Sex, masturbation may hamper Ebola eradication

Isolated flare-ups of Ebola may point to a higher risk of transmission via the semen of male survivors than previously thought, undermining hopes of ending West Africa's deadly outbreak by the end of the year.

The World Health Organization's advice is that all male survivors should be tested three months after the onset of symptoms and then monthly until they know they have no risk of passing on the virus through their semen, Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO's Ebola response, told a news conference.

But a forthcoming study in the New England Journal of Medicine, based on around 200 survivors, found that around half still had traces of the virus in their semen after six months, a clinician familiar with the study told Reuters.

"The old advice of three months is no longer good," the clinician said. "The number of people with persistent virus in their semen is much greater than expected."

The clinician, who was not authorised to speak about the study, added that the risk might not only be from sex but also from masturbation.

"It's not the sex that is dangerous, it's the semen that is dangerous," said Aylward, who mentioned the study during a news conference but did not give details. "How people actually get exposed, in soiled linens or whatever, is not clear."

Transmission through semen may explain why a few cases continue to occur even though the outbreak has been almost completely eradicated by an intense international effort, recently bolstered by the deployment of a trial vaccine in Guinea and Sierra Leone.

"This virus and this outbreak in particular has a nasty sting in the tail," Aylward said. "It's not finished, by a long shot."

The latest flare-up, in a village on the northern border of Sierra Leone, followed the death of a 67-year-old woman late last month, 50 days after the previous confirmed case in the region. Transmission chains are considered to have been broken after 42 days with no new infections.

However, Aylward said that sexual transmission was "obviously not a huge risk, because if it were we would have seen a lot more in the areas that were hardest hit at the beginning of this outbreak."

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North Korea says it has 'cure' for MERS, Ebola, AIDS

SEOUL - North Korea says it has developed a vaccine that is "very effective" in treating MERS, Ebola and AIDS, the state mouthpiece KCNA reported, as well as a range of other diseases that modern medicine is yet to find a cure for.

The drug, known as Kumdang-2, is reportedly able to treat everything from AIDS to tuberculosis and cancer, as well as "harm from the use of computers" and morning sickness, according to the drug's website.

The isolated country's news agency KCNA is notorious for making hyperbolic claims about North Korea's achievements -- from scientific breakthroughs to the sporting prowess of its leaders -- and has previously trumpeted the efficacy of the drug.

Developed by North Korea's Pugang Pharmaceutic Company -- and promoted under the tag line "Everyone has the right to be healthy" -- the vaccine is made of extracts from ginseng with the injection of rare earth elements, KCNA said.

"The Kumdang-2 injection, a strong immune activator, which is produced in DPRK (North Korea), is very effective in curing diseases caused by malignant viruses such as SARS, Ebola and MERS," said the report.

The impoverished communist state, known to have a weak health infrastructure, claims to have been testing this cure-all drug since 1989.

South Korea is currently battling with an outbreak of MERS, which has killed 24 people while 166 cases have been confirmed -- the largest outbreak of the disease outside Saudi Arabia.

North Korea has taken drastic measures in the past to guard against viral diseases, and it has recently intensified screening and vowed "watertight" measures at airports and border crossings to ward off the MERS virus.

Last year it imposed a four-month ban on foreign tourists, purportedly due to concern over the spread of the Ebola virus.

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Death toll in Ebola outbreak rises to 7,588

GENEVA -- The global death toll from Ebola has risen to 7,588 out of 19,497 confirmed cases recorded in the year-old epidemic raging in West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

The virus is still spreading intensely in Sierra Leone, especially in the north and west, with 315 new confirmed cases reported in the former British colony in the week to December 21, it said. These included 115 cases in the capital Freetown.

"The neighboring district of Port Loko experienced a surge in new cases, reporting 92 confirmed cases compared with 56 the previous week," the WHO said.

In Sierra Leone, information about how to prevent and treat Ebola was provided to more than 5,000 households between 10 and 17 December as part of a major awareness campaign, it said.

In Guinea, 156 confirmed cases were recorded during the same period, "the highest weekly case incidence reported by the country in this outbreak," the WHO said.

"This largely due to a surge in cases in the south-eastern district of Kissidougou, which reported 58 confirmed cases - one-third of cases reported in the country in the past week."

Noting the district had previously reported no more than five cases per week, it said the surge showed the need for continuing vigilance even where the virus was not widespread.

In Liberia, where case incidence has been declining for the past month, 21 cases were reported in the week to December 21.

Montserrado county, including the capital Monrovia, still has the highest rates of the disease nationwide, while along the Côte d'Ivoire border to the east, Nimba county reported 3 confirmed cases, its first in 9 weeks, the WHO said.

Five additional countries - Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Spain and the United States - have had imported cases and are included in the global toll.

The Ebola crisis, which claimed its first victim in Guinea exactly a year ago, is likely to last until the end of 2015, according to Peter Piot, a scientist who helped to discover the virus in 1976.

Medical detective work will be the next phase in the fight against Ebola. The United Nations will deploy hundreds of health workers to identify chains of infection as the virus passes from person to person, WHO director-general Margaret Chan said in Accra, Ghana earlier on Wednesday.

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U.N.'s Ebola mission should be closed once battle won: Ban

BAMAKO - The United Nations mission to fight Ebola should be wound down quickly once the battle is won, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday during his first tour of countries stricken with the virus.

The U.N. emergency Ebola response mission, or UNMEER, was set up in September to coordinate policy and logistics for a campaign that includes governments, charities and healthcare workers from affected countries.

Ban said UNMEER differed from peacekeeping missions and should not outlive its immediate purpose.

"There's a tendency that missions go on because of continuing political instability and conflict. Ebola is a very urgent and unprecedented epidemic, therefore we cannot take too long in eliminating it," he told Reuters.

"That is why I am sending a political message. It is not because we have made any decision on when UNMEER should end, but it should be a short-term mission," he said.

More than 7,300 people have died of Ebola in the three worst-affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Ban declined to name a target date for ending the outbreak, but said he was encouraged that the rate of new cases is declining.

He visited treatment centres in the countries at the heart of the epidemic during a 36-hour tour to raise the profile of the struggle against the virus and encourage healthcare workers.

On Saturday, he also met Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the president of Mali, a country that recently saw the last of eight Ebola cases released from hospital.

At every stop, health authorities took his temperature and ensured he washed his hands with chlorinated water in a sign that nobody is exempt from protection measures.

In Guinea on Saturday, Ban urged countries to avoid discriminating against healthcare workers fighting the virus.

His comments followed a meeting at a treatment centre in Sierra Leone on Friday in which Rebecca Johnson, a nurse treating virus patients, recounted how she fell ill, recovered and is now back treating Ebola patients.

