Soccer legend Pelé's health improving, still in intensive care

SAO PAULO Sat Nov 29, 2014 6:19pm EST

Brazilian soccer legend Pele laughs during the inauguration of a refurbished soccer field at the Mineira slum in Rio de Janeiro September 10, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Ricardo Moraes
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian soccer legend Pelé's health continued to improve on Saturday although he remained in an intensive care unit to allow doctors to monitor a urinary tract infection, the hospital said.
The 74-year-old three-time World Cup champion is receiving renal support treatment to help his kidneys filter waste products from the blood. He underwent surgery earlier this month to remove kidney stones.
According to a statement released by São Paulo's Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Pelé - often called the greatest soccer player in history - is "lucid, talking, and his respiratory and blood readings are stable." A treatment with antibiotics remained unaltered, the statement said.
The renal treatment could be stopped early on Sunday, the hospital said in a separate statement.
Pelé, who was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, has struggled with many health problems over the past decade. He has had emergency eye surgery for a detached retina and a hip replacement.
Known in Brazil as the "King of soccer," he played in four World Cups and scored over 1,000 goals during his career.
(Reporting by Guillermo Parra-Bernal; Editing by Pravin Char and Gunna Dickson)

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U.S. government probes medical devices for possible cyber flaws

By Jim Finkle
BOSTON Wed Oct 22, 2014 7:11am EDT

1 of 10. Jay Radcliffe displays a Medtronic Corp insulin pump at his home in Meridian, Idaho October 10, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Brian Losness
BOSTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is investigating about two dozen cases of suspected cybersecurity flaws in medical devices and hospital equipment that officials fear could be exploited by hackers, a senior official at the agency told Reuters.
The products under review by the agency's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team, or ICS-CERT, include an infusion pump from Hospira Inc and implantable heart devices from Medtronic Inc and St Jude Medical Inc, according to other people familiar with the cases, who asked not to be identified because the probes are confidential.
These people said they do not know of any instances of hackers attacking patients through these devices, so the cyber threat should not be overstated. Still, the agency is concerned that malicious actors may try to gain control of the devices remotely and create problems, such as instructing an infusion pump to overdose a patient with drugs, or forcing a heart implant to deliver a deadly jolt of electricity, the sources said.
The senior DHS official said the agency is working with manufacturers to identify and repair software coding bugs and other vulnerabilities that hackers can potentially use to expose confidential data or attack hospital equipment. He declined to name the companies.
"These are the things that shows like 'Homeland' are built from," said the official, referring to the U.S. television spy drama in which the fictional vice president of the United States is killed by a cyber attack on his pacemaker.
"It isn't out of the realm of the possible to cause severe injury or death," said the official, who did not want to be identified due to the sensitive nature of his work.
Hospira, Medtronic and St Jude Medical declined to comment on the DHS investigations. All three companies said they take cybersecurity seriously and have made changes to improve product safety, but declined to give details.
CONNECTED DEVICES
ICS-CERT's mandate is to help protect critical U.S. infrastructure from cyber threats, whether they are introduced through human error, virus infections, or through attacks by criminals or extremists.
According to the senior DHS official, the agency started examining healthcare equipment about two years ago, when cybersecurity researchers were becoming more interested in medical devices that increasingly contained computer chips, software, wireless technology and Internet connectivity, making them more susceptible to hacking.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the sale of medical devices, recently released guidelines for manufacturers and healthcare providers to better secure medical devices and is holding its first public conference on the topic this week.
"The conventional wisdom in the past was that products only had to be protected from unintentional threats. Now they also have to be protected from intentional threats too," said William Maisel, chief scientist at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. He declined to comment on the DHS reviews.
The senior DHS official said the two dozen cases currently under investigation cover a wide range of equipment, including medical imaging equipment and hospital networking systems. A DHS review does not imply the government thinks a company has done anything wrong - it means the agency is looking into a suspected vulnerability to try to help rectify it.
One of the cases involves an alleged vulnerability in a type of infusion pump, a piece of hospital equipment that delivers medication directly into a patient's bloodstream. Private cybersecurity researcher Billy Rios said he discovered the alleged bug but declined to identify the manufacturer of the pump. Two people familiar with his research said the manufacturer was Hospira.
    Rios said he wrote a program that could remotely force multiple pumps to dose patients with potentially lethal amounts of drugs. He submitted his analysis to the DHS.
    "This is a issue that is going to be extremely difficult to patch," said Rios, a former Marine platoon commander who has worked for several Silicon Valley technology firms and recently founded security startup Laconicly.
    Reuters was not able to independently review his research or identify the type of pump Rios studied from Hospira's line, which includes multiple models.
Hospira spokeswoman Tareta Adams, while declining to comment on specifics, said the company is working to improve the security of its products.
"Hospira has implemented software adjustments, distributed customer communications and made a commitment to evaluate other changes going forward, while ensuring we are not adversely impacting the ability of our devices to meet hospital and patient needs, and maintain compliance with FDA product requirements," Adams said in the statement.
MORE AWARENESS
Hospital security officers say there is increasing awareness about cyber threats, and medical centers around the country have been shoring up networks to better defend against hackers.
At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, all medical devices will soon need to be tested to make sure they meet security standards before they can be put on the hospital's network, according to Lessley Stoltenberg, the center's chief information security officer.
"I'm pretty concerned," said Stoltenberg. "Coming out of the block, medical devices don't really have security built into them."
The DHS is also reviewing suspected vulnerabilities in implantable heart devices from Medtronic and St Jude Medical, according to two people familiar with the matter.
They said the probe was based in part on research by Barnaby Jack, a well-known hacker who died in July 2013. Jack had said he could hack into wireless communications systems that link implanted pacemakers and defibrillators with bedside monitors.
Medtronic spokeswoman Marie Yarroll said in an email that the company has "made changes to enhance the security" of its implantable cardiac devices, but declined to give specifics "in the interest of patient safety."
St. Jude Medical spokeswoman Candace Steele Flippin also declined to discuss specific products but said the company has "an ongoing program to perform extensive security testing on our medical devices and networked equipment. If a risk is identified, we will issue patches for any known issues."
CHENEY'S DEFIBRILLATOR
Experts said it is important that security vulnerabilities in medical devices are exposed so manufacturers can fix them, but many said there was no need for patients to panic.
"It's very easy to sort of sensationalize these problems," said Kevin Fu, who runs the Archimedes Research Center for Medical Device Security at the University of Michigan.
Still, worries about cybersecurity have made some individuals wary of medical devices with wireless and Internet connections.
In 2007, then-U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney ordered some of the wireless features to be disabled on his defibrillator due to security concerns. When asked if he would recommend other patients do the same, Cheney said not necessarily.
"You've got to look at all eventualities and do whatever you have to safeguard the capabilities of the individual," Cheney told Reuters on Tuesday. "In terms of how it would affect others, I think the president and vice president are in relatively unique circumstances."
Cyber researcher Jay Radcliffe used to be among the hundreds of thousands of diabetics relying on computerized insulin pumps. He said he stopped using his Medtronic pump after he found that he could hack into its wireless communications system and potentially dump fatal doses of insulin into his body.
"I don't feel safe wearing these devices," said Radcliffe, who works for Rapid7, a security software maker. "It's better for me to stick myself with a needle."
Medtronic said it has made security improvements to its insulin pumps, though the company declined to give specifics.
George Grunberger, who has led the insulin pump management task force of the American Association of Clinical Endocrynologists, said he believes the benefits of pumps far outweigh any cyber risks, so he would not advise patients to follow Radcliffe's example.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Tiffany Wu)

