The war on Christianity - Congo - At least 36 people killed & Decapitated by Islamist terrorist group ADF-NALU.

Congo - At least 36 people killed, hacked to death by Islamist terrorist group ADF-NALU. (WorldWatchMonitor).

A relatively unknown militant group has intensified attacks in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), raising fears of the emergence of a new jihadist organisation in central Africa.

For years now, one of various rebel groups operating there, the Islamist Allied Democratic Forces-National Association for the Liberation of Uganda (ADF-NALU), has been trying to uproot Christians from the north-east area of DRC through attacks, rape, looting, kidnap and murder - on an almost weekly basis.

At least 36 people were killed in the latest attack on Saturday night (13 Aug.) in the village of Rwangoma, near Beni, the major town in the region. 

This was the deadliest attack in the area since November 2014; victims were tied up and hacked to death. The executive director at the Centre of Study for the Promotion of Peace, Democracy and Human Rights (that documents violence in North Kivu), Omar Kavota, told Reuters he had received reports of as many as 50 dead.

ADF-NALU, originally rooted in a rebel movement to overthrow Uganda’s government and replace it with an Islamist fundamentalist state, but forced to re-locate over the border into DRC, has been murdering local people, far from the attention of most of the world’s major media. While the National Association militants ostensibly ‘ended’ their fight in 2007, local bishops and civil society have repeatedly denounced the resurgence of violence still carried out in the name of ADF-NALU.

World Watch Monitor has tried to get more detail about Saturday‘s attacks, but a local source explained that many have fled, internet cafes are closed and so it is difficult to ascertain more about the victims at this time.

However, below, an aid worker for Open Doors International (ODI), who wishes to remain anonymous, describes a recent visit to North Kivu (before this latest attack). ODI supports Christians under pressure for their faith around the world.

Report from North Kivu.

As soon as we set foot in North Kivu province, in the north-east of the DRC, we are confronted with signs of the misery ADF attacks are causing for the mostly Christian inhabitants of the province. Read the full story here.

Hmmm.....Pope Francis: "“If I speak of Islamic violence, I have to speak of Catholic violence. Not all Muslims are violent.” ....when was the last time Christians attacked a village?

Scientist who identified Ebola virus calls for 'quasi-military intervention'

Scientist who identified Ebola virus calls for 'quasi-military intervention'. HT: Crof.

Via The Guardian: Scientist who identified Ebola virus calls for 'quasi-military intervention'. Excerpt:

The microbiologist who helped identify the Ebola virus in 1976 has urged David Cameron to support a "quasi-military intervention" to stop the current epidemic, which is spreading unchecked in west Africa. 

Professor Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said the outbreak was now so bad that a UN peacekeeping force ought to be mobilised in Sierra Leone and Liberia with huge donations of beds, ambulances and trucks as well as an army of clinicians, doctors and nurses. 

"At the moment, I'm not so optimistic, I'm pessimistic about how to control it. It's one thing to isolate patients or put a small village or town in quarantine; it's another thing when entire countries are affected," he said. "This requires a state of emergency and a kind of quasi-military intervention – and it's not my style to exaggerate." 

Piot, who has worked for the UN and World Health Organisation, said the US and UK efforts were good, but not good enough. "It's all going far too slow; I think there's still no sense that this is an absolute emergency and catastrophe," he said. 

Describing the "formidable management challenge" that lies ahead, he said the biggest question for him was what would happen if the disease spread to "megacities" in Nigeria, where there have already been seven deaths from 19 confirmed cases. 

"One of the reasons for this being out of control is because of the slow response both from the national community and the international community, with the exception of Medecins sans Frontières (MSF)," he added. 

Piot said the Ebola outbreak was discussed at a meeting of the government's Cobra national emergencies committee last month, so he knew Cameron had been briefed on the problem. 

He said: "I call on the government and the prime minister to intensify the country's efforts and provide assistance, and to accelerate it also." 

He said Cameron should sanction the release of up to 100 NHS doctors and nurses to go to Sierra Leone and Liberia and called on the UN to put an international emergency programme into action. "There is no way that the three countries effected most can handle this on their own," he said.

Canada: Possible Ebola case at Hôpital Notre-Dame in Montreal.

Canada: Possible Ebola case at Hôpital Notre-Dame in Montreal. HT: Crof.

Yahoo!News: Possible Ebola cases at Hôpital Notre-Dame. Excerpt from the Google translation, slightly edited:

A man just arriving from Guinea vomited on the plane Sunday was held in isolation at the Notre Dame Hospital on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal. 

Since the patient has visited this country in West Africa where the Ebola virus is prevalent, he was sent directly to Notre Dame, one of two hospitals designated by the Department of Health and Human Services to support patients suspected of carrying Ebola. 

Analyses were made on the man and sent to the National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg. The results should be known Monday. 

If the patient is infected with the virus, he will be transferred to a special room in intensive care at the Notre Dame Hospital.

