Disease

Ebola: Who is patient zero?

Before the virus ravaged West Africa, before the deaths soared into the thousands, before the outbreak triggered global fears, Ebola struck a toddler named Emile Ouamouno.

Virtually no one knew the 2-year-old by name. Now the world knows him as patient zero.

Researchers from The New England Journal of Medicine believe Emile was the first person to contract the disease in the current outbreak almost a year ago.

It's not clear exactly how the boy, who lived in a rainforest village in southern Guinea, got infected.

Ebola can be spread from animals to humans through infected fluids or tissue.

"In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines," according to the World Health Organization.

In December, Emile had a fever, black stool and started vomiting. Four days later, on December 6, he was dead.

Within a month, so were his 4-year-old sister, his mother and his grandmother.

The mother suffered bleeding symptoms and died on December 13. Then, the toddler's 3-year-old sister died December 29, with symptoms including fever, vomiting and black diarrhea. The grandmother passed away January 1.

Taiwan - Dengue Fever Outbreak

Taiwan’s Centre for Disease Control (CDC) on Tuesday raised the alarm level over an epidemic of dengue fever, which has caused seven deaths this year.

As of Tuesday, Taiwan has reported 7,439 cases of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral disease. Among them, there were 59 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever, a potentially fatal complication, including seven deaths in the southern city of Kaohsiung.

CDC Director-General Steve Kuo said the number of cases of this year’s outbreak had broken Taiwan’s 2002 record, when over 6,000 cases, including 19 deaths, were reported.