Month: August 2014

ATLANTA (AP) — An American missionary with Ebola is getting better and has received the second dose of an experimental treatment, according to the aid organization she works for in West Africa's Liberia.

Every princess pees and poops several times every day, if her digestive tract is healthy. So why are we being uptight about our needs?Society and media have done an effective job at disconnecting us from vibrant health and well-being by first constructing and glamorizing flawlessness, and then ostracizing our very nature. The notion of shame…

Sierra Leone, which is battling to contain the deadly Ebola virus, will stop new rotations of its U.N.-led forces into Somalia for now as authorities move to establish safeguards, Somalia’s president said on Monday. Sierra Leone is one of the key countries contributing troops to the Africa Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which is helping battle Islamic militant al Shabaab insurgents there. Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, speaking to reporters during the African leaders’ summit in Washington, said there would be no new rotations of Sierra Leone’s forces until proper procedures were in place. “AMISOM (will) stop the rotation of the Sierra Leone battalion so that new soldiers won’t arrive into Somalia unless we provide a means to ensure” that people arriving are unaffected, he said.

Reports say Nancy Writebol and Kent Brantly are showing improvement after being given “ZMapp.”

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Two days after warning some 400,000 people in Ohio and Michigan not to drink their tap water, the mayor of Ohio's fourth-largest city declared on Monday that the water was now safe and took a sip.

Healthcare in the United States (U.S.) is a regular topic of the media in general and this blog in specific, but we don't often get the opportunity to take an inside look at the healthcare systems of other countries. David Chou, the CIO at the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), who has co-authored several articles and appeared…

By Elvina Nawaguna WASHINGTON (Reuters) – African leaders urged the United States on Monday to renew a trade benefits program giving duty-free access to billions of dollars of African exports for 15 years, saying it would help cement trade relations and boost development in the region. South African President Jacob Zuma, one of nearly 50 African leaders in Washington to attend a three-day summit, said the renewal of the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) when it expires next year was one of the key issues for this week’s talks. “Almost 95 percent of South African exports receive preferential treatment under AGOA,” Zuma said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event, joining calls by the African Union for a 15-year extension.

An American woman who was infected with Ebola virus while working with patients in Liberia will return to the United States for treatment on Tuesday, an aid group said Monday. Nancy Writebol, 60, "remains in serious, but stable, condition," said the Christian missionary group SIM USA, for which she was working in Monrovia when she fell ill. Writebol "is expected to return to the US for further treatment on Tuesday," said SIM USA. "Her husband, David, told me Sunday her appetite has improved and she requested one of her favorite dishes –- Liberian potato soup -– and coffee," said a statement by Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA.

By Stella Dawson WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Poorly fed children rob Africa of up to 16 percent of its potential growth, making investment in programs to end malnutrition as critical to the continent’s future as building bridges and roads, African leaders and development officials said on Monday. Almost half all child deaths in Africa are caused by inadequate food and it is the underlying cause of many diseases, yet approaches to tackling health and child nutrition are disjointed and uncoordinated, limiting their impact, according to World Bank and United Nations reports. “Every child stunted is GDP growth that is left on the table,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said at an event on the sidelines of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit which lasts through Wednesday. The lessons learned from Asia and Latin America are that economic growth alone will not resolve poverty and malnutrition, and that human development programs reap significant growth dividends, he and other leaders said.

The death toll from the world's worst Ebola outbreak had risen to 887 by August 1, while the total number of cases in the four West African countries affected stood at 1,603 on the same date, the World Health Organization said on Monday. Guinea has suffered the highest death toll with 358 fatalities out of 485 confirmed Ebola cases so far. Sierra Leone has had the largest number of cases, 646 overall, and 273 deaths, while Liberia has had 468 cases and 255 deaths. Nigeria, the latest country to import the disease, has had four cases, of which three are classed as 'probable' Ebola and one as 'suspected', the Geneva-based agency said in a statement.

To be quite blunt about it, Ebola is a very scary disease. Among those infected, the mortality rate is, as is perhaps now widely known, an appallingly high 90 percent. That would seem a very good reason to keep our borders closed to this scourge- and the consequences to the poor souls who already have it be damned. That, apparently, was just…