Category: Ebola
CEPI Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe was a newly-qualified microbiologist working as a field epidemiologist when he got a call in 1976 to help investigate an outbreak. A pernicious disease had taken hold in the village of Yambuku in central Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. People were dying in large numbers of the infection – one that […]
Oct 2, 2024
Inside one of the world’s deadliest forests – and the bushmeat hunters risking contagion
Telegraph Ebola, Marburg and never-before-seen infections are spilling over into Guinea’s hunter communities. Scientists fear biological catastrophe. The village of Bouolazou, nestled away in the sprawling bush of southern Guinea, cannot be reached by car. Only motorbikes with deep-grooved tyres can make the journey, navigating an estuary of narrow tracks that wind over rocky hills […]
Nov 22, 2023
Liberia: Gov’t Dispels ‘Ebola Outbreak’ Claims
Liberian Observer The Ministry of Health has broken its silence to deny reports that the deadly Ebola virus, which wreaked havoc on the county years back, has emerged once again. The Ministry, in a release noted that the report of such was not just a lie but a conspiracy theory designed to instill fear in […]
Jun 6, 2023
Inside the Troubled Early Days of Guinea’s Ebola Response
PBS Why wasn’t the largest Ebola outbreak on record, which has now killed more than 10,000 people, stopped before it was too late? That’s the question at the heart of Outbreak, a FRONTLINE investigation from journalist and filmmaker Dan Edge that premieres tonight. In vivid, comprehensive detail, the film traces Ebola’s spread across West Africa, uncovering a string […]
May 23, 2023
Congo: a positive Ebola recorded in the Butembo health zone
Local News A positive case of Covid-19 was listed on the 4 samples tested from the Butembo health zone in North Kivu. This revelation was made on Monday, May 8, 2023 by the communicator of the provincial health division of Butembo, Dps-Butembo, Damulo Luhavo, during a press briefing he hosted at the permanence of this […]
May 16, 2023
Pathogens in Pop Culture: Jack Ryan, the Hot Zone, and Ebola
NETEC Podcast In episode two of the Pathogens in Pop Culture series, hosts Lauren Sauer and Rachel Lookadoo welcome guest Dr. Billy Fischer to discuss the portrayal of Ebola Virus Disease in the 2018 Jack Ryan TV series and Richard Preston’s 1994 novel, The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story. Together, they will explore the science behind the […]
May 2, 2023
Declaration of the End of the Ebola Outbreak in Uganda
(US Embassy Uganda) The Ugandan government, in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO), declared the end of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in Uganda on January 11, 2023. Concurrently, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rescinded its Level 2 Travel Health Notice related to Ebola in Uganda. The United States terminated […]
Jan 24, 2023
Don’t wait for an Ebola outbreak to vaccinate people against it
(Nature) Uganda’s most recent Ebola outbreak should be a wake-up call to the world. Last October, just 3 weeks into the outbreak, the disease spread to Kampala, a well-connected city of 1.5 million people. From there, it might easily have entered other countries. As the incident manager at the Ugandan Ministry of Health, I coordinated […]
Jan 24, 2023
Uganda receives second batch of Ebola vaccines
(Pulse) The World Health Organisation (WHO) explains that there are currently no licensed vaccines for the Sudan strain of the virus that caused the infections in Uganda, adding that the trial is to determine whether any of the vaccines are effective in combating the Sudan strain.
Dec 27, 2022
Epidemics That Weren’t: How Countries Shut Down Recent Outbreaks
(NYT) Some of the most fragile health systems in the world can teach us ways to respond to public health threats early and effectively. When Ebola swept through the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018, it was a struggle to track cases. Dr. Billy Yumaine, a public health official, recalls steady flows of people […]
Dec 27, 2022