moscobabs:
Before life left Nurse Ejelonu, she was very vocal and outspoken, calling for the release of the experimental ZMapp drug for ebola victims. She never got it, and she finally died this morning. She was just 25. Died with her dreams, a future quashed. African scientists, are you still in existence? African leaders, when will your brains be activated? Africans, we keep constructing all sorts of buildings that add little to our productivity (if Félix Houphouët-Boigny is not wasting millions of dollars on a cathedral in Yamoussoukro, the dude wasted $300million on the world's largest church while his people lived in grinding poverty in the same city he sited his grandiose basilica, you will see the Yobe State Government wasting billions of naira on a mosque that will sit 100,000 worshippers, forget the fact that their children are begging on the streets and their women are dying in thousands during childbirth) but the things that really matter, hospitals, libraries, research & development centres, astronomical observatories, recreational parks, we never build those. An American doctor who also got infected got the experimental drug and he is doing fine now because the scientists and leaders in their own country have their brains and they make good use of their mental resources. Until Africans realize that we need to get our lazy asses to the laboratories and make the most creative use of our brains in the fullest manner, nothing will change. If you work for my company and you are caught sleeping at work because you attended a vigil or asalatu over night, I will personally FIRE YOU. You can then go back to your prayer camp or moshalashi and collect your salary! We need to change our mindset and be realistic. This lady's death is needless. Only if as Nigerians, we were very proactive and had developed our own stock of experimental drugs. Our president too carried his hat all the way to Washington to meet Obama, ebola drug, he no fit collect come home, na to dey queue for back for photo. And as we are shouting ebola now, I am sure the Federal Ministry of Health is not preparing for the next epidemic of another exotic disease. We are never prepared. Oga Jona was calling Sawyerr mad for bringing ebola to Nigeria. The egunje customs and immigration that allowed him enter without screening nko? Are they not crazy as well?

You've said it. I pray this dear lady rests in peace and that her family is not stigmatized by stupid ignorant people forever. She gave up her life for this nonsense FG running Nigeria. Worthless thieving touts. And as for Sawyer, the death of another soul just got place on top his wicked head, may he rot in hell.

arsetalks: So other countries who are sending their people are dumb right? Yet you think I am the one not you thats crazy.

I know for sure that countries are sending their people, my friend who is technician nurse with NHS is been sent, my 2 cousins in Germany are also been sent. Id.iot get your facts right before you call people "crazy".

BluIvy:

I did not see your monicker otherwise I would not have responded to your stuuupiid post. You real speak from your azz. What facts? That you are dunce of a country who continue to make fvccked up decision so the you can, activate your gimme, gimme attitude? Now continue with your stuuupiidity.

TYPICAL NIGERIANS AND THEIR GIMMEE GIMMEE ATTITUDE. THERE ARE DOCTORS, NURSES AND ESPECIALLY MILITARY DOCTOR AND NURSE COMMAND UNITS THAT ARE BEING PREPPED AND READIED TO BE SHIPPED OUT TO WEST AFRICA AT A MOMENTS NOTICE. YOU IDIOTS, DO YOU REALLY THINK THE US WOULD SEND THEIR PEOPLE TO POSSIBLE DEATH IF THEY HAD STARTED THE WHOLE EBOLA CRISIS!!!! YOU DAFT IMBECILES. YOU STEEEEWWWWWPID IGNORANT HARDHEARTED PEOPLE. IF THIS IS A CROSS SECTION OF NIGERIANS AND THEIR BELIEFS, I TRULY WEEP FOR THIS COUNTRY AND THE FUTURE.

I am amazed at the hatred and ignorance being shown in these posts. Get it through your heads. As of today there are MANY NATIONS WHO HAVE SENT THEIR EXPERIMENTAL EBOLA DRUGS TO WEST AFRICA, FOR FREE. EMPHASIS ON EXPERIMENTAL AND FREE. For the love of God stop the conspiracy bull shyte and take precautions, educate your self about ebola and stop spreading lies. Many of these viruses are KNOWN to be harbored in carrier species which can then pass on to humans, this is called ZOONOTIC transmission from a non human host to a human. The host species DOES NOT DIE FROM EBOLA, HENCE THE TERM "HOST". THEY SIMPLY MANUFACTURE THE VIRUS AND CARRY IT SAFELY UNTIL IT CAN COME TO LIFE IN A HUMAN THROUGH CONTACT. 3 SPECIES OF BAT ARE KNOWN TO CARRY THE EBOLA VIRUS. THEY CARRY DOZENS OF VIRUSES! THINK PEOPLE THINK. EDUCATION, READ. MANY OF THESE KILLER PLAGUE VIRUSES ALSO LAY DORMANT IN THE MOIST GROUND IN DEEP FOREST. WHEN YOU GET HUMANS BULLDOZING AND ERECTING HOMES INTO UNTOUCHED LAND IT RELEASES THINGS WHICH WERE NEVER IN CONTACT WITH HUMANS BEFORE. READ, THINK, EDUCATE YOUR SELF. THE INFORMATION IS OUT THERE. THE WEST IS NOT BEHIND THE EBOLA VIRUS., THE WEST IS NOT RUBBING HANDS TO GET BIG PHARMACEUTICAL SALES FOR A "CURE". THINK, USE YOUR BRAIN. TAKE PRECAUTIONS AND EDUCATE YOURSELF!!!!!
Geneva (AFP) - The World Health Organization authorised the use of experimental drugs to fight Ebola as the death toll topped 1,000 and a Spanish priest became the first European to succumb to the outbreak.

The declaration by the UN's health agency came Tuesday after a[b][size=22pt] US company that makes an experimental serum called ZMapp said it had sent all its available supplies to hard-hit west Africa.[/size][/b]

"In the special circumstances of this Ebola outbreak it is ethical to offer unregistered interventions as potential treatments or prevention," WHO assistant director general Marie-Paule Kieny said in Geneva after a meeting of medical experts.

I wouldn't put much stock in a Western conspiracy theory. There is no known cure for ebola, take it as it is. I met someone who was an ashen greyish blue color on their skin, a white man, he took colloidal silver every day for its purported "health" benefits. A side effect can be turning the skin grey or blue. I don't see that as healthy. I am not a scientist and not a dcotor, but I do know that in olden days it was recorded that Romans would put silver into drinking water or wine as it was believed to neutralize poison. Also, the term "blue blood", meaning a wealthy person of means, came about because of the practice of placing silver coins into the water etc to be drunk, purifying and protecting them from disease, but the side effect was to turn the skin a bluish color. Does silver have an effect on impurities? I don't know. Can ebola be prevented or cured by putting some type of silver concentrate into water or other solution? I don't know. But I highly doubt the US government would be sitting on a secret report of how Nano Silver cures ebola. The science and supporting documents would be public record available to any medical professional or even the public.

Tazmode: How exactly does this help again?

Sorry, I did not choose the subject title it was from the website. Everyone needs to be very aware of what they are doing in terms of hygiene and movement. People need to get educated on the facts of ebola and plan accordingly. Wear long sleeves to protect from the sweat of others if having to enter crowded spaces, use protective gloves or spray down surfaces such as door knobs, handles, whatever you need to touch in public places with a bleach solution or disinfectant wipe, wash your fruits and vegetables brought in to the home with a diluted 3 part water to 1 part7% hydrogen peroxide bath for 1/2 hour or a few drops of bleach added to a bowl of water. Wash down your surfaces at home with diluted bleach taking care with fabrics or use the peroxide solutionj which will not stain. Wash your hands frequently. Stay away from crowded buses or packed rooms if possible. Caution is needed, not panic, but ebola is installing and must be stopped. The FG is feckless as usual so everyone must take it upon themselves. Surgical latex gloves can be bought cheaply at any pharmacy. The main issue is contact with fecal matter, sweat, tears, saliva, vomit, urine, sneezes releasing droplets of fine mist. People should really limit their public mingling now.

