JUST DIBS

Untested drugs can't be used in the midst of an outbreak, spokesman says Ebola drug ZMapp given to Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol Experimental drug had only been tested in monkeys (CNN)-- On Thursday, Dr. Kent Brantly thought he was going to die. It was the ninth day since the American missionary worker came down sick with Ebola in Liberia. His condition worsening by the minute, Brantly called his wife to say goodbye. Thankfully, the call was premature. Brantly is back on his feet -- literally -- after receiving a last-ditch, highly experimental drug. Another American missionary with Ebola got the same. Brantly's and Nancy Writebol's conditions significantly improved after receiving the medication, sources say. Brantly was able to walk into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after being evacuated to the United States last week, and Writebol is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday. On July 22, Brantlywoke up feeling feverish. Fearing the worst, Brantly immediately...

Vivid accounts of witnesses of the devastation being caused by the deadly Ebola virus in neighbouring Liberia reveal that health workers are heartlessly shunning persons suspected to be suffering from the disease. This, according to accounts gathered by the paper is partly responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in other African countries because dejected patients are forced to seek refuge elsewhere after being rejected by their country. Most of the patients, the paper gleaned are heading towards Ghana and Nigeria to find refuge in the health facilities in those countries. Orichos Neufville, a Liberian, sharing his experiences on the epidemic to theDAILY HERITAGEon the sidelines of the 4th Summit of All-Africa Students Union in Accra, said some of the medical personnel claim they have not been provided with adequate logistics needed to protect themselves. “When a person reports to the clinic with the Ebola virus in clinics in remote areas, you have medical doctors virtually runni...

Dr. Alan Jamison says he volunteered in the Liberian capital of Monrovia He returned to the United States on July 25 He plans to be in isolation for 21 days Two American medical workers have been infected with Ebola in West Africa (CNN)-- A retired American doctor who was working with Ebola patients in West Africa returned to the United States -- and put himself in quarantine. Dr. Alan Jamison volunteered in the Liberian capital of Monrovia this month as part of an international medical group.He returned to the United States on July 25, according to Medical Teams International, the organization he worked with. MTI declined to discuss details of how Jamison traveled back to the United States, including whether he was on a commercial flight. Jamison, 69, said he's had no symptoms of the deadly virus, but has been in seclusion since he returned to his hometown of Morristown, Tennessee. He plans to be in isolation for 21 days, which is the incubation period for the disease -- or the ti...

A second U.S. missionary who contracted Ebola in Liberia has arrived back in the United States. Nancy Writebol traveled on a specially outfitted plane that landed in the southeastern city of Atlanta on Tuesday. She will be treated at Emory University Hospital, alongside an American doctor who also contracted the deadly virus while treating patients in Liberia. Both received a dose of an experimental serum before leaving Liberia. On Monday, officials at a New York City hospital said a man suffering from a high fever and gastrointestinal problems arrived at the emergency room and was quickly isolated. They say the patient recently traveled to a West African country where Ebola has been reported, and is now undergoing tests to determine the cause of his illness. No other details about the man were given. Authorities in Nigeria Monday reported the country's second confirmed case of Ebola -- a doctor who treated the first patient who died July 25 in Lagos. Eight others are being monitor...

Liberia's government has ordered that all bodies of people killed by the Ebola virus must be cremated. The decision follows the refusal of some communities to allow the burial of Ebola victims on their land. Meanwhile, Nigeria says it has a second Ebola case - that of one of the doctors who treated a man who died from Ebola after his arrival from Liberia. This year's outbreak, the worst ever, has centred on Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing 887 people. It spreads by contact with infected blood and bodily fluids - and touching the body of someone who has died of Ebola is particularly dangerous. Nigeria's Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said that 70 people have been traced who came into contact with the man who died there, Patrick Sawyer, eight of whom are now in isolation. Sawyer, an employee of the Liberian finance ministry, had arrived in Lagos from Monrovia after changing planes in Togo's capital, Lome, on 20 July and died five days later in quarantine. As pa...

Nigerian authorities on Monday confirmed a second case of Ebola in Africa's most populous country, an alarming setback as officials across the region battle to stop the spread of a disease that has killed more than 700 people. Also Monday, health authorities in Liberia ordered that all those who die from Ebola be cremated after communities opposed having the bodies buried nearby. Over the weekend, health authorities in the West African country encountered resistance while trying to bury 22 bodies in Johnsonville, outside the capital Monrovia. Military police helped restore order. In Nigeria, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said test samples are pending for three other people who had shown symptoms of Ebola, and that authorities are trying to trace and quarantine others. The confirmed second case in Nigeria is a doctor who had helped treat Patrick Sawyer, the Liberian-American man who died July 25 days after arriving in Nigeria from Liberia. "Three others who participated in t...