Obama: US military will help fight Ebola

Obama: US military will help fight Ebola. HT: Crof.

Via NDTV.com, an AFP report: Barack Obama Says US Military to Help Ebola Effort. Evidently he's taking MSF's advice. Excerpt:

President Barack Obama said in an interview aired Sunday the US military would help in the fight against fast-spreading Ebola in Africa, but said it would be months before the epidemic slows. 

Obama said that, in its current form, he did not believe Ebola would reach the United States, but warned the virus could mutate and become a much greater threat to those outside Africa.  

The president argued that the deadly toll of the disease was being exacerbated because of the rudimentary public health infrastructure in Africa. 

"We're going to have to get US military assets just to set up, for example, isolation units and equipment there, to provide security for public health workers surging from around the world," Obama said on NBC's "Meet the Press." 

"If we do that, then it's still going to be months before this problem is controllable in Africa," he said. 

But he added, "if we don't make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa but other parts of the world, there's the prospect then that the virus mutates. 

"It becomes more easily transmittable. And then it could be a serious danger to the United States."Hmmm....May God protect the men being send there, because it's going to spread....big time. 

Disease modelers project a rapidly rising cases of Ebola, By December Hundred thousand plus.

Canada - Ebola scare? St. John NB Hilton Hotel quarantine: Woman had visited a foreign country.

Canada - Ebola scare? St. John NB Hilton Hotel quarantine: Woman had visited a foreign country.HT: Crof.

Via CBC News New Brunswick: Hilton Hotel quarantine: Woman had visited a foreign country. Click through for a video. Evidently everyone's got Ebola jitters.

The Hilton Hotel in Saint John, N.B., has been quarantined after a woman who just returned from a foreign country fell ill, according to a platoon chief on scene.  

Responders wouldn't say which country she was in, only that it's not in North America. 

“As a precautionary measure we’ve quarantined the building for now until we can determine what the cause of her illness is,” Saint John police Staff Sgt. Mike King. 

"There was information passed on to us that caused us some concern." 

People at the hotel have been told not to leave. The woman was taken to hospital. 

The general manager of the hotel says the woman was found unconscious by cleaning staff. The Hilton contacted police around 11:40 a.m. 

Four police officers are inside the hotel, while four officers are investigating from outside. 

Public health officials have been called in. Fire crews and Ambulance New Brunswick are also on scene. 

Ken Pearce of Smithville, Ont., checked into the Hilton Saturday night. He left around 10 a.m. to take in the city. When he came back he wasn’t allowed to go to his room to get his insulin. 

“They won’t tell us anything," he said. "We’re just waiting to get back into our room. That’s all.” 

Guests quarantined on the inside told CBC News they don't know what's going on either.

Ebola in West Africa: How many cases by November?

Ebola in West Africa: How many cases by November? HT: Crof.

Thanks to Shane Granger for tweeting the link to this post on the Health Intelligence blog: Forecasting the Number of Cases of Ebola Virus from the 2014 Outbreak in West Africa During the Next 12 Weeks. Click through for the full post and projections. Excerpt:

Based on the forecasting model and asuming the current conditions (diagnosis, treatment, interventions and reporting) of the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa remains as in the past, it is expected a rapid and exponential increase in the number of cases and deaths. 

It is estimated that the cumulative number of cases will reach more than 8,000 95% CI (6,466-9,954) for the three countries Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in the next 12 weeks. 

Liberia is strongly contributing to the high number of cases of the whole outbreak in the last weeks. It is estimated that Liberia reaches more than 4,000 cases in the next 12 weeks, practically half of the total number of cases estimates for the whole outbreak (three countries together). Liberia and Sierra Leone have the highest average rate of cases per week.   

Urgent actions and interventions should be taken in order to control the outbreak, avoid more cases and deaths. 

I hope this helps to raise awareness of the current and near future situation of the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa.

Given WHO's tally today of 3,685 cases and 1,841 deaths, that indicates more than doubling the case count and death count. So the burden accumulated since December, over roughly eight months, will double in three months. 

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Ebola.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Ebola.HT: Crof.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, gave a lengthy press conference immediately after returning to the US from a visit to the Ebola zone. Frieden has shown in the past that he knows how to be outspoken in a very strategic way; yet even so, the urgency of his language, and his call for an immediate, comprehensive global response, was striking. 

You can find the whole transcript on this page, but here are some highlights: 

“Despite tremendous efforts from the U.S. Government, from CDC, from within countries, the number of cases continues to increase and is now increasing rapidly. I’m afraid over the next few weeks, those numbers are likely to increase further and significantly. There is a window of opportunity to tamp this down, but that window is closing. We need action now to scale up the response. We know how to stop Ebola. The challenge is to scale it up to the massive levels needed to stop this outbreak.” 

“The number of cases is increasing so quickly that for every day’s delay, it becomes that much harder to stop it. There are three key things that we need. The first is more resources. This is going to take a lot to confront. The second are technical experts in health care and management to help in country. And the third is a global coordinated unified approach because this is not just a program for … West Africa, it’s not just a problem for Africa, it’s a problem for the world and the world needs to respond.” 