Maybe you are allergic to somthing in the antimalarial? The only time I had itching on the neck with red welt was after using a penicillin drug. The lumps were raised and red and itched but no itching all over the body and the doc said I as allergic to it. The only time later I had trouble was when getting drip and they put in one penicillin derived drug, I almost died. Are your drugs bought from reputable pharmacy? Remember there are plenty falsified and who knows what is in them. Go see a doctor soon if it doesn't go away please.

Updated 13 August 2014
Even those who manage to survive Ebola aren't out of the woods, and could worsen the outbreak through their infected bodily fluids.
While Ebola kills between 70% and 90% of those it infects, it is important not to forget that there is a large number who survive the virus and return home. While these people may seem to be free of the infection, there is still the potential for them to spread the disease.

There is still no cure for Ebola, but some sufferer's immune systems will manage to fight off the disease and the patient will survive.

Some of these survivors will emerge relatively unscathed, while others may suffer long-term consequences due to their exposure to the virus. These consequences can include joint pain, muscle pain, inflammation of the testicles and even blindness. Generally speaking, the longer a patient is infected with the disease, the higher the chance of long-term problems.

However, the most serious problem related to Ebola survivors is their continued ability to infect others once they leave hospital, suggests the World Health Organisation.

Ebola is usually only transmitted through the bodily fluids, such as sweat, of heavily ill individuals. This is considered the "saving grace" of the disease in that it is impossible for people to catch it from carriers of the disease who are not yet presenting symptoms.

However, male survivors are an exception to this rule in that they can still harbour the live virus in their sperm which can then be transmitted sexually to an uninfected partner. Sperm produced by the testes prior to the infection being defeated can survive long after recovery as the scrotum provides a highly conducive environment to survival. With 1 848 cases confirmed as of the 9th August, even a 90% fatality rate would leave almost 200 survivors who, if male, would be able to pass on the disease.

One mitigating factor may be that survivors are often shunned when they return home due to the belief that they might spread the disease, which is greatly feared amongst West Africa's rural communities. The Associated Press reported the case of two survivors who were shunned from their villages once they returned.
http://www.health24.com/Medical/infectious-diseases/News/Ebola-survivors-can-infect-others-with-their-sperm-20140813
[b]Though not quoted in this write up, I read that the period for possible transmission via sperm is 7 weeks. What we need to combat this virus is education, education and more education, along with FG and international governments and health organizations equipping healthcare workers with haz mat suits, all gloves, disinfectants, sterile solutions-anything needed while massive attention is paid to monitoring and tracking possibly infected victims. This no be small ting o.... Do not enter large crowds where you will rub up against others, wear long sleeves to avoid sweat of others, if not wearing gloves use disinfectant spray of bleach or hydrogen peroxide solution before touching public surfaces, clean your fruits and vegetables with diluted 3 part water to 1 part 7% hydrogen peroxide before eating, clean your home with diluted bleach or peroxide solution, do not enter crowded buses if possible, prevention and safety is key but without ignorance and panic. You must come into contact with sweat, bodily fluids, vomit, urine, feces, droplets from sneezing, tears, saliva to contract the virus. Educate yourself and stay safe.[/b]

Experimental drugs and airport screenings will do nothing to stop this plague. If Ebola hits Lagos, we're in real trouble.
BY Laurie Garrett
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/08/14/you_are_not_nearly_scared_enough_ebola_vaccine_west_africa_outbreak
AUGUST 14, 2014
Attention World: You just don't get it.

You think there are magic bullets in some rich country's freezers that will instantly stop the relentless spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa? You think airport security guards in Los Angeles can look a traveler in the eyes and see infection, blocking that jet passenger's entry into La-la-land? You believe novelist Dan Brown's utterly absurd description of a World Health Organization that has a private C5-A military transport jet and disease SWAT team that can swoop into outbreaks, saving the world from contagion?

Wake up, fools. What's going on in West Africa now isn't Brown's silly Inferno scenario -- it's Steven Soderberg's movie Contagion, though without a modicum of its high-tech capacity.

Last week, my brilliant Council on Foreign Relations colleague John Campbell, former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, warned that spread of the virus inside Lagos -- which has a population of 22 million -- would instantly transform this situation into a worldwide crisis, thanks to the chaos, size, density, and mobility of not only that city but dozens of others in the enormous, oil-rich nation. Add to the Nigerian scenario civil war, national elections, Boko Haram terrorists, and a country-wide doctors' strike -- all of which are real and current -- and you have a scenario so overwrought and frightening that I could not have concocted it even when I advised screenwriter Scott Burns on his Contagion script.

Inside the United States, politicians, gadflies, and much of the media are focused on wildly experimental drugs and vaccines, and equally wild notions of "keeping the virus out" by barring travelers and "screening at airports."

Let's be clear: Absolutely no drug or vaccine has been proven effective against the Ebola virus in human beings.

Let's be clear: Absolutely no drug or vaccine has been proven effective against the Ebola virus in human beings. To date, only one person -- Dr. Kent Brantly -- has apparently recovered after receiving one of the three prominent putative drugs, and there is no proof that the drug was key to his improvement. None of the potential vaccines has even undergone Phase One safety trials in humans, though at least two are scheduled to enter that stage before December of this year. And Phase One is the swiftest, easiest part of new vaccine trials -- the two stages of clinical trials aimed at proving that vaccines actually work will be difficult, if not impossible, to ethically and safely execute. If one of the vaccines is ready to be used in Africa sometime in 2015, the measure will be executed without prior evidence that it can work, which in turn will require massive public education to ensure that people who receive the vaccination do not change their behaviors in ways that might put them in contract with Ebola -- because they mistakenly believe they are immune to the virus.

We are in for a very long haul with this extremely deadly disease -- it has killed more than 50 percent of those laboratory-confirmed infections, and possibly more than 70 percent of the infected populations of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. Nigeria is struggling to ensure that no secondary spread of Ebola comes from one of the people already infected by Liberian traveler Patrick Sawyer -- two of whom have died so far. That effort expanded on Wednesday, when Nigerian health authorities announced that a nurse who had treated Sawyer escaped her quarantine confinement in Lagos and traveled to Enugu a city that, as of 2006, has a population of about three million. Though the nurse has not shown symptoms of the disease, the incubation time for infection, which is up to 21 days, hasn't elapsed.

Since the Ebola outbreak began in March there have been many reports of isolated cases of the disease in travelers to other countries. None have resulted, so far, in secondary spread, establishing new epidemic focuses of the disease. As I write this, such a case is thought to have occurred Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, and another suspected case reportedly died in isolation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, prompting the kingdom to issue special Ebola warnings for the upcoming hajj. It's only a matter of time before one of these isolated cases spreads, possibly in a chaotic urban center far larger than the ones in which it is now claiming lives: Conakry, Guinea; Monrovia, Liberia; and Freetown, Sierra Leone.

So what does "getting it" mean for understanding what we, as a global community, must now do?

First of all, we must appreciate the scale of need on the ground in the three Ebola-plagued nations. While the people may pray for magic bullets, their health providers are not working in Hollywood, but rather in some of the most impoverished places on Earth. Before Ebola, these countries spent less than $100 per year per capita on healthcare. Most Americans spend more than that annually on aspirin and ibuprofen.

