Recent News

By Region: Africa

How Far Are We From a Super-Pandemic?

(DiscoveryNews) Fall is flu season and this year, as usual, federal health officials are asking the public to get their annual flu vaccine shot. But scientists say there are much more deadly bugs lurking out there that could someday make the jump from local outbreak to a worldwide super pandemic that could wipe out people Read More »

September 20, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, Middle East, North America, South America, and Public Health
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Why is ebola deadlier than other viruses?

(iO9) Ebola is the nightmare virus. It kills ninety percent of people infected, and was for some time feared as the second coming of the plagues of the 1400s. Why is this one virus so much more deadly than other viruses? Ask people to pick a virus that might, under the right circumstances, end the Read More »

August 30, 2013
| Filed under Africa, North America, South America, Agents & Toxins, and Research
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Uganda: High Alert Over Crimean Fever

(AllAfrica) The ministry of Health on Wednesday confirmed the first death from the Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) at Mulago hospital, since the outbreak was announced on August 16, 2013. According to a ministry statement, the 27-year-old female patient, a resident of Nansana, was admitted to Mulago on August 16, with febrile illness, severe anaemia, Read More »

August 23, 2013
| Filed under Africa, Europe, North America, International, and Public Health
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Experimental Ebola treatment protects some primates even after disease symptoms appear

(EurekAlert) Scientists have successfully treated the deadly Ebola virus in infected animals following onset of disease symptoms, according to a report published online today in Science Translational Medicine. The results show promise for developing therapies against the virus, which causes hemorrhagic fever with human case fatality rates as high as 90 percent. According to first Read More »

August 22, 2013
| Filed under Africa, North America, South America, Agents & Toxins, Countermeasures, and Research
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17th human H5N1 bird flu case reported in Cambodia

(TheGlobalDispatch) A boy from Cambodia’s southern Kandal Province has been confirmed for avian influenza H5N1, making him the 17th case reported from the Kingdom this year, according to a Xinhua report today. The 6-year-old boy was confirmed positive for human H5N1 avian influenza on Aug. 17 after he caught fever, headache, abdominal pain, vomiting, cough Read More »