Ebola: Osun Osogbo Festival Organisers Warn Outsiders to Stay Away.

Organisers of one of Nigeria’s most famous cultural festivals on Monday said they were warning outsiders to stay away because of fears about Ebola.
Tens of thousands of visitors from Nigeria and abroad were expected at this year’s annual Osun Osogbo festival in the Osogbo, the capital of southwestern Osun state.
But with 12 confirmed cases of the deadly tropical virus in nearby Lagos, including four deaths, state culture and tourism commissioner Ayedun Sikiru Adetona said authorities had introduced curbs on visitors.


“We do not want to entertain any visitor this year during the festival,” he told AFP ahead of the grand finale to the ancient Yoruba festival on Friday.
The Yoruba, who live predominantly in the southwest, are one of Nigeria’s three main ethnic groups along with the Igbo in the east and the Hausa in the north.
“We want only Osogbo residents to attend,” said the commissioner.
“We will be able to entertain or host visitors from Nigeria and from outside the country in the future after we have successfully battled this deadly virus.”
Adetona said the decision was taken as a precautionary measure “to prevent the introduction of the Ebola virus into the state”.
State information commissioner Sunday Akere added that road transport unions and members of the ethnic Yoruba militia group Oodua Peoples Congress had been told not to attend.
Both make up the bulk of the crowds.
“We have launched radio and television jingles to discourage people from attending the event this year. We have also urged hotels in the state not to admit visitors at this time,” said Akere.
Anyone attending the event, which the Yoruba see as a traditional cleansing of the city and reunion with their ancestors, will have to undergo health checks.
That includes temperature testing, hand-washing with sanitiser and more rigorous policing of crowds to minimise bodily contact.
More than 20,000 people attended last year’s festival and more had been predicted to attend this year.
The Osun river goddess is believed to be a deity that aids fertility for couples who drink water from the river.
The festival takes in the Osun Osogbo grove, a sacred forest and UNESCO World Heritage Site on the outskirts of Osogbo dotted with shrines and sculptures in honour of Yoruba deities.

Untested Drugs Can Be Used ToTreat Patients Infected With The Ebola Virus-WHO

Untested drugs can be used to treat patients infected with the Ebola virus, the World Health Organization says.

The WHO said it was ethical in light of the scale of the outbreak and high number of deaths - over 1,000 people have died in west Africa..
The statement was made after its medical experts met in Switzerland on Monday to discuss the issue.
The move came as Liberia said it was getting an experimental drug, Zmapp, after requests to the US government.
The WHO said where experimental treatments are used there must be informed consent and the results of the treatment collected and shared.
In a statement, it said: "In the particular circumstances of this outbreak, and provided certain conditions are met, the panel reached consensus that it is ethical to offer unproven interventions with as yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects, as potential treatment or prevention."
Last week the WHO declared the Ebola outbreak was a global health emergency.
What drugs exist currently ?
There a handful of drugs that have been shown to work well in animals.
One is Zmapp - the drug requested by the Liberian government. This contains a cocktail of antibodies which attack proteins on the surface of the virus.
Only one experimental drug has moved into early human testing. Known as TKM-Ebola this interrupts the genetic code of the virus and prevents it from making disease causing proteins.
The drug was tested on healthy human volunteers at the beginning of 2014 but the American medicines regulator asked for further safety information. The drug company says human trials may soon resume.
Vaccines to protect against acquiring the disease have also been shown to work in primates. American authorities are considering fast-tracking their development and say they could be in use in 2016.
But experts say ultimately the only way to be sure a drug or vaccine is effective is to see if it works in countries affected by Ebola.

There is no cure for Ebola, which has infected at least 1,779 people since the outbreak was first reported in Guinea in February.
'Hard place' The Liberian government said it was aware of the risks associated with Zmapp, but the alternative was to allow many more people to die.
"The alternative for not testing this is death, a certain death," Information Minister Lewis Brown told the BBC.
"This is not even the rock and the hard place for us.
"We think those who have been infected should be given the chance to have that tested on them if they give their consent to do so.
"We know there may be risks associated with it," the minister added, "but choosing a risk and choosing dying I am sure many would prefer to see that risk happen".
Ebola's initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure. Patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early Treatment.
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Ebola: Spanish Priest Succumbs to Ebola Virus In Madrid!

A Spanish missionary who contracted the Ebola virus while working in West Africa has died in hospital in Madrid.

More than 1,000 people have died in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria since the outbreak was first reported in February.
Miguel Pajares, 75, was airlifted back to Spain from Liberia last week with a nun who tested negative for the virus.
For the past few days he had been treated with an untested, experimental drug, Zmapp.
A World Health Organization (WHO) panel in Geneva has meanwhile approved the ethics of using ZMapp.
According to the Reuters news agency, the panel said it was ethical to combat the Ebola outbreak by offering drugs or vaccines whose side-effects and efficacy had yet to be proven.
The priest was part of a Catholic order at St Joseph's hospital in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
The hospital has now been closed because of the outbreak.
A Congolese nun died there on Saturday, days after its director, Patrick Nshamdze, also died.
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