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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on December 04, 2014, 08:33:09 pm

Title: Ebola News 12/4
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 04, 2014, 08:33:09 pm

Dangerous practices spread Ebola in Sierra Leone
Associated Press
By RODNEY MUHUMUZA  5 hours ago


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In this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014, Ugandan doctor Michael Mawanda, who contracted Ebola in September while working at a hospital in Sierra Leone's capital, speaks to The Associated Press in Kampala, Uganda after returning from Germany where he received medical care and is now cured of Ebola. Dr. Michael Mawanda saw some disturbing behaviors when he was in Sierra Leone helping fight the Ebola epidemic, including relatives removing patients from the hospital where he worked, and their actions made it nearly impossible for health workers to track new Ebola infections and risked spreading the virus further, said Mawanda, who despite taking precautions came down with Ebola himself and barely survived. (AP Photo/Rodney Muhumuza)



KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Dr. Michael Mawanda saw some disturbing behaviors when he was in Sierra Leone helping fight the Ebola epidemic, including relatives removing patients from the hospital where he worked.

The family members who removed the Ebola patients couldn't bear to be separated from their loved ones, but their actions made it nearly impossible for health workers to track new Ebola infections and risked spreading the virus further, said Mawanda, who despite taking precautions came down with Ebola himself and barely survived.

The Ebola outbreak, which is stabilizing in Liberia and Guinea, is spreading fastest in Sierra Leone. In a recent 21-day period, Guinea had 306 new Ebola cases. Liberia had 278. Sierra Leone had 1,455, according to the World Health Organization.

Mawanda believes that clinging to dangerous practices is the reason why. So does Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, who on Tuesday urged Sierra Leoneans to desist from washing of corpses, from secretly burying the dead at night instead of calling for Ebola burial teams and any from other practices that could accelerate infections.

"Naturally what happens is that as more and more people get infected, people learn lessons. Unfortunately, that takes a long time," Mawanda, a 38-year-old Ugandan physician, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Unsafe burials are believed responsible for 70 percent of new infections in Sierra Leone, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brima Kargbo told reporters Wednesday. The bodies of people who have died from Ebola are particularly contagious and must be handled carefully, but throughout the region, many people continue to bury their dead using traditional methods, including washing and touching the body. Ebola is spread through contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or corpse.


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In this Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014 file photo, a health worker volunteer marks a home with chalk to identify that it has been visited, as they distribute bars of soap and information about Ebola in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Ebola outbreak, which is stabilizing in Liberia and Guinea, is spreading fastest in Sierra Leone and unsafe burials are believed responsible for 70 percent of new infections in the country, according to the country's Chief Medical Officer. (AP Photo/Michael Duff, File)


Mawanda said sensitization campaigns have not been widely successful in West Africa largely because many locals seem unwilling to break with age-old customs such as communal dining. He saw people eating from the same plate even as Ebola was claiming victims in the capital. The WHO says saliva may carry some risk but that "the science is inconclusive." According to the WHO, the most infectious bodily fluids for spreading Ebola are blood, feces and vomit.

"Tracing contacts and isolating them as early as possible is not happening in Sierra Leone," Mawanda said. "What that means is people are getting infected and they are infecting others and there is this great multiplication factor. It is all about capacity and Sierra Leone needs help to effectively do contact tracing."

Malaria is a common disease in parts of West Africa, and many who show up in hospitals with a fever could be suffering from such a tropical disease. Mawanda said he that amid the chaos in hospital wards, many health workers make wrong calls, possibly leading to Ebola patients infecting health workers and others with whom they come into contact.

Mawanda had worked in Sierra Leone since 2011. He is one of many Ugandan doctors who were deployed on the Ebola front lines as local authorities sought the expertise of health workers from countries that had experienced Ebola. Uganda and Congo have been hit by previous outbreaks. At least two Ugandan physicians have died of Ebola in the unprecedented West Africa outbreak. Mawanda feels fortunate to be alive.

He recalled that local health workers at Emergency Hospital near Freetown, the capital, had to deal with a disease about which they knew little or nothing, sparking a response "characterized by fear" among medical workers often ill equipped to protect themselves from Ebola.

After he tested positive for Ebola in September, he felt "helpless and hopeless" and believed he faced certain death. By the time he was put on a charter flight to Frankfurt for medical care, his organs were shutting down. In Germany, he was put into an induced coma. He spent seven weeks in intensive care at Frankfurt University Hospital before he was declared cured of Ebola.

