Contagion

Guinea Ebola cases rise, three doctors infected

Tue, 2015-03-17 15:27 — mike kraft

REUTERS by Saliou Samb and Emma Farge March 17, 2015

CONAKRY/DAKAR - Guinea has suffered a setback in its fight against Ebola with a rash of new cases, including three doctors infected by the virus, with officials blaming weak surveillance and a failure to follow safety procedures.

... Guinea has seen cases rise for three consecutive weeks, according to World Health Organization data.

A government health report from the weekend showed there were 21 new cases in a single day, a spike from the recent daily average of eight.

One big source of concern is a chain of new infections that can be linked back to a woman who died of Ebola and was not buried safely, according to Fatoumata Lejeune-Kaba, spokeswoman for the U.N.'s Ebola emergency response mission UNMEER.

"It's a major setback .... It's due to individual behaviours. That is having a devastating effect on the community. People are simply not practising the safety rules that we have been talking about for a year," she told Reuters.

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http://news.yahoo.com/guinea-ebola-cases-rise-three-doctors-infected-144134152.html;_ylt=AwrBEiI_RghV8UgA.EnQtDMD

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Ebola: Getting to Zero

Tue, 2015-03-17 15:19 — mike kraft

For communities, for children, for the future

UNICEF March 16, 2015

As slight hints of recovery begin to surface in West Africa, UNICEF is looking at the impact of Ebola on children and the response and work of the affected communities in the report, Ebola: Getting to zero – for communities, for children for the future.

The document traces some of the outbreak’s history along with the stories of survivors, health care workers and those working to make things better on the ground. The report also helps map out the actions that urgently must continue to help build resiliency and resuscitate basic services and systems decimated by Ebola.

Read the report

http://www.unicef.org/emergencies/ebola/files/EbolaReport.pdf

Also see additional information in the links below:

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Preparing for Ebola, but Stopping Lassa Fever

Tue, 2015-03-17 14:56 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES by Pam Belluck March. 17, 2015

Last fall, with the Ebola epidemic raging, the small nation of Benin, a few countries away from the outbreak zone, experienced a cluster of unexplained deaths.

In mid-October, a 12-day-old baby was taken to a hospital in Tanguiéta, in northwest Benin, and died two days later. By early November, three employees of the hospital, St. Jean de Dieu, were dead too.

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Ebola: The Challenging Road to Recovery

Tue, 2015-03-17 13:06 — Kathy Gilbeaux

thelancet.com - Michael Edelstein, Philip Angelides, David L Heymann - February 8, 2015
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60203-3

The resurgence of polio in Syria in 2013 has shown how a breakdown in public health can lead to the re-emergence of previously well-controlled diseases. In 2014 and early 2015 Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone have focused all resources on the Ebola response at the expense of other health programmes. Combined with losing a large proportion of the health-care workforce and the population's reluctance to attend health-care facilities for fear of Ebola, this means the three countries are now at increased risk of other diseases that their health programmes usually target.

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Redesign Of Ebola Treatment Units Draws 1500 Innovations, Including Locally

Mon, 2015-03-16 23:36 — mike kraft

INTELLECTUAL PROPRERTY WATCH by Hillary Muheebwa March 16, 2015

KAMPALA, UGANDA – In light of the persistence of the Ebola outbreak and the demands it has placed on global infection containment resources and processes, the United States government disaster response community recognised an opportunity to use open innovation to make significant strides in advancing the ability to combat Ebola. The results include a local success story.

“The United States Agency for International Development [USAID], in partnership with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Defense, created a Grand Challenge for Development to target Ebola because we faced the largest epidemic of this disease in history,” said Caroline Pepek, spokeswoman, USAID US Global Development Laboratory....

One of the chosen ideas is the next generation ergonomic tent design submitted by ResilientAfrica Network (RAN) and Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda.

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Ebola vaccine trial to combine GSK, Emergent Bio shots

Mon, 2015-03-16 14:49 — mike kraft

REUTERS March 16, 2015

LONDON - Scientists are to test a new two-shot Ebola vaccine using an experimental shot from Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, which is already in clinical trials in Africa, and a new kind of booster from Emergent BioSolutions.

A health worker, left, injects a man in his arm with an Ebola vaccine in Conakry, Guinea, March 7, 2015. The World Health Organization is starting large-scale testing of an experimental Ebola vaccine in Guinea to see how effective it might be in preventing future outbreaks of the deadly virus. (AP Photo/ Youssouf Bah)

The Maryland-based biotech company said on Monday its modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) Ebola Zaire vaccine would be used in an initial Phase I clinical study to be conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford.

Although Ebola case numbers have fallen to a low level, drug companies are still pushing ahead with efforts to develop an effective vaccine, which may help fight the next outbreak, even if it does not come in time for the current epidemic.

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A Life-Saving Comic: Educating Children in West Africa about Ebola

Mon, 2015-03-16 00:39 — mike kraft

BIOSECTOR PRESS by Chris Shilling March 9, 2015

As efforts intensify at all levels by international health organisations and on the ground by community health workers in providing treatment, supplies and preventive measures, young people and children – perhaps the ones most affected – need to have access to good health education resources to help them better understand both the medical and health aspects of Ebola.

To address this issue, Afrelib is working in partnership with Medikidz, (http://www.medikidz.com/gb-en/) the world’s first medical information company aimed at children, to produce learning material in an interactive, comic book format. With this health education comic, it should be possible to provide easy-to-understand and engaging information so that it not only helps in disseminating good preventive measures as recommended by public health organisations but also helps them in dealing with the cultural and social issues surrounding this epidemic.

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Watch closely and explain frequently: Liberia's Ebola lessons

Sun, 2015-03-15 15:42 — mike kraft

REUTERS By James Harding Giahyue and Emma Farge March 13, 2015

MONROVIA/DAKAR - Seven months after Ebola paralysed Liberia's capital, Friday marked 21 days since the country registered a case of the virus - offering lessons to its neighbors on the importance of surveillance and education in beating the deadly epidemic....

A massive influx of international aid, including crucial U.S. military assistance, helped Liberia to turn the tide of the outbreak.

But, notes Tariq Riebl, Oxfam's Ebola response manager in Liberia, "What got us to the endgame is that communities took things into their own hands...."

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http://news.yahoo.com/watch-closely-explain-frequently-liberias-ebola-lessons-184507811.html;_ylt=AwrBJR6EmAVV3D0AbnTQtDMD

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Exclusive: take a first look at the next generation ebola-protection suit

Sat, 2015-03-14 20:13 — mike kraft

QUARTZ by Grace Dobush March 13, 2015

AUSTIN, Texas—Perhaps the most surprising and important product debuting at SXSW Interactive this year is a personal protective equipment (PPE) prototype for health care workers dealing with Ebola, a tangible result of the U.S. government adapting the culture of innovation and design thinking so key in the startup world.