“In some ways the most upsetting thing I saw is what I didn’t see.  I didn’t see enough beds for treatment.  So in one facility which had just opened with 35 beds, there were 63 patients, many of them lying on the ground. I didn’t see data coming in from large parts of the country where Ebola might be spreading.  I didn’t see the kind of rapid response team that’s needed to stop a single cluster from becoming a large outbreak. I didn’t see the kind of efficient management systems and support and transport and jeeps that are essential for a rapid and effective response.” 

“Everything I’ve seen suggests over the next few weeks it’s likely to get worse. We’re likely to see significant increases in cases.  Already we have widespread transmission in Liberia. In Sierra Leone, we are seeing strong signs that that will happen in the near future.”

Disease modelers project a rapidly rising cases of Ebola, By December Hundred thousand plus.

Disease modelers project a rapidly rising toll from Ebola, hundreds of thousands cases in coming months.HT: Crof.

Thanks to Lucie Lecomte for sending the link to this report by Kai Kupferschmidt in ScienceInsider: Disease modelers project a rapidly rising toll from Ebola. Excerpt:

Alessandro Vespignani hopes that his latest work will turn out to be wrong. In July, the physicist from Northeastern University in Boston started modeling how the deadly Ebola virus may spread in West Africa. 

Extrapolating existing trends, the number of the sick and dying mounts rapidly from the current toll—more than 3000 cases and 1500 deaths—to around 10,000 cases by September 24, and hundreds of thousands in the months after that.

"The numbers are really scary,” he says—although he stresses that the model assumes control efforts aren't stepped up. "We all hope to see this NOT happening," Vespigani writes in an e-mail. 

Vespignani is not the only one trying to predict how the unprecedented outbreak will progress. Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that the number of cases could ultimately exceed 20,000. And scientists across the world are scrambling to create computer models that accurately describe the spread of the deadly virus. Not all of them look quite as bleak as Vespignani's. But the modelers all agree that current efforts to control the epidemic are not enough to stop the deadly pathogen in its tracks. 

Computer models “are incredibly helpful” in curbing an outbreak, says infectious disease researcher Jeremy Farrar, who heads the Wellcome Trust research charity in London. They can help agencies such as WHO predict the medical supplies and personnel they will need—and can indicate which interventions will best stem the outbreak. Mathematical epidemiologist Christian Althaus of the University of Bern, who is also building Ebola models, says both WHO and Samaritan's Purse, a relief organization fighting Ebola, have contacted him to learn about his projections. 

But the modelers are hampered by the paucity of data on the current outbreak and lack of knowledge about how Ebola spreads. Funerals of Ebola victims are known to spread the virus, for example—but how many people are infected that way is not known. “Before this we have never had that much Ebola, so the epidemiology was never well developed,” says Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “We are caught with our pants down.” 

To a mathematician, combating any outbreak is at its core a fight to reduce one number: Re, the pathogen’s effective reproductive rate, the number of people that an infected person in turn infects on average. An Re above 1, and the disease spreads. Below 1, an outbreak will stall. 

Outbreak models typically assume that there are four groups of people: those who are susceptible, those who have been infected but are not contagious yet, those who are sick and can transmit the virus, and those who have recovered. A model, in essence, describes the rates at which people move from one group to the next. From those, Re can be calculated. 

If the disease keeps spreading as it has, most of the modelers Science talked to say WHO’s estimate will turn out to be conservative. “If the epidemic in Liberia were to continue in this way until the 1st of December, the cumulative number of cases would exceed 100,000,” predicts Althaus. 

Such long-term forecasts are error-prone, he acknowledges. But other modelers aren’t much more encouraging. Caitlin Rivers of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg expects roughly 1000 new cases in Liberia in the next 2 weeks and a similar number in Sierra Leone. 

Vespignani has analyzed the likelihood that Ebola will spread to other countries. Using data on millions of air travelers and commuters, as well as mobility patterns based on data from censuses and mobile devices, he has built a model of the world, into which he can introduce Ebola and then run hundreds of thousands of simulations. 

In general, the chance of further spread beyond West Africa is small, Vespignani says, but the risk grows with the scale of the epidemic. Ghana, the United Kingdom, and the United States are among the countries most likely to have an introduced case, according to the model. (Senegal, which reported its first Ebola case last week, was in his top ten countries, too.)

In case you don't have an idea how big Africa really is see below. 

Belgian minister of public health: "Suspected Ebola case hospitalized"

Belgian minister of public health: "Suspected Ebola case hospitalized" HT: Crof.

Lucie Lecomte found this report on GlobalMedia.mx: Bélgica en alerta ante posible caso de ébola. [Belgium on alert against possible Ebola case] Excerpt, with my translation:

Un trabajador humanitario está siendo mantenido en cuarentena en un hospital de Bruselas por sospecha "real" de haber contraído el virus del Ébola, informó hoy el ministerio belga de Salud Pública. 

