EBOLA VIRUS: Nigerian medics deployed to Sierra Leone

In a bid to help with the response to the outbreak of the ravaging Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in some West African countries, about 100 medical workers are expected to depart Nigeria for Sierra Leone.

The BBC reports that the medical workers include doctors, scientists and hygienists, who have been trained by the medical aid agency, MSF.

Nigeria’s commitment is part of an African Union promise to send 1,000 medical workers to Ebola-hit areas by the end of this year.

The response came a day after residents in the Guinean capital, Conakry, protested about the construction of an Ebola treatment clinic in their district.

Ebola: Nigeria Sends 504 Health Workers To Liberia, Others

About 250 health workers, out of the 504 volunteers trained by the Federal Government in collaboration with the African Union Commission, will be leaving for Ebola-stricken countries on Thursday.

The Director, Nigerian Centre for Diseases and Control, Abuja, Prof. Abdulsalamin Nasidi, who spoke at the opening ceremony of the two-day departure training for the first batch of the volunteers in Lagos on Monday, said that the Federal Government would dispatch the second batch of 254 health workers in January.

Nasidi stated that the health team consists of doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other cadre of health professionals from Lagos and Rivers states and the Federal Capital Territory.

He stated that the AUC in a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government would be providing life insurance coverage, allowances and repatriation and evacuation services for the health volunteers while working in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Ebola crisis: Mali confirms second death

A Malian nurse has died of Ebola, the second confirmed death from the disease in the country.

Officials say the nurse had treated a man who arrived from Guinea at the Pasteur Clinic in Bamako, and the clinic was now in quarantine.


The latest case is unrelated to the first, when a two-year-old girl died from the disease in late October.

Nearly 5,000 people have been killed in the West African outbreak, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak a global health emergency.

The new case in Mali comes a day after the WHO confirmed the release from quarantine of 25 of 100 people who were thought to have come into contact with the two-year-old girl who died on 24 October.

A child who survived the Ebola virus is fed by another survivor at a treatment centre in Hastings, on the outskirts of Freetown, on 11 November 2014.

Empty Ebola Beds In Liberia Pose Riddle For Health Workers

Health workers in Liberia are struggling to tell whether a growing number of empty beds at Ebola treatment centres is a sign that the country's ramped up response to the disease is working - or just a lull in the epidemic.

Of the African countries hit by the 11-month outbreak, Liberia has suffered the most deaths. The virus has killed nearly 5,000 people there and in neighbouring Leone and Guinea - though numbers could be far higher owing to under-reporting of cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned.

Nonetheless President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf suggested in an interview with Reuters last month that the first signs of a decline in the epidemic were showing. The government has launched a huge public awareness campaign - sticking posters up and installing chlorine hand washing stations at the entrances to main buildings - that it says is stemming infection rates.

As of Sunday this week, two-thirds of the 696 beds in Liberia's Ebola treatment centres were empty, according to the health ministry. New admissions and

Ebola-Carrying Bats May Be Heroes As Well As Villains

Bats are living up to their frightening reputation in the world's worst Ebola outbreak as prime suspects for spreading the deadly virus to humans, but scientists believe they may also shed valuable light on fighting infection.

Bats can carry more than 100 different viruses, including Ebola, rabies and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), without becoming sick themselves.

While that makes them a fearsome reservoir of disease, especially in the forests of Africa where they migrate vast distances, it also opens the intriguing possibility that scientists might learn their trick in keeping killers like Ebola at bay.

"If we can understand how they do it then that could lead to better ways to treat infections that are highly lethal in people and other mammals," said Olivier Restif, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in Britain.

Clues are starting to emerge following gene analysis, which suggest bats' capacity to evade Ebola could be linked with their other stand-out ability -- the power of flight.

Ebola Outbreak: UK Aid Ship Docks In Sierra Leone

A UK ship has arrived in Sierra Leone to help deal with the deadly Ebola outbreak in the African country.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary Argus is carrying food, medical equipment and 32 pick-up trucks, to help keep hard-pressed Ebola treatment centres going.

Doctors, nurses and military personnel are also on board. The ship has docked in the capital, Freetown.

Ebola has killed nearly 5,000 people and infected more than 10,000 in Africa since March.

RFA Argus set sail from Falmouth in Cornwall on 17 October and is also carrying three Merlin helicopters.