We must collectively listen to the pleading and anguish coming from those courageous health providers who have seen Ebola claim more than 80 of their colleagues since the crisis began. What do they want?

On Aug. 8, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Ebola epidemic a "public health emergency of international concern." In the agency's pronouncement, WHO noted the urgent need for local government actions, such as the cordons sanitaires recently erected, and for global mobilization of medical resources. WHO has repeatedly warned that this epidemic could persist for a minimum of six months, perhaps a year. The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, has concurred with that grim forecast.

"It's like fighting a forest fire: leave behind one burning ember, one case undetected, and the epidemic could re-ignite," Frieden recently told Congress. "Ending this outbreak will take time, at least three to six months in a best case scenario, but this is very far from a best case scenario."

At the same congressional hearing Dr. Frank Glover, a medical missionary who partners with SIM, a Christian missions organization, and president of SHIELD, a U.S.-based NGO in Africa, warned that Liberia had less than 200 doctors struggling to meet the health needs of 4 million people before the epidemic. "After the outbreak that number went down to about 50 doctors involved in clinical care," said Glover.

I myself have received emails from physicians in these countries, describing the complete collapse of all non-Ebola care, from unassisted deliveries to untended auto accident injuries. People aren't just dying of the virus, but from every imaginable medical issue a system of care usually faces.

Ken Isaacs, vice president of International Programs and Government Relations at Samaritan's Purse, the aid organization that has two of its members fighting for their lives in Ebola quarantine in Atlanta, told Congress, "It took two Americans getting the disease in order for the international community and United States to take serious notice of the largest outbreak of the disease in history. That the world would allow two relief agencies to shoulder this burden along with the overwhelmed Ministries of Health in these countries, testifies to the lack of serious attention the epidemic was given."

Despite current response mechanisms, this Ebola outbreak, Isaacs said as he closed his remarks, "is uncontained and out of control in West Africa."

Even if the world dodges a viral bullet and Ebola fails to take hold in a metropolis in a different country (such as Lagos, Johannesburg, Delhi, or Sao Paulo), controlling the disease and saving lives in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea will require resources on a scale nobody has delineated. The emotionally distraught doctors and nurses on the front lines are screaming for help.

Let's start with simple, on-the-ground manpower. All three countries desperately need doctors, nurses, medical technicians, ambulance drivers, Red Cross volunteers, epidemiologists, and health logistics experts. They do not need novice do-gooders from the wealthy world, but people experienced in working under the stifling conditions of tropical heat, the desperation of supplies deficits, and the fearfulness of epidemics. The lion's share of care to date has been provided by one group -- Médecins Sans Frontières -- which is pleading for others to relieve their exhausted ranks -- 600 people who have been fighting for months on the front lines in this war.

Nothing could be clearer than this MSF press release, dated Aug. 8:

Dr. Bart Janssens, MSF Director of Operations

"Declaring Ebola an international public health emergency shows how seriously WHO is taking the current outbreak; but statements won't save lives. Now we need this statement to translate into immediate action on the ground. For weeks, MSF has been repeating that a massive medical, epidemiological and public health response is desperately needed to saves lives and reverse the course of the epidemic. Lives are being lost because the response is too slow.

Countries possessing necessary capacities must immediately dispatch available infectious disease experts and disaster relief assets to the region. It is clear the epidemic will not be contained without a massive deployment on the ground from these states.

In concrete terms, all of the following need to be radically scaled up: medical care, training of health staff, infection control, contact tracing, epidemiological surveillance, alert and referral systems, community mobilisation and education.

MSF currently has 66 international and 610 national staff responding to the crisis in the three affected countries. All our Ebola experts are mobilized, we simply cannot do more."

Here is the list of supplies Emmet A. Dennis, president of the University of Liberia, e-mailed that he needs for his medical school personnel now fighting cases in Monrovia:

Gowns -- Isolation
Underpads -- Disposable
Gloves, Examination -- All Sizes
Body Bags - Adult & Children
Infectious Waste Bag -- Red
Face Mask -- Duckbilled
Face Shield Disposable
Eye Shields -- Disposable
Shoe Covers
Aprons - Disposable
Sanitizer Wipes
Plastic Boots
Surgical Caps -- Disposable
Disinfectant
Scrubs (L & XL)
Thermometer: Infrared -- Thermofocus
Disinfectant Soap
Chlorinated Disinfectant
Rehydration Fluids
R/L Solution
N/S Solution

It simply does not get more basic. As there are no miracle drugs for Ebola, the needs include few medicines, though other local responders tell me that they wish they had sterile syringes, saline drips, and fever modulators such as aspirin.

"Getting it," in this epidemic, means realizing that over the next six to 12 months, these countries will needs millions of dollars' worth of basic supplies, hundreds of highly skilled healthcare workers, including logistics supplies officers, and self-sufficiency for all foreigners (food, water, personal supplies). As the border blockades ending trade to these nations persist, food supplies for the population will also become acutely short, probably necessitating World Food Program assistance. Exhausted, frightened young soldiers and police will need their ranks replaced slowly with United Nations Peacekeepers or soldiers from the African Union.

And of course this list assumes Ebola remains confined in terms of secondary spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. If the virus takes hold in another, more populous nation, the needs will grow exponentially, and swiftly.

John Moore

Sad, very very sad. The ebola has made the whole rot of Nigeria commot her yansh so everyone can now smell it well well. This madness of corruption has got to stop. I knew MONTHS AGO when I heard of the outbreaks in neighboring area that this was going to hit Nigeria and, as always, the officials would fail the public and nation. Their call to duty was to write jingles educating on ebola. Dumb F ucks! You PREPARE FOR THE WORST! Where are the proper clothing for medical doctors and nurses? Where are the proper masks and eye goggles? Where are the already set up containment wards? EEEEEDIOTS til the end. The FG and the hogs that run it would rather the whole nation die a miserable death than stop their maniacal looting. Greedy robbing thieves and murderous souls, they will rot in hell for every last damn kobo they ever stole. I cannot even express my venom in words this is so upsetting.

LittlePagan:

The black race has invented more than you can imagine, the reason why we are never told this is because, the white man is in power and he plans to keep it that way. A simple google research can show you what blacks has done.

Example it was a black woman who calculated the trajectory of rockets to make sure they make it in space safely and back home. Google bro, dont let white people turn you to a useless race, we have always been inventing

A black man created fire extinguisher etc

And who built the pyramids? Ancient Aliens? Do not let White people do this to you, you are more powerful than you think.

Simply put, you are also a racist".

Am not following this closely but what I heard was that he was resisting arrest, was already inside or partially inside police car where altercation continued, somehow got out of the police car and then was shot. Also heard the police shooter was injured. Don't know as I didn't see it with my own eyes but I do know if you resist arrest, you are asking to get shot, white, black, green or yellow. I would rather take my chances with an American cop that Nigerian. Just my opinion.

GreenBobo: “provided at no cost in all cases."
No free meal ANYWHERE! The proverbial 'Onyinye ekwensu'......

Just plain cynical on your part. First NL conspiracy experts were running mouth that the "Western Powers" want to kill off the whole of the African Continent with their "artificially produced super virus ebola", next when people heard the two American missionaries were given experimental doses to save their lives you screamed how unfair and why was the magical serum only for the "Western Powers", then, ignoring the facts and that there were only an estimated 8 doses in existence (and it takes a very long time to make using a special genetically modified tobacco plant in the process) you are now screaming bloody murder that the entire stock in existence has been shipped to West Africa where it may save some ungrateful B astard like you. Get your head on straight please. The entire world is not run on or by Nigerian standards of conduct and incompetent ingrates.

plainmirror: How many EVD topics will make FP this week.
Aside public sensitization, it implants fear and panic aswell.

