A 13-year-old girl has said she was made to wear a bomb belt and taken to a market in Nigeria by Boko Haram extremists but refused to detonate the device.
Zahara'u Adam said her father gave her to the Islamist group, but she told her captors she did not want to be a suicide bomber.
She allowed them to strap the bomb on her because they threatened to bury her alive.
She was taken to a market in Kano, Nigeria's second largest city in the north, with two other girls, who detonated the bombs.
Four people were killed in the explosion on 10 December.
Zahara'u said she was too scared to detonate the bomb when she saw the aftermath of what her counterparts had done.
Injured by the blasts, the girl found her way to a hospital where police arrested her while she was receiving treatment.
She was presented to journalists by police and instructed to recount how the militants allegedly forced her to take part in the attack - a move police hope will boost public awareness of the group's tactics.
"My father took us to the bush which was surrounded by gunmen, I was asked if I want to go to heaven, when I answered they said I have to go for a suicide mission and if I attempt to run, they will kill me," she recounted at a press conference.
"So from there we were sent to Kano. When we came to Kano market, one of us said we should go separately, but I refused.
"After my friend detonated her own I was wounded."
There was no way to independently verify her story and she had no lawyer present.
Boko Haram has been fighting for five years to establish an Islamist state in Nigeria's northeast.
The group has increasingly used female suicide bombers.
Children attend a church service for eight children who were killed in the Cairns suburb of Manoora, December 21, 2014. Eight children have been killed in the northern Australian city of Cairns, police said on Friday, in what several media outlets reported was a mass stabbing.
SYDNEY - The house where an Australian mother allegedly killed eight children, most of them her own, will likely be demolished in keeping with indigenous culture to make way for a memorial, a government official said on Monday.
The fate of the house in the tropical northern city of Cairns was being discussed while a judge denied a request to transfer the murder case against 37-year-old Raina Mersane Ina Thaiday to Queensland state's Mental Health Court.
Thaiday is the mother of the four boys and three of the girls who were slain. The eighth child was her niece.
The Queensland government agreed to the demolition of the home because of the horrific nature of the killings and in keeping with indigenous cultural beliefs, Queensland MP Gavin King said.
"After extensive consultation we will remove the house behind me," King said as he spoke to the media in a park where the dead children used to play.
King said the government would liaise with the community on what form a memorial would take.
Thaiday was charged on Sunday with eight counts of murder over the deaths of the children, aged between two and 14 years.
Magistrate Alan Comans declined a request from Thaiday's lawyer, Steven MacFarlane, to have the case moved to the Mental Health Court. Comans said during a brief hearing at the Cairns Magistrates Court on Monday it was too soon for such a request.
No plea was entered at the hearing on behalf of Thaiday, who remains under police guard in hospital. She is being treated for stab wounds.
MacFarlane said he was not sure how long his client would remain in hospital, where she is also awaiting psychiatric assessment.
Police have asked that media abide by the cultural protocols of the indigenous Torres Strait Islander community, to which the family belongs, and withhold the names and photos of the dead children.
Torres Strait Islanders, a group of indigenous Australians viewed as distinct from the broader Aboriginal community, believe the spirit of a dead person must be sent along its journey or it might stay and disturb remaining family members.
The spirit is helped on this journey by a refusal to speak the deceased's name for a long period.
Imitation guns shouldn't be sold in a nation where you’re likely to get shot for waving them about; they’re surely not even needed when you can buy the real thing in Walmart.
Eyewitness reports the gun was “probably a fake” did not get passed on to the cop, and obviously his parents did not explain to Tamir that armed policemen are a frequent cause of death for black males in your country.
Tragic: Tamir Rice was shot twice
On top of all this, a cop should not look at a 12-year-old boy mucking around in a park and see an armed black male who needs to have two slugs put in his chest.
Despite the fact all these things are illogical, bad, and deathly stupid your nation did them anyway.
You sold a fake gun that looks just like a real one, gave it to a boy who didn’t know not to wave it around, didn’t tell the cop it was fake and let the cop think shooting a child was the right solution to all of it.
And let’s be honest – that’s just this week’s atrocity.
In September two of your citizens were insane enough to take their nine-year-old daughter to play with an Uzi.
