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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 05:36:46 pm

Title: Ebola News 12/11
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 05:36:46 pm

Sierra Leone locks down new Ebola hotspot in the east
Reuters
By Umaru Fofana  7 minutes ago



FREETOWN (Reuters) - Authorities in Sierra Leone have imposed a two-week lockdown in the eastern district of Kono after health workers uncovered a surge of Ebola infections in the area where the epidemic was thought to be largely under control.

The worst outbreak of Ebola on record has killed nearly 6,400 people in West Africa and infected some 18,000, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Sierra Leone, with a shortage of treatment centers and trained staff, has overtaken Liberia as the worst-hit country.

Until now the recent spread was believed to be centered on western areas around the capital Freetown. However, the WHO said on Wednesday it had found bodies piled up at the only hospital in Kono, a district of about 350,000 people bordering Guinea.

Officials from the WHO, health ministry and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) discovered 87 bodies had been buried in 11 days.

Kono District Ebola Response Center said it was placing the area on lockdown, allowing only essential vehicles in and out and introducing a night-time curfew.

Sierra Leone's government said on Wednesday it was working with the United Nations in Kono and the International Federation of the Red Cross was setting up a treatment center there. The remote area has only one ambulance to transport the sick and blood samples for testing.

But in Liberia, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said it was withdrawing from northern Lofa County, a former Ebola hotspot, after no new patients were recorded at its treatment center in Foya since Oct. 30, allowing the center's staff to be redeployed.

Ettore Mazzanti, MSF Project Coordinator in Foya, said efforts to contain the outbreak had been helped by explaining to local people how to avoid the virus, which has no known cure and is transmitted through the bodily fluids of sick people.

Scientists are racing to develop Ebola vaccines.

The Ebola response in Sierra Leone has been dogged by strikes by healthcare staff over pay and working conditions.

Despite government claims that it had reached a deal with junior doctors, Dr Jeredine George, president of the Junior Doctors' Association, told Reuters that its members would strike for a fourth day on Thursday.

They are demanding a specialized Ebola treatment clinic for Sierra Leonean doctors, 10 of whom have died since the outbreak began. Deputy Health Minister Madinatu Rahman has said plans are underway to get such a clinic set up this month.

(Editing by Daniel Flynn)


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-locks-down-ebola-hotspot-east-171447653.html (http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-locks-down-ebola-hotspot-east-171447653.html)

Title: Red Cross urges vigilance to avert holiday spike in Ebola cases
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 05:39:45 pm

Red Cross urges vigilance to avert holiday spike in Ebola cases
Reuters  3 hours ago


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Medecins Sans Frontiers (MFS) health workers stand in an Ebola virus treatment center in Bo, Sierra Leone, November 17, 2014. REUTERS/Benjamin Black



LONDON (Reuters) - The Red Cross warned on Thursday of a possible rise in the rate of Ebola infections in West Africa as people travel across the region during the festive holidays.

Urging people to take extra care to limit the spread of the virus, International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Secretary General Elhadj As Sy said increasing rates were not inevitable but a real risk.

"Now is the time to be even more vigilant," he told an audience at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. "We all welcome the plateauing and the signs of declines we are seeing in some places ... but that should not be a reason for complacency."

Latest World Health Organization (WHO) data show rates of infection with Ebola -- an often fatal disease which causes fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and bleeding -- appear to be slowing in Liberia and Guinea but are still raging in Sierra Leone.

The Ebola epidemic, the largest in history, has infected almost 18,000 people, killing around 6,400 of them.

The Ebola virus spreads through contact with the body fluids of an infected person, meaning suspected and confirmed cases should be quarantined or cared for in isolation to reduce spreading.

As Sy said that since many West Africans traditionally travel from urban areas to their rural homes at this time of the year, the threat of wider contagion is greater.