It is necessary. This ebola is not a joke. As long as the information is to help people understand how to not contract it, great, but the grand salt wash/ingesting fiascos need to be stamped out with solid scientific information. This is the only way this crisis will pass; with intelligence and application of proper procedures and behaviors. Just the way it is now.

[size=18pt]Rubbish! The Northern Muslims are always hand wringing and crying, always twisting and lying with their words trying to pin their own sins on the their targeted political victims or innocent civilians of other religions and tribe. YOU are responsible for your miserable lives, YOU are responsible for Boko Haram, YOU are responsible for ALL the sins of your pea brained mallams who have raised generation after generation of terrorists. You think we are forgetting how many innocents you people have murdered? You speak of prejudice against "your" people in other areas of the country and how you MUSLIMS must be free to live anywhere you wish THE DAY YOU STOP MURDERING, HARASSING, RAPING, KIDNAPPING AND THROAT SLITTING ALL OTHER TRIBES AND RELIGIONS WHO DARE TRY TO LIVE AND WORK IN YOUR WORM INFESTED SHYTE HOLE IS THE DAY I MIGHT LISTEN TO YOU, LIARS LIARS LIARS. GOD WILL SOONER OR LATER STRIKE YOUR THICK LEATHER HEADS AND DROP YOU LIKE A SALLAH RAM, ASE O! DIVIDE THIS NATION NOW! NORTHERN MUSLIMS ARE LIARS , DECEIVERS AND WILL DO ANYTHING TO FURTHER THEIR CAUSE OF BOKO HARAM. BLOODY FOOLS.[/size]

Omexonomy: Soyinka likes to speak big grammer so as to remain relevant.

If you think he used "big grammar" maybe you need a "refresher course".

Thank you Baba for once more putting the truth out when others dare not. Sometimes I honestly think he is the only intelligent Nigerian left here. Age brings wisdom, and having seen more than his fair share of violence in the early struggles of Nigeria, it is much easier for an older man to see which way the wind is blowing than a young pup who has just barely left their father's house. He was preaching the Boko Haram menace YEARS AGO. No one was listening. God Bless You Baba, may you continue long in your fight for justice, truth and peace in Nigeria Ase o!

Murdering pigs. May you drop into the very ground you have spilled blood upon and be swallowed up for eternity. Ase o.



By BASSEM MROUE 2 hours ago
BEIRUT (AP) — A cleric read the verdict before the truck came and dumped a large pile of stones near the municipal garden. Jihadi fighters then brought in the woman, clad head to toe in black, and put her in a small hole in the ground. When residents gathered, the fighters told them to carry out the sentence: Stoning to death for the [size=18pt]alleged[/size] adulteress.


[size=18pt]None in the crowd stepped forward,[/size] said a witness to the event in a northern Syrian city. So the [size=22pt]jihadi fighters, mostly foreign extremists,[/size] did it themselves, pelting Faddah Ahmad with stones until her body was dragged away.

"Even when she was hit with stones she did not scream or move," said an opposition activist who said he witnessed the stoning near the football stadium and the Bajaa garden in the city of Raqqa, the main Syrian stronghold of the Islamic State group.

The July 18 stoning was the second in a span of 24 hours. A day earlier, 26-year-old Shamseh Abdullah was killed in a similar way in the nearby town of Tabqa by Islamic State fighters. Both were accused of having sex outside marriage.

The killings were the first of their kind in rebel-held northern Syria, where jihadis from the Islamic State group have seized large swaths of territory, terrorizing residents with their strict interpretation of Islamic law, including beheadings and cutting off the hands of thieves. The jihadis recently tied a 14-year-old boy to a cross-like structure and left him for several hours in the scorching summer sun before bringing him down -- punishment for not fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The group has also brutalized Shiite Muslims and others whom it views as apostates. In neighboring Iraq, Islamic State militants have driven members of the Yazidi religious minority out of a string of towns and villages. Thousands of the fleeing Yazidis have been stranded on a mountaintop for days, a humanitarian crisis that prompted the U.S. to airlift aid to them this week.

On Friday, Kamil Amin, the spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry, said hundreds of Yazidi women under the age of 35 are being held by the Islamic State group in schools in Iraq's second largest city Mosul, which the militants captured in June.

The stonings in Syria last month were not widely publicized at the time, but in the following days three photographs appeared online which appeared to document the grisly spectacle and were consistent with other AP reporting.

The pictures posted on a newly-created Twitter account showed dozens of people gathered in a square, a cleric reading a verdict through a loudspeaker and several bearded men with automatic rifles either carrying or collecting stones.

"A married woman being stoned in the presence of some believers," read the caption of the photographs on the Twitter account, which has since been suspended.

Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi, the activist who witnessed Ahmad's stoning, said locals where angry to see foreign fighters impose their will on the community.

[size=18pt]"People were shocked and couldn't understand what was going on. Many were disturbed by the idea that Saudis and Tunisians were issuing (such) orders," he said in an interview via Skype. Ahmad, he said, appeared unconscious, and he had overheard that she was earlier taken to a hospital where she was given anesthesia.[/size]

The stoning took place after dark, he said, at about 11 p.m. He could not see blood on the body because of the black clothes she was wearing. Ahmad did not scream or shake, and died silently. "They then took the dead body in one of their cars and left," he said.

The two cases were first reported by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which collects information through a network of activists around the country. Bassam Al-Ahmad, a spokesman for the Violations Documentation Center, a Syrian group that tracks human rights violations, also confirmed the stoning.

An activist based in the northern province of Idlib, who collects information from other activists in northern Syria, said Ahmad was a widow. A man who asked to be identified as Asad for fear of repercussions, said that in the other stoning, in Tabqa, residents also refused to take part, and that the act was carried out by Islamic State members.

The U.S. Embassy in Syria, in a statement posted on its Twitter account, condemned the "barbaric stoning" of a woman in Tabqa.

International human rights groups did not report the stoning, and Human Rights Watch said it had no independent confirmation.

"It is a very worrying trend if true," said Human Rights Watch researcher Lama Fakih.

The Islamic State group has "imposed incredibly restrictive rules on the civilian population which have served to make women and girls particularly vulnerable and to quite clearly discriminate against them," she said, adding that the reports of the stoning were the first the group had received out of Syria.

"This is just a more sort of extreme manifestation of those restrictive rules which are all in violation of international" human rights law, she said.

Such acts have alarmed members of mainstream Syrian opposition groups fighting to remove President Bashar Assad from power since 2011.

"These behaviors have nothing to do with the nature and mentality of Syrian society," said Abdelbaset Sieda, a senior member of the main Western-backed Syrian National Coalition. He said the group had no official confirmation of the stoning cases although he did not rule it out. "We expect such acts to be carried out by the Islamic State," he said.

The Hazm Movement, another rebel group active in northern Syria, said the stonings did take place. It added that such acts "contradict the principals of the revolution" and encourage the world to refrain from giving any support to the rebels.

"The world should know that every day they delay real support to active moderate groups is direct support to extremist factions," the group said in response to written questions from The Associated Press.

