LIVESCIENCE  by Rachel Rettner                                                          May 6, 2015

The Ebola virus can live on surfaces in hospitals for nearly two weeks, a new study suggests.

Researchers tested how long the Ebola virus could survive on plastic, stainless steel and Tyvek, a material used in Ebola suits. The researchers also simulated different environmental conditions, including a climate-controlled hospital at 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) and 40 percent humidity, and the typical environment of West Africa, at 80 F (27 C) and 80 percent humidity.

In general, the virus survived on surfaces for a longer time when in the climate-controlled conditions than in the West African environment, the study found. Under hospital-like conditions, the virus lived for 11 days on Tyvek, eight days on plastic and four days on stainless steel. The longest the virus was able to survive in the tropical conditions of the West African environment was three days, on Tyvek.

Read complete story.

http://www.livescience.com/50758-ebola-virus-survival-surfaces.html

AFP                                                                                        May 6, 2015

Geneva -- The number of deaths from the Ebola epidemic now exceeds 11,000, figures from the World Health Organization showed on Wednesday.

In the three countries worst affected -- Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea -- 26,593 people were infected, and 11,005 had died, the WHO said.

Only nine new cases were recorded in each country last week, the lowest figures for almost a year.

Read complete story.

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-deaths-pass-11-000-mark-223707192.html

See WHO Ebola situation report 6 May, 2015

http://apps.who.int/ebola/en/current-situation/ebola-situation-report-6-may-2015

Now the threat from Ebola seems to be receding, rich countries must not revert to their former myopia. Listening to other countries’ needs and investing in women and children would be a start

THE GUARDIAN Commentary  by Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridar                May 6, 2015

Amnesia has set in across the world as the fear and global attention given to Ebolarecedes. But this is not a new phenomenon. With Sars, avian flu, swine flu and Mers, there were repeated calls to fix the global health system to avoid previous mistakes. We cannot continue to be surprised when a health crisis emerges and we need to start to take a long-term, inclusive perspective to ensure health security across the world. Myopia was a key factor in the failure to respond to Ebola in a rapid and effective way.

There are three immediate steps that should be taken:

Read complete article.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/06/ebola-global-health-priorities-chelsea-clinton

UNITED NATIONS NEWS CENTRE                          May 5, 2015
Liberia is expected to be declared Ebola-free by the World Health Organization (WHO) within the week if no more new cases of the disease are discovered before then, the top United Nations official in Liberia said Tuesday  as she briefed the Security Councl.

Karin Landgren, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Liberia and Head of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), briefs the Security Council. UN Photo/Mark Garten

“After almost 14 months spent under the cloud of Ebola, this will be joyful news for the country,” said Karin Landgren, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Liberia. “Liberians and their Government, with support from the UN and ineternational partners, have gotten firmly ahead of the epidemic. Now, all Liberians must remain vigilant.”

SCIENCE   by Martin Enserink                                                                           May 1, 2015
...Guinea is where some of the last embers of West Africa's Ebola epidemic are smoldering. It had only 21 new Ebola cases in the past week, 16 of them in the city of Forécariah, a 3-hour drive from the capital. Guards at many official buildings still routinely point the Thermoflash, a contact less, revolver-shaped thermometer, at visitors' temples, and vats full of bleach are still omnipresent.

 But Ebola rarely makes headlines anymore, and antigovernment protests that paralyzed Conakry last week were about upcoming elections, not the virus.

Still, Guinea's Ebola czar, Sakoba Keita, notes that there have been lulls before, the last one in January, that were invariably followed by flare-ups.

...Guinea's stubborn epidemic means that it may soon be the last place where researchers can do real-world tests of Ebola treatments and vaccines.
Read complete story.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/348/6234/485.full

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION by Moneeza Walji                                    Mayl 4, 2015
The call to action for the Ebola outbreak extended far and wide, with the epidemic now having more than 26 000 cases and claiming more than 10 000 lives, but the response has raised questions about underlying problems that hinder health care in some countries and about who was best positioned to respond.

At a recent session of the Consortium of Universities for Global Health in Boston, Dr. Peter Piot, one of the discoverers of the Ebola virus, said the outbreak and crisis in West Africa "has revealed major fault lines in the local societies and in the international system; in how we conduct research and how we develop new drugs and vaccines and also in trust and the way that international aid and development and cooperation is operating."

NEW YORK TIMES  by Sheri Fink, MD                         May 5, 2015

(Contains new information on the origin of the Ebola epidemic.)

Scientists are using blood samples collected throughout the Ebola outbreak to map the virus’s spread from country to country by tracking tiny mutations in its gene sequences.

The picture is not yet complete, but intriguing discoveries have been made. Virus mutations first detected in Sierra Leone last spring were found later in Liberia and Mali, and scientists are examining whether this resulted from the chance movements of people across borders....

Set of graphs on the Ebola Outbreak

THE ECONOMIST   by the Graphics Team                                                                   May 5, 2015 

The outbreak continues to claim lives, but Liberia could be confirmed Ebola free on May 9th. The situation in Guinea and Sierra Leone is also improving with fewer provinces reporting cases than in previous weeks. The World Health Organisation reports that each country now has enough treatment beds to be able to isolate and treat patients with Ebola, and to bury everyone known to have died of the disease.

