Ebola – Outbreak and Outcome

[Ken-GGF]

A new study by the IMF published in October highlights the economic concerns in sub-Saharan Africa over the effects of the Ebola crisis.

The Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa projects growth in the region to be 5% this year (rising to 5.75% in 2015). This forecast for 2014 is below the 5.5% predicted in the April report, with the Ebola outbreak cited as one of the causes.

The report continues to press for policies promoting high growth in the whole region. But it singles out Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone as countries of particular concern given their Ebola outbreaks.

Original article: Ebola Outbreak and Outcome Global Government Forum

 

[waltky]

Ebola victims havin' to scrounge for food...

Thousands break Ebola quarantine to find food
November 4, 2014 — Thousands of people in Sierra Leone are being forced to violate Ebola quarantines to find food because deliveries are not reaching them, aid agencies said.

Large swaths of the West African country have been sealed off to prevent the spread of Ebola, and within those areas many people have been ordered to stay in their homes. The government, with help from the U.N.'s World Food Program, is tasked with delivering food and other services to those people. But there are many "nooks and crannies" in the country that are being missed, Jeanne Kamara, Christian Aid's Sierra Leone representative, said Tuesday.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed nearly 5,000 people, and authorities have gone to extreme lengths to bring it under control, including the quarantines in Sierra Leone. Similar restrictions have also been used in Liberia and Guinea, the two other countries hardest hit by the epidemic. Some efforts have begun to show progress. The situation is Guinea is improving, as is the quality of care for Ebola patients, thanks to international aid, said Aboubakar Sidiki Diakite, an official with the country's Health Ministry, who was visiting Paris on Tuesday.

But more treatment centers and medical teams are still needed, the World Health Organization said at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday. There are currently 16 treatment centers up and running and 58 more planned. To staff those centers, 500 foreign health care workers and 4,000 national ones are still needed. n an address to political leaders in Sierra Leone, President Ernest Bai Koroma said ordinary people also have to do more. He defended the stringent measures he has imposed and called on all citizens to stop dangerous behavior that has fueled Ebola's spread, such as secret burials where corpses are washed or even people touching the sick. "We have to take the sick out and take the responsibility with firmness," he said. "We must end Ebola now."

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[emilynghiem]

Ebola victims havin' to scrounge for food...

Thousands break Ebola quarantine to find food
November 4, 2014 — Thousands of people in Sierra Leone are being forced to violate Ebola quarantines to find food because deliveries are not reaching them, aid agencies said.

Large swaths of the West African country have been sealed off to prevent the spread of Ebola, and within those areas many people have been ordered to stay in their homes. The government, with help from the U.N.'s World Food Program, is tasked with delivering food and other services to those people. But there are many "nooks and crannies" in the country that are being missed, Jeanne Kamara, Christian Aid's Sierra Leone representative, said Tuesday.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed nearly 5,000 people, and authorities have gone to extreme lengths to bring it under control, including the quarantines in Sierra Leone. Similar restrictions have also been used in Liberia and Guinea, the two other countries hardest hit by the epidemic. Some efforts have begun to show progress. The situation is Guinea is improving, as is the quality of care for Ebola patients, thanks to international aid, said Aboubakar Sidiki Diakite, an official with the country's Health Ministry, who was visiting Paris on Tuesday.

But more treatment centers and medical teams are still needed, the World Health Organization said at a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday. There are currently 16 treatment centers up and running and 58 more planned. To staff those centers, 500 foreign health care workers and 4,000 national ones are still needed. n an address to political leaders in Sierra Leone, President Ernest Bai Koroma said ordinary people also have to do more. He defended the stringent measures he has imposed and called on all citizens to stop dangerous behavior that has fueled Ebola's spread, such as secret burials where corpses are washed or even people touching the sick. "We have to take the sick out and take the responsibility with firmness," he said. "We must end Ebola now."

MORE

But according to Delta4Embassy,
the hype about Ebola is just another manufactured scare tactic in the Media
to push drugs or some other agenda:
Exposing the division between rich and poor is exploiting fear, not helping to raise awareness....

 

[waltky]

G20 funding not committed to fight ebola...

G20 statement on Ebola stops short of financial commitments
15 Nov.`14 - The Group of 20 world leaders on Saturday committed to mobilising resources to combat the Ebola epidemic that has killed some 5,000 people, but stopped short of agreeing to a global pandemic fund.

The G20 issued a joint statement on the crisis, saying all members are "committed to do what is necessary to ensure the international effort can extinguish the outbreak and address its medium-term economic and humanitarian costs". Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Helen Szoke said a lack of urgency and specific commitments in the statement meant there was a real risk a U.N. target to treat 70 percent of cases by Dec. 1 will not be met. "I think its reasonable that all of the G20 countries are explicit about what their financial commitment can be both in the short-term and the longer term," Szoke told Reuters.

The World Bank, which has suggested the cost of the outbreak could rise as high as $30 billion, has proposed setting up a global pandemic emergency facility. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said on Friday the idea of establishing a global emergency fund that could quickly respond to a health crisis had received interest from some leaders. Funds could be raised on the international bond markets and paid back over time, he said.

The G20 statement called on both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to explore new flexible mechanisms to address the economic effects of future comparable crises, but did not specify a particular approach. "This declaration lacks substance," said Friederike Röder, spokesman for the ONE organisation, which campaigns against poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa. "Where are the concrete actions each G20 member states commits to in order to control the epidemic?"

Oxfam and ONE said there is a desperate need for medical services and safe burials in three worst-affected countries: Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. The United States, the IMF's biggest donor, is pressing the fund to write off some $100 million in debt owed by the three countries to support their economies and free up more money for government spending. U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the crisis on Saturday, warning that "we cannot build a moat around our countries and we shouldn't try". Szoke said the G20 should commit to funding levels in its final communique due on Sunday. "There's still time for the G20 leaders to actually rise to the occasion," she said.

G20 statement on Ebola stops short of financial commitments - Yahoo News

 

[waltky]

Ebola break-out in Mali...

Mali on high alert with new Ebola cluster
Nov 16,`14 -- It all started with a sick nurse, whose positive test for Ebola came only after her death. In a busy clinic that treats Mali's elite as well as wounded U.N. peacekeepers, what patient transmitted the virus?

Soon hospital officials were taking a second look at the case of a 70-year-old man who died after being brought to the capital late at night from Guinea suffering from kidney failure. A friend who visited him later died under suspicious circumstances, too. It wasn't renal disease, they then realized. The 70-year-old man had Ebola and all three of the relatives who brought him to the clinic that night had all since been admitted to an Ebola treatment center back home in Guinea. On Friday, Malian health authorities went to disinfect the mosque where the 70-year-old's body was prepared for burial - nearly three weeks ago. Already some are criticizing the Malian government for being too slow to react when health authorities had announced his death as a suspected Ebola case earlier in the week. "It's been 18 days since the Guinean man sick with Ebola died here. It's just too late," said Koumou Keita, his face full of worry.

For nearly a year, Mali had been spared the virus now blamed for killing more than 5,000 people across West Africa despite the fact the country shared a porous land border with Guinea, the country where the epidemic first erupted. Now there are least three confirmed Ebola deaths, and two others suspected deaths in Mali's capital, Bamako. Residents here who have seen the horrific death tolls from Ebola in neighboring Guinea now fear the worst. "I feel uneasy because I have the impression that our authorities are not giving us the whole truth," said Ibrahim Traore, who works at a supermarket in the capital. "There are a lot of things not being said about how the Ebola virus came to Bamako."

A health worker sprays disinfectant near a mosque, after the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus was washed inside before being berried in Bamako, Mali. It all started with a sick nurse, whose positive test results for Ebola came only after death. In a busy clinic that treats Bamako’s elite as well as wounded U.N. peacekeepers, who was the patient who had transmitted the virus? Soon hospital officials were taking a second look at the case of a 70-year-old man brought to the capital late at night from Guinea suffering from kidney failure. On Friday, Malian health authorities went to disinfect the mosque where the 70-year-old’s body was prepared for burial - nearly three weeks ago. Already some are criticizing the government for being too slow to react when health authorities had announced his death as a suspected Ebola case earlier in the week.