This decision was followed, not by straitjackets or parenting classes, but by the instructor having his head blown off.
This year alone you’ve had 40 shooting incidents in schools. They include Jaylen Fryberg killing four people and then himself at Marysville Pilchuck High School last month, and Elliot Rodger slaughtering seven and wounding 13 at Isla Vista in May.
It’s not even a modern phenomenon – you’ve been shooting teachers and children since the 1850s.
But what’s really sickening is it’s allowed in the name of freedom.
Not the freedom of children to be educated without fear, or the freedom of parents to think their children are safe at school.
Retribution: Elliot Rodger slaughtered seven and wounded 13
No, the freedom of political cavepeople and religious fundamentalists to shoot whatever they like, when they like, which means those children become collateral damage.
That alone – that mind-boggling bit of bent logic uttered by so many of your citizens, promoted by your politicians and backed by so much cash that all your presidents are afraid to call it a lie – would be enough reason for the rest of the world to justify invasion.
But there’s so much else that’s gone wrong too.
You crow about winning the Cold War, when the economy run by Communists in China has overtaken yours.
You landed man on the moon, and then stopped bothering with it.
You shout about civil rights and Rosa Parkes, about having a black president, when you’re arguably one of the most racist nations in the world.
Black mothers are twice as likely as white ones to have their child die in its first month in the US.
Getty
Iconic moment: Police booking photo of Rosa Parkes
Unemployment is at 8% among black graduates and 4.5% among whites.
Black people account for 10% of drug use but 32% of drug arrests
And of all the Oscars handed out for best acting since 1929, white stars got 96% and 4% went to black stars.
A white child with an imitation gun in a park might not have been shot.
You are the richest nation on Earth yet have some of the worst health outcomes of the developed world.
You take pride in having amazing teeth yet 89% of your diet is fat and carbohydrates and you have the same number of obese citizens as the populations of Australia and Canada combined.
You make a lot of money out of children the world over – theme parks, cartoons, movies, franchises, that damned Frozen song – yet find new and interesting ways to slaughter them every day.
Well, you’ve had 237 years. You’ve had freedom, and you’ve used it to justify killing, racism and greed.
If ever a nation needed to feel the civilising effects of colonisation it’s you, America.
I propose that for the next 100 years United Nations peacekeepers take over your country.
Disney
Let it go: Frozen's Elsa
They will be tasked with introducing multi-party politics, humility, and the correct spelling of the word “aluminium”.
* Your military will be dismantled and retrained so that they know to shoot the enemy and not their allies
* Your police forces will be dismissed and new recruitment standards brought in so that cops all need to demonstrate an IQ of more than 72 and the ability to ask themselves if children in parks need to be shot dead
* All imitation weapons will by law need to be bright pink
* All real weapons will be confined to those who need them for work or food and require a court-approved licence
* The correct method of brewing tea will be taught in every school
* White people and black people will switch houses for two weeks every year
* Cheese will be explained to you, very firmly
* Weekly messages will play on TV and radio stating that someone else’s religion, or lack of it, is none of your business
* You will not be able to buy pancakes unless you can produce evidence of walking 10,000 steps a day
* Your beer will be corrected
After a century and a few generations there’s every chance you could be trusted to run your own country again, with a little more exercise, and a little less fat, racism, stupidity and slaughter.
No country is perfect and Britain certainly isn’t. But then we don’t claim it quite so often as you do, nor in the face of such overwhelming evidence that it’s not true.
Freedom isn’t free - and the price you pay for it is deciding where freedom ends and common sense begins.
I hope you figure it out before too many more children die.
Health officials on Tuesday announced the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States — a man isolated in intensive care at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Five things to know about the case:
WHEN AND HOW IT HAPPENED
Health officials say they don't know how the man was infected but he flew from the West African country of Liberia, where the outbreak is ongoing, on Sept. 19 and arrived to visit relatives in the U.S. a day later. His symptoms started around last Wednesday, he sought medical care Friday but was not admitted to the hospital until Sunday.
RISK TO FELLOW TRAVELERS
"Ebola doesn't spread till someone gets sick, and he didn't get sick for four days" after getting off the plane, so officials are not seeking out fellow passengers for signs of Ebola, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus does not spread through the air — only through close contact with bodily fluids from a sick person, he stressed.
