Ebola news 8/22

[Buster's Uncle]

Scientists Who Discovered Ebola Almost Caused A Disaster: 'It Makes Me Wince Just To Think Of It'
Business Insider
By Kevin Loria  August 21, 2014 12:00 PM



This is the team that first went looking for the source of the Ebola virus in Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Peter Piot is the third from the left in the middle row, wearing the colorful shirt.  Courtesy CDC / Dr. Lyle Conrad



When Ebola first arrived in Europe on Sept. 29, 1976, the vials of the virus were carried from Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in a shiny blue thermos on a passenger flight.

Three lab workers in Antwerp, Belgium, received the thermos and prepared to open it on a lab bench. The precautions they took and the room they were in were appropriate for handling organisms like salmonella or tuberculosis, with none of the security procedures or body suits that we now associate with manipulating Biosafety Level 4 pathogens like Ebola.

All the lab team knew was that it was receiving blood samples from an unusual epidemic that was suspected to possibly be some form of "yellow fever with hemorrhagic manifestations," according to Peter Piot, one of the three in the room and a co-discoverer of the Ebola virus. Piot wrote about the experience in his book "No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses."

Wearing latex gloves and no other protection, they opened the cheap plastic thermos that was supposed to hold two glass vials of blood that had been drawn from a Flemish nun who was too sick to be evacuated from the Congo.

One of the vials was broken — the thermos hadn't been stored carefully enough on the passenger plane that carried it from Kinshasa.



This photo from 1976 shows one of the Flemish nuns from the mission in Zaire looking at graves of colleagues and patients who died in that Ebola outbreak.  Courtesy CDC / Dr. Lyle Conrad


Blood and broken glass mixed with half-melted ice. Piot, who was a 27-year-old medical school graduate and junior lab worker at the time, describes that moment: We didn't even imagine the risk we were taking. Indeed, shipping those blood samples in a simple thermos, without any kind of precaution, was an incredibly perilous act. Maybe the world was a simpler, more innocent place in those days, or maybe it was just a lot more reckless.

If the team had any idea what Ebola was at the time, the virus would have been shipped to one of the three non-Soviet labs that were considered able to handle hemorrhagic viruses.

But because the team had no idea of exactly what it had received, Piot's two coworkers, postdoc student René Delgadillo and Guido Van Der Groen, reached into the soupy viral mess and picked out the intact vial.

"It makes me wince just to think of it," Piot writes.

To isolate the virus, the three — still maskless and with no protection but gloves — injected the blood into cell cultures and into the brains of adult and baby mice ("I never liked this aspect of the work," Piot writes).

They tested the blood, cell cultures, and mice over the next several days for known hemorrhagic diseases like yellow fever and Lassa fever, but antibodies for those diseases never turned up. Their boss, Stefaan Pattyn, looked into the outbreak at the time and found a village called Yambuku that seemed to be the origin.

The Flemish nun had died on Sept. 30, and pieces of her liver were flown to Belgium on yet another passenger flight.



The Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine in 2009.  Torsade de Pointes/WikiMedia Commons


Pattyn thought the virus must be a new rare hemorrhagic fever, a disease that causes the seemingly constant bleeding that accompanies some Ebola cases, and the sort of fever that the lab was not certified as safely equipped to handle — but they wanted to keep investigating anyway.

Piot says that at this point, he was "inflamed" with interest and "loved the detective thrill." His medical school adviser had told him to stay away from infectious diseases because they had "all been solved."

This one had not been solved, though, and it seemed like the chance to both discover something new and to save lives.

Piot still did not know how incredibly deadly the virus was — that it was a hemorrhagic fever was strongly suspected but still not confirmed — but all evidence pointed to something grave. The World Health Organization ordered the samples shipped to one of the only labs equipped for hemorrhagic viruses, Porton Down in Britain, and from there they were sent to the CDC in Atlanta, considered the reference library for these types of diseases.

But Pattyn kept a few samples. "By this point for him to keep us working on these samples was sheer folly," Piot writes. "He knew we were not equipped to do the work in safety."

Piot doesn't know why exactly — perhaps Pattyn was reluctant to send away what his team had been first to examine. "It was new, it was exciting — just too exciting to hand it over to the Brits or, in particular, to the Americans," he writes. They kept a few cell cultures and some newly infected mice, Pattyn saying they needed a few more days before they were ready for transport. And they kept examining them to see what they could find.

Before long, something went wrong. Pattyn, who was in charge but was a little clumsy in the lab, Piot said, dropped an Ebola vial on the floor, where it shattered onto Delgadillo's shoes.

