Africa

Mali:  U.S to begin enhanced screening; France warns its citizens against travel

(Two stories, scroll down)

 REUTERS                                                   NOV. 16, 2014

The United States will begin enhanced Ebola screening on Monday for travelers whose trips started in the African nation of Mali, the government said on Sunday.

Mali has been added to the list of countries (Sierra Leone and Liberia)  whose travelers face heightened screening because there have been a number of confirmed cases of Ebola there in recent days, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

"A large number of individuals may have been exposed to those cases," it said. There are no direct flights to the United States from Mali, but an average of 15 to 20 travelers a day start their trips there, the statement said.

Complete story
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/16/us-health-ebola-usa-idUKKCN0J010S20141116
-0-
REUTERS                                                                                                                  Nov. 16, 2014

Martin Salia Treated After Being Transported From Sierra Leone

WALL STREET JOURNAL                                     Nov. 16, 2014 ByBetsy McKay and Scott Calvert

“This is an hour-by-hour situation,” said Philip Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit and a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, the hospital’s academic partner. “He is extremely ill. We have multiple highly-trained specialists who are experts in their fields targeting his most serious medical issues.”

NEW YORK TIMES                                                                                         Nov. 16, 2014

EDITORIAL

Recent gains in controlling the Ebola epidemic in West Africa have been encouraging, but they offer no reason for complacency. In Liberia, the hardest-hit country, the rate of new infections has declined in some areas, and several treatment units have been reporting empty beds for more than a month. But in adjacent Sierra Leone the number of new cases has shot upward, while in Guinea, where the epidemic started, the incidence of new cases appears to have stabilized over all, with growth in some districts and declines in others. All told, Ebola has infected more than 14,000 people in West Africa and killed more than 5,000 of them...

BBC                                                                                                              Nov. 15, 2014

A three-month Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ended after claiming at least 49 lives, the country's health minister says.

Health workers are trained in managing Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Felix Kabange said no new cases had been registered since 4 October, though he warned against complacency.

The country's outbreak is unrelated to the one in West Africa which has claimed more than 5,000 lives.

Ebola was first detected in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Read complete story
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30068324