RISK TO PEOPLE IN DALLAS
Several family members and maybe a few community people are being monitored for possible risk — "handful is the right characterization" for how many, Frieden said.
HOW LONG RISK LASTS
People will be watched for fever or other possible signs for 21 days.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU'RE AT RISK
Contact the CDC, Frieden said. Call 800-CDC-INFO. State and local health officials in Texas also are working to trace any possible contacts.
Health officials on Tuesday announced the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States — a man isolated in intensive care at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Five things to know about the case:
WHEN AND HOW IT HAPPENED
Health officials say they don't know how the man was infected but he flew from the West African country of Liberia, where the outbreak is ongoing, on Sept. 19 and arrived to visit relatives in the U.S. a day later. His symptoms started around last Wednesday, he sought medical care Friday but was not admitted to the hospital until Sunday.
RISK TO FELLOW TRAVELERS
"Ebola doesn't spread till someone gets sick, and he didn't get sick for four days" after getting off the plane, so officials are not seeking out fellow passengers for signs of Ebola, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus does not spread through the air — only through close contact with bodily fluids from a sick person, he stressed.
RISK TO PEOPLE IN DALLAS
Several family members and maybe a few community people are being monitored for possible risk — "handful is the right characterization" for how many, Frieden said.
HOW LONG RISK LASTS
People will be watched for fever or other possible signs for 21 days.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU'RE AT RISK
Contact the CDC, Frieden said. Call 800-CDC-INFO. State and local health officials in Texas also are working to trace any possible contacts.
Health officials on Tuesday announced the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States — a man isolated in intensive care at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Five things to know about the case:
WHEN AND HOW IT HAPPENED
Health officials say they don't know how the man was infected but he flew from the West African country of Liberia, where the outbreak is ongoing, on Sept. 19 and arrived to visit relatives in the U.S. a day later. His symptoms started around last Wednesday, he sought medical care Friday but was not admitted to the hospital until Sunday.
RISK TO FELLOW TRAVELERS
"Ebola doesn't spread till someone gets sick, and he didn't get sick for four days" after getting off the plane, so officials are not seeking out fellow passengers for signs of Ebola, said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus does not spread through the air — only through close contact with bodily fluids from a sick person, he stressed.
RISK TO PEOPLE IN DALLAS
Several family members and maybe a few community people are being monitored for possible risk — "handful is the right characterization" for how many, Frieden said.
HOW LONG RISK LASTS
People will be watched for fever or other possible signs for 21 days.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU'RE AT RISK
Contact the CDC, Frieden said. Call 800-CDC-INFO. State and local health officials in Texas also are working to trace any possible contacts.
Nigeria said Tuesday that two more people had been released from isolation after recovering from
Ebola, leaving only one living patient with the disease in the country.
According to the health ministry, Nigeria has recorded 13 confirmed cases of Ebola, including the Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer, who brought the virus to the economic capital Lagos on July 20 and died five days later.
In all five people have died of the disease in Nigeria.
Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu announced that an additional two patients had been discharged, bringing the number of those released to seven.
"Two of the treated patients, a male doctor and a female nurse were discharged yesterday evening, 25th August, 2014, having satisfied the criteria for discharge," he told reporters in Abuja.
The only patient in the country who currently has Ebola is the wife of a doctor who treated Sawyer, he added.
"She is stable but still on treatment at the isolation ward in Lagos," Chukwu said.
Dozens of people who were at risk of exposure are being monitored and the caseload could rise.
The World Health Organization said last week that it was encouraged by the situation in Nigeria, given that all of the confirmed cases came from a single chain of transmission.
The deadliest-ever outbreak of the virus has killed more than 1,400 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the start of the year.
From the 1st of September 2014, bank customers will pay a token for cash withdrawals made on other banks’ Automated Teller Machines (ATM). The Central Bank of Nigeria announced this on Wednesday.
If you recall, customers used to pay N100 if they used other banks’ ATM, but it was cancelled by the CBN and Deposit Money Banks in December 2012.
The Central Bank agreed to re-introduce the charges because the cost of transaction was becoming too burdensome for the banks to continue to bear.
Director of Banking and Payment Systems Department of CBN Dipo Fatokun said the first three withdrawals on other banks’ ATM will be free but it would become effective on the fourth withdrawal in a month.