Health officials now must try to track down not only family and friends who visited the 70-year-old man at his hospital bed, but also the scores of people who prepared his body for burial and attended his funeral. Teams of investigators are also headed to the border community where authorities believe the Patient Zero in the Bamako cluster - the 70-year-old man - first fell ill. "The future of Ebola in Mali will depend on the quality of the surveillance of these contacts. If they are rigorously followed, and any subsequent cases are quickly identified and isolated, the battle will be won. But if there are failures in the process, it will lead to further contamination and further problems," said Ibrahima-Soce Fall, Mali's WHO representative.

Among those placed under quarantine are about 20 members of the U.N. peacekeeping force who were treated for battlefield wounds at the Bamako hospital where the dead nurse had worked. The peacekeepers are based in the north of the country, where they are trying to stabilize a vast region where jihadists ruled until a French-led war in 2013. In recent years Mali already has suffered a separatist rebel insurgency, a coup that overthrew its longtime leader and a war against jihadists. Now Ebola threatens to be another source of misery if it is not contained. "Ebola could cause many deaths here in Mali, said Aminata Samake, who works at a bank in the capital. "We have a tradition of living closely together that could contribute to a huge contamination. Take the example of public transport - you find people crammed into a bus, one on top of the other. Large families share the same plates, even the same glasses for tea."

News from The Associated Press

 

[waltky]

Quick ebola test tried out in Guinea...

Scientists trial quick Ebola test in Guinea
Sun, Nov 30, 2014 - FRENCH VISIT: Francois Hollande promised support for the Ebola-hit former French colony, saying it was important to show that Guinea is still alive and fighting

British scientists announced trials on a 15-minute Ebola test in Guinea, while French President Francois Hollande became the first Western leader to visit a country devastated by the epidemic. The prototype is six times faster than current tests and aims to speed up diagnosis, the London-based global research charity Wellcome Trust and Britain’s Department for International Development said in a statement. “A reliable, 15-minute test that can confirm cases of Ebola would be a key tool for effective management of the Ebola outbreak, allowing patients to be identified, isolated and cared for as soon as possible,” Wellcome Trust spokesperson Val Snewin said.

She said the test was designed to be suitable for remote field hospitals, where electricity and cold storage are often scarce. The trials, to be led by researchers from Dakar’s Pasteur Institute at an Ebola treatment center in Conakry in the coming weeks, will come as a welcome boon in Guinea, which has lost 1,200 people to Ebola. The biggest Ebola epidemic on record has claimed about 5,700 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the beginning of the year, according to the WHO. Hollande pledged his support for Guinea after arriving in the former French colony on Friday.

He said he was bringing with him a message of solidarity to healthcare workers who “take risks to ensure the highest quality care,” and a message of confidence, because “it was very important to tell the world that Guinea is still alive, still fighting.” He also wanted to call for vigilance, he said, because “the battle against Ebola isn’t won.” The visit is the first by a French president since 1999, and comes after France pledged 100 million euros (US$125 million) toward the fight against the epidemic in Guinea. The money will help finance several care centers as well as 200 beds, some of which are reserved for health workers caring for the sick. France has also pledged to set up two training centers for health workers, one in France and one in Guinea.

Hollande visited healthcare workers at Conakry’s Donka Hospital, which hosts the city’s Doctors Without Borders Ebola treatment unit, alongside Guinean President Alpha Conde. Before entering, both men followed the protocol of washing their hands and having their temperatures taken. The French leader is also due to sign a cooperation agreement with Guinean authorities for the creation of a Pasteur Institute in Conakry by the end of 2016, the global medical research organization said on Thursday. “For the people of Guinea, the arrival of President Hollande is a very, very important sign,” Conde said. “If the president of a country as important as France can come to Guinea, that means anyone can come to Guinea.”