"Godverdomme," or goddamn, Pattyn said. They disinfected the floor and removed the shoes.



This 1976 image of the Ebola virus is similar to the one that would have convinced Pattyn that they were looking at something that could be similar to Marburg — or worse.  CDC/ Frederick A. Murphy


Only then did Piot realize how dangerous their behavior might have been and the risks they were taking.

After the cells they had kept were ready for analysis, the lab technicians took a sample and took pictures with an electron microscope. The virus was huge. Piot said they saw "very large, long, wormlike structures: nothing like yellow fever."

Pattyn realized that it looked like the longest known virus in existence, a rare lethal hemorrhagic fever called Marburg that had killed a number of lab workers in Germany nine years before, after they had handled infected monkeys.

They finally realized their folly and sent the rest of the samples to the high-security CDC labs. If the virus were Marburg or something related, they knew that they lacked the equipment to study it.

And they started looking for money to go to Zaire and see the outbreak for themselves.

Confirmation soon arrived from the CDC that the virus was not Marburg; it was something new. This was the first time the world recognized the virus that came to be known and feared as Ebola. That 1976 Zaire outbreak gave the virus its name, and it killed 88% of those infected, 280 people — the most of any outbreak until the current one.


http://news.yahoo.com/27-old-co-discovered-ebola-144500285.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Cured Ebola Patient: 'God Saved My Life'
LiveScience.com
By Bahar Gholipour, Staff Writer  3 hours ago



Dr. Kent Brantly discharged from Emory University Hospital



Dr. Kent Brantly, an American doctor who contracted the Ebola virus in West Africa, is cured of the disease and was released today from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, where he had been in an isolation unit for nearly three weeks.

After "thorough testing," physicians at Emory and their colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined that Brantly had recovered from the Ebola virus disease and can return to his life without posing any public health threat, said Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of Emory's infectious disease unit.

"Today is a miraculous day," Brantly said at a news conference at the hospital today (Aug. 21). "I'm thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family."

The other American Ebola patient, Nancy Writebol, was released Tuesday. She has asked for privacy, and is grateful for all the prayers, Brantly said. "When she walked out of the room, all she could say was 'To God be the glory,'" Brantly said.

Writebol and Brantly contracted the Ebola virus while caring for patients in the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. They were transported to the United States to receive care, becoming the first-ever Ebola patients in the country.

The public's limited knowledge of the Ebola virus, especially in the United States, has created anxiety and concerns about bringing infected people here for treatment, Ribner said. "We understand that there are a lot of questions … However, we cannot let our fears dictate our actions. We must all care," he said.



A microscopic view of the Ebola virus.


The insight doctors gained while treating these two patients will help advance the world's understanding of Ebola, and will help patients in other parts of the world, Ribner said. For example, a lack of medical infrastructure in West Africa may prevent doctors there from being able to measure certain effects of the Ebola virus on the body, such as fluids and blood abnormalities. The new insights gained from treating the patients in the United States could lead to better care for all patients.

Brantly moved to Liberia to work with the charity organization Samaritan's Purse last October, before the outset of the Ebola outbreak.

"As a medical missionary, I never imagined myself in this position," he said.

"In March, when we got word that Ebola was in Guinea and had spread to Liberia, we began preparing for the worst."  The first Ebola patient arrived at their center in June, and the number of patients increased steadily through the following weeks, Brantly said.

"We took every precaution to protect ourselves from this dreaded disease," Brantly said.

However, on July 23, Brantly started to feel sick. "I woke up feeling under the weather, and then my life took an unexpected turn," he said.

In early August, both Brantly and Writebol were evacuated from Africa and flown to Atlanta, where a medical team was prepared to receive them.

The two were also the first people to receive an experimental drug for Ebola, but it is not clear whether the drug helped their recovery, because there's no prior experience with the drug, Ribner said. "Frankly, we do not know whether it helped them, whether it made no difference or even theoretically if it delayed their recovery."

It is also still unclear how Brantly and Writebol contracted the virus, despite having taking precautions.

Brantly said that he and his family will share more of their story after taking some time to reconnect and regain strength. 


http://news.yahoo.com/cured-ebola-patient-god-saved-life-151653839.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ireland testing dead person recently in Africa for Ebola
Reuters
9 hours ago



A laboratory technican of the company Icon Genetics prepares proteines from Tobacco plants (Nicotiana benthamiana) for weighing in a laboratory in Halle, August 14, 2014. REUTERS/Axel Schmidt



DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is testing a dead person who recently returned from Africa for the Ebola virus, the Health Service Executive (HSE) of Ireland said on Thursday.