“The CBN hereby issues the following directives: The re-introduction of ‘Remote-on-us’ ATM cash withdrawal transaction fee, which will now be N65 per transaction, to cover the remuneration of switches, ATM monitoring and fit-notes processing by acquiring banks; the new charge shall apply as from the fourth ‘Remote-on-us’ withdrawal (in a month) by a cardholder, thereby making the first three ‘Remote on us’ transaction free for the cardholder, but to the paid by the issuing bank.
September 1, 2014 shall be the effective date for the implementation of the new charge; banks are expected to conduct adequate sensitisation to the customers on the introduction of the new fee; all ATM cash withdrawals on the ATM of issuing banks shall be at no cost to the cardholder.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released Frequently Asked Questions and answers on the Ebola Viral disease. Please read carefully below to be well informed about Ebola and how it can be transmitted.
Culled from WHO website.
"What is Ebola virus disease?
Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) is a severe, often fatal illness, with a death rate of up to 90%. The illness affects humans and nonhuman primates (monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees).
Ebola first appeared in 1976 in two simultaneous outbreaks, one in a village near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the other in a remote area of Sudan.
The origin of the virus is unknown but fruit bats (Pteropodidae) are considered the likely host of the Ebola virus, based on available evidence.
2. How do people become infected with the virus?
In the current outbreak in West Africa, the majority of cases in humans have occurred as a result of human-to-human transmission.
Infection occurs from direct contact through broken skin or mucous membranes with the blood, or other bodily fluids or secretions (stool, urine, saliva, semen) of infected people. Infection can also occur if broken skin or mucous membranes of a healthy person come into contact with environments that have become contaminated with an Ebola patient’s infectious fluids such as soiled clothing, bed linen, or used needles.
More than 100 health-care workers have been exposed to the virus while caring for Ebola patients. This happens because they may not have been wearing personal protection equipment or were not properly applying infection prevention and control measures when caring for the patients. Health-care providers at all levels of the health system – hospitals, clinics, and health posts – should be briefed on the nature of the disease and how it is transmitted, and strictly follow recommended infection control precautions.
WHO does not advise families or communities to care for individuals who may present with symptoms of Ebola virus disease in their homes. Rather, seek treatment in a hospital or treatment centre staffed by doctors and nurses qualified and equipped to treat Ebola virus victims. If you do choose to care for your loved one at home, WHO strongly advises you to notify your local public health authority and receive appropriate training, equipment (gloves and personal protective equipment [PPE]) for treatment, instructions on proper removal and disposal of PPE, and information on how to prevent further infection and transmission of the disease to yourself, other family members, or the community.
Additional transmission has occurred in communities during funerals and burial rituals. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person have played a role in the transmission of Ebola. Persons who have died of Ebola must be handled using strong protective clothing and gloves and must be buried immediately. WHO advises that the deceased be handled and buried by trained case management professionals, who are equipped to properly bury the dead.
People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. For this reason, infected patients receive close monitoring from medical professionals and receive laboratory tests to ensure the virus is no longer circulating in their systems before they return home. When the medical professionals determine it is okay for the patient to return home, they are no longer infectious and cannot infect anyone else in their communities. Men who have recovered from the illness can still spread the virus to their partner through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery. For this reason, it is important for men to avoid sexual intercourse for at least 7 weeks after recovery or to wear condoms if having sexual intercourse during 7 weeks after recovery.
Generally, a person must come into contact with an animal that has Ebola and it can then spread within the community from human to human.
3. Who is most at risk?
During an outbreak, those at higher risk of infection are:
health workers;
family members or others in close contact with infected people;
mourners who have direct contact with the bodies of the deceased as part of burial ceremonies.
More research is needed to understand if some groups, such as immuno-compromised people or those with other underlying health conditions, are more susceptible than others to contracting the virus.
Exposure to the virus can be controlled through the use of protective measures in clinics and hospitals, at community gatherings, or at home.
4. What are typical signs and symptoms of infection?
Sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat are typical signs and symptoms. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding.
Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts, and elevated liver enzymes.
The incubation period, or the time interval from infection to onset of symptoms, is from 2 to 21 days. The patients become contagious once they begin to show symptoms. They are not contagious during the incubation period.
