EBOLA: Clearing the Path for US Corporate Investments in Africa?

This new sub-clade is very, very different from standard Ebola. And it looks like it just might have come from our labs - for use in Kenema Hospital in Sierra Leone and the Irrua Hospital in Nigeria. Check out the "Ethics constraints" and the VHFC:

Molecular Diagnostics for Lassa Fever at Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Nigeria: Lessons Learnt from Two Years of Laboratory Operation

……..The study was classified as a service evaluation and granted exemption from ethical review by the Research and Ethics Committee of ISTH. …….Service evaluation is exempt from ethical review according to the National Code of Health Research Ethics, National Health Research Ethics Committee, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria.

MORE:

…….Only the laboratory at the hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, which has become operational since 2004 (after civil war forced its closure in 1993), is able to perform Lassa fever testing for patients [30]. In Nigeria, the situation improved with the implementation of Lassa virus PCR testing at a research laboratory of the University of Lagos, which facilitated retrospective laboratory confirmation of Lassa fever cases in various parts of the country [31], [32]. However, none of the hospitals in the endemic areas of Nigeria has the capacity to perform Lassa virus tests.
….In 2007, the management of ISTH was dissatisfied with the level of response and attention given to Lassa fever and took bold steps to address the situation. Amongst these was the establishment of the Institute of Lassa Fever Research and Control (ILFRC).
…….The diagnostic and research laboratory (in Nigeria) was built in 2008 and started operation in September 2008.
……..The study was classified as a service evaluation and granted exemption from ethical review by the Research and Ethics Committee of ISTH. …….Service evaluation is exempt from ethical review according to the National Code of Health Research Ethics, National Health Research Ethics Committee, Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria.
. …Pilot investigations initiated in 2003 by the University of Lagos, ISTH, and BNI suggested that Edo State is a hot-spot for Lassa fever [31].

Corgenix, VHFC receive $2.9M NIH grant to develop Ebola rapid diagnostic test kit

File under "Side Benefits."

Ebola drugmaker's shares close up 45%

Seems to be moving along quite nicely - from scooping a growing pool of guinea pigs on up to and including pitching industrial agriculture and factory farms as "safer" than the natural stuff. All predictable and predicted.

Make way for the all-new Africa.




[sad]

originally posted by: Elton
Population of Africa: 1,111,000,000
Known Ebola Infections: Less than 2000
Known Ebola Deaths: Less than 1000

They need to pick a better disease.

If this is a "new" Ebola, with a long-term incubation, this could be the perfect one...

As I wrote in my novel 3 years ago....

originally posted by: Elton
Population of Africa: 1,111,000,000
Known Ebola Infections: Less than 2000
Known Ebola Deaths: Less than 1000

They need to pick a better disease.

Hmmm. Ya think?

Ebola crisis vastly underestimated, says WHO

The scale of the Ebola outbreak appears to be "vastly underestimated", the UN's health agency says, as the death toll from the disease reaches 1,069.

The World Health Organization said its staff had seen evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths do not reflect the scale of the crisis.

Also of interest, as regards future opportunities for investing in West Africa's "economic recovery," aka "economic colonization" of the region.

Ebola and the economics of fear

In the world of business, there is a saying that markets are driven by fear and greed. As shares in drug companies surge, the Ebola virus has already unleashed the power of greed. And as we watch the coverage of the disease move into what many commentators have labeled irrational hysteria, some people are finding ways to tap the power of fear.

Joel Kettner of the International Centre for Infectious Diseases in Winnipeg says that when it comes to infectious diseases, fear is not clearly good or clearly bad.

"It can be both," he says.

....International rating agency Moody's has warned that besides the death toll, the outbreak will cause "critical commercial and transport disruptions" in the affected West African countries, leading to "significant" economic and fiscal damage.

London Mining,which runs a mine in Sierra Leone near Kenema, expects bigger losses in the second half of 2014. …Too bad the Ebola epidemic was covered up til it went out of control. But no doubt there's a back up plan to make lemonade out of the sour mess.

Ebola leads to profit loses at London Mining

IRON ore producer London Mining has reported widening first-half losses and warned that the deadly Ebola virus could hit its production in the second half of the year.

….The stock market listed company reported losses of £7.6million in the first half compared with a loss of £1.75million the year before as it was hit by lower prices.

Revenues at the firm, which runs a mine in Sierra Leone, fell 22 per cent to £67million.