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Most assume that Black Death quickly ravaged the fourteenth century western world was a bacterial bubonic plague epidemic caused by flea bites and spread by rats. But the Black Death killed a high proportion of Scandinavians -- and where they lived was too cold for fleas to survive. A modern work gives us a clue into this mystery. The “Biology of Plagues” published by Cambridge University Press analyzed 2,500 years of plagues and concluded that the Black Death was caused by a viral hemorrhagic fever pandemic similar to Ebola. If this view is correct, the future medical and economic impacts...

A Brooklyn teenager was rushed to the hospital yesterday after showing symptoms consistent with Ebola. The 14-year-old boy had a fever and was feeling fluish according to officials who spoke to the Daily News. He was brought to Brookdale Hospital where tests are being run to see if he has the disease. He is currently in isolation. The boy was apparently in Sudan for two weeks and hospitalized there as well, but lied to officials about being sick so he could fly home. Now, NYPD is working with officials to see if any of his family members should also be...

Gov. Perry Visits Troops Deploying to West Africa in Fight against Ebola More than 500 troops from the 36th Engineer Brigade, 1st Medical Brigade and 85th Civil Affairs Brigade stationed at Ft. Hood are expected to deploy to Liberia by the end of this month. Approximately 200 troops stationed at Ft. Bliss, but assigned to aviation units at Ft. Hood, will also deploy. Their mission will be constructing facilities to be used in the housing and care of Ebola patients. The troops will not have contact with Ebola patients. The servicemen and women from Ft. Hood are part of a...

Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell said that despite the best efforts of health officials, Americans have to prepare for the reality that there may be more cases of Ebola in the United States. Sign Up for the Politics Today newsletter! “We had one case and I think there may be other cases, and I think we have to recognize that as a nation,” Burwell said at a media breakfast hosted by the journal Health Affairs and held at the Washington, D.C. offices of the Kaiser Family Foundation. Burwell’s comments come as screening of travelers from Ebola-affected countries...

Nearly six in ten black Americans (59 percent) believe that there would already be a cure for the deadly Ebola virus had it originated in Europe or America. A YouGov/Economist poll also found that 62 percent of Americans think "more would have been done" to combat Ebola had it not originated in West Africa. Forty-two percent of Americans also believe there would be a cure had the virus originated in Europe or the U.S. while 23 percent do not think that would be the case....

The U.S. military mission to combat Ebola in West Africa is facing questions about the serious health risks American troops will encounter in heading to the epicenter of the deadly outbreak. According to officials, a small group of trained military medical technicians on the ground will not be required to make direct contact with patients infected with the Ebola virus. However, they will have to handle infected blood samples, which Pentagon officials acknowledged Tuesday could be just as dangerous, if not more. Already, three mobile-testing labs, staffed by three or four technicians each, have been deployed in Liberia as part...

DEARBORN (WWJ) – While U.S. health officials say there’s no cause for widespread concern over Ebola, some in metro Detroit are busy with survival preparations — just in case. Garron Strickland, manager of Harry’s Army Surplus in Dearborn, says “preppers” have been stocking up on package water, MRE meals, heaters, gas masks, and other items as they tend to do with outbreak or other concerns on the horizon. Also popular, Strickland, said, are “bug-out bags” equipped with supplies to last someone a few days on the go....

I do not understand how the U.S. leaders can poo poo the potential threat of a pandemic. If they're trying to prevent panic, they're doing a poor job of it. My self, I'd feel more secure if I saw some effort at containment. Aparently none of the "highly trained" people ever read a history book. The Black Plague was too far back for these people to think about, but the world wide influenza epidimic of the early 1900's should be close enough for a look. This was a time of coal fired steam ships. Most travelers would have died weeks...

Peter Piot was a researcher at a lab in Antwerp when a pilot brought him a blood sample from a Belgian nun who had fallen mysteriously ill in Zaire.Professor Piot, as a young scientist in Antwerp, you were part of the team that discovered the Ebola virus in 1976. How did it happen? I still remember exactly. One day in September, a pilot from Sabena Airlines brought us a shiny blue Thermos and a letter from a doctor in Kinshasa in what was then Zaire. In the Thermos, he wrote, there was a blood sample from a Belgian nun who...

I have received a number of FReepmails asking for an update on my projections, in light of recent news. Here it is. Please read and understand the following notes: Because the rate of transmission differs in each country, the model now makes individual projections based on a Daily Transmission Rate (DTR) calculated for each country, and adds them together to produce the numbers presented below. While the model can use any date range, I've used the the range from 9/1/14 to 10/1/14. In other words, the DTR for each country is based on the number of cases on September 1...