"If we have social gatherings and movement of people ... there may be increased risk," he said.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Janet Lawrence)


http://news.yahoo.com/red-cross-urges-vigilance-avert-holiday-spike-ebola-140702101.html (http://news.yahoo.com/red-cross-urges-vigilance-avert-holiday-spike-ebola-140702101.html)

Title: Sierra Leonean docs strike again over Ebola care
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 05:42:22 pm

Sierra Leonean docs strike again over Ebola care
Associated Press
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY  December 10, 2014 6:57 AM


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In this file photo taken on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014, health workers wear protective gear before entering the house of a person suspected to have died of the Ebola virus in Port Loko Community situated on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone’s junior doctors were on strike for a second day Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014, to demand better care for medical workers who catch Ebola after a spate of recent deaths. (AP Photo/Michael Duff, File)



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leone's junior doctors went on strike for a second day Tuesday, a move they dubbed a "tactical retreat" to demand better care for medical workers who catch Ebola after a spate of deaths.

The Ebola outbreak has infected more than 17,800 people, most in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Hundreds of health workers have become sick, but the problem in Sierra Leone has been getting special attention. On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study that found the rate of lab-confirmed Ebola infections this year has been 100 times higher in medical workers in Sierra Leone than in other adults.

The study cited a broad range of breaches in infection control and prevention practices. But it said that in recent months more training and availability of protective equipment may be helping.

Sierra Leone lost three doctors in the past week, prompting a strike of the junior doctors' association that started Monday.

In a statement Tuesday, the doctors demanded a facility dedicated to the treatment of medical workers. They had previously demanded access to life-saving equipment, like dialysis machines.

The deaths of doctors "might have been as a result of the absence of a specialized unit," the statement said. It didn't use the word strike but said the junior doctors would "re-strategize" while awaiting the special treatment unit.

"This strategy can be compared to the 'tactical retreat' of soldiers in the warfront ... in order to protect the lives of other soldiers," it said.

Just such a facility opened in Sierra Leone last month — as part of a British-built treatment center at Kerry Townv, but that treatment center has come under criticism lately, including confusion over who the clinic for health workers is open to. Officials clarified Monday that any infected front-line health worker could be admitted there.

Still, Dr. Jeredine George, president of the junior doctors' association, said Tuesday that the government has also promised that beds will be set aside for health workers at another treatment unit.

Also on Tuesday, the United Nations' Ebola chief announced that enough medics will be operating in the country by the end of January to ensure that the number of new cases starts dropping.

___

AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/liberians-urged-travel-last-mile-beat-ebola-112754953.html (http://news.yahoo.com/liberians-urged-travel-last-mile-beat-ebola-112754953.html)

Title: Red Cross urges Ebola vigilance before Christmas
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 05:45:39 pm

Red Cross urges Ebola vigilance before Christmas
AFP  2 minutes ago


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Kenyan health officials prepare to receive arriving passengers at an observation area at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on October 28, 2014 (AFP Photo/Tony Karumba)

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London (AFP) - The Red Cross on Thursday urged vigilance against a possible spread of the Ebola virus as holiday travel picks up for the Christmas season in west Africa.

"There may be a risk of waves of infection if not all the measures are taken," Elhadj As Sy, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), told reporters in London.

"It is a combination of (a) festive season where we have a high mobility of people and also a high risk of, you know, letting your guard down and not being vigilant."

"It is an alert for greater vigilance," he said, adding: "Our best bet right now is to count on behaviours, attitudes, community mobilisation, treatment, safe and dignified burials".

The IFRC chief also recognised the apparent "plateauing" of Ebola infection and signs it is declining in some places, but warned that this should "not be a reason for complacency".

IFRC currently has around 11,000 volunteers in the three countries worst hit by the Ebola epidemic -- Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Red Cross volunteers work mostly on burying victims and transporting patients to clinics.