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Medical charity says has reached limit in fight against Ebola

By Robert-Jan Bartunek

BRUSSELS Wed Oct 15, 2014 2:50pm EDT

1 of 3. Un volontario di Medici senza frontiere (Msf) viene addestrato su come gestire l'attrezzatura protettiva durante un corso a Bruxelles.

Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Medecins Sans Frontieres, a medical charity that has been at the forefront in the fight against Ebola in West Africa, said it was reaching its limit and urgently needed other organizations to step up the efforts against the deadly disease.

The organization currently operates six centers in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, with a total of 600 beds. Its personnel on the ground have grown from about 650 at the start of August to about 3,000 currently.

"We have increased our capacity a lot," said Brice de le Vingne, director of operations for MSF, which is also known as Doctors Without Borders. "Now we have reached our ceiling."

De le Vingne called on other actors, such as governments and international organizations, to up their game.

"They are deploying as we speak, but we still don't see the results on the field," he said. "The speed of the deployment is still lower than the speed of the epidemic, and that is problematic."

The Ebola epidemic is still spreading, and projections show there could be 5,000 to 10,000 new cases a week in early December, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

De le Vingne coordinates missions for MSF and oversees a facility in Brussels that trains volunteers heading for the affected areas. It is the only such training center in Europe, although others, operated by different organizations, are set to open in Geneva and Berlin.

Medecins Sans Frontieres has been accumulating expertise in fighting Ebola outbreaks since 1995. Protocols have been developed on such crucial issues as disinfecting nurses and doctors after they've been in contact with the sick.

At the Brussels training center, a group of trainees were being taught on Wednesday how to enter an Ebola field hospital and how to leave without infecting themselves. They learned how to carefully remove layer after layer of a thick protective suit, repeatedly washing their gloves in a chlorine solution.

All the trainees, whether doctors, nurses or psychologists, have been on missions with MSF before. But working at an Ebola field hospital is particularly challenging.

Already sweating under rubber aprons and face masks on a relatively chilly afternoon, they were reminded by the trainers that Africa will be much hotter, with temperatures at 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) or more.

"We limit the number of times that we suit up and go into that actual high-risk zone where the patients themselves are to just a couple of times a day, so as not to risk over-heating," said Paul Brockmann, one of the trainees who will head out to Sierra Leone on Friday.

The psychological and physical stress is one of the reasons training missions are limited to about six weeks per turn, though some have gone on more than one turn.

Even with the strict protocols, one of MSF's Norwegian staff members was diagnosed with the disease in early October. The organization said it was investigating the incident.

"I'm a bit scared of what I will be seeing, because I know that there's a lot of human suffering that I will be witnessing, and I'm also scared for out staff," said Carla Uriarte a psychologist who is set to leave for Sierra Leone in November.

"I know that some of our local staff died, not necessarily because they get infected in the center but because they are part of the community so that is the part that scares me the most."

(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Additional reporting by Miranda Alexander-Webber; Editing by Larry King)

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West Africa Ebola deaths near 4,500: WHO

ABIDJAN Wed Oct 15, 2014 2:49pm EDT

A health worker in protective equipment carries a sample taken from the body of someone who is suspected to have died from Ebola virus, near Rokupa Hospital, Freetown October 6, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Christopher Black/WHO/Handout via Reuters

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - A total of 4,493 people have died from the world's worst Ebola outbreak on record as of Oct. 12, statistics released by the World Health Organization showed on Wednesday.

WHO said a total of 8,997 confirmed, probable and suspected cases of Ebola had been reported in seven countries, with the vast majority of these in the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

In Spain and the United States, a handful of healthcare workers are ill, while Senegal and Nigeria appear to have prevented further spread of the disease, the WHO said.

"It is clear...that the situation in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone is deteriorating, with widespread and persistent transmission of (Ebola)," the WHO report stated.

It said an increase in the number of new cases in Guinea - where 843 people are now believed to have died from the disease - was driven by a spike in infection in the coastal capital Conakry and the nearby district of Coyah.

In Liberia, the U.N. health agency said that problems with data gathering made it hard to draw conclusions about the evolution of the epidemic, with the number of cases in the capital Monrovia almost certainly significantly under-reported.

Liberia accounts for more than half the number of dead - 2,458 - and for 4,249 confirmed, probable and suspected cases.

Nonetheless, in Liberia's northern Lofa county -- the former epicenter of the outbreak on the border with Guinea -- there appeared to be a genuine fall in the number of cases, it said.

In Sierra Leone, transmission of the disease was rampant with 425 new cases between Oct. 6 and 12, WHO said, with the capital Freetown and the neighboring western districts of Bombali and Port Loko the hardest hit.

(Reporting by Joe Bavier and Daniel Flynn; Editing by David Lewis and Sonya Hepinstall)

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Obama to hold Ebola meeting at White House, postpones trip

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON Wed Oct 15, 2014 12:27pm EDT

U.S. President Barack Obama listens to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Tom Frieden via telephone to receive an update on the administration's response to the Ebola case in Dallas and in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington October 13, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama abruptly postponed a political trip he was to make on Wednesday to stay at the White House to convene a high-level meeting about the Ebola outbreak.

The White House said Obama's trip to New Jersey and Connecticut has been postponed. He had planned to attend a Democratic fundraiser in Union, New Jersey, and headline a rally for the re-election of Democratic Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

"Later this afternoon, the president will convene a meeting at the White House of his team coordinating the government's response to the Ebola outbreak," spokesman Josh Earnest said.

The move suggested a higher level of concern at the White House after reports emerged that a second Texas healthcare worker who tested positive for Ebola after caring for a patient with the virus had traveled by plane a day before she reported symptoms.

The worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas had taken a Frontier Airlines flight from Cleveland, Ohio, to Dallas-Fort Worth on Oct. 13, officials said.