Ebola virus disease infections can only be confirmed through laboratory testing.
5. When should someone seek medical care?
If a person has been in an area known to have Ebola virus disease or in contact with a person known or suspected to have Ebola and they begin to have symptoms, they should seek medical care immediately.
Any cases of persons who are suspected to have the disease should be reported to the nearest health unit without delay. Prompt medical care is essential to improving the rate of survival from the disease. It is also important to control spread of the disease and infection control procedures need to be started immediately.
6. What is the treatment?
Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. They are frequently dehydrated and need intravenous fluids or oral rehydration with solutions that contain electrolytes. There is currently no specific treatment to cure the disease.
Some patients will recover with the appropriate medical care.
To help control further spread of the virus, people that are suspected or confirmed to have the disease should be isolated from other patients and treated by health workers using strict infection control precautions.
7. What can I do? Can it be prevented? Is there a vaccine?
Currently, there is no licensed medicine or vaccine for Ebola virus disease, but several products are under development.
Ways to prevent infection and transmission
While initial cases of Ebola virus disease are contracted by handling infected animals or carcasses, secondary cases occur by direct contact with the bodily fluids of an ill person, either through unsafe case management or unsafe burial practices. During this outbreak, most of the disease has spread through human-to-human transmission. Several steps can be taken to help in preventing infection and limiting or stopping transmission.
Understand the nature of the disease, how it is transmitted, and how to prevent it from spreading further. (For additional information, please see the previous questions about Ebola virus disease in this FAQ.)
Listen to and follow directives issued by your country’s respective Ministry of Health.
If you suspect someone close to you or in your community of having Ebola virus disease, encourage and support them in seeking appropriate medical treatment in a health-care facility.
If you choose to care for an ill person in your home, notify public health officials of your intentions so they can train you and provide appropriate gloves and personal protective equipment (PPE) (gloves, impermeable gown, boots/closed shoes with overshoes, mask and eye protection for splashes), as well as instructions as a reminder on how to properly care for the patient, protect yourself and your family, and properly dispose of the PPE after use. N.B. WHO does not recommend home care and strongly advises individuals and their family members to seek professional care in a treatment centre.
When visiting patients in the hospital or caring for someone at home, hand washing with soap and water is recommended after touching a patient, being in contact with their bodily fluids, or touching his/her surroundings.
People who have died from Ebola should only be handled using appropriate protective equipment and should be buried immediately by public health professionals who are trained in safe burial procedures.
Additionally, individuals should reduce contact with high-risk infected animals (i.e. fruit bats, monkeys or apes) in the affected rainforest areas. If you suspect an animal is infected, do not handle it. Animal products (blood and meat) should be thoroughly cooked before eating.
8. What about health workers? How should they protect themselves while caring for patients?
Health workers treating patients with suspected or confirmed illness are at higher risk of infection than other groups. During an outbreak a number of important actions will reduce or stop the spread of the virus and protect health workers and others in the health-care setting. These actions are called “standard and other additional precautions” and are evidence-based recommendations known to prevent the spread of infections. The following questions and answers describe the precautions in detail.
Should patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus be separated from other patients?
Isolating patients with suspected or confirmed Ebola virus disease in single isolation rooms is recommended. Where isolation rooms are not available, it is important to assign designated areas, separate from other patients, for suspected and confirmed cases. In these designated areas, suspect and confirmed cases should also be separate. Access to these areas should be restricted, needed equipment should be dedicated strictly to suspected and confirmed EVD treatment areas, and clinical and non-clinical personnel should be exclusively assigned to isolation rooms and dedicated areas.
Are visitors allowed in areas where patients suspected or confirmed Ebola virus disease are admitted?
Stopping visitor access to patients infected with EVD is preferred. If this is not possible, access should be given only to those individuals who are necessary for the patient’s well-being and care, such as a child’s parent.
Is protective equipment required when caring for these patients?
In addition to standard health-care precautions, health-care workers should strictly apply recommended infection control measures to avoid exposure to infected blood, fluids, or contaminated environments or objects – such as a patient’s soiled linen or used needles.