Nollywood Actress Turned Nurse: Regina Askia To Join Ebola Volunteers Group In US

Nollywood actress turned nurse, Askia has put her life on the line as a volunteer at the Ebola rescue center in the United States. 

The stunning wife and mother alongside with some of her colleagues have started receiving training on how to handle the victims, and we hope she makes through the whole ordeal. 

 As you well know, the killer disease recently crept into the U.S and has killed quite a few with new cases arising. 

Regina made the announcement on her Facebook wall.

Read what she wrote; 

Ebola is a plague sent by God - Naomi Campbell

Naomi Campbell is so scared of the ravaging Ebola virus that she says she is convinced it is a plague sent by God.

 The supermodel – who is organising two charity fashion shows in aid of victims of the deadly disease – is ‘terrified’ of catching the illness and is convinced the epidemic was predicted in the Bible. She said: ‘I’m terrified.


 It was written in the Bible, it was in the Bible there was going to be a plague and this is it, I think this is it.’

Regina Askia talks about becoming an Ebola volunteer nurse in the US

Former Nollywood actress, Regina Askia, who now works as a certified nurse in the US has joined Ebola volunteer nurses to help battle the outbreak of that virus in America. May God protect her and all the other health workers.

Two die in Sierra Leone riot sparked by Ebola tests

Two people died in a riot in Sierra Leone sparked when health workers struggling to contain the Ebola epidemic tried to take a blood sample from an elderly woman, doctors told AFP on Wednesday.

A machete-wielding mob clashed with security personnel in the eastern town of Koidu and then went on a rampage on Tuesday, after preventing a medical team from taking the blood from the 90-year-old mother of a youth leader, doctors from the local government hospital said.

The woman, who had been suspected to be infected with Ebola, had died and was thought to have high blood pressure.

BBC Launches WhatsApp Ebola Service

The BBC has launched an Ebola public health information service on WhatsApp, aimed at users of the service in West Africa.

The service will provide audio, text message alerts and images to help people get the latest public health information to combat the spread of Ebola in the region.


Content will be limited to three items a day, and the service will be in English and French.

To subscribe, send 'JOIN' via WhatsApp to +44 7702 348 651

To unsubscribe, send 'STOP' via WhatsApp to the same number.

Liberia's President, Ellen Sirleaf Writes Heart-Breaking Letter to the World

Dear World

In just over six months, Ebola has managed to bring my country to a standstill. We have lost over 2,000 Liberians. Some are children struck down in the prime of their youth. Some were fathers, mothers, brothers or best friends. Many were brave health workers that risked their lives to save others, or simply offer victims comfort in their final moments.

EBOLA SCARE: Nigerian musician, Flavour dropped from the World Creole Music Festival

As Nigeria continues to push for the 'Ebola Free' clearance from W.H.O, top Nigerian highlife singer and multiple brand ambassador, Flavour Nabania, a.k.a Flavour, has been dropped from the World Creole Music Festival,WCMF, slated to hold later this month in the Caribbean Island of Dominica following fears of deadly Ebola Virus.

The cancellation of Flavour’s contract was announced recently by Dominica’s Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit.

According to the Prime Minister, “Until a firm grip is secured on this Ebola virus, the world has to pay special attention to region of its predominance.

Ebola Virus: Texas Health Worker Tests Positive, CDC Confirms

A nurse who cared for the Ebola patient who died here last week tested positive for the disease, heightening concerns about the nation’s preparedness and protocols for containing its spread.

The nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas was isolated Friday night after reporting a low-grade fever, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Tests Saturday night and Sunday confirmed she had Ebola.

The diagnosis was disconcerting because the woman initially was considered to be at low risk. She was wearing protective gear while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian patient who died Wednesday after 10 days in the hospital.

Officials gave few details of how they believe she contracted the virus. CDC Director Tom Frieden called the infection a result of a “breach in protocol” at the hospital and said more cases may emerge. “Unfortunately, it is possible in the coming days that we will see additional cases of Ebola,” Dr. Frieden said in a news conference. “This is because the health-care workers who cared for this individual may have had a breach of the same nature.”

EBOLA: 850 Nigerian soldiers returning from Liberia to be quarantined for 28 days

About 850 Nigerian soldiers on peacekeeping mission in Liberia are to be quarantined for 28 days when they return to the country in March 2015.

There are two battalions of the Nigerian Army in Liberia.