Obama said on Tuesday that the U.S. public healthcare infrastructure is such that an Ebola epidemic in the United States is highly unlikely.

"But obviously one case is too many, we've got to keep on doing everything we can," he said.

(Reporting By Roberta Rampton and Steve Holland; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey)

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Ohio Health Department tracing contacts of second nurse with Ebola

By Yasmeen Abutaleb

Wed Oct 15, 2014 3:02pm EDT

Frontier Airlines planes wait at their gates for the next batch of passengers at the Denver airport in this August 27, 2009 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Rick Wilking/Files

n">(Reuters) - The Ohio Health Department said it is tracing contacts of a second Texas nurse diagnosed with Ebola who flew from Cleveland to Dallas one day before she tested positive for the virus.

The department is also working with airline officials to track down additional people the nurse may have come into contact with, spokesman Jay Carey said. It is waiting on additional instructions from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Texas Health Department, Carey said.

(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)

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France to screen passengers on flights from Ebola-hit regions

PARIS Wed Oct 15, 2014 2:59pm EDT

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls leaves after a meeting on Ebola at the Elysee Palace in Paris October 13, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Charles Platiau

PARIS (Reuters) - France will begin screening air passengers for Ebola if they arrive on flights from regions hit by the disease, President Francois Hollande's office said on Wednesday.

Hollande told the leaders of Britain, Germany, Italy and the United States about the step during a video conference partly devoted to the Ebola outbreak, his office said in statement.

No details were given about the screening operation.

The United States and Britain have already started screening passengers coming from regions in West Africa hit by the virus, which the World health Organization says has killed nearly 4,500 people in the current outbreak. The Czech Republic on Wednesday ordered similar screening.

Hollande told the other leaders that France would also establish new treatment centers in Guinea at the country's request in addition to those currently being set up.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Larry King)

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London mayor edges away from call to ban smoking in parks

LONDON Wed Oct 15, 2014 10:20am EDT

London Mayor Boris Johnson speaks at a fringe event during the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, central England September 29, 2014.

Credit: Reuters/Darren Staples

LONDON (Reuters) - A proposal for London to follow the lead of cities like New York and Hong Kong by banning smoking in parks and open spaces received a cool welcome from Mayor Boris Johnson on Wednesday who called it "taking bossiness too far."

The idea was contained in a report, commissioned by Johnson himself, that aims to combat the threats posed by tobacco, alcohol, obesity, lack of exercise and pollution and that bills itself as the biggest public health drive in the world.

"The Mayor should use his byelaw powers to make Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square smoke free," the report's author, former health minister Lord Ara Darzi, said in a statement.

"It would be a powerful message for the iconic centre of our city and the political heart of our country to become smoke free," he added.

Around one fifth of Londoners still smoke, causing 8,400 early deaths each year, and as many as 67 schoolchildren in the capital take up the habit every day, the report said.

Johnson should use his influence over the Royal Parks, the board of which he appoints, to introduce a ban, while local councils would pass similar byelaws for their open spaces, it added.

The idea had been welcomed by health professionals and by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who had introduced a similar ban in public outdoor areas like Central Park.

Bloomberg had called the report a major achievement, adding: "Breathing tobacco smoke whether indoors or outdoors is harmful to your health. That’s why we made Central Park and all of New York City’s parks and beaches smoke-free, along with all indoor workplaces."

But Johnson himself, while welcoming other parts of the report, did not endorse the proposed smoking ban.

"People should be discouraged from smoking but I think actively to ban people from doing something that is legal in a big open space is taking bossiness too far," he told the BBC.

He now begins a consultation period on the report, including taking in the views of London's 32 local authorities. He has said he will need to be sure of the direct health benefits if he is to enact the report's smoking recommendations.

A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron told reporters the government had "no plans" for a parks ban.

Britain banned smoking in public workspaces including bars and restaurants in 2007 and huddled groups of smokers puffing away outside office buildings are a common sight in London.

But the idea of extending it to outdoor areas has drawn fire from pro-smoking lobbies.

"A ban on smoking in parks and squares would be outrageous," said Simon Clark, director of Forest, which campaigns on behalf of smokers. "There's no health risk to anyone other than the smoker. If you don't like the smell, walk away."

He added in a statement: "The next thing you know we'll be banned from smoking in our own gardens in case a whiff of smoke travels over the fence."

(Reporting by Stephen Addison; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

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Texas nurse stricken with Ebola: young and caring

By Marice Richter
FORT WORTH Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:07pm EDT

A Dallas police officer and a Dallas Fire Department Community officer, Shawn Williams (R) stand in front of the residence of a health worker at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who has contracted Ebola in Dallas, Texas, October 12, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Jaime R. Carrero
FORT WORTH (Reuters) - The woman who is the first person known to have contracted the Ebola virus in the United States graduated from college about four years ago knowing she wanted to be a nurse. Now she is in an isolation unit at the Dallas hospital where she worked.
The nurse, whose name has not been released by officials, has been identified by friends and family and in media reports as Nina Pham, 26. Reuters independently verified her identity with a Sunday school teacher at the church where her family worships and through a public records check of her address.
Pham, a 2010 graduate of Texas Christian University, comes from a deeply religious Vietnamese-American family in Fort Worth, according to people who know them and are familiar with her social media posts. She was called on by neighbors to babysit their children. Her social media posts show she is a fan of actor Ryan Gosling and passionate about nursing.
The family was in shock when it learned that she had contracted Ebola, said their friend Tom Ha who is also a Bible studies teacher at the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Fort Worth.
"The mother was crying, very upset," he said. "She comes from a very devoted family."
Her family has not responded to requests for comment.
Officials have said that Nina Pham had frequent contact with Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan over the 11 days he was treated for Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. Duncan died on Wednesday.
She was among 50 people asked by the hospital to take part in the delicate and difficult care of Duncan, who was the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
Officials have said they do not know how Pham contracted the deadly virus. She was in stable condition on Monday. [ID:nL2N0S814O]
Pham was thrilled when she became a registered nurse and obtained credentials as a critical care nurse, the Dallas Morning News reported based on an August posting on her Facebook site, which has been taken down.
She owns a 1-year-old King Charles Spaniel that has been taken from her apartment to an undisclosed location where its health will be checked, according to the office of Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, the county's chief political official.
Last week authorities in Spain last week killed a dog owned by a healthcare worker there who has Ebola. They said the dog, called Excalibur, posed a biological risk and that there was evidence dogs could carry the virus. [ID:nL6N0S333Q]
On Monday, hazardous materials crews were at Pham’s apartment.
Jenkins called her a hero.
(Additional reporting by Lisa Maria Garza and Terry Wade in Dallas; Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Will Dunham, Toni Reinhold)

