-
2nd March 2019 18:29
Link to Post #1101
Re: Haemorrhagic fever / Ebola outbreaks have been reported - accident, natural or bio-weapon?
Doctors without Borders, an aid organization, suspended operations for Ebola care and treatment in DR Congo.
They did so after two treatment centers were torched, burned, and patients being treated disappeared.
But violent attacks in the volatile region, which has been at the centre of conflict fueled by ethnic rivalries and territorial disputes for more than two decades, have made attempts to control the highly contagious disease even more difficult.
Earlier this week, an Ebola treatment centre in the town of Katwa was partially burnt down, destroying medical equipment and patients wards and killing a caretaker, seemingly while he was fleeing the scene.
Then in a second attack on Wednesday night in the nearby city of Butembo, assailants tried to set fire to a health centre with almost 60 patients inside - 15 of whom were confirmed to have Ebola.
Dr Michel Yao, the incident manager for the World Health Organization, told The Telegraph he found bullet holes in the building’s walls the next morning.
-
7th April 2019 15:12
Link to Post #1102
Re: Haemorrhagic fever / Ebola outbreaks have been reported - accident, natural or bio-weapon?
7 April 2019 DR Congo north east (Beni and Butembo city areas)
Currently 702 deaths
1117 having been infected with a potential of 295 more people potentially infected.
95,000 residents have received a dose of the rVSV-Zebov vaccine from Merck laboratories.
339 people have recovered (long lasting damage has been present in many of those who have recovered).
The World Health Organization has warned that "the risk of national and regional spread remains very high".
Several armed groups, coupled with resistance of some communities to seeking treatment, has hampered the fight to stem the spread of the disease.
-
30th April 2019 15:51
Link to Post #1103
Re: Haemorrhagic fever / Ebola outbreaks have been reported - accident, natural or bio-weapon?
Ebola case flareup in DR Congo (east) -
DRC, now 1,466 cases and 957 deaths. A total of 239 suspected cases are still under investigation.
In DRC, Katwa and Butembo remain the outbreak hot spots, with Beni, Mandima, Musienene, Biena, Kalunguta, Mutwanga, and Mabalako also noting cases in the past few days.
The cumulative number of confirmed cases or probable among health workers has now reached 92 (6.4% of all confirmed and probable cases), including 33 deaths.
Vaccination attributed to keeping the infection count and death count low - As of today, a ring vaccination campaign with Merck's rVSV-ZEBOV continues in the outbreak region, with 107,565 people vaccinated, including 28,826 in Katwa, 21,107 in Beni, and 13,246 in Butembo.
-
9th May 2019 18:04
Link to Post #1104
Re: Haemorrhagic fever / Ebola outbreaks have been reported - accident, natural or bio-weapon?
Difficulty is still present in DR Congo, the NE area - the Ebola cases have topped 1600 and deaths have exceeded 1060 people.
Another clinic was attacked, and protesters burned the triage service of Sainte Famille Mukuna hospital center in Katwa health zone.
ref: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-persp...-armed-clashes
A new vaccine is probably going to be tried, manufactured by Johnson and Johnson with scheduled reductions of dose strength of the Merck vaccine which has to date shown greater than 95% effectiveness.
Personally I would be concerned with the doctors deciding to change the technique and dosage established by the clinical and field studies.
Insufficient immunity (lack of sufficient antibodies) could allow for the virus to mutate, and become resistant to the monoclonal antibodies which are pretty specific in the Merck vaccine..
-
24th May 2019 16:47
Link to Post #1105
Re: Haemorrhagic fever / Ebola outbreaks have been reported - accident, natural or bio-weapon?
More than 1,860 cases of Ebola have now been reported in North Kivu and neighbouring Ituri province, and more than 1,240 deaths.
WHO still refuses to declare an emergency.
Neighbouring countries of Uganda and Rwanda and southern Sudan are concerned that travelers from DR Congo may bring the disease with them - nearly one million people travel each month from DR Congo into Uganda - An estimated 100,000 people cross the border each month into Rwanda.
-
4th June 2019 20:38
Link to Post #1106
Re: Haemorrhagic fever / Ebola outbreaks have been reported - accident, natural or bio-weapon?
From AP
It's over 2000 currently..
The Ebola Zaire outbreak in north-eastern Congo has surpassed 2,000 cases and is increasing in the speed of persons infected.
The number of confirmed cases reached the milestone three times as quickly as it took to reach 1,000, experts said Tuesday.
Potential under-reporting -
Because of the mistrust many Ebola cases are not being counted and the number of confirmed cases is likely “an underestimate and not a realistic picture of the number of cases out there,” the IRC said in a separate statement. Many people, frightened, are still dying at home instead of presenting themselves at health centers for treatment. (IRC: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies).
More than 129,000 people have received the new experimental effective Ebola vaccine in its first widespread use.
Reports are the vaccine has resulted in less active infections and deaths - over 95% effectiveness has been reported for the new Canadian developed vaccine based on the VSV vector.
vaccine report on effectiveness: https://www.who.int/csr/resources/pu...april-2019.pdf
Last edited by Bob; 5th June 2019 at 16:02.
-
4th June 2019 21:35
Link to Post #1107