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Community => Recreation Commons => Our researchers have made a breakthrough! => Topic started by: Buster's Uncle on February 01, 2015, 05:44:28 pm

Title: Ebola News 2/1
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 01, 2015, 05:44:28 pm

In pursuit of next-generation Ebola stockpile vaccines
Reuters
By Kate Kelland and Ben Hirschler  Sun Feb 1, 2015 12:15pm GMT


(http://s3.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150201&t=2&i=1021550383&w=450&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=LYNXMPEB100MQ)
A research assistant works on a vaccine for Ebola at The Jenner Institute in Oxford, southern England January 16, 2015. Photograph taken January 16, 2015. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh


 
LONDON (Reuters) - As West Africa's devastating Ebola outbreak begins to dwindle, scientists are looking beyond the endgame at the kind of next-generation vaccines needed for a vital stockpile to hit another epidemic hard and fast.
 
Determined not to lose scientific momentum that could make the world's first effective Ebola interventions a reality, researchers say the shots, as well as being proven to work, must be cheap, easy to handle in Africa and able to hit multiple virus strains.
 
That may mean shifting focus from the stripped-down, fast-tracked vaccine development ideas that have dominated the past six months, but it mustn't mean the field gets bogged down in complexities.
 
"We need a stockpile because there will be other outbreaks," said Seth Berkley, chief executive of the GAVI global immunisation alliance, which helps bulk-buy vaccines for poor countries.
 
The experimental vaccines now moving into large clinical trials in West Africa target the current Ebola Zaire virus strain, but the next outbreak may be different.
 
"We need to work with the pharmaceutical industry to create second-generation vaccines that would cover not just Ebola Zaire but also Ebola Sudan and perhaps Marburg, perhaps Lassa. The idea is to have vaccines that will work across different places," Berkley said.
 
Right now, scientists are grappling with several tricky issues -- partly due to success in cutting new infections in the vast Ebola outbreak.
 
With relatively few new cases, big trials in Liberia and Sierra Leone to test the first generation single-dose one strain vaccines may not have the statistical power needed to show whether the shots work.
 
And already, early data from safety trials in humans suggest a single-dose vaccination with the most advanced vaccine, from GlaxoSmithKline, may not provoke an immune response strong enough to protect people exposed to the virus.
 
"We now know you get around 10 times fewer antibodies in humans (than in monkeys) and probably five times fewer T-cells," said Adrian Hill of Oxford's Jenner Institute, referring to two key elements of the immune system.
 
This strongly suggests that a two-dose regime, or a so-called "prime-boost" approach, is the one likely to prove effective, Hill said.
 
 
SIZEABLE CHALLENGE
 
These and other issues add up to a sizeable to do list for scientists focussing on vaccines for future stockpiles.
 
Producing multi-strain, or multivalent, vaccines that could protect against different types of Ebola and other haemorrhagic fevers will be more time consuming than making today's monovalent shots, but it is by no means impossible.
 
In fact, several of the candidate Ebola vaccines being fast-tracked through testing started out as multivalents before being stripped back to deal with the current outbreak.
 
Another challenge is ensuring vaccines have a long shelf-life and can be easily transported in the tropics. At the moment, test shots are kept at -70 or -80 degrees Celsius, although Johnson & Johnson says its Ebola vaccine can be stored at normal fridge temperature for many weeks.
 
Producing adequate volumes, however, looks manageable. Hopefully, the next time Ebola emerges from Africa's forests it will be spotted earlier and immunisation will be needed for perhaps tens of thousands of people -- nothing like the tens of millions who would need vaccines in a worldwide flu pandemic.
 
Finally companies still need a regulatory green light, which gets tricky if large-scale trials fail to produce clear proof that the shots are both safe and effective in people.
 
Researchers and drugmakers say, however, that regulators have made clear stockpile Ebola vaccines could be approved on efficacy data from tests in monkeys or other non-human primates plus proof of safety and immune response in humans, reflecting contingency plans for vaccines designed for bioterror attacks.
 
Pursuing tomorrow's vaccines is not to say one of today's monovalent shots from GSK, Merck or J&J might not yet have a role in ring-fencing lingering pockets of infection in the current epidemic, and perhaps finally stamping it out.
 