Ban publicly embraced Johnson and repeatedly cited her as an example of heroism, not least because she said she still faced stigma as a survivor.

"There should be no discrimination for those who have been working or helping with Ebola. Those people are giving all of themselves," Ban said.

(Editing by G Crosse)

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Ebola vaccine promising in first human trials: NIH

WASHINGTON - Researchers say they are one step closer to developing an Ebola vaccine, with a Phase 1 trial showing promising results, but it will be months at the earliest before it can be used in the field.

The news comes amid the worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever, which has killed 5,500 people so far, mostly in West Africa.

Pharmaceutical companies and health agencies scramble to fast-track experimental drugs and vaccines that could help.

In the first phase of testing, all 20 healthy adults injected with a higher or lower dose of the vaccine developed antibodies needed to fight Ebola, said the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which conducted the study.

Results were published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"The unprecedented scale of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has intensified efforts to develop safe and effective vaccines," said Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is developing the vaccine alongside GlaxoSmithKline.

The vaccines under development "may play a role in bringing this epidemic to an end and undoubtedly will be critically important in preventing future large outbreaks," he noted.

"Based on these positive results from the first human trial of this candidate vaccine, we are continuing our accelerated plan for larger trials to determine if the vaccine is efficacious in preventing Ebola infection," he added.

But the NIAID/GSK vaccine is still a long way from being ready for use in the field.

The NIAID is "in active discussions with Liberian officials and other partners about next-stage vaccine testing in West Africa" for efficacy and safety, the NIH said, but no announcement on larger-scale trials was expected before early next year.

There is no licensed treatment or vaccine against the Ebola virus, which is transmitted through bodily fluids and has been fatal in an estimated 70 percent of cases in the current outbreak.

Antibodies within four weeks

The volunteers were injected starting in September, and each showed a positive result for Ebola antibodies in blood tests within four weeks.

The 10 volunteers in the higher-dose group developed higher antibody levels, the NIH said.

In addition, two of the lower-dose group and seven of the higher-dose group developed a kind of immune cell called CD8 T cells, which are an important part of the body's response against disease.

"We know from previous studies in non-human primates that CD8 T cells played a crucial role in protecting animals" who got the vaccine and then were exposed to Ebola, said researcher Julie Ledgerwood, the trial’s principal investigator.

None of the volunteers experienced serious side effects within the study period, though two had a brief, mild fever within the 24 hours after the injection.

The vaccine uses a modified chimpanzee cold virus to deliver segments of genetic material from the Ebola virus.

The genetic material cannot spread in the body like the virus does, but can still prompt the antibody response.

The version tested at NIH contains material from two species of Ebola -- the Zaire species, responsible for the outbreak in West Africa, and another called Sudan Ebola.

"This work is encouraging and another significant contribution to efforts to tackle the Ebola crisis," said Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust.

The White House also congratulated the vaccine researchers.

"We congratulate Drs Francis Collins and Tony Fauci and their teams at the National Institutes of Health on the first published results from Phase 1 clinical trials of a promising Ebola vaccine candidate," a White House statement said, adding that President Barack Obama would visit the NIH next week.

A second version of the vaccine, aimed at blocking just Zaire Ebola, also began human testing in October, at the University of Maryland.

Another experimental vaccine that has shown promising results in primates is the Canadian VSV-EBOV, licensed by US firm NewLink Genetics. It is also in early stages of human testing.

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UN calls for end to open defecation amid Ebola threat

GENEVA, Switzerland - The UN called Wednesday for an end to defecation in the open, with fears growing that it has helped spread the deadly Ebola virus ravaging west Africa.

Half the population of Liberia, the country worst hit by the epidemic, have no access to toilets, while in Sierra Leone nearly a third of people live without latrines, a new UN report to coincide with World Toilet Day estimated.

Before it was declared Ebola-free last month, Nigeria warned against defecating in the open to guard against the virus, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids.

The report said nearly a billion people worldwide are forced to go to the toilet in the open.

But the health risks of the practice are not confined to Ebola.

In sub-Saharan Africa, where the UN said a quarter of the population defecate outside, diarrhoea is the third biggest killer of children under five years old.

Studies estimate that a child dies every 2.5 minutes because of unsafe drinking water, poor sanitation and hygiene, the report said.

Women suffer most from the lack of facilities, with girls often denied schooling because of a lack of toilets, said UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson.

"Girls are more likely to drop out of school if they don't have access to a safe and clean toilet. Women and girls can also risk harassment and sexual abuse when trying to find somewhere to defecate in the open. Universal access to sanitation has a clear role to play in defending women's safety, dignity and equality," he said.

Progress had been made, but a lack of money continued to hinder progress, with the 80 percent of open defecation confined to 10 countries.

Nearly half the world total for those who have no access to toilets are in India, followed in Asia by Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal and China.

In Africa, 39 million people do not have toilets in Nigeria, with high rates also in Ethiopia, Sudan, Niger and Mozambique.

Eliasson said that "success at ending open defecation goes beyond infrastructure. It requires the understanding of behaviours, cultural attitudes and social norms."

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Critically ill Sierra Leone doctor with Ebola now in U.S.

OMAHA, Neb. - A surgeon from Sierra Leone, critically ill with Ebola, was flown to a Nebraska hospital for treatment on Saturday, and is sicker than previous patients treated in the United States, medical officials said.

Dr. Martin Salia, 44, a permanent U.S. resident, caught Ebola while working as a surgeon in a Freetown hospital, according to his family. He was stable enough to take a flight from West Africa to Omaha, but was too sick to walk off the plane, medical officials said.

He was transferred to a waiting ambulance in an isolation unit called an ISOPOD, a device used in the transportation of a potentially infectious patient, and rushed to Nebraska Medical Center to begin treatment, a hospital official said.

"Although the patient's exact condition won't be available until doctors here evaluate him after he arrives, information coming from the team caring for him in Sierra Leone indicates he is critically ill - possibly sicker than the first patients successfully treated in the United States," the hospital in said in a statement.

The patient is the third treated for Ebola in the hospital's Biocontainment Unit since the outbreak gained momentum this year in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Salia was chief medical officer at the United Methodist Church's Kissy Hospital when he was confirmed on Tuesday to have contracted Ebola.

His evacuation was at the request of his wife, a U.S. citizen who lives in Maryland and who has agreed to reimburse the U.S. government for any expense, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

A medical crew with Phoenix Air examined the patient in Sierra Leone before leaving with him en route to the U.S. on Friday night, the Nebraska hospital said.

According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, at least 5,177 people have died in the world's worst recorded Ebola outbreak.

Most of the victims have been in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where already weak healthcare systems have been overrun by victims of the disease. A total of 570 local health workers have been infected, with 324 dying.

Salia would be the 10th known case of Ebola in the United States. All but one case was treated successfully.

