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A new test designed to rapidly diagnose Ebola virus infection is to be tried out at a treatment centre for the disease in Guinea, international health charity The Wellcome Trust said on Friday. Researchers developing the 15-minute Ebola test say it is six times faster than similar ones currently in use and, if it proves successful, could help medical staff identify and isolate confirmed Ebola patients faster and start treating them sooner. The trial, led by researchers at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, and funded by Wellcome and the UK government, will use a "mobile suitcase laboratory" -- a...

When it rains, it pours. Just before unveiling his colossal administrative amnesty for millions of "undocumented" aliens and foreign tech workers on Thursday, President Obama separately ordered up to 8,000 more executive pardons and special work passes for Liberians, Sierra Leoneans and Guineans illegally in this country. Strange, isn't it? The same administration that refused to enact travel bans from Ebola-plagued West African nations to protect Americans is now granting "temporary protected status" (TPS) to West Africans on American soil so they don't have to go back. It's not really about public health, of course. It's about political pandering and...

The government’s worst-case scenario forecast for the Ebola epidemic in West Africa won’t happen, a U.S. health official said Wednesday. In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated the number of people sickened by the Ebola virus could explode to as many as 1.4 million by mid-January without more help. Things have changed. On Wednesday, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden said, “We don’t think the projections from over the summer will come to pass.” Frieden did not provide new estimates. …

Nebraska Medical Center said in a news release Monday that Dr. Martin Salia died as a result of the disease. Salia contracted Ebola while working as a surgeon in Sierra Leone. He arrived Saturday to be treated at the Omaha hospital

Before he was alleged to have become a spy for Saddam Hussein's regime, Muthanna Al-Hanooti's charity work and political activism provided him with access to the highest echelons of government. Newsletters collected by the Investigative Project on Terrorism, some published now for the first time, show Al-Hanooti photographed with dignitaries ranging from First Lady Hillary Clinton in 1996 and Vice President Al Gore along with significant members of Congress. That may explain why Iraqi intelligence agents had confidence that Al-Hanooti would be able to persuade Congress to lift economic sanctions against Iraq. A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday accuses him of...

The number of people infected with the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone each day is nine times higher than it was two months ago, according to new data. The rate appears to be accelerating particularly in the rural areas surrounding the capital Freetown, the London Times reports. Compared with an average of 1.3 Ebola cases a day at the start of September, there were 12 new cases a day in late October, says the Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), an organization set up by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Ebola: Pa. monitoring caseload risesPennsylvania health officials as of Monday afternoon were monitoring 135 people for possible Ebola symptoms, an increase of 30 from last week. All have recently arrived in Pennsylvania after visiting one of the areas in West Africa affected by the Ebola outbreak. However, none are known to have had direct exposure to Ebola, or have shown symptoms. Pennsylvania receives between one and roughly 25 people daily who have returned from Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone, where about 13,600 people have been stricken with Ebola, and nearly 5,000 have died as of the end of October.

A woman admitted to a London hospital last night is being tested for the Ebola virus, it has been confirmed. The patient has a history of travel in west Africa and is described as suffering from a "haemorrhagic fever". It is thought she presented herself to St George's Hospital in Tooting, south London, with a high temperature.

The World Health Organization says the number of reported Ebola cases has surpassed 13,700, a jump of more than 30 percent since the last numbers were released four days ago. Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general of the WHO, said the big jump in cases is likely due to previous under-reporting. As of Wednesday, there have been 13,703 reported cases of Ebola, the organization tweeted, with 13,676 of those in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three most affected countries in this outbreak. The fatality rate in those countries has remained consistently around 70 percent, Aylward said. Speaking to reporters in...

Canada has joined Australia in suspending entry visas for people from Ebola-stricken countries in West Africa in an attempt to keep out the disease. […] Australia’s similar move was slammed Thursday by Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization, who said closing borders will not stop spread of the Ebola virus. …

The critical reckoning over forced quarantines is still to come. Consider this scenario. Sometime in January or February – as the Ebola epidemic explodes out of West Africa – we’ll start experiencing larger, more frequent outbreaks in American cities. With the flu as a background to confound suspected cases of Ebola, public health departments will be hard pressed to “track and trace” all of the potential “contacts” when perhaps dozens of Ebola cases pop up in their cities. Unable to pinpoint who might have come in close contact with Ebola, and be at risk of contracting the virus, they will...