Appropriate infection control procedures are being put in place in the community and at the mortuary in the north-west county of Donegal where the person's remains lie, pending the outcome of laboratory tests, the HSE said.

The test results are expected late on Friday and the risk of transmission of any disease is considered to be extremely low, it added in a statement.

"The public health department was made aware earlier today of the remains of an individual, discovered early this morning, who had recently travelled to one of the areas in Africa affected by the current Ebola virus disease outbreak," it said.

"Blood samples have been sent for laboratory testing to confirm whether or not this individual had contracted Ebola virus disease," the statement said.

It did not provide the age, gender or any other details about the dead person.

Very close personal contact with the infected individual or their body fluids would be needed for there to be any risk at all of contamination, Dr. Darina O' Flanagan, head of the HSE Health Protection Surveillance Centre, said in the statement.

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that 2,473 people had been infected and 1,350 had died since the Ebola outbreak was identified in remote southeastern Guinea in March.

It said no cases of the disease had been confirmed so far outside of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, despite cases having been suspected elsewhere.

A Spanish priest died in hospital in Madrid last week, the first European infected by the virus, after contracting the disease while working for a non-governmental organisation in Liberia.


http://news.yahoo.com/ireland-testing-dead-person-recently-africa-ebola-095347438.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. missionary still physically recovering after Ebola, son says
Reuters
5 hours ago



Both American aid workers who were infected with the Ebola virus in Africa was discharged Thursday from a hospital in Atlanta.



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. missionary who contracted the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia is better after being released from an Atlanta hospital but still regaining her strength, her son said on Friday.

Nancy Writebol, 59, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was discharged earlier this week from Emory University Hospital after doctors said her symptoms had eased and blood and urine tests showed no evidence of the virus. Dr. Kent Brantly, who also was stricken with Ebola in Liberia, was released on Thursday.

"She's tired and trying to rest," her son Jeremy told NBC. "There's still some physical recovery that has to go on there. But her color's good and strong. She seems pretty happy."

Speaking alongside his brother Brian, he said the family has experienced "the lowest of lows and at the same time the highest of highs" since Writebol contracted the Ebola virus in July while working for a Christian mission organization in Liberia, grappling first with her potential death and later her recovery.

He said faith, the care at Emory and the experimental drug ZMapp likely helped her survive the virus, which has a low survival rate. Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those who become infected, although the fatality rate in the current epidemic is about 60 percent.

Nancy's husband, David, had been in quarantine after returning from Africa but the two have since reunited.

Jeremy Writebol has said the couple has not ruled out returning to their Christian mission work in West Africa.

"She still thinking about it," he told NBC. "Africa's still in their heart and the suffering of the people in western Africa is still very deep for them."



Kevin Brantly, who contracted the deadly Ebola virus, thanks supporters during a press conference at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia August 21, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell


The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest in history, with more than 2,470 people infected and at least 1,350 dead. On Friday, the World Health Organization announced a draft plan to combat the virus for the next six to nine months, signaling it does not expect to stop the epidemic this year.


http://news.yahoo.com/u-missionary-still-physically-recovering-ebola-son-says-134300748.html

[Buster's Uncle]

WHO holding talks next month on Ebola treatments
Reuters
10 hours ago



Doctor for tropical medicine Florian Steiner demonstrates the testing of a blood sample at the quarantine station for patients with infectious diseases at the Charite hospital in Berlin August 11, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter



GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday it would convene talks early next month on potential treatments and vaccines to contain the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

The infectious disease has killed 1,350 people among 2,473 cases in four countries - Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone - according to the United Nations health agency.

The WHO this month backed the use of untested drugs on people infected with Ebola, but the scarcity of supplies has raised questions about who gets priority access to treatment.

"The consultation has been convened to gather expertise about the most promising experimental therapies and vaccines and their role in containing the Ebola outbreak in West Africa," it said in a statement on the talks set for Sept. 4-5 in Geneva.

More than 100 experts in pharmaceutical research, clinical management, and on ethical, legal and regulatory issues will attend the meeting at WHO headquarters, it said.

"Issues of safety and efficacy will be discussed together with innovative models for expediting clinical trials. Possible ways to ramp up production of the most promising products will also be explored," the WHO said.

ZMapp, a trial drug made by U.S. biotech company Mapp Biopharmaceutical, has been used on six patients to date, but supplies are now exhausted, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said.

