Ebola News 2/3

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Ebola Is Wiping Out the Great Apes as Scientists Race for a Cure
Takepart.com
By Katharine Gammon | 15 hours ago



(Photo: Brent Stirton/Getty Images)



As the Ebola epidemic ebbs among humans, the disease continues to take a staggering toll on chimpanzees and gorillas.

For instance, the virus has killed about a third of the western gorilla population over the past 20 or 30 years, said Peter Walsh, an ape researcher and a conservationist at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

“The impact has been more severe on gorillas,” said Walsh. “They die at a higher rate—between 95 and 97 percent—in outbreak areas.”

Chimpanzees fare slightly better in battling Ebola, partly because they live in a larger swath of Africa. Walsh points out that both chimps and gorillas face a host of threats—including poaching and habitat loss.

There’s a quick fix for Ebola, though, in the form of vaccines. Walsh was part of a team that last year successfully developed an Ebola vaccine for captive chimpanzees.

He suggested a three-pronged approach to help animals in the wild survive the virus. The first is to vaccinate apes using a dart gun.

“We’ve already tried that out; it works very well—the gorillas don’t mind it much,” said Walsh. In the longer term, he suggests an oral vaccine placed in a bait trap, a technique that was used with fox populations to protect against rabies in Europe.

The third, most ambitious of the vaccine strategies is to create a self-replicating vaccine that would make the apes immune to Ebola.

The idea is to use a species-specific virus that all wild gorillas and chimps already carry to deliver the vaccine. After some gorillas or chimps get the vaccine, they spread the infection to others, creating immunity around the community.

“It’s hard to get everyone with a blow pipe, so if they’re not habituated or in a research program, it’s hard to get close,” he said. “That makes the self-disseminating vaccines our best hope.”

Walsh knows that there are questions still to be answered about the potential for such a virus-borne vaccine to mutate in the wild. Still, he said that the vaccine strain is no more likely to mutate than the strain that the apes already carry.

“None of the infectious parts of Ebola are included in the vaccine, so there is no chance that you would get some sort of recombinant super-virus,” he said. “We are conservationists, and we are not going to recklessly do something dangerous.”

Ebola isn’t the only disease that humans and apes share.

“Human respiratory viruses are the number one cause of death; they cause half of deaths in chimps and gorillas that are in tourism and research programs—particularly in programs where people get close,” he said. “People get on a plane, catch a classic international travel cold, they go to chimp sites and cough on them, and the apes get it and they die.”

Walsh hopes that in the future, vaccinating wild apes won’t be a controversial undertaking. He said that the human outbreak has sensitized the world to Ebola, and the facilities to do the trials are up and running. All that’s left is to find the funding to test out the drugs. 

“People are forgetting that our closest relatives are being wiped out, and we’re losing them at an astounding rate,” said Walsh. “I hope that this Ebola outbreak helps a little bit to bring that back into frame.”


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-wiping-great-apes-scientists-race-cure-235919319.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola vaccine trials begin in Liberia
AFP
By Zoom Dosso  20 hours ago



A workers for Medecins Sans Frontieres prepares to burn a dismantled tent on January 27, 2015 as the first section of the ELWA III Ebola Management Center in Monrovia is decommissioned (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)



The vaccines, which contain harmless elements of the killer virus that trigger an immune response, were administered to 12 volunteers at the start of a trial which will eventually involve up to 27,000 adults.

"We received 20 persons who came voluntarily to take the vaccine but we are taking only 12 per day," said Melvin Johnson, head of the trial centre at the Redemption Hospital in the capital Monrovia.

"The first 12 were given the vaccine and the balance will receive theirs on Tuesday."

The Partnership for Research on Ebola Vaccines in Liberia (PREVAIL), a collaboration between the United States and Liberia, said trials would begin at other hospitals around Monrovia after the first 600 participants join the study.

The candidate vaccines -- GlaxoSmithKline's Chad3-EBO-Z and rVSV-ZEBOV, manufactured by Merck and Newlink -- have been determined as safe for use on humans in smaller trials in several countries.



