Tag Archives: ebola

International

Killer disease spreads in Africa? Cases in DR Congo! 90% kill rate!

30 May 2013 (04:03 UTC-07 Tango)/20 Rajab 1434/09 Khordad 1391/21 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711

Just a few days after what sounds like a new hemorrhagic virus reportedly killed more than 100 children in Benin, UN health officials have revealed that the deadly Ebola virus is alive and well in Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least six people have been infected in the first two weeks of May.  DR Congo has been the site of numerous Ebola outbreaks since 1976.

Benin is hundreds and hundreds of miles from DR Congo, so maybe they are dealing with a different type of hemorrhagic virus?  In January 2013 it was reported that fruit bats in parts of Asia are now infected with Ebola.  Also, in February there were reports that Chinese officials accused U.S. officials of spreading Ebola with GMOed mosquitoes, in the name of fighting Dengue Fever.

Ebola has a 80-90% kill rate (a level 4 bio-hazard RNA virus).  No treatment.  People have been known to go as many as 21 days after infection before symptoms appear.  After several decades of study, researchers still aren’t sure where Ebola comes from or how humans get infected.

 

 

International

Killer disease out of Africa, 100 children dead in four weeks!

28 May 2013 (12:52 UTC-07 Tango)/18 Rajab 1434/07 Khordad 1391/19 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711

In Benin, on the continent of Africa, local TV reports say more than 100 people, mostly children, have died from a strange and violent disease in the past four weeks.

To make things worse, the only health official in the area of Dekin is a mid-wife who runs the area’s only health center.  Reports say the victims are vomiting blood and making a strange “snoring” like sound.

According to French news media reports, the symptoms are “Fever, vomiting, and simultaneous bleeding from the nostrils, followed by strange breathing sounds, and finally the victims’ heart stops.”

French reports also say the disease kills children within 24 hours of infection.  Apparently the adults have more resistance, and those adults infected are reported to be “languishing” in the local health clinic.  There are no certified nurses or doctors at the clinic.

Many of those infected do not have access to clean drinking water and have been drinking water from the same watering holes used by wild animals.

A commenter on ProMED believes this is a new hemorrhagic fever, similar to the Marburg or Ebola viruses.

Benin is a country sandwiched between Togo and Nigeria.

(here’s something scary; last year Canadian researchers concluded that Ebola could become airborne)