexual practices without fear of Ebola virus transmission,” the statement added. 

NAN

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WHO Finally Declares Nigeria Ebola-free Country

 The World Health Organization, WHO, and the Federal Ministry of Health today held a joint press conference in Abuja were they formally declared Nigeria Ebola Virus Disease free. This is great news. See some photos from the press conference below... 

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Nigeria Ebola Free - WHO

 The World Health Organization (WHO) is hoping to announce later on this week that  two African countries Nigeria and Senegal are free of Ebola after 42 days with no infections.

 The 42 days is the standard period for declaring an outbreak over, twice the maximum 21-day incubation period of the virus.

 According to a statement signed by the Director of Information in the Ministry of Health, Mrs. Ayotunde Adesugba, WHO will soon make the official declaration after Nigeria successfully curbed the virus which was imported into the country by Liberia-American, Patrick Sawyer, in July. The country recorded seven deaths in the process.

 However, one of the discoverers of the deadly virus said on Tuesday that sex could keep the Ebola epidemic alive even after the World Health Organization (WHO) declares an area free of the disease. 

'In a convalescent male, the virus can persist in semen for at least 70 days; one study suggests persistence for more than 90 days,' the WHO said in an information note on Monday. 

'Certainly, the advice has to be for survivors to use a condom, to not have unprotected sex, for 90 days,' said Peter Piot, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a discoverer of Ebola in 1976.

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WHO Announces Ebola Death Toll

 The World Health Organization has confirmed the death toll from the worst Ebola outbreak in history to be at least 2,296 out of 4,293 cases in five West African countries, as at yesterday, Tuesday September 9th.

The death toll, according to WHO, jumped by almost 200 in a single day and the figure was as of September 6th. WHO also said it did not have new figures for Liberia, the worst-affected country so far, suggesting the real number is higher than 2,296.

"We know that the numbers are under-estimated. We are currently working to estimate the under-estimation. It’s a war against this virus. It’s a very difficult war. What we try now is to win some battles at least in some places.” director of WHO’s department of pandemic and epidemic diseases, Sylvie Briand, said today in Geneva

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WHO says total Ebola death toll now 961( SEE LIST OF COUNTRIES)

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the spread of Ebola in West Africa is an international health emergency.WHO officials said a co-ordinated response was essential to stop and reverse the spread of the virus.

In Nigeria, one of the latest countries to be affected, President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a national state of emergency.

More than 960 people have died from Ebola in West Africa this year, two of them in Nigeria, the WHO says.

There were 68 new cases and 29 deaths reported over the course of two days this week, the United Nations health agency revealed on Friday.
Guinea: 367
Sierra Leone: 298
Liberia: 294
Nigeria: 2

It brings the total number of cases to 1,779.

There were 26 new cases in Sierra Leone and 38 in Liberia, but no new cases in Guinea, where the outbreak began.

The WHO said the outbreak was an “extraordinary event”.

“The possible consequences of further international spread are particularly serious in view of the virulence of the virus,” it said after the meeting.

BBC

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