Investigations revealed that soldiers in one of the battalions were drawn from the 331 Artillery Regiment, Kontagora.

A source said on Sunday that the Army personnel were scheduled to return to the country in January but that their arrival would be delayed till March 2015.

Africa Confirms 3rd Ebola Victim Rises From The Dead, Releases Picture Of First “Ebola Zombie” Captured

Officials in Liberia have released the first confirmed image of a captured Ebola victim who rose from the dead. The name of the victim has not been released by the WHO, and news of the patient rising from the dead comes only hours after the United States announced its first Ebola victim in Dallas, Texas.

The Liberian government is accusing the United States of creating Ebola as a bioweapon to use for future wars. Citizens of Liberia have expressed outrage and concern that the US may have tested an ‘evolved’ form of the virus on their nation’s populace, not forseeing the virus’ spread reaching beyond medical containment.


The first reports of Ebola victims rising from the dead was reported by Liberia’s National Newspaper. Initially, officials from the World Health Organization fled in shock and horror as the Ebola patients suddenly arose from the dead. After organizing military reinforcements and obtaining increased containment measures, World Health Organization’s special operations staff quickly responded with military assistance and quarantined the two Ebola victims who arose from the dead.

EBOLA: Husband of Spanish nurse quarantined

The husband of a Spanish nurse who on Monday became the first person known to have contracted Ebola outside of Africa has now been quarantined in the hospital, a Spanish health official said on Tuesday.

The nurse, who had helped treat two Spanish priests after they were repatriated to Madrid having contracted Ebola in Africa, tested positive for the virus on Monday.

“The husband is already in hospital and is being monitored so that he can have a quarantine situation with better monitoring,” a civil servant in charge of Spain’s health service, Mercedes Vinuesa, told a parliamentary committee.

Vinuesa gave no details about some 30 colleagues of the nurse who also treated the missionaries that died of Ebola at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid.

A spokesman for the European Commission said the case, the first known case of Ebola spreading within a European country, would be discussed at a Health Security Committee meeting on Wednesday.

OAU student tests negative to Ebola virus – Management

The management of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, has said that the female student of the institution who was suspected to have the Ebola virus and moved to Lagos State has tested negative to the virus.

The Public Relations Officer of the OAU, Mr. Abiodun Olanrewaju, said this in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Thursday.

He said, ” The preliminary result of the girl is out and she tested negative. Another test will be done tomorrow. The university will issue a statement on this later today.”

The female student of the university who hails from Port Harcourt, Rivers State was said to have had contact with Dr. Iyke Enemuo who died of the Ebola virus after treating an ECOWAS diplomat in a hotel room.

Ebola scare: Victim of hit-and-run driver dies in Bayelsa hospital, as nurses flee

A woman described by the authorities of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, as a “victim of a hit-and-run driver,” was abandoned to die in the facility on Tuesday over fear of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

It was gathered that doctors and nurses took to their heels when the woman was rushed to FMC following suspicion that the victim was infected by the virus.

Following refusal by the health workers to attend to the victim, she reportedly died at 11am on Tuesday.

The woman’s demise reportedly fueled rumours in Yenagoa that four persons had died of the virus at the isolated centres in the state.

A senior worker at the hospital, who pleaded anonymity, alleged that the refusal of the doctors on duty to treat the victim caused her death.

He said: “The victim was brought into the casualty ward by two good Samaritans. She was reported to have been hit by a hit-and-run driver along the Sanni Abacha expressway in Yenagoa.

“Instead of treating her due to the bruises and cuts in her body, the doctors refused, claiming it may be Ebola. They refused even when the

Another US health worker infected with Ebola

A third American health worker has tested positive for the Ebola virus while working with patients in West Africa, the Christian missionary group SIM said Tuesday.

The group did not release the name of the doctor, but said he had been working in obstetrics at the SIM-funded ELWA hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia.

Two Americans who also worked at ELWA, Doctor Kent Brantly and nurse Nancy Writebol, were previously flown home from Liberia and successfully treated for the virus.

Unlike Brantly and Writebol, the new US victim had not been working directly with Ebola patients, and it is not yet clear how he contacted the disease, which is usually fatal.

The doctor has been isolated in the hospital’s dedicated Ebola unit.

“My heart was deeply saddened, but my faith was not shaken, when I learned another of our missionary doctors contracted Ebola,” said SIM president Bruce Johnson.