The world's religion of peace, hard at work again spreading death, misery and bombing the world back into the Stone Age one country at a time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/08/yazidi-women-captive_n_5662805.html VIDEO ON LINK
AP | By SAMEER N. YACOUB
Posted: 08/08/2014 2:57 pm EDT Updated: 08/08/2014 4:59 pm EDT
BAGHDAD (AP) — Hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority have been taken captive by Sunni militants with "vicious plans," an Iraqi official said Friday, further underscoring the dire plight of Iraq's minorities at the hands of the Islamic State group.

Kamil Amin, the spokesman for Iraq's Human Rights Ministry, said hundreds of Yazidi women below the age of 35 are being held in schools in Iraq's second largest city, Mosul. He said the ministry learned of the captives from their families.

"We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves and they have vicious plans for them," Amin told The Associated Press. "We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values."

The U.S. has confirmed that the Islamic State group has kidnapped and imprisoned Yazidi women so that they can be sold or married off to extremist fighters, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information came from classified intelligence reports. There was no solid estimate of the number of women victimized, the official said.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic State group earlier this month captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border. The Yazidis practice an ancient religion that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider heretical.

The extremist group's capture of a string of towns and villages in the north has sent minority communities fleeing for their lives. The Islamic state views Yazidis and Shiite Muslims as apostates, and has demanded Christians either convert to Islam or pay a special tax.

About 50,000 Yazidis — half of them children, according to U.N. figures — fled to the mountains outside Sinjar where many of them remain, trapped and running out of food and water. Late Thursday, the U.S. military cargo jets dropped humanitarian aid to the mountains.

Amin's comments were the first Iraqi government confirmation that some women were being held by the group. On Tuesday, Yazidi lawmaker Vian Dakheel made an emotional plea in parliament to the Iraqi government to save the Yazidi people, saying the "women have been sold in a slavery market."

President Barack Obama said the humanitarian airdrops were made at the request of the Iraqi government as the Islamic State militant group tightened its grip on northern Iraq. In his remarks late Thursday, he mentioned "chilling reports" of fighters with the group "rounding up families, conducting mass executions, and enslaving Yazidi women."

The U.N. Security Council issued a statement Friday condemning targeted attacks against Iraq's minorities, adding that any widespread attacks against civilian populations based on ethnic, religious or political background may be considered a crime against humanity for which those responsible must be held accountable.

____
Associated Press reporter Vivian Salama in Baghdad contributed to this report.

dasparrow: @Post

Ha! So some of you actually thought that USA will share her ebola-curing serum with Nigeria? I remember when I saw a thread on the homepage talking about Nigeria requesting serum from USA, I was like sigh! When will our leaders get it? These people called westerners don't like you, never have and never will. They are historical enemies who only pretend to be your friends for as long as you have something they want. If I talk now, some frustrated self-hating american-wannabe Nigerian heifers will call me anti-western. But these same maggots see nothing wrong being anti-African and coming on Nairaland - a forum created by a Nigerian in Nigeria - to spew vitriol typing from their leprosy infested fingers while rejoicing whenever anything bad happens in Nigeria or in other parts of Africa. They forget that misfortune and calamities can happen anywhere and those that rejoice at other people's misfortune will get a double portion of it anywhere they are located.

I think that in every disappointment, there is a hidden blessing. Maybe, this serum rejection will cause our leaders to sit up and stop depending so much on these westerners. We have all sorts of herbs growing at our backyard. Invest in research because the white man is done spoon feeding us. As Africans, this ebola outbreak is a wake up call to put our house in order. Look at our universities in Nigeria, they are always on strike. Look at our medical doctors, they have been on strike for over a month. How can we get anything done when none of our sectors are working? The health sector is in shambles, the education sector is in shambles. This is shameful. Right now, the government should call on pharmacists, laboratory scientists and the likes. Time to hit the lab and see what cure they can come up with. Time is of the essence. I wish our people good luck in all of this. This too shall pass.

[size=18pt]It is my turn to sigh... Americans do not hate Nigerians. Maybe some do, just as YOU some Nigerians hate Americans.
Number one: THERE WERE ONLY 8 DOSES OF SERUM IN EXISTENCE WHEN THE AMERICANS BECAME ILL. READ, EDUCATE YOURSELF, LOOK FOR THE TRUTH BEFORE SETTLING DOWN COZILY INTO YOUR NEST OF HATRED AND NEGATIVE WORLD VIEW. GOD I AM SO SICK OF READING THESE ADDLE BRAINED CONSPIRACY THEORIST HAND WRINGING FINGERPOINTING BLAME THE FECKING WHITE MAN BULL SHYTE POSTS!!!
"ZMapp is an enhanced version of MB-003, which was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). MB-003 consists of three monoclonal—artificially produced—antibodies that proved capable of both deactivating the Ebola virus and tagging it for attack by the victim’s immune system.

A year ago this month, USAMRIID and Mapp announced the results of a study involving Rhesus monkeys that would have caused a sensation had we not been in a long lull between Ebola outbreaks. MB-003 protected 100 percent of the monkeys when administered an hour after exposure and two-thirds of those given the drug 48 hours after exposure.

“We were able to use MB-003 as a true therapeutic countermeasure,” USAMIID virologist Gene Olinger said when the results were announced.

James Pettitt, the study’s lead author, said he and his colleagues would be working with Canadian researchers who had devised a different antibody cocktail. The immediate aim would be to devise the most effective mixture of MB-003 and the Canadian compound and test it in additional monkeys, along with the best dose.

The combination was called ZMAPP. The ultimate results are said to have been even more promising than with MB-003 alone. But Ebola did not seem an imminent threat, and there was no scramble to produce more of the stuff than would be needed for animal toxicity testing and eventually the first human trials, which USAMIID expected to take between five to 10 years.

The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates that there were no more than eight doses of ZMapp in existence when Samaritan's Purse sought some. Three doses were flown to Liberia. Two were given to Writebol and one to Brantly, who was repeatedly also given a transfusion of blood from a 14-year-old survivor he had treated.

The two stricken Americans were flown to Atlanta, and Brantly in particular seemed to be on the mend. Governments of the affected countries in West African began inquiring about Zmapp. U.S. scientists cautioned that the drug had not yet proven to be as beneficial to humans as it apparently was to monkeys.

“We don’t know if it is effective,” Dr. Heinz Feldmann of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease told The Daily Beast. “We don’t have enough even if it was effective.”
FULL ARTICLE HERE:https://www.nairaland.com/1849781/why-white-americans-got-secret [/size]

MiguelMi6: You got my message so wrong,am a Westerner to speak lf.I only meant that until reports of the success of the serum,no need to celeberate.

Sorry there, no hard feelings. Ebola has everyone on high alert.

Nonybb: Ebola Patient would start getting cure when White Elites in UK, US, Australia, Canada and India got infected. For now its an African Disease and Pharmaceutical Companies wouldnt profit from the Drug until there is a large lethal cases available, then the Drug would sell considerably. For now Africa is a Case study to taste its scourge level and then Capitalist would lobby WHO to assist them. The Capitalist are in corroboration with Pharmaceutical Companies. Billions would be made from the Deal and Zmapp would be available. By then it would be cheap, not because the Capitalist have subsidize it out of generosity, but because it had Profited huge billions from WHO deal it had with it. The world is a capitalist nation

[size=18pt]Shut up and educate yourself! https://www.nairaland.com/1849781/why-white-americans-got-secret
Turn your misguided hatred and energy to learning how to deal with ebola. If your sorry a33 is not in Nigeria than SHUT THE FECK UP and stop adding more fuel to an already out of control fire. This is not a game. People are scared and need REAL INFORMATION. NOT PERSONAL OPINION RANTS OVER THE "POWERS THAT BE". FOR YOUR INFORMATION, ACCORDING TO THE FEDERAL CDC, THEY WERE ONLY ABOUT 8 DOSES OF ZMAPP AVAILABLE AT THE TIME THE AMERICAN DOCTORS CONTRACTED EBOLA. READ READ READ THIS ARTICLE AND SIMMER THE H E L L DOWN AND STOP SPREADING NASTINESS AND START TRYING TO HELP A BAD SITUATION.
ZMapp is an enhanced version of MB-003, which was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). MB-003 consists of three monoclonal—artificially produced—antibodies that proved capable of both deactivating the Ebola virus and tagging it for attack by the victim’s immune system.