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Sonova struggles to convince investors with new hearing aids

By Caroline Copley
ZURICH Tue Oct 14, 2014 5:30am EDT

A man cycles in front of the headquarters of Swiss hearing aid maker Sonova in the town of Staefa, southeast of Zurich March 30, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann
ZURICH (Reuters) - Sonova, the world's biggest hearing aid maker, disappointed some analysts on Tuesday with a range of new products that can connect to mobile phones -- but not directly.
Shares in the Swiss company dropped almost 3 percent, as some analysts questioned whether the new products would help the firm recapture market share from rival GN Store Nord, whose Linx device allows users to stream voice and music from their iPhones without the need for an intermediary device.
"It had been speculated that Sonova's new product platform would have been based on the same technology as GN's, 2.4 gigahertz wireless technology, and that GN thereby would lose some of its differentiation from its competitors in the market," said Morten Imsgard, an analyst at Sydbank.
"For the Sonova investors it is a big disappointment, and for the GN investors it is a relief that GN still -- at least for some quarters -- will have products that differentiate them from their competitors."
Sonova said its market research had shown customers preferred a hearing aid that can connect to all cell phones not just one brand, like GN's Linx.
Maarten Barmentlo, head of marketing, said customers typically want their hearing device to last for around five years, whereas they change their cell phone every 18 months.
As the ranks of the elderly swell, the hearing aid industry has become fiercely competitive as manufacturers rush to increase the appeal of wearing a device by launching products packed with newer technologies.
Sonova is banking on new devices to help maintain its lead in the industry. Around 70 percent of its hearing aid revenue comes from products that have been on the market for less than two years.
Nonetheless, the Swiss firm has lost market share within a key U.S. government program for military veterans this year to Denmark's GN Resound, a unit of GN Store Nord.
NEW TECHNOLOGY
At an investor and analyst event in Staefa, Switzerland, Sonova presented its new Phonak Venture product and "dual-core chip" technology platform.
The first product from the platform is called Audeo V, a wireless hearing aid that offers twice the processing power while reducing battery consumption by up to 30 percent.
It works by analyzing incoming sounds and automatically adjusting to provide the best setting for the listening environment.
Sonova has also developed a product called Phonak EasyCall which can be attached to the back of any bluetooth enabled cell phone, including non-smartphones and older devices, and connects to any Phonak wireless hearing aid.
In addition, its RemoteControl app turns a user's smartphone into a remote control that can adjust volume or audio sources.
Shares in Sonova, which have risen 20 percent so far this year, were down 3.2 percent to 139.3 Swiss francs by 0840 GMT, compared with a 0.9 percent decline in Europe's blue-chip equities index. GN Store Nord shares were up 2 percent.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley. Additional reporting by Teis Jensen in Copenhagen.; Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)

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China military-linked firm eyes quick approval of drug to cure Ebola

By Adam Jourdan
SHANGHAI Tue Oct 14, 2014 3:43am EDT

Health inspection and quarantine researchers work in their laboratory at an airport in Qingdao, Shandong province August 11, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/China Daily
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - A Chinese drugmaker with close military ties is seeking fast-track approval for a drug that it says can cure Ebola, as China joins the race to help treat a deadly outbreak of a disease that has spread from Africa to the United States and Europe.
Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd has signed a tie-up with Chinese research Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) last week to help push the drug called JK-05 through the approval process in China and bring it to market. The drug, developed by the academy, is currently approved for emergency military use only.
"We believe that we can file to the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) before the end of the year," Sihuan's chairman Che Fengsheng said during an investor call last week.
"They are looking at this very seriously... and we could get on the 'green light' track," he added.
Sihuan's drug is only one contender amongst a number of experimental cures worldwide to treat Ebola, although if successful it would be a huge boon for China's developing pharmaceutical sector and the country's soft power in Africa, an increasingly important partner for the world's No.2 economy.
The current outbreak, the worst on record of the disease, has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in West Africa.
Che said one of Sihuan's strengths was its close military ties. The firm, which claims to be China's third largest prescription drugmaker, was originally a military scientific unit, which was spun off into its current form in 2001.
"We have a myriad of connections with the military medical science units and have developed lots of products in cooperation with the AMMS," Che said. AMMS is a research unit of the People's Liberation Army, China's armed forces.
Che pointed out that a Chinese vaccine against a SARS outbreak a decade ago, also developed by the military, was approved by the drug regulator rapidly after its application, signally that JK-05 could receive similar treatment.
"At that time the whole approval process, clinical components and the period after was cut right down," he said.
Officials at Sihuan, which is part-owned by Morgan Stanley, were not available for further comment on Tuesday.
TESTED ON MICE
China's Ebola cure bid still lags some way behind U.S.-developed ZMapp and TKM-Ebola, but Sihuan management said the drug has proven effective during animal testing on mice.
The drug, which AMMS has been studying and developing already for five years, is similar to Japanese flu drug favipiravir, developed by Fujifilm Holdings Corp, which has been used effectively to treat patients with Ebola.
ZMapp and TKM-Ebola have been tested on monkeys, which give a closer immune response to that of humans, and have been used to treat human patients with the disease.
JK-05 has not yet undergone clinical trials, but Sihuan management said the firm was actively working towards clinical tests of the drug, which could be shorter than normally required. The drug has also shown promise against diseases such as influenza and yellow fever.
Chinese military doctor Wang Hongquan, credited with inventing the drug, said on the investors call that JK-05 would first be used to treat Chinese nationals working in Africa with the disease, but treating non-Chinese would require further international approvals.
There are millions of Chinese nationals living in Africa, with around 10,000 in the worst affected countries - Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
JK-05 could also be used if Ebola spreads to China.
"We can't rule out the possibility that it will spread to Asia. Particularly in China now we have lots of connections with different international cities and many people coming and going across our borders," he said on the call.
Company management and analysts said an Ebola outbreak in China would further speed up the approval process and development of the drug.
"It is highly likely the Ebola indication could be approved very quickly if Ebola was to spread to China," said Deutsche Bank analyst Jack Hu in an analyst note on Sunday.
(Additional reporting by SHANGHAI newsroom; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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AstraZeneca looks to EU decision for next cancer drug boost

