Tag: Guinea

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 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