Hong Kong issued a red alert and advised against traveling to South Korea, where an epidemic of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) is gaining pace. The virus is spreading despite attempts to contain the outbreak. In Korea, the number of infected people passed 100 this week, reaching 122 on Thursday. Tenth patient died from the disease, health officials said on Thursday. Most of the victims are... 

Bird flu has killed more than 20 million turkeys and chickens in the United States. The pandemic continues to rage wildly out of control. One infected bird can destroy an entire flock in days, Pravda.Ru reports. Scientists think that this virus is being spread by wild birds, but they have no idea how it is getting inside barns and other enclosed facilities so easily. Minnesota is the top producer... 

Photo shows health workers carrying the body of an Ebola patient in Sierra Leone. The World Health Organization (WHO) says the cases of new Ebola infections in West Africa increased during the last week of January. In the first weekly increase in new Ebola cases in 2015, the United Nations health agency said on Wednesday that 124 new cases had been registered in the three West African countries affected... 

A woman walks past signs warning of Ebola in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Authorities in Sierra Leone have extended the Ebola lockdown in the northern Tonkolili district of the West African country for two weeks in a bid to contain the outbreak. “The lockdown is extended for another two weeks to intensify monitoring efforts by all sectors in the district as we need this mopping up operation until January... 

Health workers stand inside the Elwa hospital in the Liberian capital Monrovia on September 7, 2014. West African countries still have a long way to go to beat back the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, a senior UN official says. “I think the response (to Ebola) has been successful but we have a long way to go,” Anthony Banbury, the outgoing head of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency... 

David Nabarro, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy on Ebola. The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy on Ebola says the deadly virus is “still flaming strongly” in some parts of West Africa. David Nabarro made the remarks during a news conference on Tuesday in the Swiss city of Geneva. “We know the outbreak is still flaming strongly in... 

The Anosibe slum area is seen in the Malagasy capital Antananarivo. Malagasy officials have raised the death toll from a recent bubonic plague outbreak to 47 as the bacterial disease spreads through the country. Madagascar’s Health Ministry made the announcement on Monday, and warned that the toll would probably rise over the coming months as it spreads towards the capital Antananarivo. They added... 

A worker in a bio-hazard suit waits to disinfect a truck which is loaded with ducks culled for bird flu infection, at the exit of a poultry farm in southern Germany. A new case of the H5N8 strain of bird flu, which is highly contagious among birds but has never been detected in humans, has been found in a wild goose in northern Germany. “The H5N8 virus has been confirmed in a wild bird in [Germany’s... 

The United Nations’s Ebola chief has expressed hope that the deadly outbreak, which is wreaking havoc on West African countries, could be contained by 2015. UN System Coordinator for Ebola Virus Disease David Nabarro made the remarks in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. Nabarro voiced optimism that “in the coming months we could certainly see a diminution, and hopefully in the... 

As Ebola spreads further from its current epicenter in West Africa, American and British insurance companies have started to adjust their standard policies for hospitals and other vulnerable businesses to exclude the virus. According to insurance industry insiders, companies needing to insure business travel to West Africa or to cover losses following a quarantine may now deal with revamped policies... 

Ebola spreads through coughing and sneezing much like influenza, which most experts agree is spread “mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze or talk,” according to documents by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A new CDC flyer describing the “droplet spread” of Ebola, which “happens when germs traveling inside droplets that are coughed or sneezed from a sick... 

Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Dr. Nicole Lurie contradicted President Barack Obama’s claim that the Ebola virus couldn’t be contracted by sitting next to an Ebola victim on a bus during testimony in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. During questioning by Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, Lurie acknowledged that the Ebola virus “can... 

Following confirmation of a doctor contracting Ebola in New York, the states of New York and New Jersey have announced a screening system that supersedes guidelines established by the federal government. The new procedures announced by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie do not include banning flights from West Africa from entering the country. The new procedures were implemented... 

The president is “actively formulating plans” to admit Ebola-infected non-citizens just to be treated. While the bipartisan voice grows to ban Ebola victims from entering the United States, a new report claims that President Obama is considering a plan to bring the world’s Ebola patients to the United States to be treated. Judicial Watch, the conservative public watchdog group, says in a shocking... 

Foreign tourists with any travel history are now not welcome in North Korea – concerns about Ebola made Pyongyang bar any tours from entering the country. At least this is what North Korean specialized travel agencies tell media. “We have just received official news from our partners in the DPRK that, as of tomorrow, tourists from any country, regardless of where they have recently visited,...