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Deadly virus outbreaks are stretching medical services

Deadly virus outbreaks are testing the ability of medical services around the globe. [s]BBC News[/s] reports that health ministers from 11 [b]West African[/b] countries have adopted a common strategy to fight a deadly Ebola outbreak in the region. At an emergency meeting in [b]Ghana[/b], ministers promised better collaboration to fight the world's deadliest outbreak to date. So far, 759 people have been infected in [b]Guinea, Liberia[/b] and [b]Sierra Leone[/b] and 467 of them have died. Under the new strategy, the [b]World Health Organisation (WHO)[/b] will open a control centre in Guinea to co-ordinate technical support.

West African[/b] states lack the resources to battle Ebola and deep cultural suspicions about the disease remain a big obstacle to halting its spread, ministers said. [s]Reuters Health[/s] reports that Abubakarr Fofanah, deputy health minister for [b]Sierra Leone[/b], a country with one of the world’s weakest health systems, said cash was needed for drugs, basic protective gear and staff pay. ‘In [b]Liberia[/b], our biggest challenge is denial, fear and panic. Our people are very much afraid of the disease,’ Bernice Dahn, Liberia’s deputy health minister, said. Authorities are trying to stop relatives of Ebola victims from giving them traditional funerals, which often involves the manual washing of the body, out of fear of spreading the infection. Neighbouring Sierra Leone faces dozens of those infected evading treatment, complicating efforts to trace cases.

The [b]Red Cross[/b] in [b]Guinea[/b] has been forced to suspend Ebola operations the country’s southeast after staff were threatened by men armed with knives. [s]Health24[/s] reports that the incident is the latest in a series against health workers, undermining efforts to fight the disease.

In spite of ongoing efforts to tackle the outbreak, there was consensus that a number of gaps and challenges remain, says a [s]WHO press release[/s]. These relate to co-ordination, financing, communication, cross border collaboration, logistics, case management, infection control, surveillance, contact tracing, community participation and research. The delegates also underscored the importance of WHO leading an international effort to research the Ebola virus and other haemorrhagic fevers.

The [b]WHO[/b] said there have now been 759 confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola in the region, reports [s]News24[/s]. This represents a 38% spike in the number of deaths and a 27% rise in the number of overall cases since the WHO's last update on 24 June.

People at high risk of dying in the outbreak should be offered experimental medicines to see if they work, despite the drugs being not fully tested. [s]Health24[/s] reports that according to Jeremy Farrar, a professor of tropical medicine and director of [b]The Wellcome Trust[/b] charity, said Ebola's spread is ‘out of control’ and global health authorities should rethink the approach to potential treatments.

In [b]Saudi Arabia[/b], more than 250 have died from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). [s]The New York Times[/s] reports that Saudi officials know how urgently they need to beat the disease, and they say they now have the latest outbreak under control. But the fact that the number of cases and deaths have more than tripled since the end of 2013 has led health experts to cite grave flaws in the way this ultraconservative and staunchly private monarchy has handled the crisis. A [b]WHO[/b] panel said that the surge in cases that began in April had fallen off, but that ‘the situation remains serious’ and that hospital outbreaks should be investigated for breaches in safety protocols.

An infection of deadly anthrax has been identified in beef in [b]Hungary[/b] and five people are being monitored for suspected symptoms. [s]Reuters Health[/s] quotes the country’s health authority [b]ANTSZ[/b] as saying that the disease was identified in frozen beef after two cattle were illegally slaughtered. Anthrax, if identified in time, can be cured effectively with antibiotics.

The number of cases of chikungunya virus in the [b]Caribbean[/b] has risen sharply. Tens of thousands of new cases have been reported in the [b]Dominican Republic[/b] and its neighbour, [b]Haiti[/b], reports [b]BBC News[/b]. There are also signs chikungunya is spreading to [b]Central[/b] and [b]South America[/b].

Chikungunya is rarely fatal but according to the [b]Pan American Heath Organisation[/b], 21 people have died in the Caribbean. There is currently no vaccine or treatment for the mosquito-born virus which resembles dengue fever and can cause fever, skin rash and joint pain.

Scientists have, meanwhile, criticised a [b]US[/b] university for allowing controversial research on enhancing a pandemic strain of flu virus to be undertaken in a laboratory with a relatively low level of bio-security. [s]The Independent[/s] reports that the [b]University of Wisconsin-Madison[/b] was labelled ‘irresponsible and negligent’ for allowing, Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka, to genetically manipulate pandemic H1N1 flu virus in a laboratory categorised as bio-safety level-2 (BSL-2). Other experts believe that the research, which involved the creation of a strain of pandemic flu that has ‘escaped’ from the control of the human immune system, should have been done at least at BSL-3 or even BSL-4, the most secure level of bio-safety reserved for the most dangerous pathogens. When pandemic H1N1 emerged in 2009 it killed between 151,000 and 540,000 people in the first year of the outbreak. Since then, most people have acquired a level of antibody immunity to the virus, which is now classified as ‘seasonal flu’.
[link url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28156263]Full BBC News report[/link]
[link url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/03/us-health-ebola-westafrica-redcross-idUSKBN0F714220140703]Full Reuters Health report[/link]
[link url=http://www.health24.com/Medical/Diseases/Red-Cross-suspends-Ebola-operations-in-southeast-Guinea-after-threats-20140703]Full Health24 report[/link]
[link url=http://www.afro.who.int/en/media-centre/pressreleases/item/6695-health-ministers-agree-on-priority-actions-to-end-ebola-outbreak-in-west-africa.html]WHO press release[/link]
[link url=http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Ebola-death-toll-now-467-20140701]Full News24 report[/link]
[link url=http://www.health24.com/Medical/Diseases/Experimental-Ebola-drugs-should-be-tried-in-Africa-20140704]Full Health24 report[/link]
[link url=http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/world/middleeast/flawed-saudi-response-fueled-outbreak-of-mers-middle-east-virus.html?emc=edit_th_20140630&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=42505380&_r=0]Full report in The New York Times[/link]
[link url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/04/us-hungary-anthrax-idUSKBN0F90J920140704]Full Reuters Health report[/link]
[link url=http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28123674]Full BBC News report[/link]
[link url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/controversial-american-scientist-slammed-for-irresponsible-flu-research-9580019.html]Full report in The Independent[/link]

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