A humanitarian worker is in quarantine in a Brussels hospital on "real"  suspicion of having contracted Ebola virus disease, the Belgian minister of public health said today.

El hombre, un colaborador de la organización internacional Médicos Sin Fronteras (MSF), ha estado en contacto con enfermos de ébola en un país de África Occidental antes de regresar a Bruselas, hace cerca de dos semanas. 

The man, a collaborator of the international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, has been in contact with Ebola cases in a West African country before returning to Brussels almost two weeks ago.

"Su caso responde a las tres condiciones de la categoría de riesgo elevado: ha estado en un país afectado por la enfermedad, ha estado en contacto con la enfermedad y tiene fiebre", explicó a la prensa belga el portavoz del ministerio, Sven Heyndrickx. 

Ministry spokesperson Sven Heyndrickx said: "His case meets the three conditions for high risk: he has been in a country affected by the disease, he has been in contact with the disease, and he has a fever."

La persona, cuyo nombre o la edad no han sido revelados, ha empezado a sentirse mal el jueves por la noche y ha sido inmediatamente hospitalizado.

The person, whose name and age have not been revealed, had begun to feel ill on Thursday night and was immediately hospitalized.

Lucie has also found a hospitalized suspected case in Gatineau, Quebec, right across the river from Ottawa. But it seems much less likely that the Belgian case.

EBOLA - Is this the time to put West Africa under UN trusteeship?

EBOLA - Is this the time to put West Africa under UN trusteeship? HT: Crof.

Blogging Ebola must be getting to me. NGOs and humanitarian agencies are reduced to abject begging to save the millions at risk. The economy of Liberia is imploding before our eyes, and Guinea and Sierra Leone are likely close behind. 

We are clearly beyond high-minded appeals to our better angels. Since December 2013, Ebola has upset the live of close to 200 million people, and seems likely to upset the lives of many more. The governments on the ground, however well-meaning, clearly cannot cope and should not be blamed for it. 

I grew up in the twilight of the great colonial empires, and was glad to see their subjects take control of their own lives. Imperialism has provided a few European nations with cheap sources of raw materials and captive markets for manufactured goods; no wonder they clung to them so long.

But all bad things must end, and imperialism (at least in its old form) is over. After World War II, the United Nations took over some former colonial possessions and ran them under the United Nations Trusteeship Council. This is what I found on its website:

Status 

The Trusteeship Council suspended operation on 1 November 1994, with the independence of Palau, the last remaining United Nations trust territory, on 1 October 1994. By a resolution adopted on 25 May 1994, the Council amended its rules of procedure to drop the obligation to meet annually and agreed to meet as occasion required -- by its decision or the decision of its President, or at the request of a majority of its members or the General Assembly or the Security Council. 

Background 

In setting up an International Trusteeship System, the Charter established the Trusteeship Council as one of the main organs of the United Nations and assigned to it the task of supervising the administration of Trust Territories placed under the Trusteeship System. Major goals of the System were to promote the advancement of the inhabitants of Trust Territories and their progressive development towards self-government or independence. TheTrusteeship Council is made up of the five permanent members of the Security Council --China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States. The aims of the Trusteeship System have been fulfilled to such an extent that all Trust Territories have attained self-government or independence, either as separate States or by joining neighbouring independent countries. 

Functions and powers 

Under the Charter, the Trusteeship Council is authorized to examine and discuss reports from the Administering Authority on the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the peoples of Trust Territories and, in consultation with the Administering Authority, to examine petitions from and undertake periodic and other special missions to Trust Territories.

After twenty years, this may be the time to renew the Council's mandate—not out of some neocolonial impulse, but the naked self-interest of the great powers.

No single country could or should take charge of the rehabilitation of West Africa. But as a global campaign, supported by all the United Nations, the UN might offer the Ebola-stricken countries a respite.

The world could send in not the Marines but the doctors and engineers who could stamp out Ebola and build the infrastructure needed to keep it stamped out: everything from hospitals to roads and schools. 

The imperialists in the 1960s essentially deserted their colonies when killing people didn't work any more, and left them on their own—or bribed their new rulers into cooperation, or simply tolerated their corruption as a cost of continuing to extract their wealth.

This would be different: A temporary taking charge with a guaranteed exit date. By that date, the UN would also guarantee those countries a functioning bureaucracy, adequate roads and railways, and a corps of highly trained medical personnel. (As long as we're daydreaming, let's throw in Haiti as well, and clean up the UN's cholera mess while we're at it.)

Such a measure would indeed be as nakedly self-interested as France in Algeria and Indochina, or Britain in Nigeria and South Africa. But now the interest would be in keeping their own populations safe and healthy in a world where the former colonials now fly in and out of Heathrow and De Gaulle (or desperately try to cross the Mediterranean to Sicily). 

