Israelimedical

marijuanacreates
buzzbutnohigh
willitgoglobal?
(

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israeli-medical-

marijuana-creates-buzz-but-no-high-will-it-goglobal/2015/01/31/558fe072-a19a-11e4-9f89561284a573f8_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop)

Named Rafael, for a healing angel called upon by

Moses, this varietal of cannabis is for people who
dont want to be under the influence, and it is
available in oral doses in Israel.
Israel has become a world leader in science on the
medical uses of marijuana, and its producers could
become major exporters of medical cannabis, experts
say. But so far the government has allowed them to
export only their knowledge not the actual product.

Ebola outbreak: Virus

mutating, scientists warn
(http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31019097)

Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the

outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become
more contagious.
More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795
have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish
whether it's able to jump more easily from person to person
It's not unusual for viruses to change over a period time. Ebola is an
RNA virus - like HIV and influenza - which have a high rate of
mutation. That makes the virus more able to adapt and raises the
potential for it to become more contagious.

EbolaDrugTrialIsHaltedfor
LackofPatients
(http://nyti.ms/1DvaJoh)

A clinical trial in Liberia of a drug to treat Ebola has been

halted because of a sharp decline in the number of people
infected with the virus, and studies in West Africa of other
potential treatments are also facing problems finding
patients.
The halted trial was testing the antiviral drug brincidofovir at
a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia. The developer of the drug,
Chimerix, announced late Friday that it would no longer
participate in the study.
The World Health Organization reported last week that the
number of new cases in the three most affected countries
Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone had fallen below 100 a
week for the first time since June. In Liberia, there were only

four new cases in the seven days ending Jan. 25, the
organization said.

AsEbolaEbbsinAfrica,
FocusTurnsFromDeathto
Life(http://nyti.ms/1Ds3mxT)
MONROVIA, Liberia Life is edging back to normal after
the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history.
At the height of the epidemic, Liberians met horrific deaths
inside the blue-painted walls of the Nathaniel V. Massaquoi
Elementary School, as classrooms became Ebola holding
centers and the education of a nations children, shuttered in
their homes for safety, was abruptly suspended.
Now, parents are streaming into the schoolyard once again,
not to visit their stricken loved ones, but with their restless
children in tow, to register for the start of classes in a delayed
and shortened academic year.
New Ebola cases in Liberia, where streets were littered with
the dead just a few months ago, now number in the single
digits, according to the World Health Organization. In
neighboring Sierra Leone and Guinea, the other two nations
in the Ebola hot zone, new cases have fallen sharply in the
last month, dropping to fewer than 100 in a week at the end
of January a level not seen in the region since June.
With a virus as deadly as Ebola, officials warn that the
epidemic will not be over until cases reach zero in all three
countries. But after nearly 9,000 deaths from the disease,
the W.H.O. announced last week that it was focusing on a

goal that had seemed out of reach for much of last year:
ending the Ebola epidemic, no longer simply slowing its
spread.

HowtheFight
AgainstEbola
TestedaCultures
Traditions
(http://newsbeta.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/150130-ebola-virusoutbreak-epidemic-sierra-leone-funerals/)
ButAnokoandothersfamiliarwithlocalcustomshelpedhealth
officialsrealizethattheycouldnotcurbEbolauntiltheyfound
waystoaccommodatedeeplyheldbeliefsabouttheobligationsof
thelivingtothedyingandthedead.
Ashealthworkersandburialteamshavealteredtheirprocedures,
andaspolitical,tribal,andreligiousleaderspressedpeopleto
adapttheirtraditionalceremonies,thespreadofEbolahasbegunto
slow.
InthethreecountrieshithardestbyEbola,preparationsforburial
typicallyarecarriedoutbycommunitymemberswhohandlethe
deadwithbarehands,ratherthanbydoctors,morticians,and

funeralhomedirectors.Peoplewereunwillingtohavethose
practicescasuallytossedaside.ThatworkedinEbolasfavor.As
deathapproaches,viruslevelspeak.Anyonewhotouchesadroplet
ofsweat,blood,orsalivafromsomeoneabouttodieorjust
deceasedisathighriskofcontractingthedisease.
Tohealthauthorities,thesolutionwassimple.Withsomuchat
stake,scienceeclipsesreligion:Riskyritualsmustend.