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..

Read complete article.

REUTERS by James Giahyue                  July 20, 2015

MONROVIA  - The last four cases of Ebola in Liberia were discharged from a treatment clinic in the capital of Monrovia on Monday, meaning there were no more confirmed carriers of the deadly virus in the West African country.

The group of four, released from the ELWA treatment unit to cheers and applause, were part of new wave of Ebola infections in Margibi County just outside Monrovia discovered in late June.

Two other confirmed cases have since died, including the sister of one of the released patients.

"The (Ebola treatment unit) is not a death camp; you can come here and survive," said Tolbert Nyenswah, head of Liberia's Ebola response. "This is what we can demonstrate even if Ebola comes back...."

Read complete story.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/20/health-ebola-liberia-idUSL5N10030X20150720

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

A man poses with a chicken at a local market in Gombe state, Nigeria, January 30, 2015. REUTERS/ Afolabi Sotunde

trust.org - Thomson Reuters Foundation - by Chris Arsenault - 20 Jul 2015

A highly contagious strain of avian flu is spreading across West Africa, decimating poultry farms and stoking fears the virus will jump from birds to humans, the U.N.'s food agency warned on Monday.

Markets and farms in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast and Ghana have been hit with the deadly H5N1 virus over the past six months, the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

If the virus continues to spread, it could affect more than 330 million people across West Africa, hurting food security and human health in a region still recovering from the Ebola crisis.

"Urgent action is needed to strengthen veterinary investigation and reporting systems... to tackle the disease at the root, before there is a spillover to humans," Juan Lubroth, head of the FAO's animal health division, said in a statement.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Telemedicine and innovative devices could help reduce unnecessary exposures to virus

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CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORP.                                                                                 July 19, 2015

Space technology such as satellite images and telemedicine could play a bigger role in helping to control the Ebola outbreak that's killed more than 11,250 people, a Canadian doctor says.

Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield holds the Microflow experiment to test how the instrument counts blood cells in orbit. Such space spinoffs have the potential to be applied to outbreaks of infectious diseases on Earth. (NASA)

This week's issue of the medical journal Lancet Infectious Disease includes a commentary titled "Help from Above — outer space and the fight against Ebola."

Obi Sesay says they must get the 'last hardcore' to 'take responsibility'

bbc.com - by Tulip Mazumdar - July 14, 2015

Health officials leading the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone say fear, fatigue and denial are allowing the virus to continue to spread.

Cases had been falling sharply since the start of the year. But the decline has stalled and more than a year since the outbreak was first declared in Sierra Leone, new cases are still emerging every week. . . .

. . . "We have not been successful in convincing a last hard core of the population to change their behaviour," said Obi Sesay, director of the National Ebola Response Centre.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

MSF                                                  July 17, 2015

Though Ebola has faded from the news headlines, the epidemic in West Africa continues to claim lives today. Around 30 people become infected each week in Sierra Leone and Guinea – a number that would be considered a major disaster under normal circumstances – and the outbreak has recently re-emerged in Liberia.

• Liberia: After being declared Ebola-free on 9May, six (6) new cases have been confirmed since the re-emergence of the virus at the end of June.
• Guinea: 13 confirmed cases in the country in the week to 12July in three main hotspots (Forecariah, Boké/Fria, Conakry)
• Sierra Leone: 14 confirmed cases in the country in the week to 12July in three main hotspots (Freetown, Port Loko, Kambia).  

Read complete report:

http://www.msf.org/article/ebola-crisis-update-17-july-2015

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

af.reuters.com - July 17, 2015

MONROVIA (Reuters) - A herbalist who treated the 17-year-old boy who sparked Liberia's third wave of Ebola infections has escaped quarantine and fled to Nimba County in the north of the country near Guinea, officials said on Thursday.

He was one of 120 people placed under quarantine for coming into contact with the deceased.

"The herbalist evaded quarantine and is on the run, this is a reason we are putting everybody on alert," Paul Karnue, a spokesman for the Nimba local government said.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

ASSOCIATED PRESS by JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH   July 17, 2015

MONROVIA, Liberia (— The four remaining patients infected during Liberia's recent string of Ebola cases have recovered, meaning there are currently no confirmed cases in the country though more than 100 people are still under surveillance, a health official said Friday.

"There are no Ebola cases anywhere in Liberia as we speak," Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah told The Associated Press.

In an interview earlier with state media, he said the four patients had recovered and would be discharged in a ceremony on Monday.

