Ebola News 12/3

[Buster's Uncle]

IBM helps you donate computer power to fight Ebola
Associated Press
Brandon Bailey, AP Technology Writer  December 3, 2014


OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- IBM has engineered a way for everyone to join the fight against Ebola — by donating processing time on their personal computers, phones or tablets to researchers.

IBM has teamed with scientists at Scripps Research Institute in southern California on a project that aims to combine the power of thousands of small computers, to each attack tiny pieces of a larger medical puzzle that might otherwise require a supercomputer to solve.

"This could let us do in months what it would otherwise take years and years to do," said Erica Ollmann Saphire, a biomedical researcher at Scripps.

The idea isn't new: Several universities and research institutes have used so-called distributed computing to tackle complex problems. For the last 10 years IBM has sponsored a project called World Community Grid, in which volunteers agree to download software that takes advantage of unused processing capacity on their devices. About 680,000 individuals in 80 countries have enrolled in the IBM program, said IBM vice president Stan Litow. They've donated computing power to help scientists at several institutions conduct research into malaria, AIDS, cancer and environmental issues.

The free downloadable software, available at www.worldcommunitygrid.org, works on Windows or Mac computers and Android mobile devices, although not Apple Inc.'s iPhone or iPad. Litow said it's designed to only use idle capacity when a device is connected to the Internet. Otherwise it isn't in use, so it won't slow other functions. On mobile devices, the program only works when the device is charging and connected to Wi-Fi, to avoid draining batteries or running up wireless charges.

Users can choose when their device connects to the grid network and whether it should happen automatically, Litow said. IBM also promises to respect volunteers' privacy and says the software can't access or alter any other files on a device.

The grid computing program breaks down large computing problems into thousands of smaller tasks, assigns them to individual devices and then compiles the results. Volunteers can get progress reports on each project, and IBM promises to make the resulting data available to any interested researcher.

Saphire, a microbiologist who has been working on Ebola research for 11 years, said the grid project will help with two problems. She's identified vulnerable sections of the Ebola molecule, but needs help analyzing various compounds to see which might be effective in attacking the virus at those spots. She's also working on a longer-term effort to understand how Ebola proteins change shape over time.

Commercial drug companies haven't been focused on diseases like Ebola, which mostly afflict less-developed countries, Saphire said. And with federal grant budgets shrinking, she's used crowd-funding websites to raise money for lab equipment and researchers' salaries.

"Crowd funding and crowd science gives people the opportunity to invest their idle computer hours or their ten bucks, and make a difference," she said.

International Business Machines Corp., based in Armonk, New York, joins other tech companies in the Ebola effort. Facebook and Google have both made appeals to their users to contribute to overseas Ebola relief. Google has matched user donations, while Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally donated $25 million to the effort.


https://www.yahoo.com/tech/s/ibm-helps-donate-computer-power-113134338.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Obama urges Congress to approve $6 bln for Ebola fight
Reuters
By Amanda Becker and Roberta Rampton  10 hours ago



BETHESDA, Md./WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to approve $6.18 billion to help fight the Ebola outbreak, reminding them that even though the story has faded from the headlines, the battle against the virus is far from over.

"Every hotspot is an ember that if not contained can become a new fire, so we cannot let down our guard even for a minute," Obama said. "And we can't just fight this epidemic. We have to extinguish it."

Obama toured a lab at the National Institutes of Health, where a team of researchers last week published promising results from the first phase of a research trial for an Ebola vaccine.

Most of Obama's request is aimed at the immediate response to the disease. But the package also includes $1.5 billion in contingency funds - money that could become a target if lawmakers look for cuts, said Sam Worthington, president of InterAction, an alliance of U.S. non-governmental aid groups.

While lawmakers recognize that the United States had to take action to arrest Ebola, some are wary of giving the administration too much leeway.

"I think there is less understanding of the need to stay in it for the long run and to build the capacity of countries to ensure this doesn't happen in the future," Worthington said in an interview.

Obama noted that NIH scientists first began work on research that led to the potential Ebola vaccine in 1999, long before the worst outbreak of the disease on record, which has afflicted more than 17,000 people since March, killing more than 6,000.

He said the United States needs to continue to fund basic research and help nations such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone build better public health systems so that the world can quickly contain future disease outbreaks.

"It is a smart investment for us to make. It's not just insurance. It is knowing that down the road we're going to continue to have problems like this, particularly in a globalized world where you move from one side of the world to the other in a day," Obama said.

The Obama administration came under fire in September after a series of missteps with a man who traveled to Dallas from Liberia and later died of Ebola. Two nurses contracted the disease while caring for the man.

Screening and treatment procedures have since been tightened. There are now 35 U.S. hospitals equipped to deal with Ebola patients, up from three before the outbreak.


http://news.yahoo.com/obama-urges-congress-approve-6-bln-ebola-fight-062242892.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Five million children out of school in West Africa due to Ebola
Reuters
By Misha Hussain  2 hours ago



The World Bank Group holds a roundtable with private West African business leaders to discuss the impact of the Ebola crisis and what investment measures can be taken to help small and medium sized businesses



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 centers 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.



A man walks by a mural with health instructions on treating the Ebola virus, in Monrovia, November 18, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue


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 prioritization 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) programs 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).

(Reporting by Misha Hussain; Editing by Alex Whiting)


http://news.yahoo.com/five-million-children-school-west-africa-due-ebola-174022648.html

[Buster's Uncle]

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



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.

