Conakry

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.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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.

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.

(CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO AND TO READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(ALSO SEE SAME ARTICLE HERE )

Catharine Paddock PhD - 29 August 2014 - medicalnewstoday.com

An international research team has rapidly sequenced 99 Ebola virus genomes collected in the 2014 outbreak. The team, including members from the Broad Institute and Harvard University in the US and the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, hopes the findings will help multidisciplinary, international efforts to understand and contain the unprecedented epidemic that is growing in West Africa.

The researchers report their findings in the journal Science. Five team members died of Ebola virus disease before the manuscript was published, and their fellow authors honor their memory in the study report.

The 99 genomes came from 78 patients diagnosed with Ebola virus disease in Sierra Leone during the first 24 days of the outbreak. Some patients gave more than one sample, allowing the team to see how the virus changed over the course of a single infection.