The worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in history is threatening to spread out of West Africa and affect countries further afield. The first case was reported in Guinea on March 22.
Friday, October 10
16:14 GMT:
The UN appeal for $1 billion to respond to the West Africa Ebola outbreak was only 25 percent funded, according to UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.
“Of the $1 billion sought by U.N. agencies under (the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) consolidated appeal only one quarter has been funded,” he said at the Ebola outbreak briefing. A surge in trained healthcare personnel was also needed to help tackle the crisis, he added.
14:15 GMT:
A Brazilian man being tested fro Ebola is “in good shape” according to the country’s health ministry. The 47-year-old landed in Brazil after taking a flight from Guinea on September 19 and reported Ebola-like symptoms, including a fever, on Thursday. However, the fever was reported to have abated by Friday. He is still subject to testing by Brazilian doctors, Reuters reported. “There was no bleeding, vomiting or other symptoms,” the health ministry statement said. “He is in good shape and totally isolated.”
12:02 GMT: 10:05 GMT:
Macedonia said on Friday there was only a “small probability” a Briton who died in Skopje on Thursday had the Ebola virus, according to an initial analysis.
“There is a small probability he had Ebola, but we have to wait for the full results,” Dr. Jovanka Kostovska of the ministry’s commission for infectious diseases told a news conference.
Kostovska said there were no other suspicious cases in Macedonia but that the hotel where the Briton had been staying remained sealed off. Blood and tissue samples have been sent to Frankfurt for testing. (Reuters)
05:40 GMT:
A 45-year-old Nigerian woman is suspected of having the deadly Ebola virus, and is now under quarantine in a Taiwan hospital, according to local media outlet Apple Daily.
The woman was transferred to hospital after arriving in Taiwan on Thursday. The results of the conducted tests are set to be determined shortly.
According to the ER chief, the woman also has a past history of malaria, and there is a tendency to diagnose malaria as Ebola.
05:40 GMT:
Brazil has hospitalized the first patient with symptoms similar to those of Ebola, according to the country’s health ministry.
The 47-year-old man comes from Guinea, and developed the Ebola-like symptoms within three weeks of arriving from West Africa, Brazil’s O Globo newspaper reported.
Thursday, October 9
21:08 GMT:
The Czech Republic has hospitalized a man with a fever as its first suspected case of Ebola inside the country, the Czech-based CTK News reported. The only symptom exhibited by the man so far is a fever, but since he returned from Liberia 22 days ago he is being monitored as a preventative measure.
“As the only symptom has been fever so far, we hope that it might be another disease, for instance, malaria,” chief sanitary officer Vladimír Valenta told ČTK. “At present all people whom he has met since he returned home are being searched for.”
20:53 GMT:
Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient to die in the US, will be cremated in order to ensure the risk of exposure to the virus is minimal for those preparing his body and attending a funeral.
“The remains have been transported for cremation. No additional detail about timing or location will be given at this time,” Christine Mann, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said to NBC News.
Cremation – as well as the use of a hermetically sealed casket – are the two ways the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend handling deceased victims of the virus.
20:22 GMT:
The Dallas County sheriff’s deputy suspected of becoming the second case of Ebola in the United States does not have the virus, Texas health officials said on Thursday. The deputy, Michael Monnig, had originally reported being inside of the apartment of now-deceased Thomas Eric Duncan – the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the US – and had contact with Duncan’s family. He did not have contact with Duncan directly.
Officials at the Texas Department of State Health Services added that Duncan’s relatives have not displayed Ebola synptoms.
16:54 GMT:
A British man who was suspected of contracting Ebola has died in Macedonia, Reuters reports citing a senior Macedonian official.
The official added that a second British national had shown symptoms of the deadly virus.
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