I know, it's an idea only an old science-fiction writer could come up with. But Ray Bradbury famously said that the job of science fiction is not to predict the future, but to prevent it. A future dominated by Ebola and its allies is a future we urgently need to prevent. 

Hmmm.....I found this post a very interesting way of dealing with the Ebola threat. 

Experimental Canadian Ebola vaccine wouldn’t reach Africa before 2015

Experimental Canadian Ebola vaccine wouldn’t reach Africa before 2015. HT: Crof.

Via The Globe and Mail: Experimental Canadian Ebola vaccine wouldn’t reach Africa before 2015. Excerpt:

Human trials of Canada’s experimental Ebola vaccine are expected to start in the United States this fall, but, like other vaccine candidates headed for accelerated testing in humans, the Canadian-developed injection will not be deployed to the West African outbreak until next year at the earliest. 

The U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced Thursday that it would begin next week enrolling healthy adult volunteers in a phase I trial of a different vaccine, developed in partnership with the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, Inc., and based on a chimpanzee cold virus.  

The experimental vaccines could still prove useful in the current West African crisis, which shows no signs of abating. 

In a bleak assessment of the future path of the outbreak, the World Health Organization warned Thursday that it could spread to as many as 20,000 people in the region and take as long as nine months to quell. 

Human trials of the Canadian vaccine are expected to follow in the fall at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Silver Spring Maryland, according to NIAID, which is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Defense and an Iowa drug maker on testing the Canadian-developed vaccine in humans. 

“I think front of the line is pretty much where they [the Canadian vaccines] are right now,” Anthony Fauci, director of NIAID, said. “This is a trial that’s gonna start as soon as the regulatory and other aspects of it are determined.” 

Dr. Fauci predicted it would take until the end of this year to collect enough data from the phase I trials – which are designed to ensure the experimental vaccines are safe and provoke an immune response in healthy volunteers – to determine if the products are ready to be sent to the front lines of the crisis. 

“When you’re dealing with normal human beings who are the recipients of the vaccine, safety is paramount,” Dr. Fauci said. “It’s absolutely paramount.”

Ebola cases could exceed 20,000, WHO says.

Ebola cases could exceed 20,000, WHO says. HT: Crof.

Via CBC News: Ebola cases could exceed 20,000, WHO says. Excerpt:

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa eventually could exceed 20,000 cases, more than six times as many as doctors know about now, the World Health Organization said Thursday. 

A new plan to stop Ebola by the UN health agency also assumes that in many hard-hit areas, the actual number of cases may be two to four times higher than is currently reported.  

The agency published new figures saying that 1,552 people have died from the killer virus from among the 3,069 cases reported so far in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. At least 40 per cent of the cases have been in just the last three weeks, the UN health agency said, adding that "the outbreak continues to accelerate." 

In Geneva, the agency also released a new plan for handling the Ebola crisis that aims to stop Ebola transmission in affected countries within six to nine months and prevent it from spreading internationally. 

Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general, told reporters the plan would cost $489 million US over the next nine months and require the assistance of 750 international workers and 12,000 national workers. 

The 20,000 figure, he added, "is a scale that I think has not ever been anticipated in terms of an Ebola outbreak." 

"That's not saying we expect 20,000," he added. "But we have got to have a system in place that we can deal with robust numbers." 

Aylward said the far-higher caseload is believed to come from cities. 

"It's really just some urban areas that have outstripped the reporting capacity," he said. 

Aylward also said the agency is urging airlines to lift most of their restrictions about flying to Ebola-hit nations because a predictable "air link" is needed to help deal with the crisis. Air France on Wednesday cancelled its flights to Sierra Leone. Aylward said the agency hopes airlines will lift most restrictions within two weeks.

Canada to pull scientists fighting Ebola from Sierra Leone

Canada to pull scientists fighting Ebola from Sierra Leone. HT: Croft.

The Canadian government is evacuating three scientists from Sierra Leone, where their role diagnosing blood samples was crucial to the operation of one of West Africa’s biggest Ebola treatment centres. 

The Canadians were working at a busy treatment centre operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Kailahun, the eastern district at the heart of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. The “mobile” laboratory was deployed to West Africa in the spring at the request of the World Health Organization and three teams have now travelled to Sierra Leone from Winnipeg. 

The sudden departure of the Canadian trio is part of a larger evacuation ordered by the World Health Organization, which recently removed its entire team from Kailahun. The decision came after a Senegalese epidemiologist working for the UN health agency tested positive for Ebola over the weekend, marking the first time a WHO-deployed expert has been infected with the deadly virus. 

“This was the responsible thing to do. The field team has been through a traumatic time with this incident,” said Dr. Daniel Kertesz, the WHO’s representative in Sierra Leone, in a written statement Tuesday. “They are exhausted from many weeks of heroic work, helping patients infected with Ebola. When you add a stressor like this, the risk of accidents increases.” 

The Senegalese epidemiologist appears to be doing relatively well, however, and was able to walk into the airplane that has since flown him to Germany for treatment, according to WHO spokesperson Christy Feig. 

