Year: 2014

A "challenging" outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa is expected to take from two to four months to contain, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday. The virus is still spreading in three "hotspots" of Guinea Forestiere, a southeastern region some 900 km (560 miles) from Guinea's capital of Conakry, a city which has itself reported 20 cases to date, the United Nations agency said. But the WHO said it was not recommending any travel restrictions for Guinea, which has a total of 157 suspected and confirmed cases including 101 deaths, or for Liberia, which has 21 suspected and confirmed cases, including 10 deaths. "We fully expect to be engaged in this outbreak for the next two to three to four months before we are comfortable that we are through it," Dr. Keija Fukuda, WHO assistant director-general, told a Geneva news briefing.

A 6-month-old giraffe at the Oklahoma City Zoo is having surgery today to fix a fatal birth defect, but a zoo staff say there’s only a 50 percent chance she’ll survive.

Honey mixed with sugar might be sweet, but it is not "honey." Food companies and other producers who add sweeteners to honey have to alert consumers by labeling their products as a "blend," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday. Only manufactures that do not add sugar, corn syrup or other sweeteners should label their products as pure "honey," the FDA said in draft guidelines posted online. The proposal aims "to advise the regulated food industry on the proper labeling of honey and honey products to help ensure that honey and honey products are not adulterated or misbranded," the agency wrote. Pure honey is generally more expensive than those mixed with corn syrup and traditional sugar, and prices reached a record high of $2.12 a pound last year, according to the USDA.

LONDON (AP) — In a north London hospital, scientists are growing noses, ears and blood vessels in a bold attempt to make body parts in the laboratory.

An over-the-counter supplement designed to ease osteoarthritis prolonged the lifespan of lab mice by nearly a tenth, scientists said Tuesday. This would translate into an average eight-year longevity gain if the result could be repeated in humans, Swiss researchers reported in the journal Nature Communications. A team led by Michael Ristow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich used a common dietary supplement called glucosamine on laboratory mice after testing it on worms. It is widely sold over the counter as a supplement to combat osteoarthritis, the commonest form of arthritis, although studies into its efficacy have thrown up mixed results.

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) – Gilead Sciences aims to license its new hepatitis C drug Sovaldi to three or four Indian generic manufacturers to allow sales of the medicine at lower prices in some 60 developing nations. Clifford Samuel, head of access operations and emerging markets at the U.S. drugmaker, told Reuters he expected to have deals in place shortly with the Indian firms, which would be able to produce the drug in high volumes and at low margins. Gilead is under pressure to address the high cost of its breakthrough pill, which is the first of a new wave of drugs that have been shown to raise cure rates and cut treatment duration without the side effects of current injections. He said Gilead was looking to strike deals with firms that had proven experience in producing generic versions of its HIV/AIDS drugs, such as the Indian division of Mylan.