The Nebraska clinic is one of four American hospitals approved by the federal government to treat Ebola.

(Reporting by Katie Knapp Schubert and Umaru Fofana; Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York; Writing by David Lewis and Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle and Stephen Powell, Franklin Paul and Andre Grenon)

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US nurses voice Ebola concerns

Several dozen nurses at a Washington hospital demonstrated Wednesday outside the White House, saying they are woefully ill-prepared to handle an Ebola case.

They were among thousands of health care workers taking part in protests in the United States and overseas amid fears the Ebola epidemic might spread beyond West Africa.

"Ebola is just one plane ride away," said emergency room nurse Kelly Fields of Providence Hospital in Washington, where unionized nurse staff are negotiating their first collective agreement with management.

In blue scrubs and red union T-shirts, the nurses demanded an ample supply of full-dress protective suits as well as the training to use them.

"It's a major concern for us... It only takes one person to come to our emergency room and from there we're really not sure what to do," said intensive care nurse Aster Goitom.

Two nurses are among the nine confirmed Ebola cases that have been treated in the United States. Both women had helped to care for a Liberian man who died of the virus in a Texas hospital.

In a statement, Providence Hospital, which is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, said it was prepared to identify and treat patients with highly communicable diseases, including Ebola.

National Nurses United, the biggest nurses' union in the United States, said it expected 100,000 nurses in 15 states to join what it called Global Ebola Awareness Day protests.

Similar demonstrations were scheduled to take place Wednesday in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the Philippines and Spain, it said in a statement.

The United States has more than 2.7 million registered nurses, according to the Kaiser Foundation, a national health policy think tank.

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Stars to record new Band Aid single against Ebola

One Direction, Ed Sheeran and a host of other stars are to raise money to fight Ebola with a 30th anniversary version of the Band Aid charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Bob Geldof announced on Monday.

It will the fourth incarnation of the song, which became one of the world's biggest-selling singles ever after its release in 1984 to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia.

Ebola "is a particularly pernicious illness because it renders humans untouchable and that is sickening," Geldof said at a London press conference with Midge Ure, who co-organised the first Band Aid with the Irish singer.

"Mothers can't comfort their children in their dying hours. Lovers can't cradle each other. Wives can't hold their husbands' hands. People are chased down the streets because of it -- and it could come our way," Geldof said.

The rocker-turned-activist said he had been spurred into action not out of nostalgia but by a call from the United Nations three weeks ago, concerned about not having the necessary funds to combat the epidemic.

The Ebola outbreak in west Africa has claimed almost 5,000 lives, according to the World Health Organization -- almost all in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone -- while the number of infected cases registered worldwide has soared to more than 13,000.

Other artists already signed up for the single include U2 frontman Bono -- who sang on the original recording -- Coldplay's Chris Martin, Bastille, Elbow, Ellie Goulding, Emeli Sande, Foals, Paloma Faith, Queen drummer Roger Taylor, Sinead O'Connor and Underworld.

Band Aid were also reported to be in talks with British superstar Adele.

The vocals will be recorded on Saturday at Sarm Studios in west London, just as on the original recording.

The sleeve artwork will be done by British artist Tracey Emin and the single will be available for download on November 17, with physical copies three weeks later.

The track will cost 99 pence ($1.60) to download or £4 ($6.35) to buy as a physical record.

Fundraising was underway on Tuesday with fundraising site Prizeo offering fans a chance to win a "day in the studio" as the single is recorded, in exchange for donations between $5 and $50,000.

Geldof slams China, UAE efforts

Geldof said he thought the British government would agree to drop the tax on sales, and called on people to buy it rather than watching it for free on the Internet.

Ure, the frontman of Ultravox, said: "It's a record none of us want to make and I wish it wasn't necessary."

The lyrics have been tweaked to reflect lush, economically developing west Africa in 2014 rather than the barren Ethiopia depicted 30 years ago.

Geldof also said there would be French, German and US versions featuring artists from those countries.

However, there will not be a giant "Live Aid" concert, because there was no "political logic" to doing one, he said.

Separately however, One Direction announced a charity performance in aid of the BBC's Children in Need appeal on Friday.

Geldof slammed certain countries for not doing enough to contribute to the level of Britain, France and the United States.

The Dubliner said the United Arab Emirates' small donation to Ebola was a "disgrace," swore over China's contribution and said Australia "isn't doing great."

"If these countries claim global leadership, then they must accept the responsibility of those things," the 63-year-old said.

The original 1984 version, which featured the likes of Phil Collins, George Michael and Sting, was re-recorded with new artists in 1989, and again in 2004 for Sudan's troubled Darfur region.

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Bill Gates to give $500 million for malaria, other diseases

WASHINGTON - US philanthropist Bill Gates on Sunday announced he will donate over $500 million to fight malaria and other infectious diseases in the developing world, saying the Ebola outbreak is a call to action.

The former Microsoft CEO told the 63rd annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in New Orleans that his Gates Foundation is committing more than $500 million in 2014 "to reduce the burden of malaria, pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, and an array of parasitic infections that are leading causes of death and disability in developing countries," a statement said.

Gates also said that in addition to that pledge, his foundation has boosted its annual funding for malaria by 30 percent.

Gates described the Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 4,900 people in West Africa since the beginning of the year as a "critical moment in the history of global health," and said the world's largest outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever underscores the need for stronger efforts to stay ahead of disease threats such as drug-resistant malaria and dengue fever.

"The Ebola epidemic has shown, once again, that in today's interconnected world, health challenges anywhere create health challenges everywhere -- and the best way to overcome those challenges is to dedicate ourselves to the great cause of reducing the global burden of infectious disease," Gates said in his prepared remarks.

The Gates Foundation announced in September a $50-million commitment to help scale up efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak.

The more than $500 million announced Sunday includes over $150 million to the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative to advance development of next-generation malaria vaccines, and $29 million to the Clinton Health Access Initiative to support malaria elimination efforts in Southern Africa and the Greater Mekong Sub-region of Southeast Asia.

Gates said the rise in resistance to effective malaria drugs in Southeast Asia should serve as a warning, that better research and development is needed to "stay ahead of the natural evolution of infectious diseases."

Other grants announced by Gates include $49 million to PATH Vaccine Solutions to develop new vaccines and combinations of vaccines against bacterial causes of diarrhea, and $18 million to the University of Maryland for studies in Mali, Kenya and Gambia on the impact of rotavirus vaccines on child health.

Other grants aim to help eradicate neglected infectious diseases, including $60 million toward finding treatments for a disfiguring diseases sometimes known as elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis) as well as sleeping sickness (human African trypanosomiasis), and black fever (visceral leishmaniasis).