Medecins Sans Frontieres workers dismantle the first section of the ELWA III Ebola Management Center in Monrovia on January 27, 2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)


PREVAIL said the drugs could cause pain, redness or swelling in the injected arm, as well as fever, headaches and tiredness, but added that the side-effects "typically have been mild to moderate and have gone away on their own".

The study, led by the US National Institutes of Health, was launched at the Redemption Hospital on Sunday at an event attended by Liberian Vice-President Joseph Boaikai.

"We hope that this scientific undertaking we launch here today will get answers for the mystery surrounding this disease," he said.


- 'Need for speed' -

There is currently no vaccine to guard against Ebola on the world market, and no specific drug approved to treat it, even though the virus first emerged in the 1970s.

Researchers have said that it remains unknown what level of immune response is needed to protect humans from Ebola, which causes often fatal haemorrhaging, organ failure and severe diarrhoea.

Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have registered almost 9,000 deaths since the beginning of the worst outbreak on record in December 2013, although experts believe the real toll could be significantly higher.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week however that the countries reported fewer than 100 new lab-confirmed cases in the past week for the first time since last June.

"It's fantastic that large-scale trials of the first candidate Ebola vaccine are getting underway in Liberia, a country that has suffered enormously at the hands of this disease," said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust.

"The WHO confirmed last week that infection rates there continue to fall, which emphasises the need to complete these crucial trials as quickly as possible," Farrar said.

"The international response that has got us this point has been phenomenal and we must keep on course until the infection rate is brought down to, and remains at, zero."

Wellcome is funding tests on the GSK candidate vaccine in Britain and Mali and parallel studies of other vaccines in Geneva, Gabon, Kenya and Guinea.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-vaccine-trials-begin-liberia-000831786.html

[Buster's Uncle]

African Union unit says developing epidemic insurance
Reuters  4 hours ago

   

A woman walks past an isolation ward (R) set aside for Ebola related cases at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) in the capital Nairobi in this file photo taken on August 19, 2014. REUTERS/Noor Khamis



LONDON (Reuters) - A unit of the African Union said on Tuesday it was developing outbreak and epidemic insurance for African sovereigns following the Ebola outbreak.

The African Risk Capacity (ARC), the continent's sovereign disaster risk insurer, said it was working with Metabiota, which works to manage and mitigate pandemic threats, to develop the insurance products.

"We aim to insure the first four participating states in 2017,” said Richard Wilcox, director general of ARC, in a statement.

(Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; editing by Nishant Kumar)


http://news.yahoo.com/african-union-unit-says-developing-epidemic-insurance-112228718.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Second British health worker tested for Ebola in London
Reuters  February 2, 2015 5:47 AM



Health workers push a wheeled stretcher holding a newly admitted Ebola patient, 16-year-old Amadou, in to the Save the Children Kerry town Ebola treatment centre outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, December 22, 2014. REUTERS/Baz Ratner



LONDON (Reuters) - A second British military healthcare worker has been flown back to England from Sierra Leone following the likely exposure to the Ebola virus, a government agency said on Monday.

Public Health England said the worker had likely been exposed to the virus from a needle injury while treating a patient with Ebola. The worker has not been diagnosed with the virus and does not have any symptoms.

Another healthcare worker was flown back on Saturday following a similar injury and both are being tested at the Royal Free hospital in London.

"Although we have had two similar incidents within a short space of time both appear to be unrelated," minister for the Armed Forces Mark Francois said in a statement.

"Our personnel receive the highest standard of training and briefing prior to deployment, including on the use of the specialised Personal Protective Equipment".

Two other Britons have already been successfully treated at the Royal Free hospital for the virus and have been released.


http://news.yahoo.com/second-british-health-worker-tested-ebola-london-104743365.html

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Liberia begins clinical trial for Ebola vaccines as outbreak ebbs
Reuters
By James Harding Giahyue  20 hours ago



A health worker injects a woman with an Ebola vaccine during a trial in Monrovia, February 2, 2015. REUTERS/James Giahyue



MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia began a trial of experimental Ebola vaccines on Monday, involving thousands of volunteers as part of an effort to slow the spread of the deadly haemorrhagic fever and prevent future outbreaks.