Scientists trial quick Ebola test in Guinea - Taipei Times

See also:

Ebola death toll approaches 7,000...

Ebola Death Toll Near 7,000, WHO Says
November 29, 2014 ~ The World Health Organization said Saturday that the Ebola death toll has reached almost 7,000, up more than 1,000 since the last report two days earlier.

WHO officials attributed the sudden, sharp rise in the number of Ebola fatalities to a large number of previously unreported deaths. The organization said a little more than 16,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease since March. All but a handful of cases are in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Isatu Salia carries the cremains of her husband, Ebola victim Dr. Martin Salia, while their sons Maada, 20, right, and Hinwaii, 12, walk with her to enter St. Mary's Church in Landover Hills, Md., for a funeral Mass

Officials said the spread of the disease has slowed in Liberia but has increased in Sierra Leone. Meanwhile, a doctor from Sierra Leone who caught Ebola while treating victims was remembered Saturday at a memorial service outside Washington.

Dr. Martin Salia died in an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital November 17. Among those paying tribute to Salia was the head of the White House Ebola team, Ron Klain, who read a note from President Barack Obama that called the doctor a hero who chose to face danger to help others.

Ebola Death Toll Near 7 000 WHO Says

 

[Grandma]

Sir Bob Geldof is releasing a 2014 version of "Do They Know It's Christmas" to raise money to help stop the virus.

 

[waltky]

Ebola At 'Huge Risk' Of Spreading...

Ebola crisis: Huge risk of spread - UN's Tony Banbury
1 December 2014 The head of the UN Ebola response mission in West Africa has told the BBC there is still a "huge risk" the deadly disease could spread to other parts of the world.

Tony Banbury declined to say if targets he had set in the fight against Ebola, to be achieved by Monday, had been met. The targets were for the proportion of people being treated and for the safe burial of highly infectious bodies. The UN boss was speaking in Freetown, one of the worst-affected areas. On Sunday in Sierra Leone's capital, bulldozers were clearing large areas for a new burial ground. At the clearance site, near a rubbish tip, car after car was arriving with bodies, and several hundred workers were digging graves.

In October, Mr Banbury told the UN Security Council that by 1 December, "70% of all those infected by the disease must be under treatment and 70% of the victims safely buried if the outbreak is to be successfully arrested". This interim goal - the ultimate UN goal is zero Ebola deaths - was set to try to bend down the upward curve in the graph of cases. Mr Banbury said the 70% targets were being met in "the vast majority" of areas in the three worst-affected countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. "But in some areas", he said, "including here in Sierra Leone - especially in the capital Freetown and in the town of Port Loko - we are falling short. And it is in those areas where we really need to focus our assets and our capabilities".


* Bodies still contain high levels of the Ebola virus
* At least 20% of new infections occur during burials, WHO says
* Relatives perform religious rites including touching or washing the body
* Safe burial process involves observing rituals differently, such as "dry ablution"
* Volunteers with full protective clothing are trained to handle and disinfect bodies

In its latest report on 29 November, the World Health Organization said 6,928 people were now known to have died from Ebola. More than 16,000 have been infected. Between 200 and 300 people are dying every week. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are by the far the worst hit countries. But Mr Banbury said the situation would have been even worse if the UN had not intervened: "Early on we adopted a strategy to get this crisis under control which involves treatment centres, safe burials and community mobilisation. That strategy is working." The American UN boss added that, even so, "there is a huge risk to the world that Ebola will spread. It may spread around this sub-region, or someone could get on a plane to Asia, Latin America, North America or Europe... that is why it is so important to get down to zero cases as quickly as possible".

BBC News - Ebola crisis Huge risk of spread - UN s Tony Banbury

 

[waltky]

Better ebola tests in the research stage...

Better Ebola Tests Expected Within Months
December 15, 2014 ~ New diagnostic tests to more rapidly and simply detect Ebola could be available for use in the West Africa epidemic in the next few months, the World Health Organization and partner agencies say.