Last month he returned to Uganda and does not plan to immediately return to Sierra Leone, a country in desperate need of more foreign aid, especially doctors and other medical workers.


http://news.yahoo.com/dangerous-practices-spread-ebola-sierra-leone-150708144.html (http://news.yahoo.com/dangerous-practices-spread-ebola-sierra-leone-150708144.html)

Title: World Bank fast tracks Ebola aid as Sierra Leone calls for help
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 04, 2014, 08:39:07 pm

World Bank fast tracks Ebola aid as Sierra Leone calls for help
Reuters
By Umaru Fofana  14 hours ago


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Medical staff wearing protective suits gather at a health facility near the Liberia-Sierra Leone border in western Liberia November 5, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue



FREETOWN (Reuters) - The World Bank said on Wednesday it would speed up delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance to fight Ebola in West Africa, as Sierra Leone appealed for help in plugging gaps in its response.

On a visit to Sierra Leone, where the epidemic is spreading fastest, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the lender would accelerate disbursement of $162 million in emergency support to ensure the money was delivered in two years instead of three.

To help kick-start Sierra Leone's economy, Kim said the bank would make available an additional $170 million over the next two years, mostly to strengthen infrastructure and agriculture.

"We’re accelerating our support to Sierra Leone," Kim said in Freetown, during a tour of Ebola-affected countries in the region.

The worst known outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever on record has killed more than 6,070 people from 17,145 cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Despite Britain deploying hundreds of troops to its former colony, Sierra Leone is lagging behind Guinea and Liberia in its Ebola response, reporting 537 new cases in the week to November 30.

The WHO said uncertainty about data prevented firm conclusions about progress in eradicating the disease.

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma said his country still had less than a third of the 1,500 beds it required and needed an additional four laboratories.

"While we do appreciate the increased presence, I must say that there is still the need for us to address the gaps that still exist in some areas of our intervention," he said.

In a subsequent stop-off in Guinea, Kim said that a $153 million aid package to that country would also be delivered in two years, instead of the planned three.

Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said in a report this week that one of the shortcomings in the Ebola response is the failure to deploy trained medical personnel, resulting in high rates of infection among local staff.

In a move that could relieve staffing shortages, 250 medical volunteers from the African Union prepared to be deployed on Thursday from Nigeria to the worst affected countries.

The World Bank on Tuesday revealed that the epidemic would cost more than $2 billion across the region, causing once-booming economies to slow down or shrink.


http://news.yahoo.com/world-bank-fast-tracks-ebola-aid-sierra-leone-061252532--business.html (http://news.yahoo.com/world-bank-fast-tracks-ebola-aid-sierra-leone-061252532--business.html)

Title: US health care worker in WAfrica brought home for Ebola tests
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 04, 2014, 08:42:35 pm

US health care worker in WAfrica brought home for Ebola tests
AFP  13 hours ago


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A US health care worker who has been assisting efforts in west Africa has been flown to the United States to be tested for Ebola at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta (AFP Photo/Kevin C. Cox)



Washington (AFP) - A US health care worker who has been assisting efforts in west Africa has been flown to the United States to be tested for Ebola in Atlanta, a spokeswoman said.

Emory University Hospital will monitor the patient to see if they have been infected, spokeswoman Holly Korschun told AFP.

"An American health care worker from West Africa who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus is being transferred to Emory University Hospital's Serious Communicable Diseases Unit for monitoring and observation to see if an infection has been acquired," the medical center said in a statement.

"We do not have a time of arrival and cannot share more details out of respect for patient privacy and in accordance with the patient's wishes."

The news comes a day after federal officials said that 35 hospitals across the United States including Emory have special facilities for patients being treated for possible and actual Ebola infection.

Emory was the first US hospital to treat a patient in the United States.

The Ebola outbreak ravaging west Africa has claimed 6,070 lives, according to the latest WHO update, with the vast majority of deaths in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

To date, 10 people have been treated for Ebola in the United States, of whom eight -- all Americans -- survived.


http://news.yahoo.com/us-health-care-worker-wafrica-brought-home-ebola-072157905.html (http://news.yahoo.com/us-health-care-worker-wafrica-brought-home-ebola-072157905.html)

Title: Five million children out of school in West Africa due to Ebola: TRFN
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 04, 2014, 11:14:28 pm

Five million children out of school in West Africa due to Ebola: TRFN
Reuters
By Misha Hussain  16 hours ago



DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Some five million children are out of school in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the deadly Ebola outbreak, according to a report by the Global Business Coalition for Education.

Schools and other public buildings have been closed because they are believed to increase the spread of the virus. Many are now used as holding centres for Ebola patients.

The report, co-written with A World at School, said being out of school can have a crippling impact on vulnerable children, especially girls, who are more likely to face high-risk situations as a result, including early marriage and pregnancy.

If schools are not reopened, the most vulnerable children will become trapped in a cycle of poverty with devastating consequences for their health and economic development, the report said.

"With children out of school indefinitely, Ebola threatens to reverse years of educational progress in west Africa where literacy rates are already low and school systems are only now recovering from years of civil war," U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, said in the report.

All three countries have some of the lowest primary school completion rates in the world, according to World Bank figures. In Guinea, 61 percent of children complete primary school, in Liberia 65 percent, with Sierra Leone doing marginally better at 72 percent.