All visitors and health-care workers should rigorously use what is known as personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE should include at least: gloves, an impermeable gown, boots/closed shoes with overshoes, a mask, and eye protection for splashes (goggles or face shields).
Is hand hygiene important?
Hand hygiene is essential and should be performed:
before donning gloves and wearing PPE on entry to the isolation room/area;
before any clean or aseptic procedures is being performed on a patient;
after any exposure risk or actual exposure with a patient’s blood or body fluids;
after touching (even potentially) contaminated surfaces, items, or equipment in the patient’s surroundings; and
after removal of PPE, upon leaving the isolation area.
It is important to note that neglecting to perform hand hygiene after removing PPE will reduce or negate any benefits of the PPE.
Either an alcohol-based hand rub or soap and running water can be used for hand hygiene, applying the correct technique recommended by WHO. It is important to always perform hand hygiene with soap and running water when hands are visibly soiled. Alcohol-based hand rubs should be made available at every point of care (at the entrance and within the isolation rooms and areas); running water, soap, and single use towels should also be always available.
What other precautions are necessary in the health-care setting?
Other key precautions are safe injection and phlebotomy procedures, including safe management of sharps, regular and rigorous environmental cleaning, decontamination of surfaces and equipment, and management of soiled linen and of waste.
In addition, it is important to ensure safe processing of laboratory samples from suspected or confirmed patients with EDV and safe handling of dead bodies or human remains for post-mortem examination and burial preparation. Any health-care workers and other professionals undertaking these tasks in connection with suspected or confirmed patients with Ebola virus disease should wear appropriate PPE and follow precautions and procedures recommended by WHO.
9. What about rumours that some foods can prevent or treat the infection?
WHO strongly recommends that people seek credible health advice about Ebola virus disease from their public health authority.
While there is no specific drug against Ebola, the best treatment is intensive supportive treatment provided in the hospital by health workers using strict infection control procedures. The infection can be controlled through recommended protective measures.
10. How does WHO protect health during outbreaks?
WHO provides technical advice to countries and communities to prepare for and respond to Ebola outbreaks.
WHO actions include:
disease surveillance and information-sharing across regions to watch for outbreaks;
technical assistance to investigate and contain health threats when they occur – such as on-site help to identify sick people and track disease patterns;
advice on prevention and treatment options;
deployments of experts and the distribution of health supplies (such as personal protection gear for health workers) when they are requested by the country;
communications to raise awareness of the nature of the disease and protective health measures to control transmission of the virus; and
activation of regional and global networks of experts to provide assistance, if requested, and mitigate potential international health effects and disruptions of travel and trade.
11. During an outbreak, numbers of cases reported by health officials can go up and down? Why?
During an Ebola outbreak, the affected country’s public health authority reports its disease case numbers and deaths. Figures can change daily. Case numbers reflect both suspected cases and laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola. Sometimes numbers of suspected and confirmed cases are reported together. Sometimes they are reported separately. Thus, numbers can shift between suspected and confirmed cases.
Analyzing case data trends, over time, and with additional information, is generally more helpful to assess the public health situation and determine the appropriate response.
12. Is it safe to travel during an outbreak? What is WHO’s travel advice?
During an outbreak, WHO reviews the public health situation regularly and recommends any travel or trade restrictions, if necessary, and may inform national authorities to implement it. WHO is currently reviewing its recommendations for travel and expects to issue advice in the coming days.
While travellers should always be vigilant with regard to their health and those around them, the risk of infection for travellers is very low since person-to-person transmission results from direct contact with the body fluids or secretions of an infected patient.
Is it safe to travel with persons who have Ebola?
As with any illness or disease, it is always possible that a person who has been exposed to Ebola virus may choose to travel. If the individual has not developed symptoms (see FAQ #4), they cannot transmit EVD to those around them. If the individual does have symptoms, they should seek immediate medical attention at the first sign they are feeling unwell. This may require either notifying the flight crew or ship crew or, upon arrival at a destination, seeking immediate medical attention. Travellers who show initial symptoms of EVD should be isolated to prevent further transmission. Although the risk to fellow travellers in such a situation is very low, contact tracing is recommended under these circumstances.
Is it safe to travel to West Africa on business or to visit family and friends?