The epidemic has killed more than 8,800 people in West Africa since it began more than a year ago, overwhelming weak healthcare systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Its spread now appears to be slowing, especially in Liberia which currently has just a handful of cases.

The trial to test two vaccines from GlaxoSmithKline and New Link/Merck began at the government-run Redemption Hospital in Monrovia, a cluster of cement blocks in the teeming New Kru Town neighborhood that was one of the first parts of the capital to be struck by the disease.

"I do not want for Ebola to affect my family and so I have come to volunteer," said Zolu McGill, among the first batch of four volunteers seen at the hospital by a Reuters reporter.

Scientists say the study, a final stage trial which hopes to involve 27,000 volunteers at the heart of the epidemic after earlier safety trials in the UK, United States and other African countries, could be a turning point in the fight against the deadly virus, which has no known cure.

But given relatively few new cases in the dwindling outbreak, researchers are concerned the trial in Liberia, plus another planned in Sierra Leone, may not have the statistical power needed to show whether the shots work.

Volunteers will receive a small compensation package. Each of the vaccines contains a small harmless portion of the Ebola virus and may cause side effects in some people such as pain, redness, fever, headaches, mouth sores, tiredness, muscle, joint pain and loss of appetite.

The Partnership for Research on Ebola Vaccines (Prevail) says healthy volunteers above 18 years old who have no previous history of the virus will be selected.


HOPES OF DEFEATING EBOLA

Vice President Joseph Boakai said in a speech on Sunday attended by dignitaries that he hoped the successful development of drugs would prevent any other country from suffering the devastation experienced by Liberia.

"It's our conviction that from this worthy exercise humankind will prevail over the deadly killer of man," he said.

The slowdown in the epidemic is already hampering drug development. Chimerix Inc said on Friday it was stopping participation in clinical studies in Liberia of a drug, brincidofovir, to treat people who already have Ebola, citing the slump in new cases.

With that in mind, and looking ahead to future potential outbreaks, scientists are thinking about how to develop and test second-generation Ebola vaccines, which could be used to prevent more strains of the disease than the current fast-tracked shots.

Some scientists and aid workers are calling for trials to begin promptly in neighboring Sierra Leone where transmission hotspots exist around the capital Freetown.

The U.S. ambassador to Liberia, Deborah Malac, said that cooperation on the vaccines represented an opportunity for greater cooperation between the two countries on clinical research and developing the Liberian health system.

"It's fantastic that large-scale trials of the first candidate Ebola vaccine are getting underway in Liberia, a country that has suffered enormously at the hands of this disease," said Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, which is funding a trial of the GSK vaccine in Britain and Mali.

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Sophie Walker)


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-begins-clinical-trial-ebola-vaccines-outbreak-ebbs-192237248--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola vaccines testing starts in Liberia
Associated Press
By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH  22 hours ago



A woman, right, is injected by a health care worker, left, as she takes part in a Ebola virus vaccine trial at one of the largest hospital's Redemption hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. A large-scale human trial of two potential Ebola vaccines got under way in Liberia's capital Monday, part of a global effort to prevent a repeat of the epidemic that has now claimed nearly 9,000 lives in West Africa. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)



MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Large-scale human testing of two potential Ebola vaccines got under way in Liberia's capital Monday, part of a global effort to prevent a repeat of the epidemic that has now claimed nearly 9,000 lives in West Africa.

Yet even as Liberians volunteered to take part, it remains unclear whether either vaccine ultimately will work, and if so how quickly they could be mass produced. There is currently no licensed treatment for Ebola, a ghastly virus that has killed at least 60 percent of even its hospitalized victims.

The studies in Liberia are taking place after smaller tests determined that the vaccines were safe for human use. By comparing them now with a dummy shot, scientists hope to learn whether they can prevent people from contracting the disease.

Despite the vaccine study's promise, authorities must combat fear and suspicion that people could become infected by taking part. Each vaccine uses a different virus to carry non-infectious Ebola genetic material into the body and spark an immune response.

On Sunday in one densely populated neighborhood of Monrovia, musicians sang songs explaining the purpose and intent of the trial in a bid to dispel fears.

