NEWS: World Health Organization Say "Ebola Death Toll Has Passed The 1,500 Mark"

The death toll from the Ebola outbreak tearing through West Africa has passed the 1,500 mark while the number of cases has soared past 3,000, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

“The outbreak continues to accelerate,” the UN health body said in its latest update on the killer virus.

As of August 26, a total of 1,552 people had died in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria from the epidemic that reared its head at the beginning of the year, while 3,062 had become infected.

On August 20, the toll stood at 1,427 deaths out of 2,600 cases.

A separate outbreak of Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 13 people have died, was not included in Thursday’s tally.

“More than 40 percent of the total number of cases have occurred within the past 21 days,” WHO said, adding that most cases were concentrated in just a few localities.

It said the overall fatality rate stood at 52 percent, but varied from 66 percent in Guinea, where the outbreak began, to 42 percent in Sierra Leone.

To date, Guinea has 648 cases including 430 deaths, while Sierra Leon has seen 1,026 cases and 422 deaths.

Liberia has so far counted 1,378 cases and 694 deaths, while Nigeria has seen 17 cases and six deaths, WHO said!

NEWS: Researches Say "Ebola Vaccine Trials Being Fast Tracked"

Safety trials on an Ebola vaccine are being fast-tracked, meaning it could be given to healthy volunteers as early as September, researchers said Thursday.

The vaccine will be given to volunteers in Britain, the Gambia and Mali in a bid to tackle the spread of an epidemic which has spread across west Africa, killing 1,552 so far.

Researchers hope the trials could finish by the end of 2014.

If they are successful, the vaccine could then be given to people infected with Ebola, which is spread through bodily fluids.

The move was announced by pharmaceuticals giant GlaxoSmithKline — which is developing the vaccine with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) — and London-based medical charity Wellcome Trust, which is contributing to a grant to pay for the trials.

“A candidate Ebola vaccine could be given to healthy volunteers in the UK, the Gambia and Mali as early as September, as part of a series of safety trials of potential vaccines,” the statement said.

A total of 3,062 cases have so far been reported but the World Health Organization warned Thursday that the caseload could eventually exceed 20,000.

The trials, which still need ethical and regulatory approval, will be funded by a £2.8 million (3.5 million euro, $4.6 million) grant from the Wellcome Trust, Britain’s Medical Research Council (MRC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

The Oxford study will involve 60 healthy volunteers, while those in the Gambia and Mali will each involve 40.

This will also allow GSK to make some 10,000 extra doses of the vaccine so that if the trials are successful, it could be made available to the WHO quickly.

Safety tests of the vaccine will take place at Oxford University alongside a US trial run by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

NEWS: Van Vicker Quits Movie Set Because Of Ebola

It thus sounds like many of the jokes being peddled about the Ebola scare but award winning Ghanaian actor, Van Vicker, doesn’t see anything about the virus as a joke.

The actor who has a Liberian lineage, has made it open that he is scared of going back to Liberia to shoot the second part of his movie, ‘Bendu Sudan’ because of the deadly Ebola virus ravaging the country, it would be recalled that the actor openly announced that he would be shooting the second part of the film in Liberia after shooting the first part in Ghana.

“Ebola is a deadly disease,you can’t joke with it. I have been to Liberia several times to do casting and production meetings, and all was scheduled to go for shoot this month, but because of the Ebola threat, I don’t want to take chances shooting in Liberia. I pray that the good Lord saves us all. I will be going back to shoot the part 2 once the Ebola issues are solved” he said!

NEWS: Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh Dies From Ebola

Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu has announced the death, of Dr.  Ameyo Adadevoh, the firts doctor who attended to Liberian-American Patrick Sawyer.

With her death, Nigeria has recorded five Ebola deaths, of which one was the index (first) case, Patrick Sawyer, one medical doctor, two nurses and the ECOWAS staff.

Nigeria also has five Ebola survivors and three more expected to be discharged later this week.

Dr. Adadevoh, an experienced consultant physician and endocrinologist was Lead Consultant with First Consultants Medical Centre, Obalende, Lagos.

She came into the limelight shortly after the dramatic visit of Sawyer, and will be remembered for saving Nigeria from imminent Ebola epidemic!