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☆ Equatorial Guinea quarantines 200 after unknown hemorrhagic fever deaths
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Amindeh Blaise Atabong | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] People wait to cross the border into Equatorial Guinea by car and by foot in Kye-Ossi, Cameroon, May 23, 2015. Authorities have restricted movement around the two villages that are directly linked, he said, and contact tracing was ongoing. Equatorial Guinea's neighbour Cameroon on Friday restricted movement along its border after the "unexplained deaths", its Health Minister Malachie Manaouda said in a statement. Equatorial Guinea said on Wednesday that it had registered the "unusual epidemiological situation" over the past weeks in Kie-Ntem province's Nsok Nsomo district that caused nine deaths in two adjacent communities over a short period. A Cameroon district health official near the border area said around 20 deaths had been recorded on Wednesday in villages in Kie-Ntem province, which borders Cameroon's Olamze district.

☆ Fact Check-Vaccine work before SARS-CoV-2 had a name does not prove pandemic was planned
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Users online are circulating that widely-known fact to imply the COVID-19 pandemic was planned. At timestamp 0:17-0:42, Bancel says Moderna was working on a COVID-19 vaccine before the virus had an official name, saying “I think there was no name at that time” (here). On Jan. 23, 2020, the WHO-affiliated Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) announced funding for three separate research teams to work on potential vaccines against the novel coronavirus (here). One of the research teams included a partnership between drug and vaccine developer Moderna and the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Neither the disease nor the virus that causes it had formal names until February 2020.

☆ Former Covid chief Jeff Zients to replace Ron Klain as White House chief of staff, Biden confirms
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Emma Kinery | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Jeff Zients, former White House Covid-19 response coordinator under Biden and an economic advisor to former President Barack Obama, will replace Ron Klain as White House chief of staff, President Joe Biden confirmed in a statement Friday. Zients is a longtime ally of both Biden and Klain and has a reputation of getting things done. In recent weeks he has returned to the White House to help coordinate staff turnover after the midterms, where he has worked closely with Klain. The White House will hold an official transition event next week to welcome Zients and thank Klain, Biden said in his statement. Zients worked as CEO of health care consulting firm the Advisory Board Company, which is now part of UnitedHealth.

☆ Pandemic-era stigma cost Asian restaurants $7.4B in lost revenue, new study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Angela Yang | Angela Yang Is An Intern For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Stigma against Chinese cuisine in the first year of the pandemic cost Asian restaurants in the United States an estimated $7.4 billion in lost revenue in 2020, a recent study found. In a year in which tens of thousands of restaurants closed and many barely scraped by, the study — published online last week in the journal Nature Human Behaviour — reported that Asian restaurants across the country lost 18.4% more in foot traffic than other restaurants in 2020. Prominent reports of anti-Asian racism, from harassment to direct violence, flooded the country in the years after the pandemic’s outbreak. What was particularly surprising to Krupenkin, however, was that Asian restaurants that were not Chinese suffered an even greater decrease in traffic than Chinese restaurants. After investigating this spillover of consumer discrimination, her team found that many people simply couldn’t tell different Asian cuisines apart.

☆ Biden White House chief of staff Ron Klain set to step down in coming weeks: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

White House chief of staff Ron Klain is expected to depart his role in the coming weeks, per The New York Times. Klain worked as President Barack Obama's White House Ebola response coordinator and also previously served as chief of staff to former vice president Al Gore. He also was chief of staff to then-Vice President Joe Biden during the first two years of the Obama administration. Anita Dunn — who rejoined the White House last year after having previously served in the White House as a senior advisor from January 2021 to August 2021 — has been a name long rumored to be a contender upon a Klain departure. Other individuals thought to be under consideration include former Delaware governor Jack Markell, White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, and White House domestic policy director Susan Rice.