Gates said that eradicating malaria by the middle of this century is "both a necessary objective and an attainable one."

What is needed are single-dose complete cures for malaria, more sophisticated diagnostics and a next-generation malaria vaccine, as well as more widespread and precise use of bednets, he said.

"We must remain committed to the eradication of malaria," Gates said.

"Small steps won't get the job done. History shows that the only way to stop malaria is to end it forever."

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New York doctor with Ebola improves, nurse reunited with dog

NEW YORK - A New York doctor with Ebola, whose case triggered a national debate over mandatory quarantines for health workers returning from West Africa, was upgraded to stable condition on Saturday after nine days of treatment.

Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, the only person in the United States currently being treated for Ebola, will remain in isolation, New York City's Bellevue Hospital said in a statement. He has improved to "stable" from "serious but stable."

Spencer was diagnosed with Ebola several days after returning to New York from Guinea where he had worked with patients infected with the disease, which is known to have killed almost 5,000 people in West Africa.

His Oct. 23 diagnosis, following a trip on the New York subway to eat out and go bowling with friends, spread alarm about the possible spread of the virus in the United States, leading states and federal health officials to issue a host of differing protocols for those considered at risk of developing the infection.

On a brighter note, Texas nurse Nina Pham, 26, who recovered from Ebola last week after treating a Liberian patient in a Dallas hospital, was reunited on Saturday with her dog, which had been quarantined for three weeks as a precaution.

The fate of her King Charles Spaniel, called Bentley, became a focus of public interest after officials in Madrid put down the dog of a Spanish nurse who had contracted Ebola while caring for a patient.

"After I was diagnosed with Ebola, I didn't know what would happen to Bentley and if he would have the virus," Pham told reporters at a Dallas animal shelter. "I was frightened that I might not know what happened to my best friend."

In the biggest tussle so far, a Maine judge on Friday rejected a state request to quarantine nurse Kaci Hickox, who recently returned home from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

Hickox, who has tested negative for Ebola, fought a heated public battle over what she considered draconian measures to isolate her for 21 days in a case that highlighted the dilemma over how to balance public health needs and personal liberty.

Medical professionals say Ebola is difficult to catch and is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person and is not transmitted by asymptomatic people.

Canada and Australia have barred entry for citizens from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where the disease is widespread, and some U.S. politicians have called for a similar ban by the United States.

In Oregon, test results were awaited for a woman with a fever who was hospitalized in an isolation unit on Friday after returning from West Africa, Oregon health officials said. She had not come into known contact with Ebola patients while in Africa, the officials added.

U.S. public health experts, the United Nations, federal officials and President Barack Obama have expressed concern that state quarantines for returning doctors and nurses could discourage potential medical volunteers from fighting the outbreak at its source in West Africa.

Obama spoke by phone on Saturday with U.S. service members in Liberia and Senegal taking part in the American military mission to contain the outbreak in West Africa, the White House said in a statement.

In the call, Obama underscored that the U.S. government strategy to tackle Ebola in West Africa is the most effective way to prevent further spread of the disease and protect the American people from it, the statement said.

On Friday the Pentagon said that civilian U.S. defense employees returning from Ebola relief work in West Africa must undergo monitoring to ensure they are free of disease but can choose between following civil health guidelines or the stricter military regimen.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz, Frank McGurty, Eric Beech and Alex Dobuzinskis; Writing by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Ralph Boulton and Steve Orlofsky)

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Two US states order tough Ebola quarantine rules

NEW YORK - New York and New Jersey on Friday ordered a mandatory quarantine for medics who treated victims of the disease in West Africa, after the deadly virus spread to America's largest city.

The new measures were ordered by state governors Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie the day after an American doctor tested positive for Ebola one week after returning from working in hard-hit Guinea.

Craig Spencer, 33, was in stable condition in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Center on Friday as he underwent treatment for the illness, which has killed nearly 4,900 people -- most of them in West Africa.

The New York case revived fears about the possible spread of the virus in US cities, but a glimmer of hope came with the news that two Texas nurses infected while treating a Liberian man are now free of the virus.

In Manhattan, Cuomo and Christie announced additional screening protocols at JFK and Newark international airports at a joint press conference.

Steps include mandatory quarantine for up to 21 days of any individual who has had direct contact with an Ebola patient while in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone, including medics who treated Ebola patients.

Additionally, anyone who has travelled to the affected regions but not had direct contact with an Ebola patient will be actively monitored by public health officials and quarantined if necessary.

Christie said that a health care worker who arrived at Newark with a recent history of treating patients with Ebola in West Africa, but who had no symptoms, had been placed in quarantine.

Spencer was rushed to the hospital with fever and gastrointestinal symptoms on Thursday, a week after returning from a stint in West Africa with the charity group Doctors Without Borders.

His live-in fiancee and two of his close friends are in quarantine but healthy, officials said.

- 'No cause for alarm' -

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Cuomo and other officials sought to allay fears that Spencer had put New Yorkers at risk by using the subway, going bowling and eating out before falling ill.

"There is no cause for alarm," de Blasio said. "New Yorkers need to understand the situation is being handled and handled well."

"We are fully prepared to handle Ebola. Our medical experts here in the city have been studying this disease intensively and working closely with our federal partners," de Blasio said.

New York, one of the largest points of entry to the United States, had been braced for months for a possible Ebola case.

The area's two largest international airports, JFK and Newark, this month introduced health checks for passengers travelling from West Africa, and four city hospitals are equipped to cope with Ebola patients.

Spencer, who returned home through JFK on October 17, is the first case diagnosed in the United States outside Texas.

In Dallas, two nurses contracted the virus after treating a Liberian patient who later died of Ebola.

-Obama hug for cured Ebola nurse-

The nurses were declared cured on Friday, and 26-year-old Nina Pham was healthy enough to leave hospital and meet President Barack Obama for a hug at the White House before returning home.

Obama has been vocal in calling on Americans not to give in to fear or hysteria, stressing that Ebola does not spread easily and that the United States is well-equipped to deal with any new cases.

Pham smiled and appeared healthy, wearing a turquoise shirt and dark business suit at a news conference outside the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

"I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today," she said, expressing her gratitude for those who prayed for her and cared for her while she was sick.

Pham was the first US health care worker to be infected with Ebola while working inside the United States, catching the disease from Thomas Eric Duncan, who was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas on September 28.

Her colleague, Amber Vinson, also become infected. She, too, is clear of the virus but has not yet been released from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Tests no longer detect virus in her blood," the hospital said, adding that Vinson would stay in the serious communicable diseases unit for continued supportive care until further notice.

Pham and Vinson worked in the intensive care unit, though it remains unknown exactly how they were infected.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a "breach of protocol" was to blame, and has since issued stricter guidelines for donning protective gear when caring for Ebola patients.