They include two American aid workers who have recovered, a Spanish priest who died and three Liberian medical workers, he said. Two of the Liberians have shown "marked improvement", while the third, a doctor, remains in serious condition but has improved somewhat, the WHO statement said.


http://news.yahoo.com/holding-talks-next-month-ebola-treatments-083203226.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. aid workers who survived Ebola leave Atlanta hospital
Reuters
By Rich McKay  12 hours ago



Kevin Brantly, who contracted the deadly Ebola virus, smiles during a press conference at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia August 21, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell



ATLANTA (Reuters) - Appearing thin but smiling, a Texas doctor who weeks ago entered an Atlanta hospital in a full-body biohazard suit to be treated for Ebola said on Thursday he was "thrilled to be alive" as doctors declared him virus-free and safe for release.

Dr. Kent Brantly's release came two days after a second U.S. missionary, Nancy Writebol, was quietly allowed to leave Emory University Hospital, where both had been treated after contracting the deadly virus in July while working for Christian organizations in Liberia.

They were each cleared for discharge from the hospital's isolation unit after their symptoms eased and blood and urine tests showed no evidence of the virus, a doctor who treated them said on Thursday.

The announcement of their release and expected full recovery from a disease that has killed 1,350 people in West Africa prompted an emotional scene in Atlanta. Hospital workers cheered, clapped and cried as a thin but steady Brantly entered a news conference holding his wife Amber's hand.

"Today is a miraculous day," said Brantly, a 33-year-old medical missionary for the Christian relief group Samaritan's Purse. "I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family."

Brantly thanked the health teams at Emory and in Liberia for their care "during the most difficult experience of my life," recalling how he grew sicker each day before being evacuated to the United States earlier this month.

"I am forever thankful to God for sparing my life and am glad for any attention my sickness has attracted to the plight of West Africa in the midst of this epidemic," he said.

Writebol did not attend. The 59-year-old from Charlotte, North Carolina, left the hospital on Tuesday and was resting in an undisclosed location with her husband, Christian mission group SIM USA said in a statement.

The couple was smiling and hugging in photos released by the organization on Thursday, but Nancy Writebol endured "dark hours of fear and loneliness" during the course of her fight, her husband said.

"Nancy is free of the virus, but the lingering effects of the battle have left her in a significantly weakened condition," her husband, fellow missionary David Writebol, said in a statement. "We decided it would be best to leave the hospital privately to be able to give her the rest and recuperation she needs at this time."


QUESTIONS LINGER ABOUT EXPERIMENTAL DRUG

Dr. Bruce Ribner, medical director of the infectious disease unit at Emory's hospital, credited aggressive supportive care and the fact that both Brantly and Writebol were healthy and well-nourished with helping them recover.

The pair received an experimental therapy called ZMapp, a cocktail of antibodies made by tiny California biotech Mapp Biopharmaceutical. Health experts cautioned against declaring the drug a medical breakthrough based on two patients.

"The honest answer is we have no idea," Ribner said, when asked if the experimental drugs helped the missionaries' survival. He said early studies in primates suggest the drug has few long-term side effects.

The scale of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the largest in history with 2,473 people infected and at least 1,350 dead, has prompted a scramble for experimental drugs, most of which have only been tested in monkeys and cell cultures.

Last week, the World Health Organization backed the use of untested drugs and vaccines, but the scarcity of supplies has raised questions about who gets the treatments.

ZMapp was also given to a third patient, a Spanish priest, who has now died from his infection, as well as two doctors in Liberia and a nurse. Sources in Liberia told the WHO that two of those patients have shown marked improvement following their treatment.

But about 50 percent of people survive Ebola anyway, even under poor medical conditions, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease at the National Institutes of Health, said on MSNBC on Thursday.

"I'd say we have a couple of people who've recovered, they've gotten excellent medical care and the specific therapy, ZMapp ... may have had a role in it but we don't know," Fauci said.

Scientists who have studied Ebola say the virus can remain in certain areas of the body, including the eyes and seminal fluid, for seven to eight weeks after recovery.

Ribner said Brantly and Writebol were released in consultation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and pose no health risk to the public.

Brantly, the father of two young children, said he planned to spend time in private with his family after more than a month apart.


http://news.yahoo.com/u-aid-workers-survived-ebola-leave-atlanta-hospital-072853671.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Africa tightens Ebola travel curbs as affected countries face food shortages
Reuters
By Clair MacDougall  12 hours ago



Health workers wearing protective masks and gloves gesture as they talk at the Felix Houphouet Boigny international airport in Abidjan August 12, 2014. REUTERS/Luc Gnago



MONROVIA (Reuters) - African countries tightened travel curbs on Thursday in an effort to contain the Ebola outbreak, ignoring World Health Organization warnings that such measures could heighten shortages of food and basic supplies in affected areas.

