follow us on twitter: @ GoAfricaNetwork The Need to Fast-Track Promising Vaccines Ebola virus is among the most deadly pathogens, with case fatality rates of up to 90%.1 Ebola virus is categorized as a tier 1 pathogen by the US government because of its potential for deliberate misuse with significant potential for mass casualties. The […]
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Follow us on Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork Dr. Marie Goreti Harakeye, Head of HIV/AIDS, TB & OID Division Under the AU Department of Social Affairs The African Union (AU) is planning to establish a pan-African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (African CDC) by mid-2015. First proposed by Ethiopia and approved by the AU Commission in 2013
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Follow us on Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork A cheap and simple way to obtain the main type of disease-supressing antibody in human blood could help save the lives of patients in the developing world with malfunctioning immune systems. The method of collecting immunoglobulin G (IgG) may enable more patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) to get the regular
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Follow us on Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork Diagnostics company Corgenix Medical Corp said on Thursday U.S. health regulators had approved its rapid Ebola test for emergency use, in response to the world’s worst outbreak of the virus that killed more than 10,000 so far. The company’s ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test, which involves putting a drop of blood
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Follow us on Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork Federal officials said on Thursday that the first clinical trial to test the effectiveness of Ebola vaccines was expected to begin in Liberia in two weeks. Volunteers in the trial will be given either a vaccine being developed by GlaxoSmithKline, a vaccine being developed by Merck or a placebo. There
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Follow us on Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork A new method for making chemicals that lure tsetse flies to traps has been developed. It uses a cheap by-product from the cashew nut industry as its starting material, so the discovery may mean the flies – which carry sleeping sickness (also known as African trypanosomiasis) – can be trapped
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Follow Us On Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork A panicky response in the West may worsen conditions in west Africa Oct 11th 2014 | From the print edition THE death toll from Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three most affected countries in west Africa, now stands at around 3,900. Among cases diagnosed outside Africa, the
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Follow Us On Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork A long-touted health-care revolution may at last be about to arrive Oct 11th 2014 | ROME | From the print edition THE idea of telemedicine—health care provided using telecommunications equipment—has a lengthy history. Radio News, an American magazine, devoted its cover to a patient at home consulting a doctor in
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Follow Us On Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been struggling since March to stop what has become the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded. The disease is causing widespread fear and disruption in West Africa, and shows no signs of being brought under control.
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Follow us on Twitter: @GoAfricaNetwork Dr. Rick Sacra, a missionary who contracted Ebola in Liberia this August, was first treated there. Each nurse on the ward cared for 15 or 20 patients, and none could work for more than an hour at a time because the protective gear was so suffocatingly hot. They never drew