The three Canadian scientists and WHO epidemiologist were all living at the same hotel in Kailahun, where staff from MSF is also staying. According to Health Canada spokesperson Sean Upton, three people at the hotel have now been confirmed positive for the virus but Feig, who is now in Guinea, said she has only so far heard of the one. 

In a written statement, Upton said the risk is “very low” that any of the Canadian scientists are infected, however: none had any direct contact with any of the sick individuals and they are not showing any signs or symptoms. All three will remain in voluntary isolation, however, and be closely monitored as they make their way home and after they return to Canada. 

MSF’s busy treatment centre in Kailahun – which expanded from 60 to 80 beds last month –relied heavily on the work of the Canadian scientists, who both diagnosed suspected cases and confirmed when patients had cleared the virus and could finally go home.

Meanwhile, there are five Canadian staff members with Doctors Without Borders who all remain in Sierra Leone, a representative of the organization said, but it was unclear how many are in Kailahun.

Liberia: Stray Dogs feed on Ebola victims corpses.

Liberia: Stray dogs feed on Ebola victims corpses. HT: Crof.

Via The New Dawn: Dogs feed on Ebola victims.

The residents of the Mount Barclay Community within the Johnsonville Township, outside of Monrovia woke up on last Friday morning in total dismay when the remains of dead Ebola victims were reportedly seen, eaten by dogs, something reminiscent of the brutal civil war here, when dogs ate dead bodies on the streets. 

The Liberian Government, through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, buried some unaccounted-for corpses, suspected to have died from the Ebola Virus in that township few weeks ago. 

The burial was done in a hurry at night following a standoff in the day between residents and the Ministry of Health burial team. The former had refused to grant the authority a piece of land to carry out the burial. The dogs, in their numbers, were seen pulling the bodies out of the shadowed grave and hastily eating them. 

 A resident, who spoke to the New Dawn, said that the action of the dogs has posed a serious health hazard to the entire Mount Barclay Community. Mr. Alfred Wiah noted that the dogs could easily spread the virus through further interactions with community dwellers. 

According to Mr. Wiah, upon discovery of the dogs’ behavior, some young men immediately contacted the Health Ministry, but to no avail. The young men also attempted to kill all of the dogs, but some escaped the scene, making the terrain very scaring for the residents. 

He then expressed his disappointment in the manner and form the Liberian Government has treated the township. “We are very disappointed in the Health Ministry, especially the government that took an oath to defend and protect us; to see them act in such manner is unacceptable and we’ll never allow the government come to bury any longer. They will be resisted by us because I think the government has failed to protect us- why bring Ebola bodies and not bury them well?” he explained in this paper. 

According to him, some residents were deciding to leave the township in order to save their respective families, noting that since the incident occurred last Friday, the government has failed to clean the “mess”  by reburying the dead properly.  

When the Commissioner of the Johnsonville Township, Mr. Melvin Bettie, was contacted yesterday, he confirmed the information, but added that his leadership was working with the community leadership to find a solution to the situation. 

“I received the information already through the community chairman and I’ve sent a delegation there to see how we can revise the situation because it is embarrassing and it poses serious hazard to the community’s dwellers,” he said.

Liberian medic treated with experimental Ebola drug ZMapp dies.

Liberian medic treated with experimental Ebola drug ZMapp dies.HT: Crof.

 News24.com AFP report: Liberian medic treated with experimental Ebola drug dies. Excerpt:

Monrovia - A Liberian doctor treated with experimental American anti-Ebola serum ZMapp has died, the west African nation said on Monday. 

Abraham Borbor had been improving but died on Sunday night, Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told AFP. 

"He was showing signs of progress but he finally died. The government regrets this loss and extends its condolences to the bereaved family," Brown said. 

Two other health workers receiving the serum are still in treatment, said the minister, adding that there were "signs of hope". 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday there had been a "significant improvement" in the condition of a doctor and nurse being treated with ZMapp in Liberia, and that another doctor was getting better, but still in a serious condition. 

Liberia took delivery of ZMapp on 13 August from the United States, which gave the serum to two US citizens who were declared cured last week.

Democratic Republic Congo says two samples test positive for Ebola!

Democratic Republic Congo says two samples test positive for Ebola in northern outbreak.HT: Crof.

Thanks to Cédric Moro for tweeting the link to this Reuters report: Congo says two samples test positive for Ebola in northern outbreak.

Two out of eight cases tested in an outbreak of deadly fever in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo were positive for the Ebola virus, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said on Sunday. 

The World Health Organization said on Thursday that at least 70 people had died in an outbreak of hemorrhagic gastroenteritis in Congo's northern Equateur province. A WHO spokesman had said the outbreak was not Ebola.

 Via Congo24.net, an August 24 report: An unidentified disease in DRC. The Google translation:

Experts from WHO would have arrived yesterday Boende in the province of Ecuador. Their mission is to support patients and determine what condition it is. WHO teams took samples in short analysis at the National Institute of Biomedical Research in Kinshasa. Additional samples must be made. Because right now the disease has not yet been identified but it would have done according to health authorities there 65 people in one month. 

