Topic description and stories

Housing in Kenema, Sierra Leone

Lassa fever controls need to consider human to human transmission and the role of ‘super spreaders’, say researchers

15 Jan 2015

One in five cases of Lassa fever – a disease that kills around 5,000 people a year in West Africa – could be due to human-to-human transmission, with...

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Young men of Sierra Leone bury Ebola casualties

IMF lending undermined healthcare provision in Ebola-stricken West Africa

22 Dec 2014

Researchers criticise reforms advocated by IMF for chronically under-funded and insufficiently staffed health systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra...

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Notes from Makeni: Fighting Ebola in West Africa

15 Dec 2014

A University of Cambridge scientist is helping the efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.

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Straw coloured fruit bat

Understanding the bushmeat market: why do people risk infection from bat meat?

09 Oct 2014

Ebola, as with many emerging infections, is likely to have arisen due to man’s interaction with wild animals – most likely the practice of hunting...

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Common chimpanzee

Ebola vaccine success highlights dilemma of testing on captive chimps to save wild apes

26 May 2014

Study illustrates “high conservation potential” of vaccines for endangered wild primates devastated by viral disease, but highlights need for access...

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