By Ben Hirschler
LONDON Tue Oct 14, 2014 9:05am EDT

A man walks past a sign at an AstraZeneca site in Macclesfield, central England May 19, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Phil Noble
LONDON (Reuters) - AstraZeneca's cancer drug pipeline, already on a roll following promising clinical trial results, could get a further boost next week from a European green light for an experimental medicine against ovarian cancer.
European Medicines Agency experts will consider whether to recommend approval of olaparib at their regular monthly meeting, with a decision expected on Oct. 23 or 24, a company spokeswoman said.
A positive decision would be a fillip for a product that AstraZeneca has flagged as a potential $2 billion-a-year seller but which hit a road bump in June when a U.S. panel voted against its accelerated approval.
Olaparib blocks an enzyme involved in cell repair and is designed for patients with certain hereditary gene mutations. It also has promise in treating breast and gastric cancers, opening up a substantial market opportunity.
In addition, it is being tested in combination therapy, an approach widely seen as the future of cancer treatment because of the need to fight tumour cells on several fronts.
Cancer medicine is central to AstraZeneca's claims that it has a strong independent future, after fending off a $118 billion takeover bid from Pfizer in May.
As part of its defence, the British drugmaker set out a bullish set of forecasts for its drug pipeline and predicted that group sales would climb 75 percent by 2023.
While still seen as ambitious, that upbeat assessment is beginning to win over more analysts as the company makes good progress in its drug development programmes.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch was the latest to trumpet AstraZeneca's drug pipeline on Tuesday, following a glowing report on its cancer medicines from Jefferies a day earlier.
Most interest is focused on the company's rapidly developing line-up of experimental immunotherapy treatments, which boost the immune system's ability to fight cancer. Research presented at a cancer congress in Madrid last month suggests AstraZeneca is in a strong position in this field.
Bank of America analysts said the drugmaker's "dramatic pipeline progression" had prompted them to increase peak risk-adjusted sales forecasts by $16 billion in the past 12 months.
A recent move by the U.S. Treasury to curb "inversion" deals that allow firms to escape high U.S. taxes by reincorporating abroad has recently deflated expectations of a renewed Pfizer bid and Bank of America sees only a "low probability" of a deal.
Jefferies, however, believes AstraZeneca remains one of the more viable inversion targets that Pfizer could contemplate.
(Editing by Pravin Char)

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U.S. needs to rethink Ebola infection controls, says CDC chief

By Lisa Maria Garza and Terry Wade
DALLAS Mon Oct 13, 2014 7:08pm EDT

1 of 3. A member of the CG Environmental HazMat team disinfects the entrance to the residence of a health worker at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital who has contracted Ebola in Dallas, Texas, October 12, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Jaime R. Carrero
DALLAS (Reuters) - Medical experts need to rethink how highly infectious diseases are handled in the United States, a U.S. health official said on Monday, after a Dallas nurse contracted Ebola despite wearing protective gear while caring for a dying Liberian patient.
As an outbreak of the deadly virus spread beyond West Africa, hospitals and nursing associations across the United States were taking a closer look at how prepared they were to handle such infections.
"We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection control. Even a single infection is unacceptable," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters. "The care of Ebola is hard. We're working to make it safer and easier."
Frieden said health authorities are still investigating how the nurse became infected while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan in an isolation ward at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
Duncan died last week and the nurse is the first person to contract the virus on U.S. soil, taking concerns about containing its spread to new heights.
The infected nurse is Nina Pham, 26, according to a Sunday school teacher at the church where her family worships and through a public records check of her address. Attempts to reach her family were not immediately successful.
The family was in shock when it learned the young woman had contracted Ebola, said Tom Ha, a close friend of the Pham family who is also a Bible studies teacher at the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Fort Worth.
"The mother was crying, very upset," he told Reuters.
The Dallas nurse is "clinically stable," Frieden said, and the CDC is monitoring others involved in Duncan's care in case they show symptoms of the virus.
Frieden also apologized for remarks on Sunday, when the nurse's infection was first disclosed, that suggested she was responsible for a breach in protocols that exposed her to the virus. Some healthcare experts said the comments failed to address deep gaps in training hospital staff to deal with Ebola. [ID:nL2N0S8014]
"I'm sorry if that was the impression given," Frieden said. He said the agency would take steps to increase the awareness of Ebola at the nation's hospitals and training for staff.
The Texas Nurses Association defended Pham in a statement, saying it was wrong to assume the nurse was to blame.
"The facts are not known about how the nurse in Dallas was exposed," the association stated. "It is incorrect to assume that the nurse failed to follow protocols."
At his news conference, Frieden said some changes in procedures had already been put into effect, including having staff monitor those putting on and taking off protective gear, and retraining staff on how to do so safely.
He said other steps were being considered including new types of protective clothing and possibly spraying down staff with solutions that could kill the virus if someone were to become contaminated.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with ABC that officials should consider sending Ebola patients only to a few "containment" hospitals.
President Barack Obama was briefed by Frieden and senior members of the administration about the second Dallas case and stressed that “lessons learned” from the CDC’s investigation should be shared with hospitals and healthcare workers across the country, the White House said.
Obama also spoke separately with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and with French President Francois Hollande about international efforts to contain the outbreak and to provide treatment centers in affected African nations.
A brief scare at Boston's Logan International Airport caused emergency crews in protective gear to remove five passengers with flu-like symptoms from Emirates flight 237 from Dubai, but the CDC later said there was no Ebola threat.
EBOLA WASTE A CONCERN
Meanwhile, Louisiana's top law enforcement official said he was granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the personal items of Duncan, who died on Wednesday, from being buried in a local landfill after being incinerated.
Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said material collected from Duncan and the Dallas apartment where he was staying was taken to Port Arthur, Texas, on Friday to be incinerated. From there the incinerated material was to have gone to a hazardous waste landfill in Louisiana.
"There are too many unknowns at this point, and it is absurd to transport potentially hazardous Ebola waste across state lines," Caldwell said in a statement after the restraining order was granted.
According to CDC guidelines, the Ebola virus does not survive on materials that have been incinerated.
The current Ebola outbreak is the worst on record and has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in West Africa's Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Duncan, a Liberian, was exposed to Ebola in his home country and developed the disease while visiting the United States.
Ebola, which can cause fever, vomiting and diarrhea, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood or saliva.
The infection of the Dallas nurse is the second known to have occurred outside West Africa since the outbreak that began in March. It follows that of a nurse's aide in Spain who helped treat a missionary from Sierra Leone, who died of the virus.
Officials said Pham's pet dog, a 1-year-old King Charles Spaniel, would be kept safe while its owner was in the hospital. That contrasts with the dog of the health worker in Spain that was euthanized out of fear the animal could spread the disease, prompting protests from animal rights activists.
(Additional reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, Jonathan Kaminsky in New Orleans, Marice Richter in Dallas and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Jon Herskovitz and Ken Wills; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Andrew Hay and Tom Brown)

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HIV treatment, awareness lacking among U.S. gay, bisexual men