Currently three health areas are affected, Wetsikengo, Lokalia and Wafanya, all in the Boende territory. Samples were taken to determine the nature of the disease 

A contagious disease 

We are still at the stage of identification, but we already know that the disease is contagious, cases of contamination of nurses who treated patients were identified. We also know it is manifested by fever, severe diarrhea and vomiting. 

In addition to the WHO teams, the Congolese Minister of Public Health, Felix Kabange Numbi also visited the province of Equateur. The Minister would also promised to send another team of doctors at the health area Djera, located twenty kilometers Boende to resample. The goal is to have as soon as possible about the disease.

Google Maps tells me Boende is east of Mbandaka, which is on the Congo River. If the outbreak really is Ebola, it's likely to be hard to contain. The presence of the minister of health suggests the government is taking this seriously.
 DRC: four people died of Ebola. Excerpt from a Google translation:

Dr. Felix Kabange Numbi announced Sunday, August 24 the town of Boende affected by the virus will be quarantined on an area of ​​100 km around. 

The Congolese Minister of Health told the BBC that access will be strictly limited in this town in the province of Equateur, full of nearly 40,000 people. 

The positive samples were taken from people with hemorrhagic fever has killed 13 people since August 11 in the province, located in the northwest of the country.

For now, Dr. Felix Kabange Numbi said the locality is too far from the border to think that this is the same strain as that applied to the West Africa. The couple who died would have consumed contaminated with the virus monkey. And medical staff who treated him were contaminated.

It's not clear just what happened, except that two people died from eating contaminated bush meat, and then, presumably, two of their healthcare workers contracted the disease and died as well. (The BBC Africa site, in English, has a much earlier report.)

I expect we'll see much more coverage of this outbreak. 

Via Digitalcongo.net, an August 23 AFP report: Although hastily equated with Ebola hemorrhagic fever reported the alarming Equateur still casts doubt of WHO and MSF. Excerpt from the Google translation:

The World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are still reluctant to comment on the true nature of the sudden outbreak of hemorrhagic fever emerged in the Congolese province of Equateur and causing numerous mysterious deaths while rumors were not substantiated by reliable medical tests support the view of a new outbreak of Ebola fear as is the sad case in West Africa.  

With the dead in series of Ecuador, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the NGO Doctors Without Borders abstained prematurely to any connection with the Ebola virus, it is too early to say that it is a hemorrhagic fever, which causes the death of 13 people in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, warned yesterday the WHO and MSF. 

"Many died with bleeding symptoms, but there are severe malaria that can also give these symptoms, or typhoid fever, " he told AFP on condition of anonymity, an official of the World Health Organization based in Kinshasa. 

"We are still waiting biological confirmations to determine what kind of disease it is," said AFP's communications officer for MSF in Kinshasa, Amanda Cohn, whose teams are present in the affected area, Boende, a territory of the Province of Equateur (Northwest). 

Minister of Public Health, Dr. Felix Kabange Numbi said Thursday AFP that "13 people have died since August he hemorrhagic fever of unknown origin", stressing that they presented, "terminally ill, vomiting of blackish material." 

The first victim of hemorrhagic fever was a pregnant woman and the other twelve people died after being in contact with during his illness and after her death. 

"Five health personnel have died, year doctor, two nurses, a medical officer and a waiter. The other victims were relatives or the villagers who attended the funeral," said the minister, adding that since protection kits have been distributed to health personnel. 

Samples were carried out and must be treated at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) and the laboratory in Franceville, Gabon, to determine the exact origin of the disease.

Related:  

Ebola: Research team says migrating fruit bats responsible for outbreak

Ebola: Research team says migrating fruit bats responsible for outbreak

Ebola: Research team says migrating fruit bats responsible for outbreak. HT: Crof.

Via The Observer: Ebola: research team says migrating fruit bats responsible for outbreak. Excerpt:

The largest-ever outbreak of Ebola was triggered by a toddler's chance contact with a single infected bat, a team of international researchers will reveal, after a major investigation of the origins of the deadly disease now ravaging Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast and Nigeria. 

A group of 17 European and African tropical disease researchers, ecologists and anthropologists spent three weeks talking to people and capturing bats and other animals near the village of Meliandoua in remote eastern Guinea, where the present epidemic appeared in December 2013. They have concluded that the disease was spread by colonies of migratory fruit bats. Their research is expected to be published in a major journal in the next few weeks. 

News of the research came as the first confirmed case of a Briton contracting the disease emerged on Saturday night. Professor John Watson, deputy chief medical officer, said the overall risk to the UK public remains "very low". 

Early studies suggested that a new strain of Ebola had emerged in west Africa but, according to epidemiologist Fabian Leendertz, a disease ecologist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, who led the large team of scientists to Guinea, it is likely the virus in Guinea is closely related to the one known as Zaire ebolavirus, identified more than 10 years ago in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. 