It now takes between nine hours and four days to get confirmation of a suspected case of Ebola in West Africa. By any measure, this is too long because the virus spreads quickly and more infections can occur while awaiting test results. Health agencies agree there is an urgent need for innovative ways to provide rapid, sensitive, safe and simple testing. WHO, Doctors Without Borders and the private organization the Foundation of Innovative New Diagnostics, are working with a number of companies to develop the tests and review them in record time.

Dr. Francis Moussy, who’s focusing on Ebola diagnostics at WHO, told VOA two types of tests are being considered. "The rapid-pregnancy type of test, that may take about 15 minutes, and the other ones based on nucleic acid technology of the genetic material of the virus. And those tests may take maybe around one hour," Moussy said. "... This second category of tests would probably be more sensitive. We would be able to pick up the virus more easily."

A researcher for the French Atomic Energy Commission checks an Ebola diagnostic test at the organization's Marcoule site

FIND’s chief scientific officer, Mark Perkins, said field trials for one of the diagnostic tests would begin in February, probably either in Sierra Leone or Guinea. Those two countries, along with Liberia, have been hardest hit by the epidemic. "We would be looking primarily at how implementable, how useable such tests would be, how easy is it, how much training is required, how feasible is it to implement these outside biosafety-level laboratories, etc.," Perkins said. "The trials would be relatively brief. We imagine spending two to four weeks on such studies."

The three West African countries collectively have 19 mobile laboratories, and three more soon will be deployed. WHO said there are plans to move smaller, more flexible lab facilities closer to where patients live, enabling people to quickly know whether they have tested positive for Ebola. If that is the case, then treatment for the disease can begin as soon as possible.

Better Ebola Tests Expected Within Months

 

[waltky]

Ebola doctor dies from disease...

Top doctor in Sierra Leone dies from Ebola infection
Dec. 19, 2014 | The family of Victor Willoughby was initially optimistic that an experimental drug known as ZMab would serve as a cure, but the doctor died Thursday.

Dr. Victor Willoughby, a senior doctor in Sierra Leone who contracted the Ebola virus last weekend, has died.

His family was initially optimistic that an experimental drug known as ZMab, related to ZMapp, sent by the Canadian government to treat Willoughby would cure him. "This is nothing short of a miracle," his daughter, Khalida Willoughby, said Wednesday of the available treatment. "We are all just praying and praying so he can get better and continue his work of making other sick people get better."

Health workers treating Ebola patients in West Africa have to take extraordinary precautions.

The two dosages of ZMab, however, were not able to be administered before Willoughby's death.

According to the World Health Organization, more than 7,300 people have died from the Ebola virus in West Africa this year -- 2,470 of them in Sierra Leone. Willoughby is the 11th doctor to die from an Ebola infection.

Ebola drug arrives too late to save top Sierra Leone doctor - UPI.com

See also:

Liberia holds Senate vote amid Ebola fears
Dec 20,`14 -- Health workers carrying thermometers and sanitizers manned polling stations across Liberia on Saturday as voters cast their ballots in a twice-delayed Senate election that has been criticized for its potential to spread the deadly Ebola disease.

A total of 1.9 million voters are registered to participate in 15 Senate races throughout the country contested by 139 candidates. But Jerome Korkoya, chairman of the National Elections Commission, said Saturday afternoon that turnout had been low. "What bothers me is the low turnout, but I am not surprised," he said by telephone from Bong County, where he was casting his ballot. "That's what you find in most of the world now in a political process." Originally scheduled for October, the vote was pushed back to Dec. 16 as Liberia struggled to contain the Ebola epidemic, which has killed nearly 3,300 people in the country. Officials then pushed it back four more days to Saturday.

