HOMELAND SECURITY NEWS WIRE                                                                             Nov.6, 2014

The University of Toronto, Chematria, and IBM are combining forces in a quest to find new treatments for the Ebola virus.

Using a virtual research technology invented by Chematria, a startup housed at U of T’s Impact Center, the team will use software that learns and thinks like a human chemist to search for new medicines. Running on Canada’s most powerful supercomputer, the effort will simulate and analyze the effectiveness of millions of hypothetical drugs in just a matter of weeks.

“What we are attempting would have been considered science fiction, until now,” says Abraham Heifets, a U of T graduate and the chief executive officer of Chematria. “We are going to explore the possible effectiveness of millions of drugs, something that used to take decades of physical research and tens of millions of dollars, in mere days with our technology.”

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Image: A billboard that reads 'Stop the Ebola Virus'

ictworks.org - October 31st 2014 - Wayan Vota

Yesterday, we had the 85th Technology Salon in Washington, DC, this one focused on How Can ICTs Improve Our Ebola Response? Be sure to sign up to get invited to our next event.

In the lively morning-long discussion with 35 key thought leaders and decision makers from across the technology and development sectors, we came to several interesting conclusions.

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HOMELAND SECURITY NEWS WIRE                        Nov.7, 2014

Federal and state funds for local health agencies have been cut over the past few years, so when hospitals and municipal health agencies are asked proactively to respond to possible threats of Ebola, many question how they will fund such activities. Since 2008, at least 51,000 state and local public health jobs (roughly 20 percent), have been lost due to cuts in federal funding, according to a new survey by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). Next week, the Senate Committee on Appropriations will hold a hearingto consider additional funding to prepare for an Ebola outbreak.

“It’s critically important to have a sustainable infrastructure, tools and the necessary resources to effectively address all potential health threats to the public, not just Ebola,” said James Blumenstock, emergency preparedness officer for ASTHO. “Public health threats don’t come one at a time, especially this time of year.”

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ASSOCIATED PRESS                                                NOV. 8, 2014
By Jennifer Peltz
NEW YORK  .....As Ebola-related quarantine policies have arisen around the United States, some health workers are reassessing whether, or how long, they can be among the hundreds that officials say are needed to fight the outbreak.

Potential volunteers are anxious about what they might come back to, especially after seeing new rules arise so rapidly that nurse Kaci Hickox was sequestered in a medical tent for days because New Jersey announced new regulations the day she flew back from Sierra Leone. Others are facing family qualms. And as the year winds down, some aid workers wonder whether they'll be able to go home for the holidays.

Aid organizations say it's too soon to tell whether quarantine rules are significantly shrinking the number of volunteers, but the measures are complicating an already challenging search for help treating a disease that has killed nearly 5,000 people, including about 310 health care workers.

Some potential volunteers are wary of not only being quarantined but being seen as potential disease-carriers, rather than conscientious professionals.