Africa

CDC reports potential Ebola exposure in Atlanta lab

Wed, 2014-12-24 17:23 — mike kraft

THE WASHINGTON POST by Lena H. Sun and Joel Achenbach Dec. 24, 2014

One scientist may have been exposed to the Ebola virus and as many as a dozen others are being assessed for potential exposure at a lab of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, agency officials said Wednesday.

Experiments with deadly viruses such as Ebola have to be performed in biosafety level or BSL-4 laboratories, for the highest level on containment. (Tim Brakemeier/AFP/Getty Images)

The potential exposure took place Monday when scientists conducting research on the virus at a high-security lab mistakenly put a sample containing the potentially infectious virus in a place where it was transferred for processing to another CDC lab, also in Atlanta on the CDC campus.

The technician has no symptoms of illness and is being monitored for 21 days. Agency spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds said others who entered the lab have been contacted and will be assessed for possible exposure by CDC clinicians. She said the number of exposures could be much less than a dozen.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about CDC reports potential Ebola exposure in Atlanta lab
1 comment
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola crisis likely to last a year, says expert

Wed, 2014-12-24 10:12 — mike kraft

BBC Dec. 24, 2014

West Africa's Ebola crisis is likely to last until the end of 2015, says a leading researcher who helped to discover the virus.

Peter Piot, who has just returned from Sierra Leone, told the BBC that he was encouraged by progress there and by the promise of new anti-viral therapies.

But he also warned that vaccines would take time to develop....

Prof Piot was one of the scientists who discovered Ebola in 1976and is now Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He said that even though the outbreak has peaked in Liberia and was likely to peak in Sierra Leone in the next few weeks, the epidemic could have a "very long tail and a bumpy tail"...

"We need to be ready for a long effort, a sustained effort [for] probably the rest of 2015."

Read full story.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30595352

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Ebola crisis likely to last a year, says expert
1 comment
Log in or register to post comments

The perilous trek of a 4-year-old Liberian suspected of having Ebola

Wed, 2014-12-24 09:29 — mike kraft

The village of Quewein, without electricity or clean water, and others like it pose new challenges in the campaign to stop the virus. David Korn, 39, the town chief of Quewein, Liberia, says Ebola is “tearing the village apart.” Michel du Cille/The Washington Post

Ebola's Deep Persistence

THE WASHINGTON POST by Justin Jouvenal Dec. 24, 2014

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about The perilous trek of a 4-year-old Liberian suspected of having Ebola
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola in the 'red zone'

Tue, 2014-12-23 20:49 — mike kraft

REUTERS by Emma Farge Dec. 23, 2014

HASTINGS, Sierra Leone-- When Dr Sekou Kanneh goes to work at his Sierra Leonean Ebola clinic, he will probably be in the "red zone" for many hours, ignoring by necessity strict limits that govern foreign colleagues fighting the epidemic.

Doctor Sekou Kanneh speaks during an interview with Reuters TV in the Hastings ebola treatment centre at a neighbourhood in Freetown, December 21, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Baz Ratner

Conditions at Kanneh's treatment center, the only Ebola unit in the country run by local staff, contrast to the purpose-built facilities where foreign volunteers who have flocked to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia work.

Kanneh has received no official training to treat the virus that has killed over 7,000 people in West Africa. Still, he works up to four hour shifts in the stifling heat of the red zone, a ward where healthcare workers have direct contact with the highly contagious Ebola patients.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Ebola in the 'red zone'
Log in or register to post comments

German Ebola treatment center officially opened in Liberia

Tue, 2014-12-23 20:22 — mike kraft

DW Dec 23, 2014

MONROVIA-- Liberia has hailed the official opening of its first German Ebola treatment center. The ceremony took place one day after global health officials announced that the Ebola death toll had passed 7,500.

The German-Liberia Ebola treatment Center was officially opened by Liberia's Assistant Minister for Health, Tolbert Nyenswah and the German ambassador to Liberia, Ralph Timmermann.

The center has an initial capacity of 50 beds. "There are three different wards - one for suspected cases, another for probable cases and yet another for confirmed cases," Christian Schuh, outgoing head of the German Red Cross told DW at the ceremony in the center in Paynesville on the outskirts of the capital Monrovia on Tuesday.

There are also facilities and space for nurses, doctors, pharmacies, training and teaching....

