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LETTER FROM NAIROBI: Ebola outbreak sparks political controversies
BY MUTHONI MAINGI, 26 AUGUST 2014, 05:21
snip
While Kenya?s capacity to manage the disease has been questioned repeatedly in multiple public forums, it has reportedly placed its laboratories on high alert and dispatched protective medical gear to its border provinces after an outbreak of Ebola in neighbouring Uganda killed at least 14 people.
Measures to detect the virus, including raising awareness and screenings at airports and border crossings, have been "invigorated" since the disease was detected in western Uganda on July 6, according to Shikanga O-tipo, the head of the integrated disease surveillance unit at Kenya?s Ministry of Public Health.
In recent news, Kenya?s effort to shield its citizens from the Ebola epidemic took a new turn after a businessman accused the US government of owning the virus that has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa and caused havoc in the aviation industry.
snip
Aura told the court that the US government had patented the Ebola virus, its vaccine and cure in October 2012 and should be compelled to bring the health crisis to a stop instead of targeting the national carrier. "Ebola is patented under the US patent number WO 2010048615 A2 as confirmed by the US patent office and in the same document is an explanation of a cure and vaccine for Ebobun Ebola," said Harrison Kinyanjui, the lawyer representing Aura. The World Health Organisation has maintained that there is no licensed cure for the disease.
But Aura?s claims may have some validity, as two US aid workers who contracted the Ebola virus while in West Africa were discharged from an Atlanta hospital after they had recovered and were not contagious. They had been given an experimental anti-Ebola drug, ZMapp
? Maingi is a Nairobi-based brand management and strategy expert
http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/col...ebola-outbreak-sparks-political-controversies
BY MUTHONI MAINGI, 26 AUGUST 2014, 05:21
snip
While Kenya?s capacity to manage the disease has been questioned repeatedly in multiple public forums, it has reportedly placed its laboratories on high alert and dispatched protective medical gear to its border provinces after an outbreak of Ebola in neighbouring Uganda killed at least 14 people.
Measures to detect the virus, including raising awareness and screenings at airports and border crossings, have been "invigorated" since the disease was detected in western Uganda on July 6, according to Shikanga O-tipo, the head of the integrated disease surveillance unit at Kenya?s Ministry of Public Health.
In recent news, Kenya?s effort to shield its citizens from the Ebola epidemic took a new turn after a businessman accused the US government of owning the virus that has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa and caused havoc in the aviation industry.
snip
Aura told the court that the US government had patented the Ebola virus, its vaccine and cure in October 2012 and should be compelled to bring the health crisis to a stop instead of targeting the national carrier. "Ebola is patented under the US patent number WO 2010048615 A2 as confirmed by the US patent office and in the same document is an explanation of a cure and vaccine for Ebobun Ebola," said Harrison Kinyanjui, the lawyer representing Aura. The World Health Organisation has maintained that there is no licensed cure for the disease.
But Aura?s claims may have some validity, as two US aid workers who contracted the Ebola virus while in West Africa were discharged from an Atlanta hospital after they had recovered and were not contagious. They had been given an experimental anti-Ebola drug, ZMapp
? Maingi is a Nairobi-based brand management and strategy expert
http://www.bdlive.co.za/opinion/col...ebola-outbreak-sparks-political-controversies