The epidemic has killed 6,388 people so far out of a total of 17,942 recorded cases in eight countries, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.


http://news.yahoo.com/red-cross-urges-ebola-vigilance-christmas-161445350.html (http://news.yahoo.com/red-cross-urges-ebola-vigilance-christmas-161445350.html)

Title: Italian Ebola victim's condition improves
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 05:50:31 pm

Italian Ebola victim's condition improves
Reuters  4 hours ago


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An ambulance carrying an Italian doctor, who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, arrives at the Lazzaro Spallanzani infectious diseases institute in Rome November 25, 2014. REUTERS/Tony Gentile



ROME (Reuters) - The condition of an Italian doctor repatriated from West Africa after being diagnosed with Ebola is improving and no longer has fever, the Rome hospital which is treating him said on Thursday.

The 50 year-old Sicilian, the only confirmed Italian victim of the disease, contracted the haemorrhagic virus while working for humanitarian group Emergency in Sierra Leone, where cases are continuing to rise in the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

The Lazzaro Spallanzani infectious diseases unit said on Thursday the patient's condition had got better after improving the previous day. He is not feverish, is breathing on his own and is "interacting positively" with hospital staff.

He had been moved to intensive care on Dec. 5 and received respiratory assistance after his condition worsened.

The Italian victim, who has not been officially named, was flown to Rome in late November and has been treated with a combination of an experimental drug never used before in Italy, and plasma taken from survivors of the disease.

(Reporting by Isla Binnie Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)


http://news.yahoo.com/italian-ebola-victims-condition-improves-132559428.html (http://news.yahoo.com/italian-ebola-victims-condition-improves-132559428.html)

Title: Sierra Leone diamond zone hit by largely hidden Ebola outbreak
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 05:54:06 pm

Sierra Leone diamond zone hit by largely hidden Ebola outbreak
Reuters
By Reuters Staff  9 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) - Health officials in Sierra Leone fear a major Ebola outbreak may have gone largely unreported until now in a remote district where the World Health Organization (WHO) said scores of bodies piled up in a hospital.

The WHO said on Wednesday that it had sent a response team to the diamond-rich Kono district following a worrying spike in reported Ebola cases in the district, which lies along the country's eastern border with Guinea.

"They uncovered a grim scene," the U.N. health agency said in a statement. "In 11 days, two teams buried 87 bodies, including a nurse, an ambulance driver, and a janitor drafted into removing bodies as they piled up."

Twenty-five people had died in a hastily cordoned off section of the local hospital in the five days before the team arrived. They found that villages scattered across eight of the area's 15 chiefdoms had been hit by Ebola.

Officially the district of over 350,000 inhabitants had reported 119 cases up to Dec. 9.

"We are only seeing the ears of the hippo," said Dr. Amara Jambai, Sierra Leone's Director of Disease Prevention and Control, expressing concern that the official figures underrepresented the size of the outbreak in Kono.

The worst Ebola epidemic on record has killed 6,388 people out of 17,942 cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone according to WHO data.

The toll continues to grow, fueled principally by new infections in Sierra Leone, but health officials worry that the true scale of the epidemic may be even larger.

The team's findings in Kono did not appear to be reflected in the WHO's most recent data on the epidemic published on Wednesday, which showed 24 cases reported in the district in the week leading up to Dec. 7.

Sierra Leone recently overtook neighbouring Liberia for the highest number of Ebola cases, recording 7,897 since the epidemic was first identified earlier this year.

But it has registered just 1,768 deaths, well below Liberia's 3,177 dead, raising concerns that some fatalities may not be reflected in the figures.

"It is difficult to put an exact figure on the deaths," Sierra Leone's health minister Abu Bakarr Fofanah told Reuters in an interview in Geneva, explaining that his country was only counting deaths from laboratory confirmed Ebola cases.

"They are adding suspected cases, so that is causing the discrepancies in the results. We are going by the textbook," he said.


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-diamond-zone-hit-largely-hidden-ebola-063156435.html (http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-diamond-zone-hit-largely-hidden-ebola-063156435.html)

Title: $300 million pledged to buy Ebola vaccines as NewLink shot hits snag
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 07:22:33 pm

$300 million pledged to buy Ebola vaccines as NewLink shot hits snag
Reuters
By Ben Hirschler and Stephanie Nebehay  1 hour ago



LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) - GAVI, the global vaccines alliance, said on Thursday it was committing up to $300 million to buy Ebola vaccines, as one experimental shot hit a snag in a Swiss clinical trial after some subjects reported joint pains.