☆ Ron Klain, Biden’s White House chief of staff, is reportedly expected to step down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (R) is joined by Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain (L) in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, U.S. November 13, 2014. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is preparing to step down in the coming weeks, according to a report from The New York Times. After the midterm elections in November and an action-packed two years in the White House, Klain has told colleagues that he is ready for something different, the report said. Klain previously acted as Biden's chief of staff during former President Barack Obama's first term, and he's worked with Biden since he ran for president back in 1987. The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

☆ Uganda Declares End of Deadly Ebola Outbreak
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Nicholas Bariyo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

KAMPALA, Uganda—Uganda’s Ebola outbreak is over, the country’s health ministry said Wednesday, capping a nearly four-month struggle to contain a rare strain of the highly contagious virus for which there are no proven vaccines or antiviral treatments. Uganda’s Health Ministry said 42 days had passed since the last known patient diagnosed with the Sudan strain of Ebola was discharged from a hospital, taking the country beyond twice the virus’s maximum incubation period. Fifty-five people are confirmed to have died from the virus since September in the second-deadliest known Ebola outbreak in Uganda’s history, while at least 142 were infected. The ministry said another 22 people are believed to have died from the virus as far back as early August, but were never tested.

☆ Uganda’s latest Ebola outbreak is over, WHO and officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: 1 min

Uganda’s latest outbreak of the Ebola virus is over. Uganda’s government and the World Health Organization made the announcement Wednesday. The Sudan strain of the Ebola virus, unlike the Zaire strain that has caused outbreaks in neighboring Congo in recent years, has no proven vaccine. This outbreak was the first in a decade of the less common Sudan strain. Ebola, which can sometimes manifest as a hemorrhagic fever, spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials.

☆ Uganda declares over Ebola outbreak that killed 55
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Elias Biryabarema | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Motorists and cyclists are seen at a traffic light intersection in Kabuusu area of the Lubaga division amid the Ebola outbreak in Kampala, Uganda November 16, 2022. "We have successfully controlled the spread of Ebola in Uganda," Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said during a ceremony to mark the outbreak's end. The outbreak killed 55 of the 143 people infected since September, according to health ministry figures. Unlike the more common strain of the virus, Ebola Zaire, which has been behind several recent epidemics in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, the strain behind Uganda's outbreak, Ebola Sudan, has no proven vaccine. Even so, experts said Uganda's experience battling previous outbreaks of Ebola and its viral cousin Marburg helped its response.

☆ Uganda declares itself Ebola-free after swiftly turning tide on outbreak
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Elias Biryabarema | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Motorists and cyclists are seen at a traffic light intersection in Kabuusu area of the Lubaga division amid the Ebola outbreak in Kampala, Uganda November 16, 2022. "We have successfully controlled the spread of Ebola in Uganda," Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng said during a ceremony to mark the outbreak's end. Aceng said this was Uganda's eighth Ebola outbreak since 2000, when the country recorded its first and most deadly one that killed more than half of the 425 people it infected. In the early weeks of the outbreak, cases spread beyond the epicentre of Mubende, 150 km (90 miles) west of the capital Kampala, to several other districts, including Kampala. Unlike the more common strain of the virus, Ebola Zaire, which has been behind several recent epidemics in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, the strain behind Uganda's outbreak, Ebola Sudan, has no proven vaccine.

☆ Congo beer factory a beacon in region rocked by rebels
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Erikas Mwisi Kambale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] A general view shows the beer storage warehouse at the Brasimba beer production factory, a subsidiary of the Castel group, in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo, December 21, 2022. REUTERS/Erikas Mwisi KambaleBENI, Democratic Republic of Congo, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Bottles of beer zip along a conveyor belt in a Brasimba factory which has weathered two deadly Ebola outbreaks and waves of fighting linked to rebel militias active in the nearby forests. After an initial investment of 125 million euros ($134 million), beer output at the plant in the northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo city of Beni more than tripled to 600,000 hectolitres between 2013 and 2021. Along with warehouse expansion, this should help Brasimba manage supply disruptions as the impoverished province grapples with a major offensive by the M23 rebel group. Brasimba's brewery was founded in 1925 and its Beni factory employs around 130 people and a further 180 temporary workers, providing much-needed income in a country where the World Bank estimates 73% of people live on less than $1.90 a day.

☆ Fact Check-No reports of an Ebola virus outbreak at GW Hospital
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

There is no evidence of a patient testing positive for the Ebola virus at The George Washington (GW) University Hospital in Washington, D.C., health officials told Reuters. Users online are sharing a claim that the hospital is no longer accepting patients out of concern over a possible Ebola outbreak. Examples of users sharing images of a tweet that reads, “BREAKING NEWS: GW HOSPITAL isn’t accepting no patients due to a possible EBOLA OUTBREAK. Also Washington Hospital Center has no bed space with a line out the door” can be seen on Facebook (here) and (here). There has not been a reported case of a patient who tested positive for the Ebola virus at GW Hospital, health officials told Reuters.

☆ Uganda president lifts all Ebola-related movement restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KAMPALA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni lifted all Ebola-related movement restrictions on Saturday, saying the East African country had made progress in curbing the deadly disease. Museveni rescinded restrictions on the disease's epicentre in the district of Mubende, which logged 66 cases and 29 deaths, and in the Kassanda region with 49 cases and 21 deaths. In October, the Kampala government imposed travel restrictions and an overnight curfew and also shut places of worship and entertainment. Ebola causes vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea and spreads via contact with bodily fluids of the infected. The virus can sometimes linger in the eyes, central nervous system and bodily fluids of survivors and flare up years later.

☆ Remembering Gary Strieker, who helped establish CNN's presence in Africa
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Tricia Escobedo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

CNN —Gary Strieker had every reason to be a pessimist. Gary Strieker, who passed away in July 2022, helped establish CNN's presence in Africa. Courtesy Strieker family Born in the tiny Illinois farm town of Breese in 1944, Gary Gerard Strieker moved to San Diego, California at a young age. Courtesy Strieker family Strieker is remembered by his family and colleagues as a quiet, humble man who never lost his optimistic spirit or tireless energy for making the world a better place. Courtesy Strieker family Strieker was the network's only correspondent on the African continent for some time, covering the AIDs epidemic in the 1980s and other major moments in history, including the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

☆ Fauci says China has done a bad job of vaccinating the elderly and their shots are not very effective against Covid
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., criticized China's Covid lockdowns as "draconian" and said the Beijing government should focus on vaccinating the elderly. Fauci said lockdowns are only justifiable as a temporary measure to serve a larger public health goal that will make society safer when it reopens. But China's strict Covid controls don't seem to have any endgame, he said. Rare protests broke out across China over the weekend against Covid lockdowns and strict quarantine procedures. "The efficacy of the China-made vaccines are not at the level of the vaccines that have been used in the United States, particularly the mRNA vaccines of Moderna and Pfizer," Fauci said.

☆ Uganda's president extends Ebola epicentre's quarantine for 21 days
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KAMPALA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has extended a quarantine placed on two districts that are the epicentre of the country's Ebola outbreak by 21 days, adding that his government's response to the disease was succeeding. Movement into and out of Mubende and Kassanda districts in central Uganda will be restricted up to Dec. 17, the presidency said late on Saturday. It was originally imposed for 21 days on Oct. 15, then extended for the same period on Nov. 5. The government's anti-Ebola efforts were succeeding with two districts now going for roughly two weeks without new cases, the president said. Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Duncan Miriri and Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The U.S. is 'certainly' still in a Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Fauci says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Ashley Capoot | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical advisor, speaks during a briefing on COVID-19 at the White House on November 22, 2022 in Washington, DC. The nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the U.S. is "certainly" still in the middle of a Covid-19 pandemic and he is "very troubled" by the divisive state of American politics. "I don't care if you're a far-right Republican or a far-left Democrat, everybody deserves to have the safety of good public health and that's not happening." The 81-year-old became a household name during the Covid-19 pandemic, battling back against misinformation — sometimes from the highest levels of government. White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said Sunday he knows it has been a long two years for Americans, but that it is still "incredibly important" to get vaccinated ahead of the holiday season.

☆ Uganda recording downward trend in Ebola cases - official
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Motorists and cyclists are seen at a traffic light intersection in Kabuusu area of the Lubaga division amid the Ebola outbreak in Kampala, Uganda November 16, 2022. REUTERS/Abubaker LubowaKAMPALA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Uganda has recorded a drop in the number of new Ebola cases, with some districts going for at least two weeks without registering new infections, health ministry officials said. "We are also not seeing new cases in Kampala, in the greater Kampala metropolitan area, neither are we seeing cases in Masaka and Jinja," two other cities, she said. But three candidate vaccines against the Sudan strain are planned for a clinical trial in Uganda. The country has so far recorded 141 cases and 55 deaths, according to the ministry.