A year ago this month, USAMRIID and Mapp announced the results of a study involving Rhesus monkeys that would have caused a sensation had we not been in a long lull between Ebola outbreaks. MB-003 protected 100 percent of the monkeys when administered an hour after exposure and two-thirds of those given the drug 48 hours after exposure.

“We were able to use MB-003 as a true therapeutic countermeasure,” USAMIID virologist Gene Olinger said when the results were announced.

James Pettitt, the study’s lead author, said he and his colleagues would be working with Canadian researchers who had devised a different antibody cocktail. The immediate aim would be to devise the most effective mixture of MB-003 and the Canadian compound and test it in additional monkeys, along with the best dose.

The combination was called ZMAPP. The ultimate results are said to have been even more promising than with MB-003 alone. But Ebola did not seem an imminent threat, and there was no scramble to produce more of the stuff than would be needed for animal toxicity testing and eventually the first human trials, which USAMIID expected to take between five to 10 years.

The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates that there were no more than eight doses of ZMapp in existence when Samaritan's Purse sought some. Three doses were flown to Liberia. Two were given to Writebol and one to Brantly, who was repeatedly also given a transfusion of blood from a 14-year-old survivor he had treated.

The two stricken Americans were flown to Atlanta, and Brantly in particular seemed to be on the mend. Governments of the affected countries in West African began inquiring about Zmapp. U.S. scientists cautioned that the drug had not yet proven to be as beneficial to humans as it apparently was to monkeys.

“We don’t know if it is effective,” Dr. Heinz Feldmann of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease told The Daily Beast. “We don’t have enough even if it was effective.”

People, carry your hand sanitizer, bleach, or aqueous solution of 3% hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle. If you feel better, use medical grade examination gloves which can be bought in almost any pharmacy. Once again, in order to be infected you must have contact with the bodily fluids of someone infected: sneezing, vomiting, urine, feces, sweat, bodily fluids. WASH and SANITIZE all public area items you must touch or wear gloves. A mask that covers nose and mouth would not be a bad idea if traveling in large crowds. Prevention is priceless over concern how you will be perceived by the public[/size]

[size=18pt]WOULD SOME OF YOU [s]CONSPIRACY THEORISTS AND "ANYTHING WESTERN HATERS"[/s]PLEASE READ THIS WRITE UP AND SIMMER THE FECK DOWN!!! [/size]

08.08.14
Why the White Americans Got the ‘Secret’ Ebola Serum
After two missionaries were given an experimental treatment for Ebola, questions have swirled about why the hundreds of Africans infected aren’t getting it. For good reasons, it turns out.

A Washington Post blog asks: “Why do two white Americans get the Ebola serum while hundreds of Africans die?”

The New Republic demands: “Why did two U.S. missionaries get an Ebola serum while Africans are left to die?”

That was just media yammering, but it was echoed on streets and in subways by otherwise reasonable people.

Never mind that there seem to have been no more than eight doses of the serum in existence.

Never mind that the white people in question—Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol—who received three of those doses before they were flown home to the U.S. got perilously ill in the first place because they risked their lives helping Ebola victims in Liberia who happened to be black.

And never mind that Samaritan’s Purse would not have established the Ebola clinic in Monrovia and asked Brantly serve as medical director had it thought the life of a white American was worth more than the life of a black African.

If nationality and race did influence the organization’s decision to seek an untested serum for Brantly and Writebol, it was likely only because any Western organization that administers an untested serum to the African population runs the risk of being accused of using blacks as guinea pigs in the way of the long-ago Tuskegee syphilis tests and the 1996 meningitis tests in Nigeria.

That was not a worry with the two white Americans.

Of course, Samantha’s Purse may not have been immune from the sense of urgency that can seize even the most altruistic organizations when one of its own is in mortal danger. The same is true with a fire department when a firefighter is critically injured.

Watch what happens at the scene of a blaze when a radio call of “Mayday!” signals that a firefighter who went in to save others suddenly needs saving himself.

This does not mean firefighters care any less about the people they are trying to save any more than it means Samaritan’s Purse was leaving Africans to die when it began asking U.S. scientists and health workers in the hot zone about experimental treatments described in various scientific papers in recent years.

Samaritan’s Purse ended up in contact with Mapp Biopharmaceutical in San Diego, the lead developer of a drug called ZMapp.

The scandal is not that two white people got an untested serum, but that the deaths of so many black people were ignored until two white people got sick.

ZMapp is an enhanced version of MB-003, which was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). MB-003 consists of three monoclonal—artificially produced—antibodies that proved capable of both deactivating the Ebola virus and tagging it for attack by the victim’s immune system.

A year ago this month, USAMRIID and Mapp announced the results of a study involving Rhesus monkeys that would have caused a sensation had we not been in a long lull between Ebola outbreaks. MB-003 protected 100 percent of the monkeys when administered an hour after exposure and two-thirds of those given the drug 48 hours after exposure.

“We were able to use MB-003 as a true therapeutic countermeasure,” USAMIID virologist Gene Olinger said when the results were announced.

James Pettitt, the study’s lead author, said he and his colleagues would be working with Canadian researchers who had devised a different antibody cocktail. The immediate aim would be to devise the most effective mixture of MB-003 and the Canadian compound and test it in additional monkeys, along with the best dose.

The combination was called ZMAPP. The ultimate results are said to have been even more promising than with MB-003 alone. But Ebola did not seem an imminent threat, and there was no scramble to produce more of the stuff than would be needed for animal toxicity testing and eventually the first human trials, which USAMIID expected to take between five to 10 years.

[size=18pt]The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates that there were no more than eight doses of ZMapp in existence when Samaritan's Purse sought some.[/size] Three doses were flown to Liberia. Two were given to Writebol and one to Brantly, who was repeatedly also given a transfusion of blood from a 14-year-old survivor he had treated.

The two stricken Americans were flown to Atlanta, and Brantly in particular seemed to be on the mend. Governments of the affected countries in West African began inquiring about Zmapp. U.S. scientists cautioned that the drug had not yet proven to be as beneficial to humans as it apparently was to monkeys.

“We don’t know if it is effective,” Dr. Heinz Feldmann of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease told The Daily Beast. “We don’t have enough even if it was effective.”

ZMapp is made by inserting modified genes into the cells of tobacco plants whose cells then become mini-factories of the antibodies. The facility where this happens is owned by R.J. Reynolds, which also makes cigarettes that kill by the hundreds of thousands.

Reynolds is now said to be accelerating its effort to do good as well as evil, but tobacco plants grow only so fast, and extracting and purifying antibodies is considerably more complicated than producing cancer sticks. Any significant quantity of ZMapp appears to be months away even if another company with a larger facility joins in the effort.