Scientists are racing to develop Ebola vaccines in record time but many questions remain unanswered, as evidenced by a decision to pause Swiss tests of the experimental vaccine from NewLink and Merck.

GAVI, which is funded by governments and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said it was ready to begin procurement as soon as the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended a vaccine for use.

The world's worst Ebola outbreak has killed more than 6,000 people in West Africa and experts believe millions of doses of vaccine may be needed both to help end the current epidemic and to contain future outbreaks.

Officials involved in the Swiss study said the volunteers who had received the NewLink shot were all fine and the WHO played down the problem, pointing out that temporary suspensions were not uncommon in clinical trials.

Researchers hope safe and effective vaccines will get a green light as soon as next year, although there is still uncertainty over how well they will work and how many doses are needed.

Paying for vaccines is a challenge because the worst affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are some of the world's poorest, providing little commercial incentive for manufacturers.


STOCKPILES

The money now earmarked by Geneva-based GAVI will help bridge the gap and is expected to be enough to procure up to 12 million courses of vaccine. WHO vaccine expert Marie-Paule Kieny said the commitment was "fantastic".

In addition to helping in the current epidemic, the money could also be used to create stockpiles of Ebola vaccines, similar to those that exist for yellow fever, meningitis and cholera.

A further amount of up to $90 million will be made available from GAVI's coffers to help affected countries introduce the vaccines and to rebuild their health systems.

GAVI, which was set up in 2000 with private and government donor backing, has a track record of bulk-buying vaccine supplies from manufacturers at a low price for the developing world. Since 2000, around 440 million children have been immunised against a range of diseases through its program.

GAVI said its board had decided to prepare for procuring Ebola vaccines while still awaiting a green light for the first product, "in light of the seriousness of the situation and the risks associated with delays in making a vaccine available".

Two vaccines, one from NewLink and Merck and a rival shot from GlaxoSmithKline, are already undergoing human trials and third one, made by Johnson & Johnson, is about to enter clinical testing.

"We've had individual discussions with all of the manufacturers and continue to work closely with them," GAVI's chief executive, Seth Berkley, told Reuters.

GAVI said it would meet the funding needs of the Ebola vaccine program using a combination of existing and new financing. It also plans to join forces with other initiatives that have already pledged funding to address the Ebola crisis.

(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Pravin Char and Greg Mahlich)


http://news.yahoo.com/gavi-alliance-commits-300-million-buy-ebola-vaccines-111432521.html (http://news.yahoo.com/gavi-alliance-commits-300-million-buy-ebola-vaccines-111432521.html)

Title: Mali says has no remaining Ebola cases as last patient recovers
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 11:30:45 pm

Mali says has no remaining Ebola cases as last patient recovers
Reuters  48 minutes ago



BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali has no remaining cases of the Ebola virus as the last patient in the country has recovered and left hospital, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday.

Six people have died of Ebola in Mali, while two others have recovered. The country is the sixth West African state to be hit by the worst outbreak on record of the hemorrhagic fever.

At least 6,533 people have died of the virus in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the three West African countries worst hit by the disease, according to the World Health Organization.

Ebola first entered Mali through an infant girl who died of the disease in October after arriving from neighboring Guinea. Later that month, an imam who also arrived from Guinea with the disease died in Mali. He infected other people.

"The only remaining case in treatment has recovered and has been released today so there are no more people sick with Ebola in Mali," said Ministry of Health spokesman Markatié Daou.