(Additional reporting by Sharon Ogunleye in Lagos; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)


http://news.yahoo.com/world-bank-fast-tracks-ebola-aid-sierra-leone-202816478--business.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola spreading intensely in Sierra Leone, global toll rises: WHO
Reuters  1 hour ago



Health workers carry the body of an Ebola virus victim in the Waterloo district of Freetown, October 21, 2014. REUTERS/Josephus Olu-Mamma



GENEVA (Reuters) - The death toll from the Ebola epidemic has risen to 6,070 out of 17,145 cases as of Nov. 30, and the virus continues to spread intensely across Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Sierra Leone recorded 537 new Ebola cases in the week to Nov. 30, against 385 the previous week, the WHO said in its latest update.

"Transmission remains persistent and intense across the country with the exception of the south," it said, adding that the capital Freetown accounted for 202 of the 537 latest cases.

"In western areas of Sierra Leone such as Freetown and Port Loko, treatment and isolation capacity continues to be stretched by a large volume of new patients," it said.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone account for all but 15 of the deaths in the world's worst Ebola outbreak. Sierra Leone has recorded 1,455 out of 2,039 new cases in the three countries in the last 21 days, corresponding to the virus incubation period.

"At a national level, there is now sufficient bed capacity in Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) treatment facilities to treat and isolate all reported EVD cases in each of the three countries, although the uneven distribution of beds and cases means there are serious shortfalls in some areas," the WHO said.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Ralph Boulton)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-spreading-intensely-sierra-leone-global-toll-rises-183630709.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Officials designate 35 hospitals for Ebola care
Associated Press
By MIKE STOBBE  December 2, 2014 3:08 PM



A view of Bellevue Hospital in the Manhattan borough of New York November 20, 2014. A traveler from Mali was being tested for Ebola infection on Thursday at Bellevue Hospital, with results expected later in the day, health officials in New York City said. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri



NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials have designated 35 hospitals across the country as Ebola treatment centers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released the list of hospitals on Tuesday. Most are clustered in metropolitan areas like New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis and Washington D.C.

For more than a month, health officials have been talking to — and evaluating —hospitals that could serve as referral treatment centers for new Ebola cases that might occur. A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assessed more than 50 hospitals in 15 states and Washington, federal officials said.

The 35 hospitals are deemed to have the staff, equipment and training to safely and effectively care for Ebola, the government said.

More hospitals will be added over the next several weeks to provide wider geographic coverage, officials said.

West Africa is currently suffering the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 17,100 illnesses and at least 6,000 deaths so far. Four cases have been diagnosed in the United States.

The designated hospitals are:

Kaiser Oakland Medical Center, Oakland, California.

Kaiser South Sacramento Medical Center, Sacramento, California.

University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, California.

University of California San Francisco Medical Center, San Francisco.

Emory University Hospital, Atlanta.

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago.

Rush University Medical Center, Chicago.



This Oct. 2, 2013, file photo shows part of the Johns Hopkins Hospital complex in Baltimore. The hospital has reached a tentative labor agreement with a union representing about 2,000 workers at the medical institution. A Hopkins spokeswoman said Tuesday, July 8, 2014, that a union vote will take place over the next couple of days on the tentative agreement. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)


University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago.

Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.

University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore.

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Bethesda, Maryland.

Allina Health's Unity Hospital, Fridley, Minnesota.

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mayo Clinic Hospital, Rochester, Minnesota.

University of Minnesota Medical Center, Minneapolis.

Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha.

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

North Shore System LIJ/Glen Cove Hospital, Glen Cove, New York.

Montefiore Medical Center, New York.

New York-Presbyterian/Allen Hospital, New York.

Bellevue Hospital Center, New York.

The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia.

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Texas.

Methodist Richardson Medical Center, Richardson, Texas.

University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville, Virginia.

Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia.

Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

University of Wisconsin Hospital, Madison, Wisconsin.

MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Washington, D.C.

Children's National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

George Washington University Hospital, Washington, D.C.


http://news.yahoo.com/officials-designate-35-hospitals-ebola-care-171538649.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Idris Elba, footballers take to African airwaves to fight Ebola
Reuters  8 hours ago



British actor Idris Elba attends a news conference on Ebola at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 25, 2014. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton



ABIDJAN (Reuters) - British actor Idris Elba and a host of international football stars launched a public awareness campaign on Wednesday to help halt West Africa's Ebola epidemic and recognise the health workers fighting the deadly disease.

The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed more than 6,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries worst affected by the epidemic.

The Africa United campaign (http://www.weareafricaunited.org), unveiled ahead of the African Cup of Nations draw in Equatorial Guinea's capital Malabo on Wednesday, broadcasts information on the disease and how to stop it spreading in French, English, Krio and other local languages.

Messages will be sent out to the three countries and their neighbours via television, radio, billboards and phone text messages, said organisers.

“For me the battle against Ebola is a personal one," said Elba, whose parents are from Sierra Leone and Ghana.

"To see those amazing countries in West Africa where my father grew up and my parents married being ravaged by this disease is painful and horrific," said Elba, who came to fame in TV series 'The Wire' and played Nelson Mandela in the biopic 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom'.

In one of the campaign's spots, Elba plays a football coach giving a halftime talk during West Africa's "life or death" match against Ebola and passing on tips on how to spot the disease and prevent new infections.

In another, footballers Yaya Touré, Carlton Cole, Kei Kamara, Patrick Vieira, Fabrice Muamba and Andros Townsend pay homage to the work of frontline healthcare workers by wearing their names on the backs of their jerseys.

Manchester City midfielder Touré hails from Ivory Coast, which shares borders with three countries hit by the disease but has so far been spared.

"I could not sit back without doing something to help fight Ebola," he said. "(The campaign) pays tribute to the many, many African heroes who are in the villages, towns and cities using their skills, resourcefulness and intelligence to battle Ebola."

The campaign was backed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Foundation.


http://news.yahoo.com/idris-elba-footballers-african-airwaves-fight-ebola-124157231--sow.html