B. Emmanuel Lansana, 43, a physician's assistant, was the first to receive doses on Monday. Two shots were administered at different points on his right arm. His wife had expressed apprehension about the vaccine trial, but Lansana said he still wanted to take part.



Health care workers walk past boots that were washed to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus inside a USAID, funded Ebola clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Friday, Jan. 30, 2015. The World Health Organization says officials are now focused on ending the biggest-ever Ebola outbreak rather than just slowing the virus’ spread. In an update published Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015, the U.N. health agency said the three most affected countries _ Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia _ reported fewer than 100 cases in the past week, for the first time since June, 2014. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)


"From the counseling, all of the reservations I have were explained, my doubts were cleared," he said in a room where he was being observed for 30 minutes afterward.

Up to 600 volunteers are taking part in the first phase, and trial organizers have said eventually as many as 27,000 people could take part.

"We are targeting about 12 persons for today and hopefully the number will increase as we go along," Wissedi Sio Njoh, director of operation with the vaccination campaign, told The Associated Press.

The World Health Organization says the Ebola epidemic has infected more than 22,000 people and claimed more than 8,900 lives over the past year. Without a vaccine, officials have fought the outbreak with old-fashioned public health measures, including isolating the sick, tracking and quarantining those who had contact with them, and setting up teams to safely bury bodies.

The vaccines being tested won't be an immediate solution, said Bruce Aylward, who is leading WHO's Ebola response.



A health care worker sprays disinfectant outside a USAID, funded Ebola clinic in Monrovia, Liberia, Friday, Jan. 30, 2015. The World Health Organization says officials are now focused on ending the biggest-ever Ebola outbreak rather than just slowing the virus’ spread. In an update published Thursday, Jan. 29, 2015, the U.N. health agency said the three most affected countries _ Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia _ reported fewer than 100 cases in the past week, for the first time since June, 2014. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)


"People keep saying we're going to have a vaccine, but that will be in the middle of the year at the earliest," he said last week. "We might be able to vaccinate some first responders but it's a complete uncertainty. We have no idea if it will confer protection, even though the indications are good."

Both experimental vaccines showed promise in first-stage human safety tests, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said. One was developed by the National Institutes of Health and is being manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline. The other was developed by Canadian health officials and is licensed to two U.S. companies, NewLink Genetics and Merck.

The vaccine trials come as the three most affected countries — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — appear to be making strides against the Ebola epidemic first identified last March. The U.N. health agency said last week that the countries had reported fewer than 100 cases in the past week, for the first time since June.

___

Associated Press Medical Writers Lauran Neergaard in Washington and Maria Cheng in London, and AP writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-vaccine-trial-starts-liberia-085810271.html

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Ebola: Sierra Leone officials criticize travel relaxation
Associated Press
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY  56 minutes ago



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Although Ebola cases are declining in West Africa, Sierra Leone officials are worried that the president's decision to lift travel restrictions may re-ignite the spread of the deadly disease.

President Ernest Bai Koroma two weeks ago announced a relaxation of travel restrictions to support economic activity. Some officials agreed that the closure of roads hurt the economy. Others felt it was too soon.

"It was slightly too early," Freetown Mayor Franklyn Bode Gibson said Tuesday. "We do not know who is safe and who is not," and a second outbreak of the disease would be distrastrous.

Gibson said Tuesday he will call for a meeting this week with the National Ebola Response Center to register his disappointment about the re-opening of district roads.

The chairman of the eastern Kenema District, Dr. Senesie Mansaray, said the move to lift travel restrictions is "a serious blunder at this point in time." He said that Bai Koroma should have waited until the end of February or March, while observing the trend of the spread of the virus, to put more mechanisms in place before lifting bans. The Kenema district recorded no new cases in the latest government figures.

The three most affected countries — Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia — appear to be making strides against the Ebola epidemic first identified last March. The U.N. health agency said last week that the countries had reported fewer than 100 cases in the past week, for the first time since June. Nearly 9,000 people have died from the virus spread through contact with bodily fluids.

Fears are "legitimate" according to opposition party publicity secretary Tamba Samba, but he added that the closure of the roads had hurt the economy.