"It is still too early to say is it is over," Nyenswah cautioned in the interview, noting that 123 contacts were being monitored.

http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/07/17/liberia-says-4-remaining-ebola-patients-have-recovered

Scroll down for WHO Situation Report

USA TODAY by Gregg Zoroya and Samwar Fallah     July 16, 2015

MONROVIA, Liberia — Six cases of Ebola have surfaced in Liberia in the two months since the nation was declared free of the deadly virus, raising fears the disease lingers in the human body in ways not fully understood.

Liberians read a story about Ebola on a public chalkboard in Monrovia on July 10, 2015. Liberia has had six new cases of Ebola after the World Health Organization declared the country free of Ebola on May 9, 2015.(Photo: Ahmed Jallanzo, EPA)

Three of those cases were in the past week, doubling the number of new infections since the virus re-emerged in late June, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday....

This new patient was a nurse who died Sunday on arrival at an Ebola treatment clinic in Monrovia, according to the United Nations and the Liberian government. She had been caring for her son, who became infected with the disease in a remote village and fled to the capital.

REUTERS   July 14, 2015

MONROVIA - A Liberian woman has died of Ebola in a hospital in Monrovia shortly after being admitted, becoming the sixth confirmed case of the virus since it resurfaced last month after a seven-week lull, a senior medical official said on Tuesday.

The victim from Montserrado County, which contains Monrovia, is thought to be linked to the other five cases from neighboring Margibi County, where the disease reemerged.

Her detection raised fears that the infection may be spreading in a new area of the country.

Read complete story.

http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-confirms-ebola-case-outbreak-spreads-120753593.html

REUTERS by Wendell Roelf   July 13, 2015
CAPE TOWN  - Africa's Ebola epidemic has not run its course and around 30 people are still getting infected each week, the United Nations' special envoy for the disease said on Monday.

The worst recorded outbreak of the virus has killed more than 11,000 people across West Africa since late 2013, but had abated in recent months. A new flare-up in Liberia is seen as a setback in the fight against it.

"The battle can be won, but it requires sustained effort, very careful negotiation with communities and perfection in follow-up of everybody who has been a contact,” David Nabarro told a media briefing in Cape Town...

"Probably about one third of these people are not coming from the contact list, which means they are surprise cases, and that’s a big worry," Nabarro earlier told a conference organised by the World Health Organization.
Read complete story.

http://news.yahoo.com/africas-ebola-outbreak-not-yet-run-course-u-082857000.html

Side Event in Support of the UN Secretary-General’s International Ebola Recovery Conference July 9-10 2015

United Nations Headquarters - Conference Room 3, 13.15-14.30 pm (1:15pm-2:30pm, ET), 10 July 2015

As a side-event in support of the United Nations Secretary-General’s International Ebola Recovery Conference, Ebola Innovation for Impact 2015: Game Change in Global Health Crisis Management will bring together thought leaders in global health and technology to stimulate creative, collaborative and catalytic action, and to address the Ebola crisis with innovative solutions in the key, inter-linked areas of: Community Engagement and Mobilization; Private Sector Contribution and Collaboration; Data Systems Strengthening and Coordination; and, Emergency Infrastructure and Logistics.

Speakers include:

Dr. Barbara Bentein, UNICEF

Dr. Arnaud Bernaert, World Economic Forum (WEF)

Dr. Vinton G. Cerf, Google

Dr. Denis Gilhooly, Global Digital Health Initiative (GDHI)

Dr. Michael D. McDonald, Global Health Response & Resilience Alliance (GHRRA)

ebolaresponse.un.org/recovery-conference

The road towards recovery

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have undertaken a remarkable effort to defeat the devastating Ebola outbreak. Thanks to those efforts and the support of the international community, the affected countries have seen a significant decline in the number of new cases. Recovery must now be pursued as part of the goal of “getting to zero and staying at zero,” as the response changes from emergency operations to multi-faceted, long-term support.

To this end, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is hosting an International Ebola Recovery Conference in New York to ensure that recovery efforts go beyond redressing direct development losses to build back better and ensure greater resilience.

The Conference will be held in cooperation with the Governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in partnership with the African Union, the African Development Bank, the European Union and the World Bank.

Aims of the Conference

1:00-5:00 pm, July 8, 2015

Manhattan Room, One UN Plaza, Second Floor

44^th St. and 1^st Ave., New York City

Agenda

On Wednesday July 8, 2015, an afternoon session will address Ebola response & recovery data strengthening, situational awareness, and coordination.  This working session will be held at U.N. headquarters in New York or a facility nearby from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

Following are the proposed elements of the July 8 afternoon session:

1:00 PM           40 mins                        Opening Plenary Session

            An Overview of West Africa’s Current & Emerging Infrastructures

                        Barbara Bentein           UNICEF

                        Juliet Benford               Anthrologica

                        Sara Glass                   USAID, Global Development Lab