submitted by George Hurlburt

Zoom Dosso / AFP / Getty Images

It’s been more than 42 days since the last case – although officials warn that it is likely to return.

CLICK HERE - WHO - Latest Ebola outbreak over in Liberia; West Africa is at zero, but new flare-ups are likely to occur

buzzfeed.com - by Tom Chivers - January 14, 2016

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that Liberia is free of Ebola.

The west African country hasn’t seen a new case in 42 days. That’s the measure the WHO uses to determine whether an outbreak is still ongoing.

It means that, for the first time since December 2013, the whole of West Africa (and the world) is free of the disease.

It’s been the worst Ebola outbreak in history, killing at least 11,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

However, the WHO warns that new cases are likely.

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submitted by Gavin Macgregor-Skinner

Al Jazeera America - (Tonight) Thursday, Jan 14, 2016 at 930pm EST 

Survivors of Ebola report strange symptoms as America Tonight examines how post-Ebola syndrome is making life difficult after the dreaded disease. (new, 30 minutes)

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW - Watch at 930pm EST on Thursday, Jan 14, 2016
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight.html

THE NEW YORK TIMES   By Sheri Fink, MD             January 7, 2007

A treatment once considered among the most promising for Ebola patients was not found to be effective in a study performed in Guinea, researchers reported Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

whitehouse.gov - by Amy Pope - December 30, 2015

Summary: The world has now gone over 40 consecutive days without a single reported Ebola case. Here's how we helped make that possible.

For the first time since this outbreak was detected in West Africa in early 2014, the world has now gone over 40 consecutive days without a single reported Ebola case.

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced that Guinea has successfully halted Ebola transmission and now joins Sierra Leone and Liberia in recovering from this devastating disease. This represents a significant milestone for Guinea, West Africa, and the international community.

Today we reflect on what is possible when partners around the world come together to solve a common problem. Through the undaunted courage of local communities and heroes from around the world, West Africa was able to halt Ebola. The United States was proud to offer help along with partners around the world.

Today we remember Ebola’s victims, and embrace the communities, families, healthcare workers, and survivors.

journals.plos.org - Fallah MP, Skrip LA, Gertler S, Yamin D, Galvani AP (2015) Quantifying Poverty as a Driver of Ebola Transmission.
December 31, 2015 - PLoS Negl Trop Dis 9(12): e0004260. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0004260

Abstract

Background

Poverty has been implicated as a challenge in the control of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Although disparities between affected countries have been appreciated, disparities within West African countries have not been investigated as drivers of Ebola transmission. To quantify the role that poverty plays in the transmission of Ebola, we analyzed heterogeneity of Ebola incidence and transmission factors among over 300 communities, categorized by socioeconomic status (SES), within Montserrado County, Liberia.

CLICK HERE - Quantifying Poverty as a Driver of Ebola Transmission

South Sudan tops many aid agencies' humanitarian priority lists. as a three-year civil war exacts a heavy toll on the citizens of the country.  (Nichole Sobecki, AFP)

Following a call from the UN for a record $20.1 billion, 15 of the world's leading aid agencies were polled on their top humanitarian concerns.

mg.co.za - by Tom Esslemont - December 28, 2015

There’s one prediction for 2016 that most aid workers can make with confidence – that the new year will usher in rising humanitarian needs.

Besides displacement caused by long-term conflicts in places like Syria and South Sudan, there is also the threat of more violence in Central African Republic and hunger caused by El Nino, which is expected to bring more drought to already-parched southern regions in Africa and potential flooding in the east. . . .

. . . A Thomson Reuters Foundation poll asked 15 of the world’s leading aid agencies to name their top three humanitarian priorities for 2016. Not surprisingly, Syria topped the list of concerns. But what were the others?

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submitted by George Hurlburt / Mike Kraft

An MSF health worker holds baby Nubia Souma, the last known Ebola patient in Guinea.  Image: Samuel Aranda/MSF

CLICK HERE - WHO - STATEMENT - End of Ebola transmission in Guinea

(ALSO SEE SITUATION REPORTS AND RELATED ARTICLE BELOW)

Forty-two days have passed since the last person with Ebola tested negative for the virus.

thejournal.ie - by Sinead O'Carroll - December 29, 2015

THE WORLD HEALTH Organisation has declared the Ebola outbreak in Guinea officially over.

In a statement this morning, the global body confirmed that 42 days had passed since the last person with Ebola in the country tested negative for the virus for a second time.