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Doctor tests positive for Ebola

NEW YORK - A New York City doctor who worked recently with Ebola patients in West Africa and returned to New York City tested positive for the illness on Thursday, officials said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio made the announcement at a news conference late on Thursday, hours after the doctor was admitted to a city hospital with symptoms, and taken into isolation.

Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, was tested at Bellevue Hospital, where results indicated he has the disease, the mayor said.

Mindful of public concern about whether Spencer could have infected others, Governor Andrew Cuomo told the news conference at Bellevue that since returning to the United States earlier this month from Guinea, Spencer had been exposed to "very few people."

Spencer developed a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms after working for the humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders in Guinea, one of three West African nations hardest hit by Ebola.

A specially trained team wearing protective gear transported Spencer to Bellevue Hospital from his Manhattan apartment, the city said in a statement.

The first confirmed case in America's largest city set off renewed fears about the spread of the virus, which has killed nearly 4,900 people, largely in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

The first person diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil flew from Liberia to Texas and later died in a Dallas hospital. Two nurses who treated him became infected with the virus and one took a commercial flight with a fever, prompting officials in several states to take steps to become better prepared to contain the virus.

The Times said a further test will be conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to confirm the initial test.

De Blasio said earlier on Thursday that Spencer had been in direct contact with "very few" people.

However, the Times said Spencer traveled by subway to a bowling alley in the city's Brooklyn borough on Wednesday night and took a taxi home.

The bowling alley, identified by local media as the Gutter, was closed on Thursday. Heaven, a band that was due to perform, said on Twitter that its show had been canceled because of an Ebola scare.

Spencer's Facebook page, which included a photo of him clad in protective gear, said he went to Guinea around Sept. 18 and then flew to Brussels on Oct. 16.

He has specialized in international emergency medicine at Columbia University-New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City since 2011, according to his profile on the LinkedIn career website.

Columbia in a statement said he has not been to work nor seen any patients since his return.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

For many journalists Ebola's invisible threat scarier than war

PARIS - You can't see shells falling, guns pointed or identify the bad guys: for many journalists the invisible threat of Ebola is more unnerving than covering a war.

Along with health workers and aid workers, journalists have to get right up close to the epidemic to do their job, donning gloves, masks and rubber boots and washing hands with chlorine countless times a day.

"We have less difficulty finding journalists to go to Iraq or Central African Republic" than Ebola-hit countries, said Claire Hedon of Radio France Internationale (RFI) who just returned from Guinea.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, have borne the brunt of the epidemic which has killed over 4,500 people out of a total of 9,216 cases registered in seven countries, according to the World Health Organization.

At least five local journalists have succumbed to Ebola, according to media unions. Three were in Liberia and two in Sierra Leone, including the radio journalist Victor Kassim who died along with his wife, two children and mother.

Three media workers were also among an eight-member Ebola education team murdered last month by panicked villagers in a remote area near the epicentre of the outbreak in Guinea.

So far only one of the dozens of Western journalists covering the epidemic in west Africa has caught Ebola -- Ashoka Mukpo, an American freelancer for NBC who is recovering well.

But for those on the ground stalked by an unseen enemy, every interview poses a risk.

"Some journalists used to covering war zones have not volunteered for family reasons," explains Sofia Bouderbala, deputy editor-in-chief for Agence France Presse's Europe and Africa region.

"It is an invisible threat. In war zones you can see the shells falling."

Associated Press international editor-in-chief John Daniszewski said that the subject was "very stressful" to cover, as you can't see the enemy.

- Interviewing at a distance -
On top of all the safety precautions, one of the main rules on the ground for reporters is to keep your distance.

"The basic rule is don't touch anything or anyone. And two weeks without touching anyone is weird," said AFP's Marc Bastian who recently returned from Monrovia.

"We left with litres of disinfectant. We sprayed our shoes with bleach, we washed our hands 40, 50 times a day," he said.

"Photographers use telephoto lenses to photograph the sick and I once shouted out an interview with someone eight metres away."

For radio reporters who need sound, the process is equally tricky.

Yves Rocle, deputy director for the Africa region with RFI explains that their journalists use a boom to get sound. "We avoid contact," he said.

"I have interviewed the sick from two metres away, where it is considered you won't be hit by spittle," said the Hedon, who admits that sometimes one's attention can slip and possibly fatal errors be made.

"To be honest, you let your guard down. Yes in the end I shook a few hands."

- Shunned upon return -

The assignment doesn't end at the airport.

For many coming home to face fearful colleagues and family members, while still anxiously counting down the incubation period themselves, it can be a scary and lonely time.

"When coming back you take your own temperature for 21 days, the incubation period, and you worry at the slightest alert," said Guillaume Lhotellier, who went to Guinea for the Elephant production company.

"And your social life isn't great, there are people who refuse to shake your hand or see you, even though you are not contagious if you don't have a fever."

Even if a person is infected, only direct contact with their bodily fluids -- mucus, semen, saliva, vomit, stool or blood -- after they begin to show symptoms carries any risk of contagion.

But fear over the disease has led to extreme precautions.

Faced with a panicked wife, Johannes Dieterich, the South Africa correspondent for Swiss daily Tages-Anzeiger, said that he slept in the guest room on his return and decided not to touch anyone for three weeks until the incubation period was over.

The BBC's Fiona Bruce, quoted by The Telegraph, said make-up artists were scared of taking care of guests coming from Ebola-hit countries.

Media organisations are divided over the idea of a systematic quarantine during the incubation period for reporters returning from the field.

The BBC and AFP allow journalists to come straight back to work.

"Our journalists respect our very strict guidelines on location. They are not a risk to their colleagues because they have no symptoms of the disease. We don't want to give in to hysteria," said Michele Leridon, AFP's news director.

However AP asks its journalists to stay at home for three weeks to "avoid any risk", said Daniszewski.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Americans 'can't give in to hysteria or fear' over Ebola: Obama

WASHINGTON - With three cases of Ebola diagnosed in the United States but more than 100 people being monitored in case they contract the disease, President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday not to give in to "hysteria" about the spread of the virus.

As though to illustrate his point, a Dallas bus and train station was closed on Saturday afternoon over concern about a woman who fell ill. The woman was first reported to be on the checklist for possible Ebola exposure, but then turned out not to be on any such list.

Obama made plain he is not currently planning to give in to demands from some lawmakers for a ban on travelers from the worst-hit countries.

"We can't just cut ourselves off from West Africa," Obama said in his weekly radio address. "Trying to seal off an entire region of the world - if that were even possible - could actually make the situation worse," he said.

The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed more than 4,500 people, most of them in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Obama, whose approval rating is already low, has been criticized over his administration's handling of Ebola. He held a flurry of meetings on the issue in the past week and on Friday appointed Ron Klain, a lawyer with long Washington experience, to oversee the effort to contain the disease.

