Ebola News 2/21

[Buster's Uncle]

Liberia will end Ebola curfew and reopen borders, says president
Reuters  18 hours ago



Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf sits aboard a ship carrying emergency health supplies provided by the Netherlands to aid in the fight against the Ebola virus at the port of Liberia in Monrovia, November 24, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue



ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Liberia plans to lift a night curfew imposed six months ago and reopen borders closed to contain the spread of Ebola, as the threat from the virus recedes, the president said on Friday.

Liberia was once the epicentre of an epidemic that has killed over 9,000 people in West Africa, but new infections have fallen off dramatically in recent months.

Its schools began reopening this week in another sign that life is returning to normal.

"President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has ordered the lifting of the curfew imposed nationwide. It takes effect beginning Sunday, February 22, 2015," read a statement posted on the website of the presidency.

No date was given for the reopening of the borders.

A curfew from 9 p.m. (2100 GMT) to 6 a.m. (0600 GMT) was imposed on August 20, but modified the following month to begin at midnight.

Several states in the region closed border crossings, suspended flights and banned travel to Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the countries hardest hit by Ebola, despite World Health Organization warnings that such steps would do more harm than good.


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-end-ebola-curfew-reopen-borders-says-president-080907856.html

[Buster's Uncle]

World Health Organization approves 1st quick test for Ebola
Associated Press  February 20, 2015 4:00 PM



BERLIN (AP) — The World Health Organization said Friday it has approved a quick test for Ebola that will dramatically cut the time it takes to determine — with reasonable accuracy — whether someone is infected with the deadly virus.

The ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test Kit, made by Colorado-based Corgenix, met sufficient quality, safety and performance requirements to allow it to be purchased and distributed by U.N. agencies and aid groups, WHO said.

"It may definitely help the response. I wouldn't say it's a game-changer," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general.

Until now, Ebola tests have been mainly conducted in laboratories. These gene-based tests are more accurate but can take between 12 and 24 hours.

The new test can provide results within 15 minutes by detecting an Ebola protein. In trials it correctly identified 92 percent of the patients with Ebola and 85 percent of those not infected.

Medical personnel will still need to conduct a backup test when someone tests negative, said Aylward. "But (the new test) might help us get to zero faster."

Almost 24,000 people have been infected and nearly 9,400 people have died from the current Ebola outbreak, which began in West Africa over a year ago.

A massive international effort was launched last year to combat the disease in the three most affected countries — Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. That effort has had some success, but cases have been spiking again in some areas in recent weeks, said WHO spokeswoman Daniela Bagozzi.


http://news.yahoo.com/world-health-organization-approves-1st-quick-test-ebola-143136358--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Obama to host Liberian president, discuss Ebola response
Reuters  February 20, 2015 9:45 AM



Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf speaks to villagers about Ebola virus precautions outside Ganta, Liberia, October 7, 2014.REUTERS/Daniel Flynn



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Washington next week to discuss government efforts on the Ebola virus that ravaged West Africa, the White House said on Friday.

The meeting was scheduled for next Friday at the executive mansion, according to a White House statement.

"The president looks forward to building on a strong and historic partnership with Liberia and discussing a range of topics with President Sirleaf, including the ongoing Ebola response, the region’s economic recovery plans, and other issues of mutual interest," the statement said.

Obama said this month he will bring back nearly all of the 1,300 U.S. troops deployed in West Africa to fight the Ebola epidemic by April 30. The White House said the number of new cases each week had dropped to about 150 in recent reports, down from more than 1,000 new cases per week in October.

The epidemic has killed at least 9,365 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In September, Johnson Sirleaf, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on women's rights, wrote a letter to Obama seeking urgent aid in tackling the worst recorded outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.

Obama was criticized last fall for a slow start to his Ebola outbreak response.

(Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Lisa Lambert)


http://news.yahoo.com/obama-host-liberian-president-discuss-ebola-response-144541250.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Liberia: 8 hospital staff under observation in Ebola scare
Associated Press
By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH  12 hours ago



A boy washes his hands before going to school in Monrovia, February 16, 2015. Thousands of Liberian children in pristine uniforms flocked back to school on Monday as classrooms opened their doors for the first time after a six-month hiatus designed to stem the spread of the worst Ebola outbreak in history. REUTERS/James Giahyue


MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Eight health workers at a hospital in Liberia's capital have been sent home for observation after coming into contact with a patient who later tested positive for Ebola, the country's assistant health minister said Saturday.

The incident occurred at the S.D. Cooper Hospital in Monrovia's Sinkor neighborhood, Tolbert Nyenswah said. The patient, a woman, was transferred to the hospital from a smaller hospital, and staff began treating her before an Ebola test was conducted, Nyenswah said.

The health workers will be under observation for 21 days and will not be coming into work during that period, he said.

"You cannot be under observation and then at the same time go to work to expose people. No way," he said.

There are now eight patients who have tested positive for Ebola being cared for at treatment centers in Liberia, Nyenswah said. Seven of those are in Monrovia, while another is in the town of Kakata, 35 miles northeast of the capital.

That total is a far cry from last year when the West African nation was the center of the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

Liberia has recorded more than 9,000 confirmed, suspected and probable Ebola cases and 3,900 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. However, WHO's most recent update reported only two new cases in the previous week, and schools began reopening earlier this week.

On Friday, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ordered officials to lift a curfew put in place six months ago and to reopen the country's land border crossings.

Sirleaf is preparing to meet with President Barack Obama next week at the White House. In an interview with state radio, she said she hopes to resume overseas travel after months of staying in Liberia and focusing on the outbreak.

"I feel that I can now take a little bit of a break. But that break is also work-related," she said, noting that she also planned to speak about Ebola at a conference in Brussels in March.


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-8-hospital-staff-under-observation-ebola-scare-141928056.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Liberia lifts Ebola curfew, re-opens borders
AFP
By Zoom Dosso  February 20, 2015 3:32 PM



Liberian residents are quarantined in Omega town, a suburb of Monrovia, after one of their relatives died from Ebola on January 21, 2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso )



Monrovia (AFP) - Liberia said Friday it was lifting nationwide curfews and re-opening borders shut last year at the height of the Ebola crisis, after the retreat of an epidemic that has killed thousands.

The move comes with Liberia and its neighbours Guinea and Sierra Leone seeing new infections drop to a tenth of the numbers being reported at the September-October peak of the outbreak.

Liberia, which has recorded the most deaths and was hardest hit, is leading the recovery, reporting just a handful of new confirmed cases each week.

"President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has ordered the lifting of the curfew imposed nationwide. It takes effect beginning Sunday, February 22," a statement from the presidency said.

"She has also ordered the re-opening of all the country's main borders that were ordered closed during the Ebola outbreak."

The presidency said "health protocols" would prevent the importation of the virus through any of the re-opened crossing points to Guinea and Sierra Leone, which were closed last year as part of a state of emergency.

Almost 9,500 people have died in the outbreak, although health authorities have admitted that the real picture could be far worse as many fatal cases may not have been reported.



A student has her body temperature checked as part of an Ebola screening at Don Bosco High School as schools reopen in the Liberian capital Monrovia on February 16, 2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso )


The World Bank said in January the economic damage of the epidemic could run to $6.2 billion (5.4 billion euros), trimming an earlier estimate of $25 billion.

The curfew announcement came as the United States said President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf would visit the White House on February 27.

She will meet US President Barack Obama to discuss the Ebola response and the gruelling task of economic recovery.

"President Sirleaf's visit comes at a time of critical cooperation between the United States and Liberia," Obama's office said in a statement.


- Eradicating the virus -

The leaders of the three countries vowed at a summit in Guinea on Sunday to eradicate the virus by mid-April.



Photo taken on January 27, 2015 shows tents being dismantled after Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) decommissioned the first section of the ELWA III Ebola Management Center in Monrovia (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso )


Medical aid agency Doctors without Borders closed its Ebola clinic at the former epicentre of the outbreak in Sierra Leone Friday, in a further symbol of the retreat of the epidemic.

The charity -- known by its French initials MSF -- opened the treatment unit in Kailahun when the impoverished eastern district and neighbouring Kenema were being overwhelmed by the epidemic.

Ebola has killed almost 3,500 Sierra Leoneans since it was first reported in Kailahun in May last year, the first case being a traditional healer whose funeral led to the infections of 14 women.

One of the deadliest viruses known to man, Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting or the recently deceased.

Tribal funeral rites -- in which mourners wash the body in oil and are encouraged to hug and kiss the deceased -- have been identified as a key factor in its intense spread in west Africa.

The healer's burial was in Koindu, a diamond-mining town in Kailahun across the border from southern Guinea, where the outbreak began in December 2013.



A Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) agent prepares to burn pieces of a dismantled tent on January 27, 2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso )


An investigation in August by AFP, later confirmed in a study by US geneticists, found she had been treating Guinean victims of a mysterious illness that turned out to be Ebola.

The epidemic exploded in Kailahun and Kenema after her funeral, eventually spreading throughout the country.


- Transmission still widespread -

Sierra Leone has seen a cumulative total of more than 11,000 cases during the epidemic which has raged in west Africa for more than a year but no new cases have been reported in Kailahun for more than two months.

The focus of the response in Sierra Leone is now its western area including the capital Freetown, where the outbreak has yet to be brought under control.

The government launched a door-to-door search this week for Ebola patients and bodies it suspects are being hidden from the authorities.

