Health - West Africa MPHISE

This map, dated July 15, shows the number of days since active cases were discovered in the three countries where ebola is still a threat. CDC

SCIENCE  by Nick Stockton                               July 23, 2015

Officially, it’s called the Ebola Outbreak of 2014. But it’s 2015 now, and the disease is still infecting people. For the past two months, that rate was about 15 people a week. But in the past two weeks, the rate has doubled.....

What’s behind the continued spread? Depends on where you go. In Guinea and Sierra Leone, Ebola never died, and the new cases are a continuation of the same strain that first emerged in December of 2013. In Liberia—which declared itself ebola-free on May 12—experts believe the new outbreak was transmitted through sexual intercourse, from latent viral bodies that were alive in a man’s sperm.

REUTERS by  Makini Brice                                 July 23, 2015

DAKAR --Anti-corruption campaign group Global Witness on Thursday accused palm oil company Golden Veroleum of taking advantage of the Ebola epidemic in Liberia to double the size of its plantation.

 The Ebola virus treatment center where four people are currently being treated is seen in Paynesville, Liberia, July 16, 2015. Reuters/James Giahyue

Golden Veroleum, controlled by Singapore-listed Golden Agri-Resources, signed a deal with Liberia in 2010 to develop a 220,000 hectare plantation. However, the company also has to reach agreement with local communities that have customary titles over the land.

The company denied any wrongdoing.

CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE POLICY AND RESEARCH by Lisa Schnirring     July 20, 2015

Tekmira Pharmaceuticals  announced that it has suspended development of TKM-Ebola, a drug cocktail that showed disappointing human trial results in West Africa, as a convalescent plasma trial at a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) facility in Guinea proceeded with no ill effects in patients so far...

In suspending TKM-Ebola development, the company said that a joint reevaluation of its contract with the US Department of Defense is under way.

In another development, MSF said a convalescent serum trial at its facility in Nongo, Guinea, has enrolled 101 people over the last few months, with no ill effects reported so far, according to a Jul 17 update on the outbreak. Patients at the Nongo treatment unit have the option to receive plasma donated by Ebola survivors....

Meanwhile, detailed testing at a Swiss hospital on a 43-year-old doctor infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone found that viral decay occurred in two phases, once starting 72 hours after symptom onset before any antiviral interventions, with acceleration in viral load decay after ZMAb infusion and oral favipiravir treatments began..

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liberianewsagency.org - by Wellington G Patrick, LINA Nimba County Correspondent - July 20, 2015

SANNIQUELLIE, July 19 (LINA) - Following an emergency Ebola meeting, Nimba County has reorganized its Ebola Task Force with more focus on case finding and social mobilization to resist the recurrence of the Ebola virus in the county.

Making the disclosure in an interview with the Liberia News Agency in Sanniquellie recently, the Media Coordinator of the county’s Ebola Task Force, Paul K. Karnue, said the exercise is to reinforce the previous preventive measures carried out by the taskforce during the height of the disease in the country.

Karnue noted that the reoccurrence of Ebola in Margibi County as reported recently has frightened several citizens in Nimba, leading them to call for gthe strengthening of measures to avoid the recurrence of the virus in the county.

At the meeting, the stakeholders resolved that all citizens should report all dead bodies and strangers to the county health authorities, and restrict all cultural practices, including the bathing of dead bodies and sick people anywhere in the county.

http://www.liberianewsagency.org/pagesnews.php?nid=5403