The disease appears to have slowed in recent weeks in Liberia, though critics questioned whether the vote could be conducted safely and credibly. The three countries hit hardest by Ebola - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - have now recorded 7,373 deaths, up from 6,900 on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said Friday. Many of the latest deaths have occurred in Sierra Leone. Liberian officials vowed to distribute 4,700 thermometers and 10,000 bottles of sanitizer to polling stations in preparation for Saturday's election. Earlier in the week, Assistant Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah warned that anyone running a temperature higher than 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 Celsius) could be removed from the line and sent for screening. A sudden fever is one of the signs of Ebola infection. "Let's fight to the last until the last Ebola case is gone out of this country," Nyenswah said.

An election workers takes the temperature of a voter in the West Point slum before she casts her vote, during the senate election in Monrovia, Liberia. Saturday, Dec. 20, 2014. Health workers manned polling stations across Liberia on Saturday as voters cast their ballots in a twice-delayed Senate vote that has been criticized for its potential to spread the deadly Ebola disease.

Korkoya said Saturday, though, that many of the thermometers were not delivered. On a visit to Liberia Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged voters to follow health guidelines "to protect yourself and your loved ones" from the disease, which is spread through contact with the bodily fluids of sick people. "This election will give Liberia and its people an opportunity to show the world how far it has come," Ban said.

The most high-profile race, in Monrovia's Montserrado County, pits opposition leader George Weah against Robert Sirleaf, son of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Weah, a former soccer star who won the first round of voting for president in 2005 before losing in a runoff, said Saturday he would "flog" Robert Sirleaf, who he described as "unpopular." Sirleaf could not be reached Saturday, but his campaign spokesman said he believed Sirleaf had won. Election results could come in as early as Sunday, Korkoya said, though they might also be announced next week.

News from The Associated Press

 

[waltky]

Ebola outbreak reaches Scotland...

Scottish government confirms Ebola case in Glasgow
December 29`14 — A health-care worker who recently returned to Scotland from West Africa has been diagnosed with Ebola, the Scottish government said Monday.

The patient has been isolated and is receiving treatment at the Brownlee Unit for Infectious Diseases on the Gartnavel General Hospital campus in Glasgow. In a televised news conference Monday night, one of the nurse’s doctors, Alisdair MacConnachie, said the patient was “clinically stable” and had a “good prognosis.” The patient was admitted to the hospital early Monday after identifying herself as having a fever. She arrived at the hospital using a specialist ambulance service and was placed into isolation at 7:50 a.m. local time, the government’s statement reads. Officials are investigating and monitoring “all possible contacts” with the patient. The patient was an employee of NHS Scotland and was working at an Ebola treatment center in Kerry Town, Sierra Leone, a spokeswoman for Save the Children UK confirmed to The Post. Save the Children manages the Kerry Town facility. The nurse arrived in Sierra Leone in November, Emma Pomfret added.

The nurse returned late Sunday from Sierra Leone, traveling through Casablanca, Morocco, and London Heathrow Airport. The patient’s British Airways flight landed in Glasgow at about 11:30 p.m. local time, the government said. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed to reporters that there were 71 passengers on British Airways Flight 1478, which the patient took from Heathrow to Glasgow. All passengers from the patient’s earlier flights will be contacted and advised as a “precautionary measure,” Sturgeon added. In an e-mailed statement, British Airways said the airline was “working closely with the health authorities in England and Scotland and will offer assistance with any information they require,” and it encouraged anyone on the Glasgow-bound flight who had concerns to contact the Scottish government’s hotline for the Ebola case. However, the statement said, “the risk to people on board that individual flight is extremely low.”

Government officials stressed that the nurse was “diagnosed in the very early stages of the illness” and that the risk of transmission to others was “extremely low.” “This is not a disease you can contract by simply sitting next to somebody who has it,” Sturgeon said to reporters. “Contact, personal contact with bodily fluids, is required. This patient was not displaying the kind of symptoms that would have posed a risk to other people when she was en route back to Scotland, and that, I think, is the principle source of reassurance we can give.” Sturgeon added that the patient is thought to have contact with just one other person since returning to Scotland. In an e-mail, a spokesman for the Scottish government declined to give additional details about the patient, citing patient confidentiality.

