Officials assure that the court ruling will not disrupt the supply of antiretroviral drugs

Sometimes minor health issues can have unexpected causes. This happened to a 50-year-old woman in Australia. She suddenly experienced severe abdominal pain. When she sought medical attention at the hospital, doctors were shocked: a sewing needle, about 4 centimeters long, was discovered inside her abdomen. The woman herself did not know how this object had entered her body.

This case was documented by doctors from John Hunter Hospital in Australia in a medical report. According to the report, the woman felt intense abdominal pain that lasted for about a day. Subsequently, she went to the emergency department. Upon examination, mild tenderness was noted upon palpation of the abdomen, along with a rapid pulse—heart rate reached approximately 130 beats per minute. General blood tests showed no serious abnormalities. Doctors then performed a computed tomography (CT) scan, which revealed a metallic object about 4 centimeters long in the left side of the abdomen. Initially, the doctors could not determine how this object had gotten inside.

The woman was kept under observation all night. When the pain subsided, she was discharged with a warning to return to the hospital if the pain recurred. However, the pain returned the next day. An X-ray revealed that the metallic object inside the abdomen had shifted. At this point, the woman recalled something old: before the incident, she had been sewing and had fallen asleep. She hypothesized that she might have accidentally lain on a sewing needle in her sleep, allowing it to penetrate her skin without her realizing it.

The main concern for the doctors was that the moving needle could damage the intestines or blood vessels. This could lead to serious internal injuries, bleeding, or infection. Therefore, the doctors decided to perform surgery to remove the needle using laparoscopic surgery, which allows intervention through small incisions without the need for large cuts.

During the operation, doctors found a small collection of blood near the tissue supporting the small intestine. Locating the needle itself was difficult. Using several X-rays and specialized equipment, they were able to pinpoint the needle's location. It was determined that the needle was lodged in a specific fatty tissue inside the abdomen called the Greater Omentum, which is a layer of fat around the abdominal organs. The needle was near a part of the large intestine. The doctors carefully extracted it. Fortunately, during the operation, the woman's intestines and other organs were unharmed.

The day after the successful removal of the needle, the woman remained under observation. She was discharged the day after the surgery. Later, she developed a mild infection around her navel, which the doctors treated with oral antibiotics. In their report, the doctors noted that foreign objects entering the body can change position, posing a risk of intestinal perforation, infection spread, and blood vessel damage.

According to government data, the number of victims of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has exceeded 5000. More than 10,000 confirmed cases have been registered since the outbreak was declared in May.

The epidemic, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, has spread to eight of the country's twenty-six provinces. This is the deadliest Ebola outbreak ever recorded in the DRC and the second largest globally after the 2014–2016 outbreak in West Africa.

The effectiveness of response measures was hampered by security issues, delays in infection detection, and overloaded medical facilities. A significant number of deaths occurred in communities rather than in treatment centers, highlighting difficulties with early case detection and providing timely patient care.

In September, an independent scientific review organized by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) noted positive trends in some regions, including a decrease in cases and deaths in parts of the Ituri province. However, the review warned that virus transmission is not uniformly controlled across all affected areas; in some health zones, particularly in North Kivu, there is an increase in incidence. Persistent community deaths and gaps in contact tracing were also noted as serious problems.

Africa CDC reported that there are currently no approved vaccines or specific treatments for the Bundibugyo virus, although research in this area continues. Furthermore, the outbreak has spread beyond the DRC: cases have been reported in Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also registered a case in France, indicating the risk of further international spread.