Fear of Any Kind is Successful
Terrorism
Ebola outbreak thought to have spread to Sierra Leone
By Mouctar Bah
Conakry (AFP) - Health officials
in Guinea battled to contain west Africa's first outbreak of the deadly Ebola
virus as neighbouring Liberia reported its first suspected victims and a
traveller returning to Canada was hospitalised with suspicious symptoms.
At least 59 people are known to
have died in Guinea's
southern forests and there are six suspected cases in Liberia which, if confirmed, would
mark the first spread of the highly contagious pathogen into another country.
And there are fears the virus may
have crossed continents, with a man returning to Canada
from Liberia
seriously ill in hospital after experiencing symptoms consistent with the
virus, health officials said.
"As of this morning six cases
have been reported of which five have already died -- four female adults and
one male child. One of the suspected cases, a female child, is under
treatment," Liberian Health Minister Walter Gwenigale said in a statement.
"The team is already
investigating the situation, tracing contacts, collecting blood samples and
sensitising local health authorities on the disease," he added.
Gwenigale did not specify the
victims' nationalities, but Doctors
Without Borders (MSF) said they were Liberian residents who had attended
funerals in the Ebola-hit area of Guinea,
which has strong "family ties" with northern Liberia.
"People come to attend
funerals on one side and unfortunately they unwittingly get infected and then
return home," Brussels-based MSF emergency coordinator Marie-Christine
Ferir told AFP.
The local health ministry in Canada's Saskatchewan
province said a man had been placed in solitary confinement, with his family in
quarantine, pending expected results on Tuesday of tests.
"All we know at this point is
that we have a person who is critically ill who travelled from a country where
these diseases occur," Denise Werker, joint director of health in Saskatchewan, in western Canada, said.
To date, no treatment or vaccine
is available for the Ebola pathogen, which kills between 25 and 90 percent of
those who fall sick, depending on the strain of the virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Officials from the Guinean health
ministry and the WHO met Sunday in Conakry
for urgent talks on the crisis.
"The total suspect cases
recorded to date amount to 86 cases with 59 deaths," the health ministry
said in a statement, indicating that most cases reported since the start of the
outbreak in early February were in Guinea's south.
The first analyses of samples by
the Pasteur Institute in the French city of Lyon
showed that cases in southern Guinea
were due to the Ebola virus.
Three cases of haemorrhagic fever,
two fatal, have also been reported in Conakry,
but tests for Ebola proved negative.
Transmission to humans can come
from wild animals, or from direct contact from another human's blood, faeces or
sweat, or by sexual contact and the unprotected handling of contaminated
corpses.
- 'Molecular shark' -
The tropical virus -- described in
some health publications as a "molecular shark" -- can fell its
victims within days, causing severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting
and diarrhoea -- in some cases shutting down organs and causing unstoppable
bleeding.
It was first discovered in the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 1976. The central African country has
suffered eight outbreaks.
The most recent epidemic, also in
the DRC, infected 62 people and left 34 dead between May and November 2012,
according to the country's health ministry.
Although there have also been
outbreaks among humans in Uganda,
the Republic of Congo
and Gabon,
the disease had never before been detected in people in west Africa.
The aid organisation Plan International
warned that the epidemic risked spreading to neighbouring countries because of
the free movement of people across borders.
Sierra Leonean aid organisation
the Health For All Coalition warned of a high risk of transmission in border
areas.
"People, goods and animals --
such as sheep, goats and cows used in Sierra
Leone -- come from Guinea and it is these districts
that they are brought into. And in these areas, people hunt for birds, monkeys
and baboons for food."
Adjoining Senegal, Sierra Leone
and Ivory Coast
have reactivated their epidemiological surveillance systems.
The head of Ivory Coast's National Public
Hygiene Institute, Simplice Dagnan, said officials were worried the virus could
"easily" arrive there, warning: "Animals don't recognise
borders."
Doctors Without Borders
Jolie/Pitt
Foundation was a funder for Doctors
Without Borders.
Note: Angelina Jolie is
a co-founder of the Jolie/Pitt
Foundation, and was a director at the Millennium
Promise.
Jimmy
Carter was an honorary co-chairman for the Millennium Promise, and is a member of The Elders.
Gro Harlem
Brundtland is a member of The Elders,
and was the director general for the World
Health Organization (WHO).
Jim
Yong Kim was the director, HIV-AIDS department for the World Health Organization (WHO), and a guest at George Soros’s 2013 wedding.
George
Soros guest at his 2013 wedding was Jim
Yong Kim, the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for Doctors
Without Borders.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Millennium Promise, the Harlem
Children's Zone, the Robin Hood
Foundation, and the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Michael R.
Bloomberg was a benefactor for the Harlem
Children's Zone, a donor for the Robin
Hood Foundation, and is the founder for the Bloomberg Family Foundation.
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was a funder for the World
Health Organization (WHO), and the CDC
Foundation.
CDC Foundation
is a foundation for the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation was a donor for Michael R. Bloomberg, a funder for the Bloomberg Family Foundation, and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Ann M.
Fudge is the U.S.
program advisory panel chair for the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, a trustee at the Rockefeller Foundation, and a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Rockefeller
Foundation was a funder for the World
Health Organization (WHO).
Cyrus F.
Freidheim Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
R.
Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP
Newton
N. Minow is a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
Michelle
Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP was the lobby firm for the St.
Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Jennifer Aniston
is the spokesperson for the St. Jude
Children's Research Hospital, bought William
H. Gross’s Beverly Hills
home, and was married to Brad Pitt.
William H. Gross’s
home in Beverly Hills
was purchased by Jennifer Aniston, is
a benefactor for Doctors Without Borders.
Jolie/Pitt
Foundation was a funder for Doctors
Without Borders.
Brad
Pitt was married to Jennifer Aniston,
is a co-founder for the Jolie/Pitt
Foundation, and Angelina Jolie
is his partner.
Angelina
Jolie is Brad Pitt’s partner, a
co-founder of the Jolie/Pitt Foundation,
and was a director at the Millennium
Promise.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Millennium Promise.
George
Soros guest at his 2013 wedding was Jim
Yong Kim, the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, and is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for Doctors
Without Borders.
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