Ebola workers reportedly attacked again in Guinea. Burama On Tuesday, September 23, 2014, Husainou A Waggeh < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Ebola death rates 70% - WHO study > > Last updated 1 hour ago > > By Helen Briggs > > Health editor, BBC News website > [image: A World Health Organisation worker, (centre) trains nurses to use > Ebola protective gear in Freetown, Sierra Leone (18 September 2014)] > > New figures suggest 70% of those infected with Ebola in West Africa have > died, higher than previously reported, says the World Health Organization. > > Ebola infections will treble to 20,000 by November if efforts to tackle > the outbreak are not stepped up, the UN agency has warned. > > In the worst case scenario, cases in two nations could reach 1.4 million > in January, according to a US estimate. > > Experts said the US numbers were ``somewhat pessimistic''. > > The world's largest outbreak of Ebola has caused 2,800 deaths so far, > mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. > > Outbreaks in Senegal and Nigeria were "pretty much contained", said the > WHO. > > In other developments: > > • More than 160 NHS staff have volunteered for UK efforts to help in the > outbreak. > > • Chief medical officer for England, Prof Dame Sally Davies, confirmed > that the British nurse who survived Ebola, William Pooley, has volunteered > to give blood that could help treat patients. > > • The Sierra Leone army has sealed off the country's border with Guinea > and Liberia in a bid to control the spread of Ebola. > > • British military and humanitarian staff have arrived in Freetown to > oversee the construction of the UK's medical facility and assist with the > response to the outbreak. > > Scientists have warned that swift action is needed to curb the exponential > climb in the Ebola outbreak. > > Two new estimates suggest that cases of Ebola could soar dramatically in > the three countries with the majority of cases. > > Projections published in The New England Journal of Medicine predict that > by early November there will have been nearly 20,000 cases. > > The analysis of confirmed cases also suggests death rates are higher than > previously reported at about 70% of all cases, rather than 50%. > > Dr Christopher Dye, Director of Strategy for WHO, said unless control > measures improved quickly "these three countries will soon be reporting > thousands of cases and deaths each week, projections that are similar to > those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)". > > The CDC said that there could be up to 21,000 reported and unreported > cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone alone by the end of this month. > > In predictions released on Tuesday, the US health agency said cases could > reach as many as 1.4 million by mid-January, if efforts to control the > outbreak are not scaled up. > > But experts cautioned that the numbers seemed ``somewhat pessimistic'' and > did not account for infection control efforts already underway. > > Drug trials > > Meanwhile, The Wellcome Trust charity has announced that experimental > drugs will be tested in West Africa for the first time. They include the > drug ZMapp, which has been given to a handful of infected health workers. > > Dr Peter Horby, of the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at > the University of Oxford, said the first trials could begin in West Africa > as early as November. > > "We want to evaluate these carefully, properly, in affected countries in > West Africa," he told the BBC. > > "For the next one or two weeks we'll be doing site assessments and we'll > be working with the WHO on identifying which drugs to prioritise, and then > there'll be a number of steps in setting up the systems - getting ethical > approval through the countries and getting community participation and > agreement to run the trials." > BBC © 2014 > Sent from my iPad > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To > unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web > interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html > > To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: > http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the > List Management, please send an e-mail to: > [log in to unmask] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml',[log in to unmask]);> > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ > ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