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Top doctor is Nigeria's fifth Ebola death Abuja - A senior doctor who treated Nigeria's first Ebola patient has died, taking the death toll in Africa's most populous country to five, health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said on Tuesday. Chukwu said the doctor was "the most senior who participated in the management of the (first Ebola) patient" in the country. Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, aged 40, died in a Lagos hospital on 25 July, five days after arriving at the city's airport visibly unwell on a flight from the Liberian capital, Monrovia. "With this unfortunate development, the total number of Ebola virus-related...

Cases in West Africa's Ebola outbreak this year have risen to 2,240, including 1,229 deaths, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday, reporting the toll in four countries, including Nigeria. While Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and No. 1 oil producer, appears to be containing its smaller outbreak, Liberia and Sierra Leone are struggling to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus among their populations. On Friday, these small two West African nations and a medical charity chided the WHO for its slow response, saying more action was needed to save victims threatened by the disease and hunger.

Staff with the World Health Organisation battling an Ebola outbreak in West Africa see evidence the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimates the scale of the outbreak, the U.N. agency said on its website on Thursday. The death toll from the world's worst outbreak of Ebola stood on Wednesday at 1,069 from 1,975 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, the agency said. The majority were in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, while four people have died in Nigeria. The agency's apparent acknowledgement the situation is worse than previously thought could spur governments and aid organisations to take stronger measures...

Ebola: Panic or Pandemic? – An open source investigation This post is intended as a round-up of available information on the current Ebola outbreak from various sources around the web. Corbett Report members are encouraged to debate and discuss the situation in the commments thread below, ask questions, suggest links, and otherwise contribute to this investigation. The comments will be used to piece together an upcoming episode of The Corbett Report Podcast on this subject. [Not a Corbett Report member? Sign up today.] Overview: Official information on Ebola virus Ebola haemorrhagic fever is the human disease caused by the Ebola...

Epidemiology and surveillance Between 5 and 6 August 2014, a total of 68 new cases of Ebola virus disease (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 29 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Health sector response On Wednesday, 6 August and Thursday, 7 August, an Emergency Committee was held via teleconference to determine whether the current outbreak constitutes a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. After discussion and deliberation on the information provided, the Committee advised that: the Ebola outbreak in West Africa constitutes an ‘extraordinary event’ and a public health risk to other States;the...

The number of people killed in the West African ebola outbreak has reached 932 after 45 deaths in three days. Latest figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed the number of suspected cases rose by 108 in the same period, between August 2 and 4. Most of the new cases were in Liberia. The surge in deaths came as WHO prepared to convene a panel of medical ethics experts to explore the use of experimental treatment for ebola. WHO Assistant Director-General Marie-Paule Kieny said in a statement. "We need to ask the medical ethicists to give us guidance on...

"This is the biggest and most complex Ebola outbreak in history," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. "It will take many months, and it won't be easy, but Ebola can be stopped," he said. "We know what needs to be done." Ebola spreads through contact with organs and bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, urine and other secretions of infected people. It has no known cure.