Researcher working on Ebola
Yonhap News reported on the 21st that there have been several cases in which Ebola patients have been completely treated from the epidemic in West African countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone. Hope has sparked in West Africa after researchers had managed to obtain blood samples from people who were immune to the virus.
AP reported that approximately 45 patients have been released from a major health center in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone on the 21st alone. Hastings Health Center has had in total over 130 Ebola patients completely treated and sent back to their homes.
Liberia is one of the countries with the most Ebola patients in the world. Just the patients from the 3 nations, Liberia, Guinea, and Sienna Leone alone reached 9,000. Over 4,500 of these patients were lost from the disease. AP expressed that there is hope for the treatment of Ebola which is terrifying not only Africa but even the United States, Europe and all nations of the world.
According to a report that was released by UNICEF, around 3,700 children are receiving care at a shelter in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. These are all children who had lost parents because of the Ebola. It is reported that Ebola survivors are looking after these orphans. A rising issue in West Africa is that the fear of contamination is even breaking families apart, and exclusions of Ebola patients and even those who were treated has become more and more commonplace.
AP however noted that many Africans are now viewing these orphaned children as a symbol of hope for the world, that the Ebola can be treated. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that now that they had acquired blood samples of patients who had become immune to the virus, they would be able to develop a vaccine by December, if all went according to plan.
Meanwhile, the mortality rate from the Ebola Virus is still approximately 50 percent, with 4,877 patients dead so far.