The risk of a tourist or businessman/woman becoming infected with Ebola virus during a visit to the affected areas and developing disease after returning is extremely low, even if the visit included travel to the local areas from which primary cases have been reported. Transmission requires direct contact with blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected living or dead persons or animal, all of which are unlikely exposures for the average traveller. In any event, tourists are advised to avoid all such contacts.
If you are visiting family or friends in the affected areas, the risk is similarly low, unless you have direct physical contact with a person who is ill or who has died. If this is the case, it is important to notify public health authorities and engage in contact tracing. Contact tracing is used to confirm you have not been exposed to EVD and to prevent further spread of the disease through monitoring.
WHO’s general travel advice
Travelers should avoid all contact with infected patients.
Health workers traveling to affected areas should strictly follow WHO-recommended infection control guidance.
Anyone who has stayed in areas where cases were recently reported should be aware of the symptoms of infection and seek medical attention at the first sign of illness.
Clinicians caring for travelers returning from affected areas with compatible symptoms are advised to consider the possibility of Ebola virus disease."
Graphic explaining how the Ebola virus attacks the human body
Nigeria on Monday confirmed a new case of Ebola in the financial capital Lagos, bringing the total number of people in the country with the virus to 10.
Health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said the latest confirmed case was a female nurse who came into contact with a Liberian-American man, Patrick Sawyer, who died of Ebola in a Lagos hospital on July 25.
In addition to Sawyer, another nurse who had contact with him died last week, while seven other people have been confirmed to have the virus in the city, he added.
"The 10th case actually was one of the nurses who also had primary contact with the index case. When he (Sawyer) got ill, we then brought her into isolation," the minister told a news conference in Abuja.
"We just tested her over the weekend. So, that's what made it 10. So, between Friday and today we had one additional case. That brings it to 10 and the 10 includes the index case."
Chukwu said the nurse was currently undergoing treatment while her husband was under surveillance.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday there were 13 probable and suspect cases of Ebola, including two deaths, in Nigeria.
The minister did not comment on the discrepancy in the figures.
The WHO is discussing the possible use of an experimental treatment to try to stem the spread of the deadly virus, which has claimed nearly 1,000 lives in four West African countries this year.
Nigeria has announced a number of measures to curb the spread of Ebola, including the declaration of a national emergency in line with WHO advice to trigger disaster response procedures.
President Goodluck Jonathan has announced greater funding to stop the spread such as setting up additional isolation centres, border screenings and contact tracing.
People in Africa's most populous nation and leading economy have been told to avoid large gatherings.
The authorities in Lagos, which is sub-Saharan Africa's largest city, have however appealed for volunteers because of a shortage of medical personnel exacerbated by a month-long doctors' strike.
The health minister on Monday confirmed that public sector doctors were pressing on with their stoppage after divisions within the National Medical Association union (NMA) created confusion.
NMA boss Kayode Obembe on Thursday announced the suspension of the strike citing the need to help tackle the Ebola crisis.
But other key players in the union refused to follow his directive, saying the government had not met any of their demands. Obembe has reportedly resigned as the NMA president.
The health minister on Monday said he was "pleading" with the union to return to work.
The Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) meanwhile said it had activated all its volunteers to get across preventative measures to the public, particularly seeking early medical advice and treatment.
Secretary-general Bello Hamman Diram said 18 volunteers were assisting in areas such as contact tracing, health promotion, case management and public information schemes.
Some 300 other volunteers will be deployed to help the federal and Lagos State governments in providing protective equipment as well as educational and hygiene materials.
AUGUST 5, 1962:Nelson Mandela was locked up for 27 years after being arrested and charged with inciting workers’ strikes and leaving South Africa on this day in 1962.
The anti-apartheid activist, who had been on the run for a year since launching an armed sabotage campaign, was apprehended while driving near Howick, Natal.
He was charged with a relatively minor offence because police had not gained enough evidence since his March 1961 acquittal following the five-year Treason Trial.
But in July 1963 - nine months after being handed a five-year jail sentence – police found papers at a farmhouse that linked him to the destruction of infrastructure.
Mandela, who had been a lawyer before turning to politics, and nine comrades were charged with sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the government.
With the exception of James Kantor, who was freed before the trial, they all admitted sabotage but denied having agreed to initiate guerrilla war against the government.