The question of the serum came up at the press conference President Obama held at the end of this week’s Africa Summit at the White House. He said it would be premature to rush ZMapp to the hot zone.

“Let the science guide us,” he went on to say. “I don't think all the information is in on whether this drug is helpful.”

He observed that previous epidemics had been brought under control by effective public health programs.

“We’re focusing on the public health approach right now, but I will continue to seek information about what we’re learning about these drugs going forward,” he said.

Obama did authorize sending kits for a diagnostic Ebola test called the EZ1 Real-Time RT-PCR Assay. His view that the primary focus should be on containment was echoed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control at an emergency congressional hearing held on Thursday even though lawmakers are in recess.

“In terms of the promising drugs, I can assure you that the U.S. government is looking into this very carefully,” Dr. Thomas Frieden said. “But I don’t want there to be false hope out there. Right now, we don’t know if they work.”

The CDC is moving to assist the fight by going to a Level 1 alert and “surging” 50 experts to West Africa. Frieden emphasized that containment will require great care.

“It’s like fighting a forest fire: Leave behind one burning ember, one case undetected, and the epidemic could reignite,” he said.

When it came his turn to testify, Ken Isaacs of Samaritan’s Purse wondered why the forest fire had been allowed to rage for months with little notice beyond those who were being consumed by it. The scandal is not that two white people got an untested serum, but that the deaths of so many black people were ignored until two white people got sick.

“It took two Americans getting the disease in order for the international community and the United States to take serious notice of the largest outbreak of the disease in history,” he said. “The disease is uncontained and out of control in West Africa.”

Isaacs, who is a vice president of the organization, spoke as someone who has been watching the fire rage for months and believes it will be harder to contain than many anticipate. He said that too many people in Western Africa remain suspicious of Western medicine and tied to traditional practices that spread the virus, notably the washing and kissing of the dead. He noted that even now university students in Liberia “continue to mock and deny the existence of Ebola.”

“I think we are going to see the death toll in numbers we cannot imagine,” Ken Isaacs said.

He noted that the disease can travel anywhere “at the speed of an airplane.” He said the ultimate goal should be an effective vaccine.

“In the meantime it is a nasty, bloody disease that we must fight now,” he said.

CALM DOWN AND USE YOUR BRAIN! This is NOT A CONSPIRACY OR A WESTERN BACKED PLAGUE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT AND LOOK AT REALITY. https://www.nairaland.com/1849781/why-white-americans-got-secret
USE PRECAUTION AND SANITIZE ANY AND ALL SURFACES YOU COME INTO CONTACT WITH., LIMIT CONTACT WITH PEOPLE IN THE STREET MEANING DON'T BE PUSHING UP ON EACH OTHER IN TIGHT SPACES. USE BLEACH OR A DILUTED 3% SOLUTION OF HYDROGEN PEROXIDE IN A SPRAY BOTTLE TO WIPE SURFACES YOU MUST TOUCH OUTSIDE THE HOME. WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY. UNLESS YOU ARE IN CLOSE PROXIMITY TO SOMEONE WHO HAS THE ACTIVE VIRUS AND SPILLS OR SNEEZES THEIR BODILY FLUIDS ON YOU THE CHANCES OF CONTRACTING THE VIRUS ARE VIRTUALLY NIL.

In case you're wondering.....




http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/08/why-the-white-americans-got-the-secret-ebola-serum.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29
08.08.14
Why the White Americans Got the ‘Secret’ Ebola Serum
After two missionaries were given an experimental treatment for Ebola, questions have swirled about why the hundreds of Africans infected aren’t getting it. For good reasons, it turns out.

A Washington Post blog asks: “Why do two white Americans get the Ebola serum while hundreds of Africans die?”

The New Republic demands: “Why did two U.S. missionaries get an Ebola serum while Africans are left to die?”

That was just media yammering, but it was echoed on streets and in subways by otherwise reasonable people.

Never mind that there seem to have been no more than eight doses of the serum in existence.

Never mind that the white people in question—Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol—who received three of those doses before they were flown home to the U.S. got perilously ill in the first place because they risked their lives helping Ebola victims in Liberia who happened to be black.

And never mind that Samaritan’s Purse would not have established the Ebola clinic in Monrovia and asked Brantly serve as medical director had it thought the life of a white American was worth more than the life of a black African.

If nationality and race did influence the organization’s decision to seek an untested serum for Brantly and Writebol, it was likely only because any Western organization that administers an untested serum to the African population runs the risk of being accused of using blacks as guinea pigs in the way of the long-ago Tuskegee syphilis tests and the 1996 meningitis tests in Nigeria.

That was not a worry with the two white Americans.

Of course, Samantha’s Purse may not have been immune from the sense of urgency that can seize even the most altruistic organizations when one of its own is in mortal danger. The same is true with a fire department when a firefighter is critically injured.

Watch what happens at the scene of a blaze when a radio call of “Mayday!” signals that a firefighter who went in to save others suddenly needs saving himself.

This does not mean firefighters care any less about the people they are trying to save any more than it means Samaritan’s Purse was leaving Africans to die when it began asking U.S. scientists and health workers in the hot zone about experimental treatments described in various scientific papers in recent years.

Samaritan’s Purse ended up in contact with Mapp Biopharmaceutical in San Diego, the lead developer of a drug called ZMapp.

The scandal is not that two white people got an untested serum, but that the deaths of so many black people were ignored until two white people got sick.

ZMapp is an enhanced version of MB-003, which was developed in conjunction with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID). MB-003 consists of three monoclonal—artificially produced—antibodies that proved capable of both deactivating the Ebola virus and tagging it for attack by the victim’s immune system.

A year ago this month, USAMRIID and Mapp announced the results of a study involving Rhesus monkeys that would have caused a sensation had we not been in a long lull between Ebola outbreaks. MB-003 protected 100 percent of the monkeys when administered an hour after exposure and two-thirds of those given the drug 48 hours after exposure.

“We were able to use MB-003 as a true therapeutic countermeasure,” USAMIID virologist Gene Olinger said when the results were announced.

James Pettitt, the study’s lead author, said he and his colleagues would be working with Canadian researchers who had devised a different antibody cocktail. The immediate aim would be to devise the most effective mixture of MB-003 and the Canadian compound and test it in additional monkeys, along with the best dose.

The combination was called ZMAPP. The ultimate results are said to have been even more promising than with MB-003 alone. But Ebola did not seem an imminent threat, and there was no scramble to produce more of the stuff than would be needed for animal toxicity testing and eventually the first human trials, which USAMIID expected to take between five to 10 years.

The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates that there were no more than eight doses of ZMapp in existence when Samaritan's Purse sought some. Three doses were flown to Liberia. Two were given to Writebol and one to Brantly, who was repeatedly also given a transfusion of blood from a 14-year-old survivor he had treated.

The two stricken Americans were flown to Atlanta, and Brantly in particular seemed to be on the mend. Governments of the affected countries in West African began inquiring about Zmapp. U.S. scientists cautioned that the drug had not yet proven to be as beneficial to humans as it apparently was to monkeys.

“We don’t know if it is effective,” Dr. Heinz Feldmann of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease told The Daily Beast. “We don’t have enough even if it was effective.”

ZMapp is made by inserting modified genes into the cells of tobacco plants whose cells then become mini-factories of the antibodies. The facility where this happens is owned by R.J. Reynolds, which also makes cigarettes that kill by the hundreds of thousands.

Reynolds is now said to be accelerating its effort to do good as well as evil, but tobacco plants grow only so fast, and extracting and purifying antibodies is considerably more complicated than producing cancer sticks. Any significant quantity of ZMapp appears to be months away even if another company with a larger facility joins in the effort.