Timmermann said Germany had so far raised $150 million (123 million euros) to help fight Ebola in the three worst affected countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about German Ebola treatment center officially opened in Liberia
Log in or register to post comments

Evaluation of the Benefits and Risks of Introducing Ebola Community Care Centers, Sierra Leone

Tue, 2014-12-23 14:31 — mike kraft

CDC Dec. 23, 2014

Abstract of study on usefulness of Ebola community care centers to supplement larger Ebola treatment centers.

In some parts of western Africa, Ebola treatment centers (ETCs) have reached capacity. Unless capacity is rapidly scaled up, the chance to avoid a generalized Ebola epidemic will soon diminish. The World Health Organization and partners are considering additional Ebola patient care options, including community care centers (CCCs), small, lightly staffed units that could be used to isolate patients outside the home and get them into care sooner than otherwise possible.

Using a transmission model, we evaluated the benefits and risks of introducing CCCs into Sierra Leone’s Western Area, where most ETCs are at capacity. We found that use of CCCs could lead to a decline in cases, even if virus transmission occurs between CCC patients and the community. However, to prevent CCC amplification of the epidemic, the risk of Ebola virus–negative persons being exposed to virus within CCCs would have to be offset by a reduction in community transmission resulting from CCC use.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about Evaluation of the Benefits and Risks of Introducing Ebola Community Care Centers, Sierra Leone
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola raises profile of blood-based therapy

Tue, 2014-12-23 13:43 — mike kraft

NATURE by Delcan Butler Dec. 23, 2014

With no drugs available to treat Ebola, eyes are turning to a therapy that had largely been relegated to the history books: transfusing patients with blood plasma donated by survivors, which contains antibodies against the virus.

Survivors of Ebola carry antibodies that might be used to save the lives of those infected with the virus. Michel du Cille/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Clinical trials of convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) have started in the past few weeks in Liberia, and are due to begin soon in Guinea and Sierra Leone. If the therapy saves lives, the approach could quickly be scaled up.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about Ebola raises profile of blood-based therapy
Log in or register to post comments

On the Front Lines of Ebola’s Most Pressing Mystery

Tue, 2014-12-23 11:31 — mike kraft

WIRED by Erika Check Hayden Dec. 23, 2014

KENEMA, Sierra Leone—Mohammed Sankoh Yillah, an outreach worker, spent days in the Ebola ward caring for his sister, nurse Mbalu Fonnie. After Fonnie died in July, Yillah tested positive for the virus. He was transported to another hospital for treatment, but asked to come back to Kenema to die.

But Yillah survived.

Today Yillah sits with four colleagues in an office, discussing a new research project. The study is collecting information about survivors like him. The hope is that the study might help explain why he and others beat Ebola, while their friends and colleagues—Alex, Mbalu—did not.

Epidemiologist Lina Moses runs the meeting. Her colleagues back at Tulane University, she says, hope to analyze blood samples from survivors; she collected 29 such samples here in November. “What they want to know in the laboratory,” she says, “is what kind of antibodies Mohammed Yillah has that helped him to survive Ebola.”

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about On the Front Lines of Ebola’s Most Pressing Mystery
Log in or register to post comments

World Bank Supports The Gambia’s Ebola Prevention Plan

Tue, 2014-12-23 07:09 — mike kraft

WORLD BANK PRESS RELEASE Dec. 22, 2014

The World Bank has approved a US$500,000 reallocation of existing development funds from on-going health and nutrition projects to support The Gambia prepare a plan in case of a possible Ebola outbreak.

While there have been no reported cases of Ebola in The Gambia, its Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, has nonetheless prepared a disease and Ebola preparedness plan.

“The Ebola epidemic in neighboring countries has affected tourism in The Gambia as people are afraid to travel to and within Africa, resulting in great economic losses for the country,” said Vera Songwe, the World Bank Country Director for The Gambia. “We acknowledge that the virus is expanding both geographically and in the number of reported cases. The spread from Guinea to Mali highlights the escalating risk to regional security, stability and economic growth.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/12/22/world-bank-the-gambia-ebola-prevention-plan

Country / Region Tags:

Global

Africa

General Topic Tags:

Contagion

Disaster Risk Reduction

Disease

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about World Bank Supports The Gambia’s Ebola Prevention Plan
Log in or register to post comments

C.D.C. Head Says Fight on Ebola Will Be Long

Tue, 2014-12-23 06:58 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES by Denise Grady Dec. 23, 2014
There are reasons for both hope and continued worry about the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Monday.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: