Recent News

By Region: Africa

Link to African Ebola Found in Bats Suggests Virus Is More Widespread

(New York Times) For the first time, scientists have found evidence of the African Ebola virus in Asian fruit bats, suggesting that the virus is far more widespread around the world than had been previously known. That does not mean that outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever are inevitable, said Kevin J. Olival, leader of the bat-hunting  Read More »

Sudan’s yellow fever outbreak ‘worst for 20 years’

(BBC) Experts say the outbreak of yellow fever gripping Sudan is the worst the world has seen in at least 20 years. More than 800 suspected cases of the mosquito-spread disease have been reported across the Darfur region since the outbreak began in October. The virus, which can cause jaundice and kidney failure, has killed  Read More »

New report signals slowdown in the fight against malaria

(WHO news) During the past decade, a concerted effort by endemic countries, donors and global malaria partners led to strengthened malaria control around the world. The scale-up of malaria prevention and control interventions had the greatest impact in countries with high malaria transmission; 58% of the 1.1 million lives saved during this period were in  Read More »

How Ebola sneaks past immune system

(Futurity) Ebola virus is the causative agent of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF), a disease with up to 90 percent mortality. While human outbreaks of Ebola hemorrhagic fever have been confined to Africa, Ebola virus infections in bats, the presumed natural reservoir of the virus, have also been detected in Europe and Asia. Ebola virus infection  Read More »

Ebola virus uses a protein decoy to subvert the host immune response

(EurekAlert) In a study published today in the Open Access journal PLOS Pathogens, researchers at Emory University have discovered a potentially important mechanism by which the Ebola virus alters and evades the immune response of its infected host. Ebola virus is the causative agent of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF), a disease with up to 90  Read More »