Month: August 2014

An American aid worker infected with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia seems to be improving but authorities are monitoring his condition closely, the top U.S. health official said on Sunday. "It's encouraging that he seems to be improving – that's really important – and we're hoping he'll continue to improve," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. Dr. Kent Brantly was able to walk, with help, from the helicopter that transported him on Saturday to Atlanta, where he was being treated in a special isolation unit at Emory University Hospital. Frieden said it was too soon to predict whether Brantly would survive the deadly disease.

ATLANTA (Reuters) – An American aid worker infected with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia appears to be improving but authorities are still monitoring his condition closely, the top U.S. health official said on Sunday. It’s encouraging that he seems to be improving – that’s really important – and we’re hoping he’ll continue to improve,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Sarah Lynch)

Police in China have detained six executives of a meat supply company at the center of the latest food safety scare to hit the country, state media reported on Sunday. Shanghai's chief of police and deputy mayor Bai Shaokang told local radio that the executives of Shanghai Husi Food, a unit of U.S.-based OSI Group LLC, had been taken into custody, Xinhua news agency said. The firm had supplied meat to foreign fast food chains McDonald's and KFC-parent Yum Brands Inc, among many others. The scandal, which also dragged in coffee chain Starbucks Corp.O , was triggered by a local television report showing staff at Shanghai Husi using long-expired meat.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Long lines formed at water distribution centers and store shelves were quickly emptied of bottled water after Ohio's fourth-largest city told residents not to drink from its water supply that was fouled by toxins possibly from algae on Lake Erie.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Emirates, the Mideast's largest airline, said Sunday that it halted flights to the West African nation of Guinea because of concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus there.

By George Tanber TOLEDO Ohio (Reuters) – Some 500,000 residents in and around Toledo, Ohio were without safe drinking water for a second day on Sunday while local water supplies were being tested following the discovery of high toxin levels from algae on Lake Erie. Health officials sent samples to several laboratories on Saturday for testing after finding Lake Erie may have been affected by a “harmful algal bloom,” but results would not return until Sunday, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer said. The lake provides the bulk of the area’s drinking water.

Dubai's Emirates [EMIRA.UL] said it had suspended flights to Guinea over Ebola, becoming the first major international airline to impose a ban in response to the outbreak of the deadly virus in West Africa. "The safety of our passengers and crew is of the highest priority and will not be compromised," it said.  The Ebola outbreak, which began in Guinea and has spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, has killed more than 700, making it the deadliest since the virus was discovered almost 40 years ago. In line with guidelines from International airlines association IATA and the World Health Organization, several major airlines and international airports have started health screening of passengers on flights from West Africa.

By Steve Norder ATLANTA (Reuters) – An American aid worker infected with the deadly Ebola virus while in Liberia arrived in the United States from West Africa on Saturday and walked into an Atlanta hospital, wearing a bio-hazard suit, for treatment in a special isolation unit. A chartered medical aircraft carrying Dr. Kent Brantly touched down at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Georgia, shortly before noon (1600 GMT). Brantly was driven by ambulance, with police escort, to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment in a specially equipped room. A hospital spokesman confirmed that Brantly walked into the building under his own power.

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's governor has ordered the state's National Guard to help deliver water and food to residents in Toledo, where some 400,000 are being told not to drink from the city's water system.