"I'm pretty optimistic there's still a role for vaccination in ending this outbreak," said Hill. "And I'm certainly optimistic that we'll learn for the next outbreak which of these vaccine approaches is the most likely to work, and be ready to tackle it early on."
 
© Thomson Reuters 2015 All rights reserved


http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0L51DK20150201?sp=true (http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0L51DK20150201?sp=true)

Title: Second patient hospitalized in California undergoes Ebola testing
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 01, 2015, 07:05:37 pm

Second patient hospitalized in California undergoes Ebola testing
Reuters  January 30, 2015 4:39 PM



SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Hours after a suspected Ebola patient in Sacramento, California, was found to be free of the virus, a second person hospitalized in the city was reported by public health officials on Friday to be undergoing testing for the deadly disease.

The second patient was admitted to Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center on Wednesday and, like the previous case, is considered to be at low risk of having contracted the virus, the hospital said in a statement.

There was no immediate word on whether the two cases were linked or whether the second patient had traveled recently in West Africa, the epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record, as had the first.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Trott)


http://news.yahoo.com/second-patient-hospitalized-california-undergoes-ebola-testing-213957533.html (http://news.yahoo.com/second-patient-hospitalized-california-undergoes-ebola-testing-213957533.html)

Title: UK healthcare worker returns for Ebola monitoring Royal Free Hospital
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 02, 2015, 12:05:08 am

UK healthcare worker returns for Ebola monitoring Royal Free Hospital
BBC News
31 January 2015 Last updated at 12:16 ET


(http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/80694000/jpg/_80694563_80694562.jpg)
The person has been admitted to the Royal Free Hospital in north London



A British military healthcare worker has been flown back to the UK from Sierra Leone for Ebola monitoring.

The individual suffered a needle-stick injury while treating a patient in the West African country, which is among those affected by the Ebola outbreak.

The person has been admitted to the Royal Free Hospital in north London, Public Health England (PHE) said.

More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

The individual, who is being treated in isolation, does not have symptoms but is likely to have been exposed to the virus, the Royal Free said.

The patient arrived back in the UK on Saturday on board an RAF flight and will be monitored for the remainder of their 21-day incubation period.


'Well-tested protocols'
 
Professor Paul Cosford, PHE's director for health protection, said: "Our thoughts are with this person, who has been courageous in helping those affected in West Africa, and in preventing the wider spread of Ebola.

"We have strict, well-tested protocols in place for this eventuality and we are confident that all appropriate actions have been taken to support the healthcare worker concerned and to protect the health of other people."

Needle-stick injuries involve a piercing of the skin by a sharp instrument or object, typically a needle.

Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said such injuries were "one of the most dangerous risks for infection" as the virus could be delivered directly into the bloodstream.

"Careful monitoring and Ebola virus testing will determine if the person has been exposed and infected," he added.

The Royal Free is home to a specialist unit for infectious diseases patients.

Two other Britons who contracted the virus - nurses Pauline Cafferkey and Will Pooley - have been successfully treated there, both of whom had worked in West Africa.

Ms Cafferkey was discharged last week. She said she was now looking forward to returning to "normal life" and had no current plans to return to West Africa.

She was treated with blood plasma from an Ebola survivor and an experimental treatment drug closely related to ZMapp, which Mr Pooley was treated with after he contracted Ebola.

Up until 5 January the Imported Fever Service (IFS) - which is a specialist diagnostic service for medical professionals managing travellers who have returned to the UK with fever - said it had received 258 calls regarding Ebola, and 148 tests had been carried out, with only two confirmed cases of the virus.


http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31072745 (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-31072745)

Title: Second patient hospitalized in California undergoes Ebola testing
Post by: Buster's Uncle on February 02, 2015, 12:08:44 am

Second patient hospitalized in California undergoes Ebola testing
Reuters  Sat Jan 31, 2015 8:55am GMT



SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Hours after a suspected Ebola patient in Sacramento, California, was found to be free of the virus, a second person hospitalized in the city was reported by public health officials on Friday to be undergoing testing for the deadly disease.
 
The second patient was admitted to Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center on Wednesday and, like the previous case, is considered to be at low risk of having contracted the virus, the hospital said in a statement.
 
There was no immediate word on whether the two cases were linked or whether the second patient had traveled recently in West Africa, the epicenter of the worst Ebola epidemic on record, as had the first.


http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0L406720150131 (http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0L406720150131)