Three decades after the world witnessed HIV begin to take its devastating human toll, scientists have isolated where the pandemic started in Kinshasa, in what was then Zaire, and now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The revelation is outlined in the journal Science, which dated the origin of the pandemic as early as the 1920s. While the virus is thought to have crossed into the human population years earlier, the Guardian notes, it remained largely localized until it reached Kinshasa, which catapulted throughout the region, and then world. A confluence of social factors led to what the authors call a...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Days after a person was diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil for the first time, officials are reportedly investigating a possible Ebola infection in Washington, D.C. At Howard University Hospital, a patient is in stable condition after presenting with symptoms that could be associated with Ebola, according to a statement today from the hospital. The patient had recently traveled to Nigeria, where the Ebola outbreak has killed eight people. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with medical providers to monitor the patient's progress, officials said. Officials are also monitoring an inmate at Cobb County Jail in...

Thomas Eric Duncan aka Patient Zero traveled to the United States out of desperation. He knew that he had been exposed to Ebola, and knew that he could not get treatment where he lived in Liberia. He had seen a friend turned away from three hospitals, and then die of the disease. So according to his former boss, he made the trip to the United States to obtain treatment. Monrovia (Liberia) Daily Observer reports. About Duncan being aware of his medical condition before he left Liberia, his former boss, Mr. Henry Brunson, 60, manager of SafeWay Cargo, a licensed agent...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)A Dallas apartment where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States had stayed is finally getting a thorough cleaning, days after the diagnosis left four people quarantined there with soiled towels and sweat-stained sheets from the Ebola patient. After some delays, the first of three phases in cleaning the apartment began Friday afternoon. By around 5:45 p.m. (6:45 p.m. ET), the effort was continuing but at least the sheets and towels had been moved out. Crews also worked to remove three mattresses, each of which the Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan slept on, city of Dallas spokeswoman...

People who contract Ebola in West Africa can get through airport screenings and onto a plane with a lie and a lot of ibuprofen, according to healthcare experts who believe more must be done to identify infected travelers. At the very least, they said, travelers arriving from Ebola-stricken countries should be screened for fever, which is currently done on departure from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But such safeguards are not foolproof. "The fever-screening instruments run low and aren't that accurate," said infection control specialist Sean Kaufman, president of Behavioral-Based Improvement Solutions, a biosafety company based in Atlanta. "And people...

Dallas residents are unexpectedly calm surrounding the events of the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed had Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, in North Dallas, on Tuesday. Although, the reaction of those in Dallas appears to contradict the response of others outside of the city. After speaking with several managers of Walgreens and CVS all over the Dallas, Texas area, Breitbart Texas found that not only were Dallas residents not rushing to stock up on emergency supplies such as jugs of water, first aids kits, medical gloves, etc. each store is fully...

As the international media and law enforcement authorities begin to investigate how a man who had contracted the Ebola virus in Liberia came to arrive in Texas, new details are surfacing about Thomas Eric Duncan and his voyage to the United States. Before coming to America to visit family, Duncan worked at a FedEx from which he was dismissed, after which he decided to "just go" to Texas. According to new details given to the Liberian Observer by someone close to Duncan, Duncan did not leave Liberia with any outward symptoms of the disease. His decision to leave the country,...

The spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general says the United Nations believes air travel to and from the West African countries affected by the Ebola virus should continue despite the first reported case in the United States. Stephane Dujarric told reporters Thursday that "it's very important not to isolate these countries" as it would worsen their political and economic situations. He says aid groups need access to the region. The first reported U.S. case involves a man who flew from Liberia to visit relatives. His travel took him through Brussels and Washington before reaching Texas....

Fears are rising about the spread of Ebola in Texas after health officials revealed an infected patient had come into contact with nearly 20 people over the weekend. Health officials said they are working to track down every person who came in contact with the patient, who has been identified in multiple media reports as Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia. He remains in serious condition at a Dallas hospital. Duncan could have passed the virus to as many as 18 people between Wednesday, when he began to show symptoms of Ebola, and Sunday, when he entered medical isolation at Dallas...

"...This essay analyzes Ward Churchill’s accusations that the US Army perpetuated genocide. Churchill argues that the US Army created a smallpox epidemic among the Mandan people in 1837 by distributing infected blankets. While there was a smallpox epidemic on the Plains in 1837—historians agree, and all evidence points to the fact—that it was accidental, and the Army wasn’t involved...Situating Churchill’s rendition of the epidemic in a broader historiographical analysis, one must reluctantly conclude that Churchill fabricated the most crucial details of his genocide story. Churchill radically misrepresented the sources he cites in support of his genocide charges, sources which say...