Fujifilm share price soars as Ebola treatment gets green light August 26, 2014 The Japanese health ministry has made Fujifilm's experimental anti-flu drug available for use on Ebola patients. Favipiravir, which was developed by Fujifilm subsidiary Toyama Chemical Co., was approved as a treatment for influenza by Japan's health ministry in March. Whether it will be effective against Ebola is not yet certain, but company spokesman [...]
First British Ebola patient William Pooley flies back from Africa to be treated August 25, 2014 The first British aid worker to be infected with the Ebola virus arrived back in the UK over the weekend, and is currently receiving treatment at a London hospital. Experts say treatment options are limited after an experimental drug treatment being used against the deadly virus ran out recently. William Pooley, a 29-year-old nurse from [...]
Ebola: Briton with the disease to be flown home August 24, 2014 A Briton who contracted the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone is to be flown back to the UK for treatment. The patient, who is as yet unnamed, is currently on an RAF flight destined for London. Once arrived, he or she will be taken to the Royal Free Hospital in London. According to reports, the [...]
Is there a cure for Ebola? These companies are trying to beat the virus August 22, 2014 There is currently no licensed vaccine or specific treatment available for the deadly Ebola virus, but a handful of companies are racing to create a cure for the disease as it spreads across West Africa at an unprecedented rate. Until now, the main barrier to developing an effective treatment has been a lack of potential [...]
“Today is a miraculous day”: US Ebola doctor treated with ZMapp discharged from hospital August 21, 2014 Two Americans who contracted Ebola while they were working in Liberia have been discharged from a hospital in Atlanta. Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were among the first human patients treated with ZMapp, an experimental drug made by US-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Before it was rushed to Liberia to be used on patients during the latest [...]
Police clash with Ebola protesters in Liberian capital Monrovia August 21, 2014 Clashes have broken out between police and protesters against restrictions imposed to limit the spread of Ebola in the Liberian capital Monrovia. Liberian authorities imposed a quarantine on the West Point neighbourhood of the city earlier this week in order to prevent the spread of the disease, but residents have retaliated by throwing stones [...]
Ebola in Europe: Woman being tested at hospital in Berlin August 19, 2014 A woman is being tested for Ebola at a hospital in Berlin after showing early symptoms of the disease. According to broadcaster rbb, an employee of a job centre in the Pankow district of the city said that her client collapsed and had to be rushed to Virchow hospital by emergency services. She [...]
Ebola outbreak and Ukraine conflict pose threats even as supply chain risk drops to 18-month low August 17, 2014 Geopolitical and major disease risks have had less effect than widely believed on the world economy, with supply chains at their least risky levels for a year and a half. According to the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), supply chain risk dropped to an 18-month low in the second quarter of the year, [...]
Ebola outbreak will take six months to control, says humanitarian organisation August 15, 2014 It will be a matter of months before the Ebola outbreak currently gripping West Africa is brought under control, according to humanitarian group Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF). At a meeting in Geneva today, MSF's president Joanne Lui said: "In terms of timeline, we're not talking in terms of weeks, we're talking in terms of months. [...]
Scale of Ebola crisis is vastly underestimated, according to WHO August 15, 2014 The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that the seriousness of the Ebola epidemic spreading across West Africa is “vastly underestimated”. The epidemic began in Guinea in February and has since spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. The death toll as of 11 August was 1,069, which is far higher than any [...]