Mali is yet to be officially declared Ebola-free, a status acquired by Nigeria and Senegal, two other countries that had cases of the virus earlier this year.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Adama Diarra; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg)


http://news.yahoo.com/mali-says-no-remaining-ebola-cases-last-patient-220139645.html (http://news.yahoo.com/mali-says-no-remaining-ebola-cases-last-patient-220139645.html)

Title: One shot or two? Many questions unresolved in Ebola vaccine race
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 11, 2014, 11:42:37 pm

One shot or two? Many questions unresolved in Ebola vaccine race
Reuters
By Ben Hirschler and Kate Kelland  9 hours ago


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A document is pictured at the opening of a consultation of international experts on potential Ebola therapies and vaccines in Geneva September 4, 2014. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse



LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists racing to develop vaccines against Ebola are trying to determine whether they can best fight the disease with a single injection or with two, a calculation that could determine how quickly and effectively a program can be rolled out.

Administering two vaccines, one after the other, would almost certainly give far greater protection than a single shot against a deadly virus that has killed more than 6,000 people in West Africa this year.

But it would also make mass immunizations far more complicated in the worst-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where weak health systems have all but collapsed under the weight of the epidemic.

With the epidemic growing exponentially through much of 2014, the initial focus was on developing a single shot that could be tested and deployed as fast as possible.

Now, however, with disease transmission rates tailing off markedly in Liberia, there is more debate about a double vaccine program that would provide greater protection, even if it might take longer and be harder to implement.

"There is now more and more talk about what can we do to prolong vaccine protection," said Ripley Ballou, head of Ebola research at GlaxoSmithKline, which has one of the leading vaccine candidates.

He still hopes a single-dose vaccine will be of use in the current outbreak, but also sees a need to evaluate the "prime-boost" approach of giving a first shot to stimulate the immune system, followed by a second booster a few weeks later.

Health officials in London and Washington, as well as non-profit groups like the Wellcome Trust that are also helping fund clinical trials, are liaising closely on the best way forward.

"We're trying to decide where it is best to put the money," said one senior government adviser.

A big Liberia trial, involving up to 30,000 participants, will test single shots of GSK's vaccine, a rival one from NewLink and Merck, and a placebo.

Although the Ebola slowdown in Liberia is clearly good news, it means the trial may not see enough new cases of disease to demonstrate the benefit of vaccination.


PRODUCTION CAPACITY

Other studies are starting to analyze the prime-boost approach. Johnson & Johnson expects to start testing its experimental shot with a booster developed by Denmark's Bavarian Nordic "very soon" and its chief scientific officer, Paul Stoffels, is convinced this is the right strategy.

"It is cumbersome, because you need two vaccines, but it is clear that you will get the best protection, both short and long term, from a prime-boost," he said.

A prime-boost vaccine will be more difficult to make in large quantities, since the booster component from Bavarian needs to be grown in chicken eggs, limiting supply. But past experience suggests it should pack more punch.

Tests of similar two-pronged vaccines in other diseases suggest the booster component can increase immune responses around 30-fold for the production of antibodies and up to 10-fold for the body's own disease-fighting T-cells - two of the key elements of the ability to fight off infection - said Adrian Hill, a vaccine expert at Oxford University's Jenner Institute.

That extra protection may be needed in West Africa, where infection with malaria could also depress people's immune systems, limiting the effectiveness of immunization.

In the end, the wide program of vaccine trials scheduled for the first half of 2015 may yield a variety of options, with some experts suggesting prime-boost may be particularly suited for healthcare workers facing regular high exposure and single shots the preferred choice for rapid containment of local cases.

So far, the only human data on how well Ebola vaccines might work comes from the United States and Europe, with GSK's shot proving safe and showing some efficacy, although not comprehensive protection. NewLink's experimental shot had no serious side effects but caused some mild fever.

With the epidemic still raging, tests are likely to try out combinations of vaccines in an opportunistic way. While their impact may not become clear until later next year, the lessons learned will still be valuable in responding to the next, inevitable, Ebola outbreak.

"This disease is going to be endemic in West Africa," said GSK's Ballou. "It's important for those countries either to have routine vaccination or a stockpile option."

(Editing by Peter Graff)


http://news.yahoo.com/one-shot-two-many-questions-unresolved-ebola-vaccine-070651600--finance.html (http://news.yahoo.com/one-shot-two-many-questions-unresolved-ebola-vaccine-070651600--finance.html)