They used the trial to highlight their cause and, knowing they faced the death penalty, Mandela delivered a powerful speech in which he stated: ‘I am prepared to die’. ‘During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people,’ he told the court during the Rivonia Trial, named after the location of the farmhouse.
‘I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.
‘I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.
‘It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, my Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.’
Of the nine remaining defendants, only Rusty Bernstein, a Jewish architect who drafted the Freedom Charter, was the only defendant to be acquitted.
But South Africa’s white-minority rulers were disappointed when, on June 12, 1964, Judge Quartus de Wet refused to sentence the remaining convicted men to death.
The eight activists, including mixed-race Walter Sisulu and Indian-descended Ahmed Kathrada, were instead all jailed for life.
Yet Mandela remained a focal point for opposition to apartheid, which means ‘separateness’ in Afrikaans and was the name given to a series of laws beginning in 1948 that formally codified racial segregation.
Under it, black South Africans were deprived of citizenship and barred from living in white areas or going to the same schools, hospitals or even beaches.
Mandela, who initially advocated Gandhi-style non-violent protest, co-founded the ANC’s armed wing after the 1960 Sharpeville massacre of 69 black protesters.
This incident also turned many whites against the system of repression and nine days later a rich Englishman attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd.
The aftermath of the shooting by David Pratt – and glimpse of life under apartheid during this era – are shown in a British Pathé newsreel.
And while Mandela languished in Robben Island prison, violence intensified again after the 1976 Soweto Riots when 176 black schoolchildren were shot dead.
By the 1980s, a full-scale insurgency had erupted and mounting unrest led to brutal crackdowns and a decade-long state of emergency.
In a bid to stop the bloodshed, President FW De Klerk released Mandela from jail on February 11, 1990 and began negotiations to end apartheid.
Four years later, the man who had been branded a dangerous terrorist was voted president in the country’s first free and multi-racial elections.
Yet, in keeping with the ideals he outlined in his Rivonia Trial speech, Mandela vowed to allow all racial groups live in harmony and pledged reconciliation.
‘We saw our country tear itself apart in terrible conflict,’ he said while standing beside De Klerk, with whom he shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize.
‘The time for healing of wounds has come... never, never again will this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another.’
And, urging forgiveness, he said in Afrikaans, the Dutch-related language of the majority of whites: ‘Wat is verby verby’ – ‘What is past is past’
Mandela, who became known by South Africans as the ‘father of the nation’, died aged 95 on December 5, 2013 in Johannesburg.
Three West Africa nations are struggling to control an outbreak of Ebola. The virus was first discovered nearly four decades ago in Congo in a village near the Ebola River. Since then there have been sporadic outbreaks.
Five things to know about Ebola and how it is spread:
1. WEST AFRICA OUTBREAK NOW LARGEST IN HISTORY. The current outbreak in the neighboring countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone has sickened more than 1,300 people and killed at least 729 since March. The outbreak is unusual for West Africa as the disease is typically found in the center and east of the continent.
2. SOME PEOPLE HAVE SURVIVED EBOLA. While the fatality rate for Ebola can be as high as 90 percent, health officials in the three countries say people have recovered from the virus and the current death rate is about 60 percent. Those who fared best sought immediate medical attention and got supportive care to prevent dehydration even though there is no specific treatment for Ebola itself.
3. EBOLA CAN LOOK LIKE OTHER DISEASES. The early symptoms of an Ebola infection include fever, headache, muscle aches and sore throat. It can be difficult to distinguish between Ebola and malaria, typhoid fever or cholera. Only in later stages do people with Ebola begin bleeding both internally and externally, often through the nose and ears.
4. EBOLA IS ONLY SPREAD THROUGH CLOSE CONTACT. The Ebola virus is not airborne, so people would have to come into direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person. These include blood, sweat, vomit, feces, urine, saliva or semen — making transmission through casual contact in a public setting unlikely.
5. FEAR AND MISINFORMATION. In the three countries, health workers and clinics have come under attack from panicked residents who mistakenly blame foreign doctors and nurses for bringing the virus to remote communities. Family members also have removed sick Ebola patients from hospitals. Government officials have stepped up efforts to isolate patients, educate the public, check travelers and tighten borders to prevent the disease's spread.