The chart above shows numbers from both the WHO's regular situation reports and from patient databases, which tend to be more accurate but are less complete for recent weeks.
See complete story and set of graphics.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/05/ebola-graphics

NEW YORK TIMES  By NEIL GENZLINGER                     May 3, 2015

(UPDATE: Scroll down for link to the PBS FRONTLINE  program on Ebola originally aired last night on American television.)

Heartbreaking stories from the Ebola outbreak are familiar by now, although that doesn’t make them any easier to hear, and a “Frontline” installment being broadcast on PBS on Tuesday night has its share. But it also has something less familiar: Officials acknowledging that they could have done a better job of responding to the crisis.

AWOKO.ORG   by  Berry Milton                             May 4, 2015

Getting ebola  to zero and staying zero is very crucial at this time, it is because of this that the women of Sierra Leone have taken the lead in the Yellow Ribbon Campaign, an initiative by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) now led by Women in the Media Sierra Leone (WIMSAL).

Given a background to the campaign which was launched about three months ago, SLAJ President Kelvin Lewis said the aim was to inject new energy into the drive to get zero ebola cases as people are tired and frustrated not seeing the ending of the virus, “even though the figures were going down ebola was fighting back.”

He said the campaign is a personal commitment to be made by people which is very important as it means safe and dignified burial, to keep all sick people away from others and to speak out by calling 117 if they know of any sick person and contacts must stay in one area with food and water.
Read complete story.
http://awoko.org/2015/05/04/sierra-leone-news-more-work-and-engagement-for-women-to-end-ebola/

BIOPREPWATCH                                               May 4, 2015

Peter Jan Graaff, during his first week as the secretary-general’s acting special representative and head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, declared his commitment to stopping the Ebola outbreak.

“We have made great progress in fighting the virus, but we are not done yet,” Graaff said. “The rainy season is fast approaching, which will complicate efforts to contain the disease. We have a very small window of opportunity, and that window is closing fast. We can’t risk falling behind the virus again. We need to stay ahead of it and eliminate it before it is too late....”

If no cases present themselves by May 9, Liberia will be declared free of Ebola.

“Until we reach zero cases in every country, Ebola still poses a threat to the region, and to the world,” Graaff said. “We must keep up our efforts over the next few weeks to trace and treat every last case.”

Read complete story.
http://bioprepwatch.com/news/head-of-u-n-ebola-response-stresses-importance-of-stopping-virus-before-rainy-season/341712/

HUMANOSPHERE  by Tom Murphy                                                                          May 1, 2015

ELMINA, Ghana – Each evening the fishermen set out in their hand-carved wooden boats. By nightfall, the horizon is dotted by a long row of small lights, their own constellation. Fish are caught, the haul is sold in markets and life continues. But one group is noticeably absent from Elmina and other towns along Ghana’s coast – tourists.

The near-empty Elmina Bay Resort. (Credit: Tom Murphy)

Thousands of college students embark on a trip to see the world and do a bit of learning through the Semester at Sea program. The West African countries of Senegal and Ghana are usually on the itinerary, bringing a steady flow of tourism to the two countries. But the countries are not destinations for three consecutive semesters due to concerns about Ebola.

WALL STREET JOURNAL BY Betsy McKay                     May 1, 2015

MONROVIA, Liberia—Dorbor Sirleaf thought his ordeal with Ebola was over in October, when he walked out of a treatment unit, having overcome the ruinous disease.

Instead, the 29-year-old father of four is suffering from symptoms he says he never had before he had Ebola. His legs and other parts of his body ache. Worse, he has trouble seeing, particularly distances. His eyes itch, hurt and often water up. “Sometimes my tears can be rolling,” he said.

More than 15,000 people have survived Ebola in West Africa, and more than 10,800 died, in the largest epidemic of the disease by far in history—one that has yet to be extinguished. But many have emerged with an assortment of mysterious physical ailments, including joint pain, fatigue and a particularly worrisome and common complaint: vision loss. Some, like Mr. Sirleaf, say their eyes hurt. Others report blurred vision or say they can’t see at all.

ASSOCIATED PRESS by Mike Stobbe                                                                    May1, 2015

NEW YORK, N.Y. - Health officials now think Ebola survivors can spread the disease through unprotected sex nearly twice as long as previously believed.

Scientists thought the Ebola virus could remain in semen for about three months. But a recent case in West Africa suggests infection through sex can happen more than five months later.

Based on the case, officials are now telling male Ebola survivors to avoid unprotected sex indefinitely. They had previously advised using condoms for at least three months.

A CDC report released Friday detailed the case of a 44-year-old Liberian woman whose infection likely came from a 46-year-old man who had Ebola symptoms last September. She fell ill in March, a week after sex with him, and died. Another woman he had sex with around the same time tested negative.

Read complete story.

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Report+Liberian+woman+likely+Ebola+through+with+illness+months/11020962/story.html

Possible Sexual Transmission of Ebola Virus — Liberia, 2015