In the West Point slum in Liberia's capital Monrovia, the scene of violent clashes with the army on Wednesday after the area was quarantined to curb the spread of Ebola, hundreds of people jostled their way towards trucks loaded with water and rice.

Police used canes to beat back some locals while aid workers helped others dip their fingers in ink to record their ration.

"I ain't eat since yesterday. I have four young children and none of us eat. I feel bad," said Hawa Saah, a pregnant 23-year-old resident of West Point, speaking in the pidgin English common to this part of West Africa.

The World Food Programme says deliveries of basic supplies to more than 1 million people across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are intended to avoid a food crisis in those West African countries, where more than 1,300 people have died from Ebola in the worst outbreak of the disease in history.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations' health agency, has repeatedly said that it does not recommend travel or trade restrictions for Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Nigeria - the countries affected by the epidemic that began in March. Those countries are starting to suffer shortages of fuel, food and basic supplies due to these measures, it warned this week.

Still, Chad's Prime Minister Kalzeubet Payimi Deubet said on Thursday his country would close its border with Nigeria to prevent Ebola entering the country.

"This decision will have an economic impact on the region but it is imperative for public health needs," he said.

Nigeria has reported 15 cases - the lowest number in the four affected countries - and the WHO has expressed "cautious optimism" that the spread can be stopped.

South Africa said on Thursday it was banning all travellers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from entering its territory, barring its own citizens.


GUINEA APPEALS TO AIRLINES

The precautions follow measures from commercial airlines such as Kenya Airways and Gambia Bird which have suspended flights to affected countries, despite new testing procedures at airports. The United States and several European countries have also advised against non-essential travel to the region.

Guinea's President Alpha Conde met with airlines on Wednesday in an attempt to persuade them to resume normal service to the country. "No Guinean has left the country to export Ebola elsewhere. Even the WHO has recognised that Guinea's measures are sufficient," he said.

The WHO said on Thursday it would convene talks early next month on potential treatments and vaccines to contain the outbreak.

Ebola has struck hardest in countries with health care systems ill-equipped to cope with an epidemic.

A ministry of health report in Liberia, the country where infection is rising fastest, showed 60 new suspected, probable and confirmed cases for just one day on Aug. 19. Two of them were health workers.

In an indication of the strain on local populations, security forces in Monrovia fired live rounds and tear gas on Wednesday as crowds sought to break quarantine restrictions.

A 15-year-old-boy receiving treatment for gun shot wounds later died, the medical director of the hospital treating him said on Thursday.

The WHO said on Thursday that an hemorrhagic illness has killed at least 70 people in Democratic Republic of Congo but denied that the illness was Ebola.

Ireland's health service said it was testing the body of a person, who had died after recently returning from Africa, for the Ebola virus.


http://news.yahoo.com/africa-tightens-ebola-travel-curbs-affected-countries-face-074224789.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. missionary still physically recovering after Ebola, son says
Reuters
6 hours ago



An ambulance carrying American missionary Nancy Writebol, 59, who is infected with Ebola in West Africa, arrives at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia August 5, 2014. REUTERS/Tami Chappell



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. missionary who contracted the deadly Ebola virus in Liberia is better after being released from an Atlanta hospital but still regaining her strength, her son said on Friday.

Nancy Writebol, 59, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was discharged earlier this week from Emory University Hospital after doctors said her symptoms had eased and blood and urine tests showed no evidence of the virus. Dr. Kent Brantly, who also was stricken with Ebola in Liberia, was released on Thursday.

"She's tired and trying to rest," her son Jeremy told NBC. "There's still some physical recovery that has to go on there. But her color's good and strong. She seems pretty happy."

Speaking alongside his brother Brian, he said the family has experienced "the lowest of lows and at the same time the highest of highs" since Writebol contracted the Ebola virus in July while working for a Christian mission organization in Liberia, grappling first with her potential death and later her recovery.

He said faith, the care at Emory and the experimental drug ZMapp likely helped her survive the virus, which has a low survival rate. Ebola can kill up to 90 percent of those who become infected, although the fatality rate in the current epidemic is about 60 percent.

Nancy's husband, David, had been in quarantine after returning from Africa but the two have since reunited.

Jeremy Writebol has said the couple has not ruled out returning to their Christian mission work in West Africa.

"She still thinking about it," he told NBC. "Africa's still in their heart and the suffering of the people in western Africa is still very deep for them."

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest in history, with more than 2,470 people infected and at least 1,350 dead. On Friday, the World Health Organization announced a draft plan to combat the virus for the next six to nine months, signaling it does not expect to stop the epidemic this year.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Bill Trott)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-missionary-still-physically-recovering-ebola-son-says-131325931.html