Many children are less likely to return to the classroom if they have been out of school for a year, according to the report, Ebola Emergency: Restoring Education, Creating Safe Schools and Preventing Long-term Crisis.

Ebola, a rare tropical disease has killed more than 6,000 people and infected more than 16,000 people in west Africa, where poverty, corruption and civil war have left a weak health system unable to cope with the exponential spread of the disease in the worst-affected countries.

"It is imperative that the business community takes a leadership role in the prioritisation of education during humanitarian crises," Aliko Dangote, a founding member of the Global Business Coalition for Education, said in the report.

Innovative teaching through radio, television, mobile phones and internet should be used until schools can be safely reopened, the report said.

Schools need to be cleaned and disinfected before reopening, and teachers trained to spot the signs of Ebola and stop its spread. Schools also need better water and sanitation facilities, the report said.

The government should also help schools prepare for future emergencies, the report said.

Last month, the government in Sierra Leone pioneered a new approach to teaching children out of school via the radio, Sierra Leone's Minister for Information Alpha Kanu told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"The radio (and television) programmes have been welcomed by parents as well as pupils, who on a daily basis, studiously, sit by their radio. The fact they are engaged is a sign of success," Kanu said.

Liberia has introduced similar measures, according to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF).


http://news.yahoo.com/five-million-children-school-west-africa-due-ebola-061634051.html (http://news.yahoo.com/five-million-children-school-west-africa-due-ebola-061634051.html)

Title: Simple intravenous fluid could save many Ebola patients, specialists say
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 05, 2014, 03:13:44 am

Simple intravenous fluid could save many Ebola patients, specialists say
Reuters  2 hours ago



LONDON (Reuters) - Simple intravenous fluid drips could save the lives of many West African Ebola patients, but are being neglected because of a perception that there is no effective treatment for the disease, specialist doctors said on Friday.

"Ebola treatment centers must be more than just a setting for quarantine," Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Anders Perner of Copenhagen University wrote in the journal The Lancet. "Patients will be reluctant to attend treatment centers unless the care they receive ... is superior to the care provided by family members."

West Africa's Ebola epidemic, by far the largest on record, has killed more than 6,000 of the 17,000 or so people infected so far, according to the World Health Organization. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone account for all but 15 of the deaths.

But many patients are probably dying not from the disease's signature hemorrhaging, but from extreme dehydration and electrolyte depletion caused by nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, the scientists wrote.

The fact that there is no proven vaccine or drug cure has led to the "widespread misconception" in the worst-hit countries that no treatment is effective, Roberts and Perner said.

"Whereas many patients ... receive oral rehydration and some electrolyte substitution, the use of intravenous fluids and electrolytes varies, and it is likely that many patients die from deficiencies in fluid volume and electrolytes."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland, editing by Kevin Liffey)


http://news.yahoo.com/simple-intravenous-fluid-could-save-many-ebola-patients-000224667.html (http://news.yahoo.com/simple-intravenous-fluid-could-save-many-ebola-patients-000224667.html)

Title: Ebola booster vaccine starts first trials in Oxford
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 05, 2014, 03:34:41 am

Ebola booster vaccine starts first trials in Oxford
Reuters
By Ben Hirschler  17 hours ago



LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists at Oxford University have launched the first clinical tests of a new Ebola vaccine approach, using a booster developed by Denmark's Bavarian Nordic that may improve the effects of a shot from GlaxoSmithKline.

Thirty healthy volunteers in Britain who have already received the experimental Ebola vaccine being developed by GSK and the U.S. National Institutes of Health will get the booster shot, researchers said on Thursday.

Adrian Hill, who is leading the trial at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute, said it was important to explore all avenues.

"If a single dose of an Ebola vaccine is sufficient, it makes absolute sense to use that. But it also makes sense at this early stage of trials to see if a second booster vaccine can greatly increase the levels of immune responses produced," he said.

As neither vaccine contains infectious material, they cannot cause a person who is vaccinated to become infected with Ebola.

Drug companies and scientists are racing to develop an effective vaccine to help fight the world's worst Ebola outbreak, which has killed some 6,000 people in West Africa, and they are collaborating to try and find the best approach.

Johnson & Johnson is also working with Bavarian to develop another so-called prime-boost vaccine and a spokeswoman for the U.S. group said trials with its product were expected to start "very soon".

Prime-boost involves a first vaccination to stimulate an initial immune response and a second shot a few weeks later to boost that response further.

Another experimental Ebola vaccine is also being developed by Merck & Co and NewLink.

Some Ebola experts say it is unlikely the epidemic can be brought under control without the use of a vaccine, which if successful could protect healthy people from being infected with the contagious and deadly virus.

(Editing by Mark Potter)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-booster-vaccine-starts-first-trials-oxford-092635874--finance.html (http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-booster-vaccine-starts-first-trials-oxford-092635874--finance.html)