Impact likened to HIV’s

GENEVA — As the number of Ebola patients continues to climb in West Africa, concern is growing among medical and development experts that the scourge could become as serious as the one posed by HIV a decade ago – and could be far more difficult to control.

The prospect engenders fears not only that Ebola will become a constant presence in the region, but that it also will sap what little economic energy exists in the poor nations where it is currently felt most seriously: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Experts note that the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept southern Africa in the early 2000s required billions in international aid to bring under control and remains a major health concern.

Virus may evolve, worsen

NEW YORK — The Ebola virus circulating in West Africa is already different from previous strains.

While scientists don’t fully understand what the changes mean, some are concerned that alterations in the virus that occur as that pathogen continues to evolve could pose new dangers.

Researchers have identified more than 300 new viral mutations in the latest strain of Ebola, according to research published in the journal Science last month. They are rushing to investigate if this strain produces higher virus levels – which could increase its infectiousness.

So far, there is no scientific data to indicate that. The risk, though, is that the longer the epidemic continues, the greater the chance that the virus could change in a way that makes it more transmissible between humans, making it harder to stop, said Charles Chiu, an infectious disease physician who studies Ebola at the University of California at San Francisco.

“If the outbreak continues for a prolonged period of time or it becomes endemic, it may mutate into a form that is more virulent,” said Chiu. “It is really hard to predict.”

Farmers abandon fields

DES MOINES, Iowa — Financial aid and global coordination are needed to prevent the Ebola health care crisis from becoming a food emergency, agriculture ministers from western African nations at the center of the Ebola epidemic said Thursday.

In Sierra Leone, where thousands are infected and more than 900 have died, 40 percent of the nation’s farmers have abandoned their fields, said Joseph Sam Sesay, minister of agriculture, forestry and food security.

The region that grows coffee and cocoa beans has been struck hard.

– From news service reports

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