WASHINGTON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. health official celebrated and vilified as the face of the country's COVID-19 pandemic response, used his final White House briefing on Tuesday to denounce division and promote vaccines. True to form, Fauci used his final press briefing to strongly encourage Americans to get COVID vaccines and booster shots, and touted the effectiveness of masks, all of which became partisan totems in the United States. NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci joins White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. November 22, 2022. He made his first appearance at the White House press briefing in 2001, according to the broadcaster C-SPAN. Democrats accused Trump of presiding over a disjointed response to the pandemic and of disregarding advice from public health experts including Fauci.

☆ Uganda to roll out trial vaccines as it scrambles to control Ebola outbreak
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Larry Madowo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Mubende, Uganda CNN —Joseph Singiringabo has lost almost everything and everyone he held dear to Ebola. An Ebola treatment unit in Mubende, Uganda. Larry Madowo/CNNHe has been involved in every Ebola outbreak in Uganda as well as in Sierra Leone in 2017. However, the country is about to roll out three trial vaccines that have been certified as safe by the World Health Organization (WHO) working group. He has now barred traditional healers and witchdoctors from taking clients during the Ebola outbreak.

☆ Explainer: How the World Health Organization might fight future pandemics
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A new pact is a priority for WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as his second five-year term at the head of the global health agency gets underway. It seeks to shore up the world's defences against new pathogens following the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed more than 6.5 million people, according to the WHO. The global health agency itself is facing calls for reform after an independent panel described it as "underpowered" when COVID-19 struck, with limited ability to investigate outbreaks and coordinate containment measures. The WHO already has binding rules known as the International Health Regulations (2005) which set out countries' obligations where public health events have the potential to cross borders. Adopted after the 2002/3 SARS outbreak, these regulations are still seen as functional for regional epidemics like Ebola but inadequate for a global pandemic.

Two health workers at the hospital in western Uganda have died from Ebola in this outbreak. Nationwide, 15 health workers have tested positive and six have died. Intensive care staff work maximum eight-hour shifts and personnel from Ebola-free regions are rotated in, he said. "There are facilities where doctors and health workers are still touching patients without gloves because they (gloves) are not there," Nahabwe said. Case numbers remain low compared with a 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed at least 11,300 people.

☆ As Ebola outbreak grows in Uganda, US ramps up preparedness plans
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Jacqueline Howard | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

“All primary and secondary schools in Uganda are directed to close by November 25th, 2022 for third term holidays as a measure to contain Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the country,” Museveni said in a statement. Major US cities get Ebola plans in placeThe CDC estimates that 20% of travelers from Uganda will arrive without a cell phone or US-based phone number. “CDPH continues to work with our hospitals to screen patients for travel history and be alert for symptoms of Ebola virus disease or, more likely, malaria or circulating respiratory viruses. ‘We need to be prepared’The Ebola virus is transmissible – but not as transmissible as some other infectious diseases, like Covid-19. “If we do see any cases in the United States, the hope is that they will be identified quickly before there is further spread,” Barouch said.

☆ Ugandan leader says anti-Ebola efforts starting to succeed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

KAMPALA, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Uganda's efforts to contain an Ebola outbreak were starting to succeed and the country has tightened restrictions in the outbreak's epicentre to further slow the rate of infections, President Yoweri Museveni said on Tuesday. "Bunyangabo and Kagadi districts have been dropped from the follow up list. He said authorities had handed names of all contacts of Ebola cases to immigration services at borders to prevent them from potentially travelling and exporting cases in other countries. The outbreak was declared in the country on Sept. 20. Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa and Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Uganda confirms Ebola case in country's east as outbreak expands
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

KAMPALA, Nov 13 (Reuters) - An Ebola case has been confirmed in Jinja in eastern Uganda, the country's health minister said on Sunday, the first time the outbreak has spread to a new region of the country from central Uganda where cases have been confined so far. Authorities have been struggling to contain the highly infectious and deadly haemorrhagic fever since the epidemic was declared on Sept. 20. Uganda has so far recorded a total of 135 confirmed cases and 53 deaths, according to the health ministry. In a tweet, health minister Jane Ruth Aceng said the case in Jinja was of a 45-year-old man who died on Thursday. A sample that turned positive for Ebola had been obtained from the body by health workers at a private clinic where he had sought treatment.

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