By Andrew M. Seaman
NEW YORK Thu Oct 2, 2014 2:21pm EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More than half of gay and bisexual men in the U.S. are not personally concerned about being infected with the human immunodeficiency virus and less than half of men with the virus are being properly treated, according to two new reports.
The data show that significant barriers still exist in the fight against the still-growing epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, among gay and bisexual men, experts say.
“I think we have the tools at our disposal to arrest the epidemic in the U.S. and clearly these data are very concerning,” said Dr. Kenneth Mayer, an expert on HIV prevention who was not involved in the new reports.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that some 1.1 million people in the U.S. are living with HIV. About one case in six is undiagnozed.
While the CDC says only about 4 percent of U.S. males have sex with other men, they represent about two-thirds of the country’s new infections.
“Among gay men in this country, there is a disconnect about how the epidemic is affecting their community and how they see it,” Jennifer Kates said. “There’s a real knowledge gap.”
Kates is director of global health and HIV policy at The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) in Washington, D.C. , and co-author of a new report on HIV and AIDS in the lives of U.S. gay and bisexual men published by the foundation.
The report found that only a third of respondents knew infection rates were increasing among gay and bisexual men, and more than half weren’t personally worried about becoming infected.
Another recent study found that men at high risk of HIV infection may misjudge their vulnerability (see Reuters Health story of June 26, 2014 here: reut.rs/1sIHfC9).
The CDC recommends routine annual HIV screening for all people ages 13 to 64, and more frequent testing for those at high risk. But less than a third of uninfected respondents to the KFF survey said they were tested for HIV within the past year.
Men younger than 35 were twice as likely to not have been tested for HIV within the past year.
Awareness of how men could protect themselves was also low. Only about a quarter of the KFF survey respondents knew about the daily therapy known as pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, which may reduce the risk of HIV infection by as much as 92 percent, according to the CDC. The pill currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for PrEP is Gilead’s Truvada.
Kates and her colleagues found as well that less than half of the respondents were aware of current HIV treatment guidelines, which in the U.S. include starting a combination of drugs known as antiretroviral therapy, or ART, as soon as HIV is diagnosed.
The World Health Organization recently changed its recommendations, but it does not fully endorse starting ART at diagnosis.
In a separate report, CDC researchers looked at progress toward getting more HIV-positive men who have sex with men into treatment and keeping their infection at bay. That study found only about three quarters of HIV-positive men received care within three months of their diagnosis.
Additionally, less than half of the respondents to the CDC survey were currently on HIV treatment and only 42 percent had achieved very low levels of the virus in their bodies - known as viral suppression.
“There are data now that if people are on treatment and they are virologically suppressed, they are very unlikely to transmit HIV to partners,” said Mayer, who is co-chair of The Fenway Institute of Fenway Health, which provides healthcare to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Boston.
“(PrEP and ART) are very, very effective interventions for combating the epidemic in the U.S. and the fact that this population doesn’t know about them shows we have to get to work on that,” Kates said.
HEALTHCARE, RACE AND STIGMA
Both new reports point to actions, especially by healthcare providers, that can help turn the tide in the U.S. HIV epidemic.
The KFF survey found that over half of respondents said their doctors never recommended HIV tests. Even more respondents said their doctors never or rarely discussed HIV.
“Health providers are part of the problem – definitely,” Mayer said. “It’s not specifically HIV. Healthcare providers are not always comfortable talking to their patients about sex in general.”
He added that healthcare providers may also be uncomfortable discussing certain topics related to HIV, because the majority of them are heterosexuals.
About half of respondents to the KFF survey said they never discussed their sexual orientation with their doctor. About a third said they were uncomfortable discussing topics around sexual behavior with their doctors. Another third said they were only “somewhat comfortable” discussing those topics.
Mayer said resources on The Fenway Institute’s website may help healthcare providers and gay and bisexual individuals during those interactions (bit.ly/1yzB06C).
Both reports also showed significant differences between races in attitudes toward HIV and treatment of the infection.
African Americans and other blacks are most severely affected by HIV, according to the CDC. The agency says one in 16 black men will be diagnosed with HIV during their lifetime if the course of the epidemic doesn’t change.
Yet, the CDC report found that blacks had the lowest level of HIV care, compared to all other races and ethnicities.
More than half of non-white respondents to the KFF survey were personally concerned about becoming infected with HIV, compared to just a quarter of white respondents.
The KFF report also found that non-white respondents wanted more information on how and where to get tested for HIV.
“The impact of the epidemic, they were experiencing that more,” Kates said. “Their concerns were higher.”
Kates said that while barriers to getting HIV tests, prevention and treatment have become lower over the years, they still exist. Additionally, stigma toward HIV continues to be a problem.
“There is still stigma and discrimination and that came through in the survey as well,” she said.
Mayer said one of the keys to addressing the epidemic is to get people to talk about HIV among their friends - straight or gay.
“AIDS is everybody’s problem,” he said. “It’s the job of people who are not gay or at risk to talk about it, too.”
Kates said using the tools available and reaching more gay and bisexual men through education may reduce the men’s risk of coming into contact with the virus.
“I think the opportunity is there to bring the epidemic down to much, much lower levels,” she said.
SOURCES: bit.ly/1yzCP3f The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, online September 25, 2014 and 1.usa.gov/1yzCMo5 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, online September 26, 2014.

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EU agency adopts plan to cut clinical trial secrecy