Republicans questioned why he did not pick a medical expert.

"I hope he (Klain) is successful in this. I think it's a step in the right direction, but I just question picking someone without any background in public health," Republican Representative Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CNN on Saturday.

The Obama administration is not alone in facing criticism. The World Health Organization has been faulted for failing to do enough to halt the spread since the outbreak was detected in March.

The agency promised it would publish a full review of its handling of the crisis once the outbreak was under control, in response to a leaked document that appeared to acknowledge that it had failed to do enough.

There is no cure or approved vaccine yet for Ebola but pharmaceutical companies have been working on experimental drugs. The virus is transmitted through an infected person's bodily fluids and it is not airborne.

Canada said on Saturday it would ship 800 vials of its experimental Ebola vaccine, undergoing clinical trials, to the WHO in Geneva, starting on Monday. Iowa-based NewLink Genetics Corp holds the commercial license for the Canadian vaccine.

Britain's biggest drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline said on Saturday that work to develop a vaccine was moving at an "unprecedented rate" and the next phase - if successful - involving vaccinating frontline healthcare workers, would begin early 2015.

RASH OF SCARES

Obama sought to put the extent of the disease in the United States in perspective. "What we're seeing now is not an 'outbreak' or an 'epidemic' of Ebola in America," he said. "This is a serious disease, but we can't give in to hysteria or fear."

A rash of Ebola scares has hit the country since late September when a Liberian visitor to Dallas, Texas, became the first person to be diagnosed in the United States. Americans' faith in the medical system and in authorities' ability to prevent the disease from spreading was jolted by a series of mis-steps when the Liberian was initially not diagnosed by a Dallas hospital.

The man, Thomas Eric Duncan, was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital days later and diagnosed with Ebola. Two nurses who were part of the team caring for Duncan, who died on Oct. 8, contracted Ebola. Amber Vinson is being cared for at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital, while Nina Pham is being treated at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) just outside Washington.

A chain of people who had contact with either Duncan or the sick nurses are being monitored in case they develop the disease, which has an incubation period of up to 21 days.

The Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement on its website dated Saturday that it was working to monitor people who had contact with the Ebola patients, specimens, or potentially contaminated surfaces. A total of 145 "contacts and possible contacts" were being monitored for symptoms, while 14 people had completed surveillance, it said.

Some 800 passengers who took the same planes as Vinson on a trip she made to Ohio before being diagnosed, and passengers on subsequent flights using the same planes, have been contacted by the airline, Frontier Airlines, the carrier said on Saturday.

The airline said in a letter to employees that it had been informed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the Dallas nurse may have been in a more advanced stage of the illness than previously thought, when she traveled back to Dallas from Cleveland on Oct. 13.

The White House said late on Friday it would send senior personnel to Dallas to help federal, state and local officials there trying to identify and monitor people who came in contact with the three people who fell sick with Ebola.

Those being monitored include a lab worker at the Dallas hospital, who is not ill but is in isolation at sea: in her cabin on the Carnival Magic cruise ship. The lab worker did not have contact with Duncan, but may have come in contact with test samples.

Her presence on the ship caused Mexican authorities to deny docking at the Mexican port of Cozumel on Friday. The Carnival Magic, owned by Carnival Corp unit Carnival Cruise Lines, was en route back to Galveston on Sunday.

At Dallas' White Rock station, a woman was taken to the hospital for evaluation on Saturday, the city's transit authority said. Local media reported the station was closed as she was being monitored for possible Ebola exposure, but the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system said she was not on a watchlist.

Obama has stressed that containing Ebola should include help for the worst-hit countries and Washington plans to deploy up to 4,000 military personnel to the region by late October. Obama is preparing to ask for additional funds from Congress to beat Ebola, and could make the request next week, according to a Bloomberg report.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Saturday European Union leaders should raise the amount of money pledged to fight Ebola to 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and mobilize at least 2,000 workers to head to West Africa.

He made the appeal in a letter to the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy. A spokeswoman at Cameron's office said the EU commission and 28 member states had pledged a total of 500 million euros so far to fight Ebola.

Combatting the disease was also among the subjects of talks being held on Friday and Saturday between American and Chinese top diplomats.

(Additional reporting by Mohammad Zargham and Eric Beech in Washington, Frank McGurty in New York, Anna Driver in Dallas, Tom Miles in Geneva, and Costas Pitas in London; Writing by Frances Kerry and Megan Davies; Editing by David Clarke and Grant McCool)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama names Ebola 'czar', bolsters Texas response

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama appointed a former White House adviser as Ebola "czar" on Friday and named officials to bolster the response to the disease in Texas, the center of U.S. Ebola cases, as the death toll in three West African nations topped 4,500.

The White House appointments came as Obama faced criticism from some lawmakers over his administration's efforts to contain the hemorrhagic virus and as widening Ebola fears kept a U.S. cruise ship out of a Mexican port.

Obama appointed Ron Klain, a lawyer who had served as chief of staff to Vice Presidents Joe Biden and Al Gore, to oversee the U.S. Ebola response.

The White House also said it would send senior personnel to Dallas to help federal, state and local officials there trying to identify and monitor people who came in contact with three people who caught the disease.

The three include Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the disease in the United States, and two nurses who were on the team of health workers caring for Duncan until his death last week.

Obama met with health and national security aides and "underscored that the domestic response to Ebola cases must be seamless at all levels," the White House said in a statement.

It was the third consecutive day that Obama had convened officials to discuss what has become a major political issue for his Democratic administration ahead of mid-term elections next month.

The officials will include a Federal Emergency Management Agency coordinator, Kevin Hannes, and a White House liaison, Adrian Saenz, a presidential aide. Governor Rick Perry has named Texas emergency management chief W. Nim Kidd to coordinate the state Ebola effort, the White House said.

CRUISE SHIP QUARANTINE

Authorities said a Texas health worker, who was not ill but may have had contact with specimens from the patient, was quarantined on a cruise ship that departed on Sunday from Galveston, Texas.

The Carnival Magic, operated by Carnival Corp unit Carnival Cruise Lines, skipped a planned stop in Cozumel, Mexico, because of delays getting permission to dock from Mexican authorities, the cruise line said. The ship was scheduled to return to Galveston on Sunday.

A Mexican port authority official said the ship was denied clearance to avoid any possible risk from Ebola.

The countries worst hit by Ebola have been Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the disease has killed 4,546 since the outbreak started in March, an updated tally from the World Health Organization shows.

That marked a sharp increase from late July, when fewer than 730 people had died from the disease in West Africa. The virus is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person.