Dozens of healthcare workers fanned out across remote parts of Port Loko district, east of Freetown, after a spike in cases attributed to unsafe burials.

The two-week operation follows a larger exercise in December, dubbed the "Western Area Surge", when hundreds of volunteers knocked on doors across the west of Sierra Leone.

The country placed 700 homes in the capital Freetown in quarantine last week following the death of a fisherman who tested positive for Ebola.

Transmission remains "widespread" in Sierra Leone, according to the World Health Organization, which reported 74 new confirmed cases in the week to February 15, down from 76 the week before.

The WHO said on Friday it had approved a 15-minute test for Ebola that should prove a fast and rugged tool in countries hit by the disease.

The test is a little less accurate than the so-called gold standard of lab assessment, but does not need electricity or highly trained personnel to use it, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-lifts-ebola-curfew-opens-borders-203243663.html

[Buster's Uncle]

WHO gives green light to 15-minute Ebola test
AFP  February 20, 2015 10:36 AM



Health workers wearing protective suits assist a patient suspected of having Ebola on their way to an Ebola treatment centre near Macenta in Guinea on November 21, 2014 (AFP Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard)



Geneva (AFP) - The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Friday it had approved a 15-minute test for Ebola that should prove a fast and rugged tool in countries hit by the disease.

The test is a little less accurate than the so-called gold standard of lab assessment, but does not need electricity or highly trained personnel to use it, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said.

"Yesterday WHO assessed and listed (the) first antigen rapid test kit as being eligible for procurement to Ebola affected countries," Jasarevic told reporters.

"This is the first rapid antigen test that gives the results in 15 minutes," Jasarevic said.

He described it as "a breakthrough" because it takes so little time.

"Where possible, obviously results from this antigen rapid test should be confirmed by testing by blood sample using normal PCR tests," he added, referring a DNA analysis to detect the disease.

The test, which is manufactured by the US firm Corgenix, "can correctly identify 92 percent of Ebola infected patients," he said.

It entails putting a drop of blood on a paper strip, which then shows positive or negative, like pregnancy test.

WHO's evaluation means that the test meets benchmarks for quality, safety and performance, he said.

The WHO spokesman gave no details as to where and when the test would be introduced, but did indicate it would likely be bought by a UN agency.

Health watchdogs are keen on a fast test because the current PCR test, which looks for telltale genetic signatures, can take up to 24 hours.

A simple but reliable test would help doctors in the field to quarantine people likely to have the virus and airports to test passengers before they get on a flight.

"The new antigen test is not a game-changer, but it is another useful tool in the fight against Ebola," said Ben Neuman, a virologist at Britain's University of Reading.

"The new test could help to quickly confirm outbreaks in remote areas without the need to send samples to a testing clinic and wait for results," he told the Science Media Centre (SMC) in London.

"The new test isn't about saving the lives of infected people, but it can help in the long run by making it easier and quicker to detect Ebola outbreaks.”

Other prototype fast-track tests have been devised by scientists in Britain and France.

As of February 15, WHO said 23,253 people had been infected with Ebola and 9,380 had died, the vast majority of them in Guinea, Sierre Leone and Liberia.


http://news.yahoo.com/gives-green-light-15-minute-ebola-test-153617934.html

[Buster's Uncle]

World Health Organization approves 1st quick test for Ebola
World Health Organization OKs US-made quick test for Ebola that gives results in 15 minutes
Associated Press  February 20, 2015 4:00 PM



BERLIN (AP) -- The World Health Organization said Friday it has approved a quick test for Ebola that will dramatically cut the time it takes to determine — with reasonable accuracy — whether someone is infected with the deadly virus.

The ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test Kit, made by Colorado-based Corgenix, met sufficient quality, safety and performance requirements to allow it to be purchased and distributed by U.N. agencies and aid groups, WHO said.

"It may definitely help the response. I wouldn't say it's a game-changer," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO's assistant director-general.

Until now, Ebola tests have been mainly conducted in laboratories. These gene-based tests are more accurate but can take between 12 and 24 hours.

The new test can provide results within 15 minutes by detecting an Ebola protein. In trials it correctly identified 92 percent of the patients with Ebola and 85 percent of those not infected.

Medical personnel will still need to conduct a backup test when someone tests negative, said Aylward. "But (the new test) might help us get to zero faster."

Almost 24,000 people have been infected and nearly 9,400 people have died from the current Ebola outbreak, which began in West Africa over a year ago.

A massive international effort was launched last year to combat the disease in the three most affected countries — Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. That effort has had some success, but cases have been spiking again in some areas in recent weeks, said WHO spokeswoman Daniela Bagozzi.


http://news.yahoo.com/world-health-organization-approves-1st-143136091.html