A young man is being treated in isolation at Uppsala University hospital in Sweden after suspicion of Ebola contamination, the regional authority has said. Region Uppsala, which oversees several hospitals and medical clinics north of Stockholm, says a test had been carried out on the patient, who was not identified. A result is expected later on Friday.

The young man had been in Burundi for around three weeks, and was exhibiting classic symptoms of haemorrhagic fever, including vomiting blood, according to the hospital’s chief medical officer. The emergency clinic at Enköping hospital, where the patient was first admitted, has been closed and staff who were in contact with the patient are also being looked after. An outbreak of the virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo – which shares a border with Burundi – began in August 2018, and has resulted in 608 cases and 368 deaths. Efforts to contain the disease have been hampered by continued instability. On Thursday, director general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned that the outbreak was occurring in “the most difficult context imaginable”. “To end it [the outbreak] the response needs to be supported and expanded, not further complicated. Ebola is unforgiving, and disruptions give the virus the advantage,” said Tedros.(theguardian)…[+]

SAO PAULO/BRASILIA, – Brazil’s new President Jair Bolsonaro said yesterday that he would be open to the possibility of the United States operating a military base on his country’s soil, a move that would form a sharp shift in direction for Brazilian foreign policy. Bolsonaro, who took power on Tuesday, said that Russia’s support of President Nicolas Maduro’s “dictatorship” in neighboring Venezuela had significantly ramped up tensions in the region and was a worrying development.

Asked by the SBT TV network in an interview taped yesterday if that meant he would allow U.S. military presence in Brazil, Bolsonaro responded that he would certainly be willing to negotiate that possibility. “Depending on what happens in the world, who knows if we would not need to discuss that question in the future,” Bolsonaro said. He emphasized that what Brazil seeks is to have “supremacy here in South America.”The far-right leader is upending foreign policy dating back over a decade, which saw the leftist Workers Party emphasizing South-South relations and sometimes tussling on the international stage with the United States.(Reuters)…[+]

Reports have surfaced out of Nicaragua that a Jamaican boat captain is now dead and buried in that country, after he and two others were rescued by locals after spending 22 days adrift in waters off the northern Caribbean country. The dead captain has been identified as Joshua Strekley, 44. According to reports, the two survivors Clifton C Edwards, 43, and Reid Derreique Anthonio, 45 said that they set sailed from St Thomas in Jamaica on December 10, 2018 to the fishing bank known as Murrant Cay Saumont Bank.

The two explained that after having travelled 30 miles out to sea, they were surprised by a strong storm that damaged the left side of their boat. The fishermen said they were left without fuel and food, until they ran aground on the Halouver coast, 30 miles south of Puerto Cabezas in Nicaragua, where they were helped by the community members. The residents reportedly took Strekly to the health post in the town, where he died and they decided to bury him.(Jamaica Observer)…[+]