The toll on the worst-hit countries has gone beyond the illness, because of disruptions to farming and marketing. The World Food Program said food prices in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone had risen an average of 24 percent, forcing some families to cut back to one meal a day.

U.S. ANXIETY

The White House appointments and the Mexican cruise ship incident highlighted anxiety over the threat from Ebola, even though the three Dallas cases are the only ones diagnosed in the United States.

Klain replaces U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Thomas Frieden as the new public face of the government's response to Ebola. The CDC chief was strongly criticized for his handling of the situation in Dallas.

Republicans were quick to criticize Klain, who is seen as a political operative.

"Leave it to President Obama to put a liberal political activist in charge of the administration's Ebola response," Representative John Fleming, a Louisiana medical doctor, said in a statement.

Frieden told a congressional hearing this week that some protective equipment used by health care workers exposed some parts of the skin.

Given those concerns and the fact that two nurses got Ebola at the hospital, the CDC "very soon" will put out new guidelines on putting on and taking off protective gowns, masks, gloves and other gear, CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said.

SCARE REACHES THE PENTAGON
Illustrating the public worry in the United States, the Pentagon confirmed an Ebola scare when a woman who recently traveled to Africa vomited after getting off a bus headed to a Marine Corps ceremony.

In a statement, Virginia health officials said Ebola had been ruled out as the cause of the woman's illness.

Klain was appointed the day after U.S. lawmakers, in a congressional hearing, criticized the administration's handling of Ebola. Some called for a ban on travel from West Africa, as other politicians have in recent weeks.

The White House said on Friday that Obama was willing to "keep an open mind" about a travel ban, but it was not being considered.

In a sign the disease can be beaten, the World Health Organization said the West African country of Senegal was now Ebola-free, although still vulnerable.

The CDC has said it is expanding its search for people who may have been exposed to Amber Vinson, one of the nurses who treated Duncan, to include passengers on a flight she made to Cleveland, Ohio, in addition to those on her Monday return trip to Texas. Vinson went to Ohio over the weekend on Frontier Airlines while running a slight fever.

One of the 48 people who had the earliest contact or possible contact with Duncan has come out of quarantine after showing no symptoms for 21 days of monitoring, a Dallas County official said. The man was the first to get the all-clear.

There is no cure for Ebola. But U.S. health officials have asked three advanced biology laboratories to submit plans for producing the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp, when supplies ran out after it was given to medical workers who contracted the disease in West Africa.

Australian biotech firm CSL Ltd said it was working on a plasma product to treat Ebola following a request from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, part of a growing commercial response to the outbreak.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

World fears mount that Ebola battle being lost

GENEVA - The World Bank warned Friday the fight to stop Ebola was being lost, as the UN pleaded for more money to combat the escalating epidemic and global travel fears mounted.

As the death toll from the world's worst-ever outbreak of the virus shot past 4,500, a glimmer of hope came from Senegal, which was declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization.

The United States, meanwhile, named an "Ebola czar" to coordinate its response, after criticism of how a Texas hospital handled a Liberian victim, with two nurses who treated him now infected.

And a researcher at British pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline said a vaccine may not be ready for commercial use until late 2016.

"We are losing the battle," World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim warned, blaming a lack of international solidarity in efforts to stem the epidemic.

"Certain countries are only worried about their own borders," he told reporters in Paris.

As of October 14, 4,555 people have died from Ebola out of a total of 9,216 cases registered in seven countries, the WHO says.

Most of the dead are in three West African nations at the centre of the outbreak: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Experts warn that the infection rate could hit 10,000 a week by early December.

- 'Very serious problem' -

The United Nations has warned that it has received less than 40 percent of the nearly $1 billion it asked for to fight Ebola.

So far, just $377 million has come in, and another $217 million has been pledged, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

"But that's not money in the bank," OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

And a UN trust fund for Ebola has just $100,000, despite $20 million in pledges -- a situation UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said had left the world body with a "very serious problem."

"We need to turn pledges into action. We need more doctors, nurses, equipment, treatment centres and medical evacuation capacities," he said.

- Travel fears -

Despite enhanced health checks at airports in several countries, fears mounted, and Air France flight attendants called for an end to flights to Guinea, one of the three hardest-hit nations in West Africa.

The daily Air France Paris-Conakry flight "carries a serious risk of spreading the epidemic, particularly in our country," read a statement from the two unions of flight crew and commercial staff.

France will on Saturday start carrying out health checks on travellers arriving from Guinea. The United States, Britain and Canada have already launched screenings at airports for passengers from Ebola-hit zones. The EU is reviewing the matter.

In the United States, health authorities were still facing questions about how the disease -- which kills around 70 percent of those it infects in West Africa -- had spread at a Texas hospital.

Other questions surfaced about the safety protocols in place for those who came in contact either with a Liberian man who died of Ebola at the hospital, or the two infected nurses who treated him.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expanded the number of airline passengers it wants to interview after the second nurse, Amber Vinson, flew from Dallas to Cleveland and back before being diagnosed.

And another Texas health care worker who may have come in contact with samples from the Liberian Ebola victim has voluntarily quarantined herself aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean.

Although that woman is considered at "very low risk" of infection, according to Carnival Cruise Lines, the ship was apparently denied entry at ports in Belize and Mexico, and was headed back to the US.

The US State Department deputy spokeswoman, Marie Harf, told reporters at a briefing that the ship, now en route to Galveston, Texas, is due to dock on Sunday.

Symptoms of Ebola include fever, headache, diarrhoea, vomiting and in some cases bleeding.

Even if a person is infected, the virus can only be passed on once symptoms appear and only through direct contact with their bodily fluids, such as mucus, semen, saliva, vomit, stool or blood.

- Influx of doctors -

The WHO is ramping up its efforts to help 15 African countries defend themselves against Ebola -- notably with measures to better protect health workers, who are paying a heavy price, with 236 deaths out of 427 cases across the affected countries.

The East African Community bloc comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania announced it was sending more than 600 health workers to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

And US Secretary of State John Kerry offered a rare praise to Cuba, which has sent 165 health care workers and plans to send 300 more to battle the outbreak.

A string of health workers have been evacuated back to Europe from Africa with Ebola, but the only confirmed case of transmission on the continent so far is a Spanish nurse in Madrid.

- Glimmers of hope -

Health authorities held up Senegal as a shining example of success in an otherwise dire global outlook on Ebola.

"Senegal's response is a good example of what to do when faced with an imported case of Ebola," the WHO said, lauding the government for having "reacted quickly to stop the disease from spreading".

Nigeria, where 20 people were infected and eight died, is expected to be declared Ebola-free on Monday. But neither is out of danger.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Asian, European leaders tackle sea disputes, Ebola

MILAN - Asian and European leaders started a biennial summit meeting Thursday in Milan, with how to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus topping the agenda.