Leendertz said the virus had probably arrived in west Africa via an infected straw-coloured fruit bat. These bats migrate across long distances and are commonly found in giant colonies near cities and in forests. 

The outbreak has killed more than 1,300 people in west Africa so far, many of the deaths occurring in Liberia. Within a week of the two-year-old boy catching the disease in Meliandoua, both he and his mother had died and it was spread to nearby communities and urban areas by mourners at a funeral. 

Scientists have suspected for several years that bats are the wild "reservoirs" of Ebola, but direct transmission to humans is extremely rare, despite communities regularlyhunting the bats for food. Nearly all previous epidemics had been linked to the bushmeat trade, with hunters picking up dead infected animals in the forestand selling them on. 

Previous outbreaks saw catastrophic death rates in gorilla and chimpanzee populations, which led some scientists to think they may be responsible for the disease spreading. Hmmm.....Bats the 'suspect' in the MERS disease as well.

ECDC Epidemiological update: Outbreak of Ebola virus disease in west Africa in Pictures.

ECDC Epidemiological update: Outbreak of Ebola virus disease in west Africa in Pictures. HT: Crof.

ECDC has published Epidemiological update: Outbreak of Ebola virus disease in west Africa. Click through for links, maps and tables. Excerpt:

On 8 August 2014, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) evolving in west Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). 

Since December 2013 and as of 18 August, 2 473 cases of EVD, including 1 350 deaths, have been reported, making this EVD outbreak the largest-ever documented outbreak of EVD. The number of reported cases and deaths exceeds the cases and deaths number of all historical outbreaks. It is also the largest outbreak in terms of geographical spread. As of today, no cases have been confirmed outside Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, or Sierra Leone. 

New cases continue to be reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The most recent case in Nigeria was reported 16 August 2014. 

Since the epidemiological update of 14 August 2014, a 25% increase in number of EVD cases was observed between the 11 and 18 August 2014, corresponding to 498 new EVD cases and 281 deaths from the four countries together. The largest increase has been recorded in Liberia (302 cases in one week).

A 25% increase in one week. This is going to be a long weekend for the people in WHO, ECDC, and CDC, not to mention those on the ground in West Africa.

DR Congo Ebola outbreak? Unknown disease in Djera kills 65 people in four weeks.

DR Congo Ebola outbreak? Unknown disease in Djera kills 65 people in four weeks. HT: Crof.

Via ReliefWeb, a report from Radio Okapi: Equateur: an unknown disease kills 65 people in 4 weeks Djera - Democratic Republic of the Congo. This appears to be the suspected Ebola outbreak reported yesterday, but the numbers are much higher. The Google translation:

An unidentified disease has killed 65 people in about 4 weeks in the area of ​​health Djera, Tshuapa district, 25 kilometers Boende-center in the province of Equateur. The Minister of Public Health, Felix Kabange Numbi, the acting governor of Equateur, Sébastien Impeto, as well as experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived Wednesday, August 20 at Boende to investigate this disease, and care for patients. 

Health sources on the ground say they have been alerted since July on a contagious disease that affects three areas of health Wetsikengo, Lokalia and Wafanya in Boende territory. The disease is characterized by severe diarrhea, fever and vomiting. 

According to the same health sources, four nurses, who cared for the sick, are among the victims. 

Moreover, the disease would progress to the locality of Wetsikengo near Tshuapa River. 

Teams of WHO and the health zone Boende, rushed to the scene, took samples which are being analyzed at the National Institute of Biomedical Research (INRB) in Kinshasa. 

Pending the results of the examinations, the Minister Felix Kabange Numbi pledged to send another team of doctors in the health area of ​​Djera, about twenty miles of Boende.

DR Congo - Ebola like Illness kills several in Congo.

DR Congo - Ebola like Illness kills several in Congo.HT: Crof.

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo has sent its health minister and a team of experts to the remote northern Equateur province after several people died there from a disease with Ebola-like symptoms, a local official and a professor said on Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear if there was any connection with Ebola. An epidemic of that disease has killed more than 1,200 people in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

"An illness is spreading in Boende but we don't know the origin," said Michel Wangi, a spokesman for the governor's office. "The government has sent a team of experts from the INRB(National Institute of Biomedical Research) this morning led by the health minister (Felix) Kabange Numbi and acting governor Sebastian Impeto."

A professor accompanying the delegation in the presidential plane confirmed that they were en route this morning to find out "the exact nature of the illness that caused the Boende deaths".

An Equateur resident who asked not to be named said that around ten people had died, including four health care workers, after suffering from fever, diarrhoea and bleeding from the ears and nostrils - all symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus.

Highly-contagious, Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of its victims. There is no known vaccine and the few forms of treatment that exist are experimental.


Congo does not share a border with any of the countries affected by the virus in West Africa. But the country has seen several outbreaks since the first case was detected near the Ebola River in northern Congo in 1976.