Guinea will now enter a 90-day period of “heightened surveillance” to ensure any new cases are identified before being passed on to other people.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(CLICK HERE - SEE RELATED ARTICLE)

The team has achieved an unprecedented goal: connecting 12 fullerenes, each one endowed with 10 sugar moieties, to other central fullerene, thus mimicking the presentation of carbohydrates surrounding the Ebola virus.  Credit: N. Martín & B. Illescas / UCM

CLICK HERE - A giant fullerene system inhibits the infection by an artificial Ebola virus

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Synthesis of giant globular multivalent glycofullerenes as potent inhibitors in a model of Ebola virus infection

scitechconnect.elsevier.com - by SPLICE - November 19, 2015

A discovery which may lead to the elimination of Ebola infections was published in Nature Chemistry a few days ago. The investigators reported that giant fullerene system inhibits the cell infection by an artificial Ebola virus.

submitted by George Hurlburt      

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Filovirus receptor NPC1 contributes to species-specific patterns of ebolavirus susceptibility in bats

socialnews.xyz - December 24, 2015

Ebola virus and bats have been waging a molecular battle for survival that may have started at least 25 million years ago, revealed a new study led by an Indian-origin scientist.

The findings shed light on the biological factors that determine which bat species may harbour the virus between outbreaks in humans and how bats may transmit the virus to people. . . .

. . . The study was published online in the journal eLife.

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interactive.aljazeera.com - 2015

The world is getting warmer, the rain is growing heavier and the oceans are rising. At the same time, the world’s rural inhabitants are migrating to its cities on a massive scale.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the part of the world most affected by the dual pressure of climate change and the rapid, uncontrolled transformation of its cities into megacities.

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WHO Strategic Health Operations Centre (SHOC) Room - WHO /Christopher Black

who.int

A panel of scientists and public health experts convened by WHO met in Geneva this week to prioritise the top five to ten emerging pathogens likely to cause severe outbreaks in the near future, and for which few or no medical countermeasures exist. These diseases will provide the basis for work on the WHO Blueprint for R&D preparedness to help control potential future outbreaks.

The initial list of disease priorities needing urgent R&D attention comprises: Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease and Marburg, Lassa fever, MERS and SARS coronavirus diseases, Nipah and Rift Valley fever. The list will be reviewed annually or when new diseases emerge.

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ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE - The most dangerous pathogens, according to WHO

Cindy Quinonez, center, whose cousin Aurora Godoy was killed in last week’s shooting rampage, attends a makeshift memorial Tuesday in San Bernardino, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

washingtonpost.com - by Daniel Aldrich - December 9, 2015

How do people survive and move on from tragedies like last week’s terrorist attacks at home and abroad? When does a tragedy — whether human-made or natural disaster or a combination of the two — destroy a community, and when do they recover and thrive? . . .

. . . The answer is in an often misunderstood concept called “resilience.”

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Dr. David Nabarro, Special Envoy on Ebola, at a press conference in New York in November 2015. UN Photo/Loey Felipe

un.org

10 December 2015 – In August 2014, amid a rapidly growing outbreak of Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro was tasked with providing strategic guidance for an enhanced international response, and galvanizing essential support for affected communities and countries. As the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. Nabarro played a key role in responding to the outbreak, which mainly affected Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and claimed more than 11,300 lives to date.

While the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has declined significantly in recent months, it is not completely over, making it all the more vital for everyone involved in the response to remain vigilant and focused on stopping the outbreak, staying at zero cases and preventing re-emergence. The Office of the Special Envoy will end its mandate on 31 December 2015, but the UN system will continue to remain fully engaged with the affected countries. 

BRANCHING OUT  In Liberia, a single lineage of Ebola virus (middle dot) split into subgroups as it passed from person to person and mutated. Each dot is a slightly different version of the virus within the subgroups. Dot size indicates how many people carried that version. Researchers tracked the virus as it spread from Liberia (blue) into Guinea (red) and Mali (yellow).  J.T. Ladner et al/Cell Host & Microbe 2015

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Evolution and Spread of Ebola Virus in Liberia, 2014–2015

Genetic analysis of third hard-hit country fills in gaps in virus’ spread and evolution

sciencenews.org - by Tina Hesman Saey - December 9, 2015

A single introduction of the Ebola virus led to most cases of the deadly disease in Liberia, a new genetic study suggests.

reliefweb.int - globalcommunities.org - December 1, 2015

The public view of the Ebola response was dominated by images and stories of medical workers and Ebola treatment units. But there is also the less-known story of the many thousands of Liberian health workers, government staff, traditional leaders and volunteers who played the most significant role in building resilience to Ebola and reducing transmission and infection. It is these groups, working in the frontlines and at significant risk, which Global Communities partnered with throughout the Ebola response.

Global Communities’ approach to countering the Ebola outbreak has been highlighted by President Obama, Dr. Rajiv Shah, former Administrator of USAID, and many others as having been a key component in the successful fight against Ebola in Liberia in the 2014-15 outbreak. This new publication “Stopping Ebola in its Tracks,” has two strands:

It describes Global Communities’ community-driven response to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia

It derives from this experience lessons learned and recommendations for preventing and dealing with future disasters