The leaders will state that the spread of the Ebola virus is a global threat at the end of the two-day summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting, or ASEM, according to a final draft of the chair's statement.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the meeting his government will consider providing additional assistance for preventing the spread of the deadly virus.

Japan pledged $40 million for West Africa at the U.N. General Assembly in September and is considering sending medical staff to the region and providing an anti-influenza drug developed by a Japanese company as a possible Ebola treatment.

Other key issues at the summit include the Ukraine crisis, as well as the territorial disputes between China and Japan in the East China Sea, and between China and Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea.

The meeting is being attended by the leaders of around 50 countries and institutions, including the heads of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as Abe, South Korean President Park Geun Hye and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. Russian President Vladimir Putin is also expected to attend.

Russia joined ASEM in 2010 and it is the first time that Putin will take part in the meeting.

On the sidelines of the summit, Abe is looking for an opportunity to make unofficial contact with Putin.

Japan is seeking to strike a balance between maintaining solidarity with the West over Russia's actions in Ukraine and resolving bilateral issues with Moscow, most notably a long-standing dispute over the sovereignty of four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido.

Putin and Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine which is not part of ASEM, are due to hold talks on Friday to discuss a diplomatic solution to the situation in eastern Ukraine with the cooperation of the leaders of Germany and France.

ASEM was launched in 1996 as a forum for dialogue and cooperation between Asia and Europe.

After the ASEM summit, Abe will attend the first summit meeting between Japan and the Nordic-Baltic Eight group for regional cooperation, on Friday. The NB-8 comprises Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

UN health worker dies of Ebola in Germany

BERLIN - A UN health worker has died of Ebola in Germany as the international community prepared to hold talks on the crisis Tuesday.

The death of the 56-year-old Sudanese man, who arrived in Germany from Liberia last week for treatment, highlighted the global struggle against what officials have termed the worst health crisis of modern times.

The United Nations was due to hold talks on the spread of the hemorrhagic virus, a day after US President Barack Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for the international anti-Ebola drive to be stepped up.

The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 4,000 people this year, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to brand it "the most severe acute public health emergency in modern times".

At least two cases of contamination have been reported beyond west Africa, in the US and Europe.

The German clinic in the eastern city of Leipzig, one of three in the country to have treated Ebola patients, said the man had died during the night "despite intensive medical care and the best efforts by medical staff".

A WHO spokesman in Geneva said he was a UN volunteer.

German health officials said last Thursday he was Sudanese.

The UN announced the following day that it had quarantined 41 personnel from its Liberia mission, including 20 soldiers.

Germany has also treated two other Ebola patients infected in Sierra Leone -- a Senegalese expert who was treated in Hamburg and released on October 4, and a Ugandan doctor now being treated in Frankfurt.

'No-one taking care of us'

After measures were introduced in the US and Canada, Britain began screening for Ebola at Heathrow Airport, the first of a number of London airports and Eurostar rail hubs where travellers from the worst-hit countries of west Africa will be questioned and have their temperature tested.

Health workers in Liberia meanwhile pressed on with a strike demanding danger money to treat Ebola patients.

Obama and Ban called Tuesday for "more robust commitments and rapid delivery of assistance by the international community", the White House said in a statement.

Obama and French President Francois Hollande also issued a joint call for "stepped-up" global efforts to combat the disease.

In the face of panic that was "spreading faster than the virus", the WHO issued a stark warning over the crisis.

"I have never seen a health event threaten the very survival of societies and governments in already very poor countries," said WHO chief Margaret Chan in a statement delivered on her behalf at a conference in Manila.

Ninety-five Liberian health workers have died so far in the epidemic, and their surviving colleagues want pay commensurate to the acute risk of dealing with Ebola, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and for which there is no vaccine or widely available treatment.

In the Liberian capital Monrovia, a hospital patient quoted on local radio described scenes of desolation, with the sick deserted by striking staffers.

"We are at the Ebola Treatment Unit and no-one is taking care of us," the unnamed man said.

"Last night several patients died. Those who can walk are trying to escape by climbing over the fence."

Journalists have been banned from Liberia's Ebola clinics, making the situation there difficult to ascertain.

US must 'rethink' approach

Both cases of contamination reported so far outside Africa -- in Spain last week and now in the United States -- have involved health workers who fell ill despite stringent safety protocols surrounding Ebola.

US health authorities said the United States must "rethink" its approach to Ebola after a female nurse in Texas contracted the virus, in the first case of contamination on US soil.

Health authorities said the woman -- identified by local media as 26-year-old Nina Pham -- tested positive after caring for a Liberian Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on Wednesday.

The nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas is in isolation and said to be in a stable condition.

Spanish Health Minister Ana Mato was due to appear before parliament to face questions over the infection of the nurse, Teresa Romero, who caught the Ebola virus in a Madrid hospital after caring for two missionaries with Ebola.

She remains in a "very serious condition", according to a crisis cell set up after the case.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Ebola victim dies in US hospital

DALLAS - The first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, died on Wednesday morning at a Dallas hospital, a hospital spokesman said.

"It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51 am," hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said in an emailed statement.

Duncan became ill after arriving in the Texas city from Liberia on Sept. 20 to visit family, heightening concerns the world's worst Ebola outbreak on record could spread outside of the three worst-hit West African countries. About 48 people with whom Duncan had been in contact are being monitored.

Ebola has killed more than 3,400 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea since the outbreak began in March, nearly half of all those infected, according to the World Health Organization. While several American patients have been flown to the United States from West Africa for treatment, Duncan was the first person to start showing symptoms of the disease on U.S. soil.

A Spanish nurse who treated a priest who worked in the region is also infected.

Duncan was able to fly to the United States from Liberia's capital Monrovia, which is at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak, because he did not have a fever when screened at the airport and filled out a questionnaire saying he had not been in contact with anyone infected with Ebola.

Liberian officials have since said that he lied on the questionnaire and had been in contact with a pregnant woman who later died of the disease. Ebola can take as long as three weeks before its victims show symptoms, at which point the disease becomes contagious. Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.

Duncan began feeling ill shortly after his arrival in Texas. He went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas on Sept. 25, but was initially sent home with antibiotics. His condition worsened, he returned Sept. 28 by ambulance and was diagnosed with the disease.

"The past week has been an enormous test of our health system, but for one family it has been far more personal. Today they lost a dear member of their family. They have our sincere condolences, and we are keeping them in our thoughts," David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement.

Officials have said as many as 48 people may have been exposed to the disease by Duncan, and that the 10 people at highest risk are cooperating with public health authorities by staying in quarantine voluntarily. The other 38 people who may have been exposed are being checked routinely for fever.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said he was confident the disease would not spread widely within the United States. U.S. officials are also expanding their response in West Africa.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com