The question of the serum came up at the press conference President Obama held at the end of this week’s Africa Summit at the White House. He said it would be premature to rush ZMapp to the hot zone.

“Let the science guide us,” he went on to say. “I don't think all the information is in on whether this drug is helpful.”

He observed that previous epidemics had been brought under control by effective public health programs.

“We’re focusing on the public health approach right now, but I will continue to seek information about what we’re learning about these drugs going forward,” he said.

Obama did authorize sending kits for a diagnostic Ebola test called the EZ1 Real-Time RT-PCR Assay. His view that the primary focus should be on containment was echoed by the head of the Centers for Disease Control at an emergency congressional hearing held on Thursday even though lawmakers are in recess.

“In terms of the promising drugs, I can assure you that the U.S. government is looking into this very carefully,” Dr. Thomas Frieden said. “But I don’t want there to be false hope out there. Right now, we don’t know if they work.”

The CDC is moving to assist the fight by going to a Level 1 alert and “surging” 50 experts to West Africa. Frieden emphasized that containment will require great care.

“It’s like fighting a forest fire: Leave behind one burning ember, one case undetected, and the epidemic could reignite,” he said.

When it came his turn to testify, Ken Isaacs of Samaritan’s Purse wondered why the forest fire had been allowed to rage for months with little notice beyond those who were being consumed by it. The scandal is not that two white people got an untested serum, but that the deaths of so many black people were ignored until two white people got sick.

“It took two Americans getting the disease in order for the international community and the United States to take serious notice of the largest outbreak of the disease in history,” he said. “The disease is uncontained and out of control in West Africa.”

Isaacs, who is a vice president of the organization, spoke as someone who has been watching the fire rage for months and believes it will be harder to contain than many anticipate. He said that too many people in Western Africa remain suspicious of Western medicine and tied to traditional practices that spread the virus, notably the washing and kissing of the dead. He noted that even now university students in Liberia “continue to mock and deny the existence of Ebola.”

“I think we are going to see the death toll in numbers we cannot imagine,” Ken Isaacs said.

He noted that the disease can travel anywhere “at the speed of an airplane.” He said the ultimate goal should be an effective vaccine.

“In the meantime it is a nasty, bloody disease that we must fight now,” he said.

Unbelievable this selfish and foolish attitude. One would think a nurse's family, of all people, would be educated enough to know they should be running to health officials and isolation ward where they have a chance to survive. Why aren't their names and photos being published to apprehend them or has this turned into another Chibok where we cannot show the faces of those who need to be helped. I fear this ebola has now with certainty exposed Nigeria as the complete and utter mess that she is including the imbeciles like these who would run instead of sparing the lives of other Nigerians. Pure wickedness.

psucc: Why are we so scared and nervous?

Psalm 91.

May the good Lord save us in Jesus name amen.

I'm sure many good Christians and Muslims have been left dead in the streets of Liberia after dying of Ebola. Practice good hygiene along with prayers.

Just go to pharmacy and buy hydrogen peroxide in a brown bottle. It will probably be in an aqueous 7% solution. Dilute with about 2 parts water what you pour out of the brown bottle, and put the diluted to 3% in a spray bottle. Use this on your hands, spray on door knobs etc, and take it with you to spray down any items you need to touch in the street or bring into your house. You can spray it on fruits and vegetables. It is a natural virus killer and works as well as bleach but will not harm your fabrics or body if diluted properly. It does not smell like bleach. You can spray on sheets and pillow case etc. Do NOT pour the undiluted peroxide on your hands as it will slightly burn and turn thenm white but it goes away. It can be used as a mouth wash. Spray it on your toilet and sink, expexially full strength, and be prepared to me amazed as the liquid starts foaming wherever it finds bacteria and germs. This can be used on floors, all surfaces and is very safe and non toxic. Cleanliness and hygiene is needed, always, just take extra care and spray down any items you must touch in public places and open doors etc with a towel or paper. Better to be safe.

Ayatullah:

Sure now! GEJ will just be waving his hand and smiling........that's all he knows how to do.....may God save us from this man WOMAN

Please don't offend the 50% plus of women who occupy this planet o.

As everyone is worried over the ebola virus I wanted to share how you can disinfect your body, home and all items coming into your home or that you must touch. I am not trying to spread panic, just offering a very low cost solution with the disinfecting properties of bleach but that will not destroy fabrics and surfaces and can safely be used to soak fruits and vegetables which always should be cleaned well before using.
One can purchase an aqueous solution of hydrogen peroxide in most pharmacies in Lagos, even the smaller ones, in a brown bottle at usually a 7% solution. Caution should be taken with the 7% solution as if you get it on your fingers it will burn slightly and leave a white mark which will eventually go away. You do not want to disinfect your body. hands, or use in your mouth at 7%!

Two parts water to one part hydrogen peroxide will dilute it down to about 3% which is your goal for soaking fruits and vegetables (about 15 minutes), oral rinse, and hand washing. It can also safely be used to soak clothing in the wash and sprayed on sheets, pillowcases etc. I suggest carrying a spray of at least 3% for spraying or wiping down any handles, door knobs, mailboxes handles, etc. You can also use the 3% solution for very effective house cleaning and when sprayed on the toilet areas and sink, you will see a white foam that rises when it encounters dirt, germs, bacteria. This tells you it is working. Try to avoid public transport as much as possible and keep your distance between people on the street. Fine mist droplets from sneezing can travel very far. It is better to be cautious now than not. Everyone must work together to aide and halt the spread of this virus. Spraying surfaces you touch in public first and spraying down your hands with the solution will ensure you are killing any and all viruses and germs. Below is a brief blurb from wiki pedia on hydrogen peroxide uses.
Medical
Disinfectant

Hydrogen peroxide is seen as an environmentally safe alternative to chlorine-based bleaches. It can be used for the disinfection of various surfaces[32] and is generally recognized as safe as an antimicrobial agent by the U.S. FDA.[33] However studies have found it to be ineffective in certain cases and hospitals and other medical institutions are now being advised to use chlorine-based bleaches for disinfection.[34]

Historically, hydrogen peroxide was commonly used for disinfecting wounds, partly because of its low cost and ready availability compared to other antiseptics. It is now thought to slow healing and lead to scarring because it destroys newly formed skin cells.[35] Only a very low concentration of H2O2 can induce healing, and only if not repeatedly applied.[36] Surgical use can lead to gas embolism formation.[37]

It is absorbed by skin upon contact and creates a local capillary embolism that appears as a temporary whitening of the skin.[38]
Cosmetic applications

Diluted H
2O
2 (between 3% and 8%) mixed with ammonium hydroxide is used to bleach human hair. The chemical's bleaching property lends its name to the phrase "peroxide blonde".[39] Hydrogen peroxide is also used for tooth whitening and can be mixed with baking soda and salt to make a home-made a toothpaste.[40]

Hydrogen peroxide may be used to treat acne,[41] although benzoyl peroxide is a more common treatment.

all4naija: The truth is that most Nigerians are arrogants who have nothing to offer the world. It is still the same conspiracy theory that makes the country to remain one of the place where polio still thrives on earth today. The only country in Africa. What a bunch of backward and senseless i d i o t s!

The polio problem rests squarely on the calloused foreheads of the ignorant Muslims under the rule of the Northern Oligarchs. Not quite fair to lump the shari'a loving throat slitters and child wrappers in with the progressive and modern predominantly Christian S, SE, SW.