Ibrahim Bundu, the leader of the governing All People's Congress, said on a radio discussion that the decision to lift the travel ban was made to "boost the country's Ebola defunct economy."

Koroma has set a goal of zero cases by the end of March.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-sierra-leone-officials-criticize-travel-relaxation-163920543.html

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Only 40 percent of Ebola funds reached target countries: study
Reuters
By Kate Kelland  36 minutes ago



LONDON (Reuters) - Almost $2.9 billion was pledged by the end of 2014 in donations to fight West Africa's Ebola epidemic, yet only around 40 percent had actually reached affected countries, researchers said on Tuesday.

A study by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that tracked international donations showed barely $1.09 billion had reached the worst affected countries by the end of last year, they said.

"These delays ... may have contributed to spread of the virus and could have increased the financial needs," said Karen Grepin, a global health policy expert at New York University who led the study and published it in the BMJ British medical journal.

The West Africa Ebola epidemic, the worst in history, has killed more than 8,800 people since it began more than a year ago, decimating already weak health systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Its spread now appears to be slowing, especially in Liberia which now has just five cases.

Grepin analysed the level and speed of pledges made to fight Ebola and how they aligned with estimates of funds required to control the epidemic.

She found not only that more than half of funds pledged by international donors had not reached the target countries, but also that global agencies had failed to reliably estimate the amount of money needed.

While Guinea first informed the World Health Organization of a "rapidly evolving outbreak" of Ebola on March 23, 2014, the first major international appeal was not until August, when some $71 million was asked for.

By mid-September 2014, around six months after the epidemic started, the United Nations estimated $1 billion would be needed, only to raise that in November to an estimate of $1.5 billion.

"Clearly, international leaders have found it challenging to estimate the financial requirements to tackle this rapidly spreading outbreak," Grepin said in a commentary about her findings. "The problem has not been the generosity of donors but that the resources have not been deployed rapidly enough."

U.N. Ebola chief David Nabarro said last month a further $4 billion -- equivalent to all aid committed so far -- was needed by relief agencies and authorities in the worst affected countries to end the epidemic, with U.N. agencies alone needing $1 billion of that to fund their part in the fight.

(Editing by Tom Heneghan)


http://news.yahoo.com/only-40-percent-ebola-funds-reached-target-countries-233343915.html

[Buster's Uncle]

WHO names Ebola response chief
AFP  2 hours ago



Doctors Without Borders agents wearing protective gear work at the Ebola Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia on January 27, 2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)



Geneva (AFP) - The World Health Organization said Tuesday it had appointed its assistant director-general Bruce Aylward to head its overall response to the deadly Ebola outbreak.

It also said an independent commission was being created to assess WHO's widely criticised response to the epidemic, after the UN agency admitted last month it had been caught napping on Ebola and pledged reforms to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

WHO chief Margaret Chan "appointed Dr. Bruce Aylward as the Special Representative for the Ebola Response with immediate effect and for the duration of the outbreak," spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters.

Aylward, she said, will be responsible for coordinating all the different aspects of the agency's response to the devastating outbreak, which has killed nearly 9,000 people, almost all of them in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The Canadian national will also work closely with other UN agencies, the African Union and others "to support the Ebola affected countries (in their efforts) to control the epidemic," Chaib said.

The assessment commission will present an interim report in May and conduct a full review of WHO's handling of the epidemic once the outbreak is over, she said.

This "will help to guide future work in emergencies and outbreaks," Chaib said.

The UN health agency, which only declared a "health emergency of international concern" in September -- 10 months after the virus emerged -- has faced blistering criticism that its response has been slow and shoddy.

The outbreak appears to be waning, with the WHO last week announcing that the number of laboratory-confirmed Ebola infections had dropped below 100 new cases a week for the first time in more than half a year.

The agency said it has shifted its efforts from slowing the spread to stamping it out completely.

But Aylward warned late last month against complacency, stressing that the situation remained "extremely alarming".

"There is no such thing as Ebola control. You've got to drive this to zero" cases, he said.


http://news.yahoo.com/names-ebola-response-chief-212215974.html