Scottish government confirms Ebola case in Glasgow - The Washington Post

See also:

Second patient in Scotland being tested for Ebola - first minister.
December 30, 2014 - A second health worker is being tested for Ebola in Scotland after returning from West Africa, a day after another was diagnosed with the disease in Glasgow, Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon said on Tuesday.

Sturgeon told BBC radio there was a "low probability" the second worker had the disease.

"Although this is another returning healthcare worker from West Africa, the patient here has had no, as far as we're aware, direct contact with people infected with Ebola," said Sturgeon.

"This patient over the course of today will be transferred for tests."

Second patient in Scotland being tested for Ebola - first minister

 

[emilynghiem]

Liberia Only 5 people being treated for Ebola in country - Yahoo News

it was predicted to take until Jan 2015 to reduce the epidemic to controllable levels.
the numbers were greatly reduced by intervention, so it's hard to know how
bad this WOULD have gotten without outside intervention to build facilities and staffing.

Still, Nyenswah cautioned it is too early to say when Liberia will be Ebola-free because authorities must still track down every infected person. Just one missed infection could seed a new cluster.

In all, Ebola has sickened more than 21,000 people, the vast majority in West Africa, killing more than 8,600.

In another sign that the disease is fading, Senegal on Monday reopened its land border with Guinea, which has been closed since August

 

[waltky]

Can The New Ebola Vaccine Stop The Latest Outbreak?...

Can The New Ebola Vaccine Stop The Latest Outbreak?
May 15, 2018 • The Democratic Republic of Congo, with a suspected 19 deaths so far from the virus, is turning to an as-yet-unlicensed vaccine with a very promising track record.

The Ebola vaccine has been two decades in the making, but it's only now being put to use in the face of a looming crisis. The virus has been spreading through a northern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since at least April there have been 2 confirmed cases and 39 more suspected ones. Nineteen people have died. In hopes of curbing the spread, global health officials are launching a vaccination campaign. Four thousand doses of the vaccine have been shipped to the DRC — with another 4,000 to follow soon. The World Health Organization is coordinating the vaccination effort.

The vaccine – called rVSV-ZEBOV — was first tested in 2015 in the waning months of the massive Ebola epidemic in West Africa. Ira Longini, a biostatistician at the University of Florida who helped run that trial, notes that 7,500 people were given the vaccine. "Not a single person that was vaccinated got infected," he says. They did what's called a ring vaccination. For each infected person, officials locate everyone who was in close proximity. And then for each of those contacts, they locate everyone who was in close proximity to them. That's the ring. "Then all those people in the ring are vaccinated as quickly as possible," he says.

A woman is vaccinated at a health center in Conakry, Guinea, during the clinical trials of a vaccine against the Ebola virus​

And it wasn't just that the vaccine was found 100 percent effective for those who received it. Even if everyone in the ring is not vaccinated, the trial showed a cut in overall transmission by about 75 percent. "That is a big deal," says Longini. "It's very unusual." But by the time these results came in, the outbreak in West Africa was basically over. And since then — apart from a few small flare-ups there hasn't been occasion to use the vaccine. Also it's still awaiting licensing. That takes a while. So governments need to give special permission for it to be used.

Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, says the DRC has moved quickly to cut through the paperwork. "This time around the approvals have been done very fast," he says. That's because of some worrisome signs about this outbreak. On the one hand, like many previous outbreaks in the DRC, this one is in a hard to reach area, suggesting the risk of spread is low. "We are talking about a remote area of small villages with no paved roads," says Jasarevic. "But," he adds "it is on the shore of the river where there is important transport" that leads to a much larger regional city. "We are taking this very seriously because there is an important level of risk of virus going elsewhere other than this remote part of the country." Merck, which produces the vaccine, will be donating it. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the British-based charity the Wellcome Trust, and the British government have jointly contributed $4 million to carry out the campaign.

Can The New Ebola Vaccine Stop The Latest Outbreak?