By Ben Hirschler
LONDON Thu Oct 2, 2014 3:33pm EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's medicines regulator has endorsed a scheme to publish detailed clinical reports underpinning new drug approvals from next year, though campaigners for full transparency said they were concerned some data would still be missing.
The London-based European Medicines Agency (EMA) has been at the center of a row about divulging trials data for the past two years, following concerns over undisclosed data for certain drugs such as Roche's flu pill Tamiflu.
Critics of the pharmaceuticals industry argue that free access to such data is essential, so that independent experts can test claims made about prescription drugs. But some companies have fought to keep the information private.
The EMA -- Europe's equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- said on Thursday its management board had unanimously adopted a policy to publish all clinical reports for new drugs from 2015.
Importantly, outside researchers will be free to download and save the information, allowing them to reassess large data sets -- something the EMA had at one stage been reluctant to permit.
Tracey Brown, managing director of the group Sense About Science, which has campaigned against clinical trials secrecy, said she was pleased the EMA had reversed a "ridiculous" proposal that would have meant researchers could only see information from clinical trials on-screen in a sealed room.
"However, it is still the case that trial sponsors (drug companies) can cut out any information they don't want others to see," she said.
The agency's new policy states that "in limited instances", information that may be considered commercially confidential will be redacted from the clinical reports.
TAMIFLU SHOWDOWN
In the case of Tamiflu, researchers fought for years to get full data from Roche in the belief that governments who stockpiled it were wasting billions of dollars on a drug whose effectiveness was in doubt. Roche has always insisted its medicine has clear benefits.
Other firms, meanwhile, have tried to stop previous EMA moves to release drug information, with AbbVie challenging a plan to give outsiders access to data on its top-selling rheumatoid arthritis medicine Humira. AbbVie later withdrew a lawsuit after the EMA agreed to keep certain commercially sensitive information secret.
Guido Rasi, the EMA's executive director, said the balanced approach now adopted by the agency set a new standard for transparency and would increase public confidence in its decision-making process.
“This unprecedented level of access to clinical reports will benefit patients, healthcare professionals, academia and industry,” he said in a statement.
The new transparency program will be implemented in phases, with clinical reports to be published for all new drugs submitted for approval from Jan. 1. For new uses of existing medicines, the rules take effect from July 1.
The EMA also plans eventually to make available anonymised individual patient data, but said it would first hold further consultations to address various legal and technical issues.
Ben Goldacre, a British doctor and author who has led a campaign called AllTrials urging study disclosure, said the EMA move was a step forward but there would still be major gaps in clinical trials data.
The EMA only holds clinical study reports for a small proportion of all the trials done on all the medicines used by doctors today and there was still a need for a radical overhaul giving retrospective transparency, he said.
(Editing by Keiron Henderson)

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UK cost agency NICE rejects another Roche cancer drug

LONDON Thu Oct 2, 2014 7:14pm EDT

A general view shows the construction site of a new office building of Swiss drugmaker Roche on the banks of the river Rhine in Basel October 1, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann
LONDON (Reuters) - Another new cancer drug from Roche, this time for treating leukaemia, has been rejected by Britain's healthcare cost-effectiveness agency NICE on the grounds that data about its value is uncertain.
In August the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected the Swiss drugmaker's drug Kadcyla for an aggressive form of breast cancer. Roche had proposed a discount for that drug, which carries a full list price of more than 90,000 pounds for a course of treatment.
Friday's decision promises to further sour relations between NICE and the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs, which two months ago said NICE was "not fit for purpose".
The panel decides which treatments are worth using in the state-run National Health Service (NHS) and its latest preliminary guidance covers obinutuzumab, marketed by Roche as Gazyvaro, for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
“Although obinutuzumab is a clinically effective treatment, there were too many uncertainties in the company’s submission and we cannot be confident that it is an effective use of NHS resources," said NICE's chief executive, Andrew Dillon.
"With limited resources we need to ensure that each treatment we recommend gives patients not only the best care but is also of the best value to the NHS.”
There is growing pressure on drug companies over the high cost of medicines in both Europe and the United States. Cost is particularly controversial in cancer, where new treatments offering hope to patients come at a very high price. [ID:nL6N0RS0IJ]
Roche, whose new leukaemia drug is priced at 26,496 pounds ($42,850) for a course of treatment, said it was disappointed by the latest NICE decision but would be working with the agency to find a way to make it available.
(1 US dollar = 0.6184 British pounds)
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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Ebola patient to fly to Germany for treatment

FRANKFURT Thu Oct 2, 2014 2:29pm EDT
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A patient suffering from Ebola will arrive in the German city of Frankfurt for treatment in an isolation station in the city's University Hospital, a spokesman for the clinic said on Thursday.
"The University Hospital in Frankfurt is expecting the arrival of an Ebola patient on Oct. 3 - no other details are available," the spokesman said.
German media said the patient is a Belgian doctor who was working in Sierra Leone, which authorities would not confirm.
The health minister for Hesse state, Stefan Gruettner, will hold a news conference on Friday in the state capital of Wiesbaden to discuss the case, according to a press statement. It also had no further details.
(Reporting by Reuters Television; Writing by Madeline Chambers and Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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UK must channel aid to fight FGM in Sierra Leone: lawmakers

By Emma Batha
Thu Oct 2, 2014 10:43am EDT
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Britain must set up a program to tackle female genital mutilation in Sierra Leone, where the practice is seen as a prerequisite for marriage and even used as a political tool, a parliamentary committee said.
The International Development Committee said on Thursday it was astounded that Britain – which has put itself center stage in global efforts to eradicate FGM – had left Sierra Leone out of its £35 million program to help end FGM in Africa.
"It concerns us greatly that Sierra Leone - the UK's largest per capita bilateral recipient of aid - does not currently have a single UK-funded program to curb female genital mutilation when this country has one of the highest prevalence in the world of this barbaric practice," committee chairman Sir Malcolm Bruce said.
He called on Britain's Department for International Development (DFID) to act immediately.
Nearly 90 percent of women in Sierra Leone have undergone FGM, a ritual involving the partial or total removal of the genitalia. The vaginal opening is sometimes also sewn up.
An estimated 140 million girls and women worldwide are affected by FGM, most of them in Africa. Many countries are now trying to stop the practice which can cause serious physical and psychological problems.
However, experts say it is particularly difficult to tackle FGM in Sierra Leone because it is performed by secret women's societies that wield enormous clout.
In the report, one children's charity described some girls running away from home and living on the streets to avoid being mutilated.
"FINGER-WAGGING BRITS"
British FGM campaigner Alimatu Dimonekene, who grew up in Sierra Leone, said politicians were complicit in the practice.
"It is a well-known fact that some politicians sponsor state cutting of girls as a form of gaining the trust of a community and in turn votes during election campaigns," the report quoted her as saying.
"Any politician who criticizes the practice… is unlikely to win the election."
One Sierra Leonean woman told the committee during its visit to the west African country that a government minister had threatened her after she spoke out about FGM.
International aid agency GOAL urged Britain to use its position as the largest donor in Sierra Leone to lobby for action at the highest government levels.
According to DFID, Sierra Leone was not included in the £35 million program partly because of its low political commitment.
International Development Minister Lynne Featherstone told the inquiry the FGM initiative should be led by African countries, adding, "we cannot turn into imperialist finger-wagging Brits".
One FGM survivor quoted in the report suggested including FGM in the school curriculum to empower girls to say no and help dispel myths such as the belief that having sex with an uncut woman leads to impotence.
(Reporting by Emma Batha, Editing by Alisa Tang)

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American cameraman for NBC News diagnosed with Ebola in Liberia

By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES Fri Oct 3, 2014 12:53am EDT
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An American freelance cameraman working for NBC News in Liberia has tested positive for Ebola, the network said on Thursday, making him the fifth citizen of the United States and its first journalist known to have contracted the virus in West Africa.
The 33-year-old cameraman and writer, who has worked in Liberia for the past three years and has covered the recent Ebola outbreak for various U.S. media outlets, will be flown back to the United States for treatment, NBC said in an online report.
Four other NBC News team members who have shown no signs of infection also will return to the United States to undergo a precautionary quarantine, the network said.
Word that a journalist had fallen ill with the potentially lethal virus seemed to raise the stakes for other members of the news media trying to cover the worst Ebola outbreak on record on the ground in Liberia, the nation hardest hit by the epidemic.
The outbreak has killed at least 3,300 people in West Africa.
NBC declined to give the man's name at the request of his family. He began experiencing symptoms on Wednesday that included aches and fatigue, the network said.
He was hired on Tuesday to serve as a second cameraman for NBC News chief medical editor and correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who has been with three other network employees on assignment in Liberia's capital, Monrovia.
Immediately after beginning to feel sick and discovering he was running a slight fever, the cameraman quarantined himself and sought medical advice. He then went to a Doctors Without Borders treatment center to be tested for the virus, and the positive result came back less than 12 hours later, NBC said.
"We are doing everything we can to get him the best care possible," NBC News President Deborah Turness said in a note to network staff.
Turness also said that as a precaution, Snyderman and the rest of the NBC crew would be flown back to the United States on a private charter plane and will place themselves under quarantine for 21 days, which she said is "at the most conservative end of the spectrum of medical guidance."
For now, she said, Snyderman and her crew were being closely watched and had shown no symptoms of signs of the illness.
In an interview Thursday with the host of "The Rachel Maddow Show" on NBC's sister cable network, MSNBC, Snyderman said the cameraman's exposure to the potentially lethal virus is believed to have occurred before he began working for the network.
'ZERO RISK MEANS NEVER COMING TO LIBERIA'
But she offered no particulars of how he might have contracted the virus, which is transmitted through contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is infected and symptomatic.
Snyderman said journalists in Liberia carry thermometers for regularly taking their temperatures and observe such precautions as avoiding handshakes and hugs, as well as washing their hands with diluted bleach and water and dipping their feet into bleach solution before entering hotels or other public places.
She said she wore a biohazard suit recently when visiting an Ebola ward, and was helped out of it afterward by two nurses who "meticulously" removed the suit from her body.
"Obviously zero risk means never coming to Liberia," she said.
The four other Americans who have been infected were doctors or relief workers who were sent back to the United States for medical treatment.
Aid workers Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol contracted the disease at a relief agency in Monrovia in July. Last month, Dr. Rick Sacra tested positive after working in a Liberian hospital. They have all since been released.
An American doctor diagnosed with Ebola in the neighboring country of Sierra Leone arrived at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment on Sept. 9 and is still being treated. He has not been publicly identified.
A Liberian man visiting relatives in Dallas recently became the first Ebola patient to be diagnosed in the United States.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Sandra Maler, Peter Cooney and Ken Wills)

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Saudi authorities on Ebola watch as millions gather for haj

By Amena Bakr
MECCA Thu Oct 2, 2014 1:53pm EDT

Muslim pilgrims walk during the annual haj pilgrimage in Mena, near the holy city of Mecca October 2, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Muhammad Hamed
MECCA (Reuters) - Anxious to safeguard Islam's haj pilgrimage from the threat of Ebola, Saudi authorities are screening pilgrims arriving from West Africa and have deployed mobile laboratories to test any suspected cases quickly.
The kingdom expects nearly 3 million pilgrims in Mecca this year, including 1.4 million from abroad. The health ministry said on Thursday it has been working with the World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to contain the threat of Ebola, which has killed 3,300 people in West Africa this year.
"We came from Lagos and went through screening there and again have been tested here in Saudi, so for sure we don't have anything," said Abdelsamad Shoudany, a Nigerian doctor standing outside the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
Inside, huge numbers of people were performing the first of the haj rites, walking around the Kaaba, the black-clad cube toward which the world's 1.6 billion Muslims face to pray, and which they see as the geographic center of their faith.
Few of the pilgrims, who dress in simple white toweling robes, were wearing face masks or surgical gloves to protect them against the transmission of Ebola or other diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
"I've waited all my life to come here and honestly I wish to die here, so getting a virus is the last of my fears. As you see, I'm already in a wheelchair," said Ismail Saleh, a 71-year-old pilgrim from Egypt.
Those who have taken such precautions are following the advice of the Saudi Health Ministry, which initially struggled to prevent an outbreak of MERS in April and May that infected hundreds due to poor hygiene procedures in some hospitals.
Saudi Arabia, where the disease emerged in 2012, has had 755 cases, of whom 320 have died. Four new cases have been confirmed in the past week, including two in Medina and Taif where haj pilgrims often travel, the authorities have announced.
"I can't afford to get MERS or Ebola or any virus. I have my family to take care of," said Rubina Fahim, a Pakistani mother of three.
SECURING THE PILGRIMAGE
Saudi Arabia earlier this year barred pilgrims from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the three countries worst hit by Ebola, from applying for haj visas. More than 7,000 Muslims in those countries had applied, said the United Nations.
"All pilgrims arriving through the 15 entry points had to fill in an application to tell us where they have been over the past 21 days, since that's the incubation period for Ebola," said Saudi Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Mirghalani.
"We had no suspected cases of Ebola or MERS among the pilgrims so far," he added.
In case of an outbreak of any infectious disease, the authorities have almost doubled the number of health personnel at the haj medical centers to 22,000 from around 12,000 last year, Tariq Ahmed Madani, a special MERS consultant to the Health Ministry, told Reuters.
"Ebola this year presents an added challenge for us, but we have the full support of the government and face no financial restrictions," said Madani.
He added that the kingdom had recently established a Command and Control Center (CCC) to deal with any outbreak or natural disaster that might occur.
"The center's opening was timely with haj, but is something that will continue to operate outside the haj period for any incidents Saudi faces."
The kingdom has this year reduced the numbers permitted to perform haj for safety reasons because of construction work to enlarge the Grand Mosque. Its security services have ringed Islam's sacred city with checkpoints and other measures to prevent people arriving for the pilgrimage without authorization.
Those procedures, aimed at reducing crowd pressure which can lead to stampedes, fires and other hazards, have been intensified in recent years because of the growing security threat from the many political crises in the Middle East.
Larger numbers of special forces officers were patrolling the Grand Mosque than in previous years.
Last week, Saudi Arabia took part in U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State and other militants in Syria, and that group and al Qaeda have both called for attacks inside the kingdom.
"The kingdom has been prepared to defend its kind and its people from terrorism for a long time. We have enforced our security readiness at all the borders of Saudi Arabia," said Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Mansour Turki.
(Additional reporting By Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Angus McDowall and Mark Trevelyan)

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