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Marion Koopmans (R)is shown holding a folded white paper and reaching out to shake the hand of Liang Wannian.

WHO draft report says animals likely source of COVID-19

COVID-19

A joint World Health Organization-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is “extremely unlikely,” according to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press.

A large group of people from the WHO are shown wearing face masks with a car in the nearground.

WHO team visits Wuhan hospital that had early COVID patients

COVID-19
Jianjay Potter and Grace Zardon in Monrovia, Liberia.

For Ebola patients, a way to see the faces of those helping

Health
At Redemption Hospital in Liberia, health workers screen patients for Ebola at the entrance to the facility, cleaning them off with a chlorine solution, taking their temperature and asking a series of questions. "At our hospital we have tried to create a

Ebola is creating a new epidemic of untreated illness and injury

Health
Nurse Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, speak with the media outside of their home in Fort Kent, Maine, on October 31, 2014. Hickox defied quarantine orders in New Jersey and Maine after returning from West Africa but testing negative for Ebola.

Calm down — America is officially Ebola-free

Health
Susan Sorrenti, an ICU nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, nearly died from SARS back in 2003. She says she feels empathy for the nurses in Texas who contracted Ebola from treating a sick patient.

The US Ebola cases remind Toronto healthcare workers of their SARS outbreak in 2003

Health

In 2003, when SARS broke out in Toronto, many doctors and nurses got sick and died from the disease. “I think we lost control of it in Canada,” says one Canadian nurse. “We should learn from that moment and be prepared.”

Government health workers are seen during the administration of blood tests for the Ebola virus in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on June 25, 2014.

The race is on to make a better Ebola test kit

Medicine

It takes a health worker in a medical lab to test for Ebola. Now private companies are looking for cheaper, easier test kits to slow the spread of the epidemic. There are plenty of entrants in the race to develop the first one.

An ambulance enters the emergency area at the Alcorcón hospital outside Madrid. The Spanish nurse who contracted Ebola while treating infected patients is currently in isolation at the facility.

There’s a fine line between reporting about Ebola and spreading panic

Media

When does sharing information about Ebola simply spread fear? That’s the balance health care reporters in developed countries are trying to strike as they report on the spread of the disease but acknowledge the extremely low risks outside of West Africa.

The World

Deadly MERS Virus Traced to Bats in Saudi Arabia

Health & Medicine

A deadly new SARS-like virus has been traced to bats. The Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, is lethal to 60 percent of those infected. A new study has found the virus is carried by a type of bat in Saudi Arabia, ground-zero for the disease.

Record drought conditions contribute to unprecedented levels of West Nile virus

Health & Medicine

Dallas took an unprecedented step Thursday of launching an aerial spraying campaign to try and stop the spread of potentially deadly West Nile virus. Across the country, West Nile is extremely common this year, but especially in the south.