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.

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...."

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

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.

A team from the U.S. Agency for International Development demonstrated the traditional Ebola suit and the new suit in a preview for Quartz....

NEW YORK TIMES  by NORIMITSU ONISHI and SHERI FINK        March 14, 2015

MONROVIA, Liberia — West Africa’s Ebola epidemic may be waning, but another outbreak in the future is a near certainty, health officials say.

TIME MAGAZINE  by Alexandra Sifferlin                                                                        March 13, 2015

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) may relocate its clinical trials of Ebola vaccines to Guinea, since there are no longer enough Ebola cases in Liberia for a proper efficacy trial.

On Feb. 2, the NIH launched an initial safety trial for two vaccines to protect against Ebola in Liberia. The plan was to test 600 people for overall safety and then launch a second phase of the trial in 27,000 people to see whether or not the vaccine prevents infection with Ebola virus compared to a placebo.

The safety test was successfully completed the week of March 9—but around the same time, Liberia announced that it had released its last confirmed patient from its Ebola treatment centers. ...

VOX  by Julia Belluz                                            March 12, 2015

(Scroll down for full Science Journal study.)

As if being stricken by the most deadly virus known to man weren't enough, now, it seems, West Africa is on alert for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases including measles, whooping cough, and tuberculosis.

A girl collects her family's laundry after drying it on a rooftop in the West Point township on January 31, 2015 in Monrovia, Liberia. Life has been disrupted by Ebola for many Liberians.

In a new study in the journal Science, researchers focused on measles — the most contagious virus recorded — and applied statistical models to quantify the likelihood of an epidemic in the three countries worst hit by Ebola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

REUTERS  by Misha Hussain                                                    March 12, 2015sC

(Scroll down for links to press release and full report.)

DAKAR -- West Africa may lose up to $15 billion over the next three years due to the impact of the Ebola outbreak on trade, investment and tourism, according to a report by the United Nations.

The world's deadliest Ebola epidemic has killed almost 10,000 people in the three most affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, deepening poverty in one of the least developed parts of the world.

"The consequences of Ebola are vast," said Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, Africa director of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

"Stigma and risk aversion have caused considerable amounts of damage, shutting down borders and indirectly affecting the economies of a large number of countries in the sub-region."

Read complete story

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-could-cost-west-africa-15-billion-over-150805196.html;_ylt=AwrBJSCTtwFVoAIAda3QtDMD

REUTERS     by Tom Miles                                                                                        March 11, 2015

GENEVA -Waning interest in Ebola could jeopardize efforts to stamp out the world's worst recorded outbreak of the disease, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

Case numbers have fallen to a low level and it should be possible to stop transmission by mid-year, but the disease is "not waning" and it is much too early to assume the outbreak will end, said WHO Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward.

"We talk often about how steep the drop in cases has been. The only thing that has dropped more quickly and more steeply is the new contributions in financing," he told reporters in Geneva. 

...the failure to make further inroads is "alarming", Aylward said.

"Getting from here to zero is going to require another reinvestment (in the drive to tackle the outbreak)."

CLICK HERE - AUDIO - MEETING
The State of African Resilience
March 11, 2015 - 2:00pm-4:00pm
Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS)

Understanding Dimensions of Vulnerability and Adaptation

CLICK HERE - REPORT - The State of African Resilience
(72 page .PDF Report)

csis.org - by Jennifer G. Cooke - March 11, 2015

savethechildren.org

CLICK HERE - REPORT - A WAKE-UP CALL - Lessons from Ebola for the world’s health systems (50 page .PDF report)

nytimes.com - by Donald G. McNeil Jr. - March 9, 2015

The world has spent more than $4 billion fighting Ebola, but according to a new report from Save the Children, it would have cost only $1.6 billion to bring health care systems up to minimum standards in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, which might have prevented the outbreak or ended it faster.

Even before Ebola struck West Africa, more than 25 countries had health care systems worse than those in impoverished Liberia and Sierra Leone, the report also found.

policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk - Authors: Cairns, Edmund
February 27, 2015 - ISBN: 978-1-78077-825-9

In Sierra Leone and Liberia, thousands of local people have taken part in campaigns to spread the message about how Ebola can be controlled, and millions have taken vital practical steps to prevent infection. When the last case of Ebola is eliminated, it will not only be because of medical treatment and action by governments and the international community, but because communities have been at the heart of the response. Before Ebola struck West Africa, Liberia and Sierra Leone were among the poorest countries in the world – now they are even poorer. The challenge of recovery is enormous and communities must once again be at the heart of it. Oxfam has listened to women and men in Liberia and Sierra Leone to hear their priorities for the immediate response, the recovery and beyond. This paper presents those priorities, from rebuilding shattered livelihoods and building a resilient health service, to making schools safe and free for all.

ebolaresponse.un.org

Coalition Meeting Notes - Minutes from the weekly meetings held by the Global Ebola Response Coalition:

Global Ebola Response Coalition Meeting 21 | 6^th March 2015:

Issues Discussed and Next Steps

The twenty first meeting of the Global Ebola Response Coalition Core Group took place on 6 March. The main points covered in the meeting follow.

2.            Participants discussed the status of the outbreak.  The cumulative number of people who have been diagnosed with Ebola in the current outbreak is now 23,983. The number of people newly diagnosed with Ebola in the 7 days to 1 March, is 132; the figure was 99 in the preceding 7 days. This week’s total reflects increases in Guinea (35 to 51) and Sierra Leone (63 to 81) but a fall in Liberia (1 to 0). The volatility in numbers of people newly diagnosed with Ebola each week continues: the figure ranges between 90 and 160 new cases per week.  The majority of new cases are reported from the geographical region around the coastal border areas between Guinea and Sierra Leone.

THE ECONOMIST                                                                                                   March 9, 2015

As in all Ebola episodes, preventing infection in West Africa during what has been the worst outbreak in history has placed a lot of effort on looking after those dealing with the victims. New high-tech equipment is now available for use by health care workers, but in some countries it may be inappropriate....

Health care workers inside a USAID-funded Ebola clinic in Liberia wearing protective gear. Some of the best protective gear or technology is not available to African countries because of high costs or other conditions.  Photos by Abbas Dulleh • Associated Press,

MEDICALXPRESS                                                                                                 March 9, 2015
Researchers from Emory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have now obtained a first look at the immune responses in four Ebola virus disease survivors who received care at Emory University Hospital in 2014, by closely examining their T cells and B cells during the acute phase of the disease. The findings reveal surprisingly high levels of immune activation, and have implications for the current effort to develop vaccines against Ebola.

The Ebola virus, isolated in November 2014 from patient blood samples obtained in Mali. The virus was isolated on Vero cells in a BSL-4 suite at Rocky Mountain Laboratories. Credit: NIAID