Disease

West Africa’s ebola outbreak is “totally out of control”

The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa is “totally out of control,” according to a senior official for Doctors Without Borders, who says and the medical group is stretched to the limit in its capacity to respond.

International organizations and the governments involved need to send in more health experts and to increase the public education messages about how to stop the spread of the disease, Bart Janssens, the director of operations for the group in Brussels, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Ebola has already been linked to more than 330 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization.

“The reality is clear that the epidemic is now in a second wave,” Janssens said. “And, for me, it is totally out of control.”

The outbreak, which began in Guinea either late last year or early this year, had appeared to slow before picking up pace again in recent weeks, including spreading to the Liberian capital for the first time.

TB crisis in South African mines

The incidence of TB among South Africa's mineworkers and their partners and children is the highest of any working population in the world.

For every worker who dies each year as a result of an accident on a South African mine, nine more die of tuberculosis, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Thursday.

"There are 41,810 cases of active TB in South African mines every year. It is eight percent of the national total, and one percent of the population.

"It is the highest incidence of TB in any working population in the world. It affects 500,000 mineworkers, their 230,000 partners, and 700,000 children."