Manila orders repatriation of citizens from African nations affected by Ebola The overseas workers in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone will be subject to 21 days quarantine. The government has adopts "voluntary repatriation" for at least 900 people. With 10 million workers abroad the country is considered "highly vulnerable" to deadly epidemics.

The current Ebola outbreak is the largest in history, but the disease has not effected cocoa supply according to experts and featured in the November issue of Food Nutrition & Science. West Africa is the world's largest producer of cocoa beans with an estimated 73% of the world's beans coming from the area, according to the International Cocoa Association. To date, the disease has not affected cocoa production and cocoa operations continue uninterrupted even as cocoa farmers on the Ivory Coast ramp up exports as a preventative measure. "The good news is that while harvesting and shipping of cocoa in Ebola affected areas of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra...

We’re told ad nauseam that the medical personnel who go to Africa are heroes. And that’s fine. I have no objection to them doing their humanitarian thing and then writing a bestselling book about it.But now that Madam Ebola is in town, it’s hard to miss the fact that these people might care about Africans, but they certainly don’t care about Americans. The city’s first Ebola patient initially lied to authorities about his travels around the city following his return from treating disease victims in Africa, law-enforcement sources said.Dr. Craig Spencer at first told officials that he isolated himself in...

Kaci Hickox, the nurse who was quarantined at a New Jersey hospital despite exhibiting no Ebola symptoms after arriving from West Africa, won't follow the quarantine imposed by Maine officials, her attorney said tonight. "Going forward she does not intend to abide by the quarantine imposed by Maine officials because she is not a risk to others," her attorney Steven Hyman said. "She is asymptomatic and under all the protocols cannot be deemed a medical risk of being contagious to anyone." ... Maine requires that health care workers such as Hickox who return to the state from West Africa will...

After Negative Ebola Test, Quarantined Nurse Criticizes Treatment at Newark Airport A nurse who tested negative for the Ebola virus but remained under a 21-day quarantine in a Newark hospital on Saturday is angry and frustrated with how she was treated when she returned to the United States from West Africa.

A woman who had been quarantined at Newark Airport due to stricter screening protocols on Friday after reporting contact with Ebola victims was seen exiting an ambulance in a hazmat suit later that evening as she made her way into an isolation unit at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said the woman arrived at the airport on a flight on Friday from West Africa. He earlier announced that additional screening protocols were being implemented at JFK and Newark International Airports. The woman, who initially showed no symptoms of the deadly virus, just hours later...

The Obama administration is considering imposing a forced quarantine on healthcare workers who return to the United States from the Ebola hot zone of West Africa, after a New York doctor who treated patients there tested positive for the virus on Thursday. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokesman Tom Skinner told Reuters on Friday that a mandatory quarantine is one possible plan under discussion by officials from across the administration. 'There are a number of options being discussed pertaining to the monitoring and mobility of healthcare workers who are returning to the United States from affected countries,' Skinner said.

Connecticut placed six West Africans who recently arrived in the United States under quarantine for possible Ebola exposure, a move that comes as the United States starts new restrictions on those coming from the countries hardest hit by the deadly virus. The family of six West Africans, who arrived Saturday and were planning to live in the United States, will be watched for 21 days, Connecticut state health authorities said Thursday. Officials have yet to say where the family came from. ... Ebola fears have also touched one of the world's most reclusive countries, North Korea, which will bar entry...

<p>Muslim burial practices are being blamed for the spread of Ebola.</p> <p>Remains of Secretary General of The Nigeria Supreme General for Islamic Affairs and Seriki of Egbaland, Alhaji Lateeef Adegbite at his burial in 2012.</p> <p>Islam requires family members to personally wash the corpses of loved ones from head to toe. This practise is putting more Africans at risk to catch the disease that is spread by body fluids.</p>