Tag: Ebola virus disease

Ebola Posted on

Ebola outbreak: Virus mutating, scientists warn

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious. More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea. They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it’s able to jump more easily from person to person “We know the virus is changing quite a lot,” said human geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai. “That’s important for diagnosing (new cases) and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy.” It’s not unusual for viruses to change […] Read More

Ebola Posted on

Ebola outbreak: Virus mutating, scientists warn

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious. More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea. They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it’s able to jump more easily from person to person “We know the virus is changing quite a lot,” said human geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai. “That’s important for diagnosing (new cases) and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy.” It’s not unusual for viruses to change […] Read More

Colds & Flu Posted on

Mysterious ‘Back-to-School’ Virus Sends Thousands of Midwestern Kids to Hospital

Why is the ‘summer cold’ getting so many kids so ill?   It’s an annual rite: school begins, viruses spread and the kids bring home a bug. We all expect our kids to catch some type of germ in early September, but we don’t ever think we’ll have to send them to the hospital, or that they’ll become so sick they’ll need intensive care and oxygen. But that’s what’s happening in several states. Thousands of children across the Midwest have been sent to the hospital with a severe respiratory virus. Researchers say that the high number of children needing hospital care may only be the “tip of the iceberg” and are warning the concerned public that they don’t yet know why this particular enterovirus outbreak is […] Read More

Ebola Posted on

Ebola Epidemic Numbers Vastly Under-Reported Due To "Shadow Zones", WHO Warns

The stigma surrounding Ebola poses a serious obstacle to efforts to calibrate the outbreak in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria. As Reuters reports, the scale of the world’s worst Ebola outbreak has been concealed by families hiding infected loved ones in their homes and the existence of “shadow zones” that medics cannot enter, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). “As Ebola has no cure, some believe infected loved ones will be more comfortable dying at home,” the WHO statement said, concluding rather ominously, “frankly, no one knows when this outbreak of Ebola will end.” As Reuters reports, The scale of the world’s worst Ebola outbreak has been concealed by families hiding infected loved ones in their homes and the existence of “shadow zones” […] Read More

Ebola Posted on

Nigeria Demands Experimental Drug From US, Saudi Death First In Arab World

The official Ebola death toll is now at 932 with over 1,700 reported cases but as the WHO reports, in the last 48 hours, deaths and cases have exploded (48 and 108 respectively). As the charts below show, this epidemic is going exponential. What is perhaps most worrisome is, while playing down the threat in Nigeria (most especially Lagos – which the CDC Director is “deeply concerned” about), officials have formally asked the US for the experimental Ebola drug, which suggest things are far worse than the 3 deaths reported so far in Nigeria would suggest. Finally, as we warned yesterday, Saudi Arabia is suffering too as the main who was hospitalized yesterday with symptoms has died – the first reported casualty in the Arab […] Read More

Ebola Posted on

25 Critical Facts About This Ebola Outbreak That Every American Needs To Know

What would a global pandemic look like for a disease that has no cure and that kills more than half of the people that it infects?  Let’s hope that we don’t get to find out, but what we do know is that more than 100 health workers that were on the front lines of fighting this disease have ended up getting it themselves. The top health officials in the entire world are sounding the alarm and the phrase “out of control” is constantly being thrown around by professionals with decades of experience. So should average Americans be concerned about Ebola?  If so, how bad could an Ebola outbreak in the U.S. potentially become?  The following are 25 critical facts about this Ebola outbreak that every […] Read More

Ebola Posted on

This Is What Is Going To Happen If Ebola Comes To America

If the worst Ebola outbreak in recorded history reaches the United States, federal law permits “the apprehension and examination of any individual reasonably believed to be infected with a communicable disease”.  These individuals can be “detained for such time and in such manner as may be reasonably necessary”.  In other words, the federal government already has the authority to round people up against their will, take them to detention facilities and hold them there for as long as they feel it is “reasonably necessary”.  In addition, as you will read about below, the federal government has the authority “to separate and restrict the movement of well persons who may have been exposed to a communicable disease to see if they become ill”.  If you want to […] Read More

Prevention, SARS Posted on

What to Do About SARS and Rampant Infections

My friends in Asia asked me what they can do about SARS, and here’s the advice I gave them. The only reason I’m qualified to write about this is because I have a degree in nutrition, know Chinese medicine and western herbs, and because I have been researching and writing a book called Antibiotic (and Antiviral) Alternatives for Doctors and Their Patients. When I was in nutrition school several years ago and told my classmates I wanted to write this book as a national public service even though I didn’t expect it to make money. I wanted to do it anyway because I said that antibiotics would soon lose most of their effectiveness and therefore to have this book was a national security issue. Naturally […] Read More

Selenium Posted on

1996: Is Selenium Deficiency Behind Ebola, AIDS and Other Deadly Infections?

Jack Challem 12/04/96 The latest Ebola epidemic in Zaire may be over, but it’s probably only a matter of time before this supergerm returns – and still others emerge. The reason: Ebola and other deadly viruses, including the human immunodeficiency virus-1 (HIV-1), might be stimulated by deficiencies in the mineral selenium. And Zaire – where the Ebola and HIV-1 viruses first appeared – may be a viral “hot zone” because of low selenium levels in the soil and widespread selenium deficiencies among people living off that land. Too strange to be true? To the contrary, a similar connection has been established in China, where a common virus mutates into a dangerous form when it infects people deficient in selenium. Selenium, an essential mineral, functions as […] Read More