Liberia

ASSOCIATED PRESS  by Maria Cheng                                                                          Jan. 9, 2015
LONDON --The World Health Organizationsays the two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe and will soon be tested in healthy volunteers in West Africa.

After an expert meeting this week, WHO said there is now enough information to conclude that the two most advanced Ebola vaccines ? one made by GlaxoSmithKline and the other licensed by Merck and NewLink ? have "an acceptable safety profile."

In a press briefing on Friday, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, who heads WHO's Ebola vaccine efforts, said "the cupboard (for Ebola vaccines) is filling up rapidly."

She said further trials in healthy people in West Africa, including health workers, are scheduled to start soon. Kieny added several other vaccines were being developed in the U.S., Russia and elsewhere.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/leading-ebola-vaccines-safe-tests-starting-28107527

REUTERS   by James Harding Giahyue                                                  Jan. 8, 2015

The International Monetary Fund is preparing around $150 million in additional support to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the countries at the heart of the Ebola epidemic, the Fund's representative in Liberia told Reuters on Thursday.

"In Guinea and Sierra Leone, existing Fund financial programs are being augmented to provide more resources to these countries. In Liberia, a one-off disbursement under the Fund's Rapid Credit Facility is being considered," Charles Amo-Yartey told Reuters in an email.

The money could be made available in the first quarter of this year and would add to $130 million disbursed by the Fund in September.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/health-ebola-imf-idUSL6N0UN3RA20150108

NBC NEWS    by Maggie Fox                                      Jan. 7, 2014

The Ebola virus has infected more than 800 health care workers, killing nearly 500 of them, according to the latest numbers released by the World Health Organization Wednesday....

 The new numbers on health care workers show that doctors, nurses and other people working at Ebola treatment centers are among those at highest risk. "A total of 838 health-care workers are known to have been infected with Ebola virus disease up to the end of 4 January 2015, 495 of whom have died," WHO said in a statement.

"The marked increase from the total of 678 health-care worker infections reported last week is due to additional cases reported from Sierra Leone that have occurred since the onset of the epidemic. These are not infections that have occurred between the two most recent reporting periods."

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http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-kills-nearly-500-health-care-workers-n281801

Ebola: Roundup of recent developments

(Two items. Scroll down for UNMEER report.)

CENTER FOR INFECTIOUSNESS DISEASE AND POLICY   by Lisa Schnirring                              Jan. 5, 2015

As deaths in West Africa's Ebola outbreak officially topped 8,000 over the weekend, leadership of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) changed hands, and Guinea launched a new effort to battle the disease amid continuing reports of community resistance....

In other developments, Guinea's government has announced the launch of a campaign called "zero Ebola in 60 days", UNMEER said today. Guinea's Ebola case counts have been oscillating over the past several months, and in its most recent update, the WHO said it's not clear what the trend is. The first part of Guinea's campaign will start Tuesday, with expert teams traveling to six regions to assess local response efforts and form an action plan for each prefecture that dovetails with Guinea's national action plan.

UNMEER said the campaign's working groups are targeting surveillance, case management, infection control, community engagement and social mobilization, and safe burials.