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Ebola Threatens Food Security in West Africa - FAO

Tue, 2014-09-02 18:08 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

An empty street market in Monrovia's West Point district, 20 August 2014.

* Labour shortages expected to hit main harvest season

* Cassava prices in Monrovia rose by 150 pct in August

* FAO needs $20 million for response plan

fao.org - af.reuters.com -

ROME/DAKAR, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The world's worst Ebola epidemic has endangered harvests and sent food prices soaring in West Africa, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Tuesday, warning the problem would intensify in coming months.

by Isla Binnie and Emma Farge - September 2, 2014

The FAO issued a special alert for Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the three countries most affected by the outbreak, which has killed at least 1,550 people since the virus was detected in the remote jungles of southeastern Guinea in March.

Restrictions on people's movements and the establishment of quarantine zones to contain the spread of the hemorrhagic fever have led to panic buying, food shortages and price hikes in countries ill-prepared to absorb the shock.

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HHS Contracts with Mapp Biopharmaceutical to Develop Ebola Drug

Tue, 2014-09-02 17:19 — Kathy Gilbeaux

                               

Work will accelerate drug development and testing

hhs.gov - News - Press Release - September 2, 2014

The development of a medication to treat illness from Ebola will be accelerated under a contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR). This contract supports the government-wide response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

ASPR’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) will provide funding as well as access to subject matter expertise and technical support for manufacturing, regulatory, and nonclinical activities through a $24.9 million, 18-month contract with Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., of San Diego, California. ASPR can extend the contract up to a total of $42.3 million.

Work under the contract supports the development and manufacturing of the medication ZMapp toward the goal of U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.

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Another American Doctor Infected With Ebola in Liberia

Tue, 2014-09-02 14:35 — Kathy Gilbeaux

       

Missionary Doctor Being Treated in Monrovia Hospital

wsj.com - by Betsy McKay - simusa.org - September 2, 2014

A third American missionary has been infected with Ebola while working in Liberia and is being treated in an isolation unit in the Monrovia hospital where he works.

The man, a doctor, was treating obstetrics patients, not Ebola patients. . .

. . . It isn't known how the doctor was infected, SIM USA said in a statement Tuesday.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - STATEMENT from SIM - SIM Missionary Doctor in Liberia Tests Positive for Ebola

 

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Ebola Patient Escapes Liberia Quarantine, Chased in Market

Tue, 2014-09-02 11:37 — Kathy Gilbeaux
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WHO - Ebola Response Roadmap

Mon, 2014-09-01 22:19 — Kathy Gilbeaux

who.int

Publication details

Number of pages: 27
Publication date: August 2014
Languages: English

 

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Overview

WHO issued this roadmap for scaled-up response to the Ebola outbreak. The goal is to stop Ebola transmission in affected countries within 6-9 months and prevent international spread.

The roadmap will assist governments and partners in the revision and resourcing of country-specific operational plans for Ebola response, and the coordination of international support for their full implementation. The objectives are:

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Experimental Ebola Drug Halts Virus in Monkeys Five Days After They Were Infected

Mon, 2014-09-01 17:24 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Reversion of advanced Ebola virus disease in nonhuman primates with ZMapp

washingtonpost.com - by Lenny Bernstein - August 29, 2014

The experimental drug pressed into emergency use in the West African Ebola epidemic cured a group of 18 monkeys of the deadly disease, including some who didn't receive the treatment until five days after they were injected with the virus, researchers reported Friday.

The finding, published online in the journal Nature, raises new hope for use of the cocktail of monoclonal antibodies, called ZMapp, against Ebola, which has no known cure or vaccine. . .

. . . "The highlight of these experimental results is undoubtedly ZMapp, which was able to reverse severe [Ebola] disease...leading to full recovery of all treated [non-human primates]" within 28 days after they were infected, the researchers wrote.

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Doctors and Nurses Risk Everything to Fight Ebola in West Africa

Mon, 2014-09-01 15:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

        

Craig Kenzie, Junko Otaki, and Luca Zaliani are among the 57 international health care workers assisting with Ebola treatment at a Médecins Sans Frontières facility in Kailahun, Sierra Leone.  Photographs by Samuel Aranda

Foreign and local caregivers are essential to stopping the virus’s deadly spread.

nationalgeographic.com - by Karen Weintraub - August 29, 2014

In two Land Rovers, one fitted out as an ambulance, a small team of humanitarian workers last week headed deep into Sierra Leone's jungle. After hours on deeply rutted paths that could barely be called roads, they stopped at a village that had seen ten reported cases of Ebola.

With the consent of the village chief, the team fanned out across the community, asking at each hut if anyone was feeling ill or had made contact with the earlier patients.

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US to Test Ebola Vaccine in Humans Amid Growing Outbreak in West Africa

Sun, 2014-08-31 23:39 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

An undated photo from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and GlaxoSmithKline shows a vaccine candidate that will be used in the upcoming human trials.  NIAID/GSK/AP Photo

abcnews.go.com - by Katie Moisse - August 28, 2014

U.S. scientists will begin testing an Ebola vaccine in humans next week, health officials announced today. But it could take 11 months to learn whether the vaccine is safe as the virus’ toll in West Africa continues to rise. . .

. . . The experimental vaccine, co-developed by the National Institutes of Health and GlaxoSmithKline, “performed extremely well in protecting nonhuman primates from Ebola infection,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the NIH’s infectious disease branch, said.

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Ebola Virus Mutating Rapidly as it Spreads

Fri, 2014-08-29 23:33 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Outbreak likely originated with a single animal-to-human transmission.

nature.com - Erika Check Hayden - August 28, 2014

Augustine Goba and his colleagues have now decoded the genetic sequences of 99 Ebola viruses collected from 78 patients during the first 24 days of the epidemic in Sierra Leone. The work, published online in Science, could help to inform the design of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, says structural biologist Erica Ollmann Saphire of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. “This paper is terrific,” she adds.

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UN Delivers Its Strongest Warnings About the Deadly Ebola Outbreak in West Africa

Fri, 2014-08-29 21:40 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Doctors work in a laboratory on collected samples of the Ebola virus at the Centre for Disease Control

Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Sarah Sedghi- 29 Aug 2014

. . . An Australian doctor working in Nigeria says the community is on edge and authorities are doing what they can to ensure the outbreak doesn't escalate further. . .

. . . SARAH SEDGHI: Dr Gavin MacGregor-Skinner has just travelled to Nigeria from his base in the United States to help authorities prepare in case the outbreak worsens.

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER: A lot of people are saying within their communities that if you put me in the hospital, you put me there to die.

He says the community is afraid.

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(ALSO SEE SAME ARTICLE HERE )

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