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New study sheds light on the importance of supportive care for Ebola patients

                                                                     Nov. 6, 2014

...a WHO-coordinated retrospective study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, provides evidence that supportive care, especially rehydration and correction of metabolic abnormalities, may contribute to patient survival.

The study analysed clinical data on 37 confirmed Ebola patients admitted for treatment at hospitals in Conakry, Guinea’s capital and most densely populated city.

The cases occurred during the first month of West Africa’s first outbreak of Ebola virus disease. Fourteen of the patients were heath care workers. The majority (12) acquired their infection in a health care setting.

The majority (65%) of patients were male, countering assumptions that women, who are more likely to provide home care for patients and prepare bodies for funerals and burials, are more frequently exposed and infected.

To replace fluids lost through severe diarrhoea, 36 patients (97%) received oral rehydration solution. Additional intravenous fluid resuscitation was given to 28 (76%) patients.

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Last Person Completes Ebola Monitoring in Texas

ABC NEWS                                                                                                            Nov 7, 2014

by  Sydney Ludkin 

DALLAS The final person in Texas being monitored for Ebola has passed the virus's 21-day incubation period, marking the end of the state's Ebola crisis.

None of the 177 people who had contact with the state's Ebola patients -- Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, and two of the Dallas nurses who cared for him, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson -- have contracted Ebola, state officials said. The list included health care workers, people who shared the same households as the Ebola patients and other community contacts.

"Hopefully, Americans will be relieved and fear will be eased," said Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News chief health and medical editor. "In Dallas, not even the people who lived with a very sick person with Ebola became ill."

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/person-completes-ebola-monitoring-texas/story?id=26742640

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U.N. Ebola chief voices guarded optimism

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                   NOV. 7, 2014

UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N.'s Ebola chief said an extraordinary global response over the past month has made him hopeful the outbreak could end in 2015, though he cautioned that the fight to contain the disease is not even a quarter done.

"Until the last case of Ebola is under treatment, we have to stay on full alert," Dr. David Nabarro said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. "It's still bad."

Nabarro said a month ago that the number of Ebola cases was probably doubling every three-to-four weeks. He warned then that without a mass global mobilization, "the world will have to live with the Ebola virus forever" and that the response needed to be 20 times greater.

But in the past four weeks, the rate of Ebola infections seems to be slowing in some parts of West Africa, Nabarro said in the interview. In other hotspots, he said, it appears to be expanding the way it was a month ago.

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A Look at the Worst-Ever Ebola Epidemic by Numbers

An overview of the numbers of Ebola cases in Africa and elsewhere.
ASSOCIATED PRESS                                                 NOV. 17, 2014b
By Maria Cheng, AP Medical Writer
LONDON --As the biggest-ever outbreak of Ebola continues to ravage West Africa, here are a few key numbers to get a handle on the epidemic:

13,042 and 4,818:

Medical workers wearing protective equipment surround a simulated patient during a demonstration for media members on their training for working with possible Ebola patients, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2014, at Madigan Army Medical Center on Joint Base Lewis McChord, near Tacoma, Wash. Madigan providers and nurses have been training to perform clinical skills, including inserting IVs, obtaining blood samples for testing and conducting ultrasounds while dressed in powered air purifying respirators, impermeable suits and multiple layers of gloves. The clinically-focused exercises use realistic patient simulators that speak through microphones and can express simulated bodily fluids. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson) Close The Associated Press

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Experimental Ebola drugs should not be withheld, WHO says

World Health Organisation doubts feasibility of placebo-controlled trials in west Africa, but FDA favours ‘gold standard’

THE GUARDIAN                                                                                                           Nov. 6, 2014
By Sarah Bosley

Scientists involved in trials of experimental drug treatments for the Ebola epidemic in west Africa should not be compelled to withhold them from some patients, says the World Health Organisation, despite objections from the US that it is the only way to be sure they work.

Vials of the experimental VSE-EBOV vaccine for Ebola. Photograph: Mathilde Missioneiro/AP

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Guinea - Ebola: Four New Outbreaks of the Ebola Epidemic Were Detected in Macenta Prefecture With the Largest Number of Cases

French.news.cn - November 5, 2014

Conakry - (Xinhua) - Four new outbreaks of the Ebola epidemic were detected in Macenta Prefecture, located in the southeast of Guinea along the border with Liberia, did we learned on Wednesday from official sources. On Tuesday, the prefectural coordination response against Ebola has identified 18 patients at the transit improved center of Macenta.

To date, the prefecture of Macenta has 888 contacts who are monitored by the health services.

Macenta has recorded the largest number of patients and deaths associated with the outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever, the cumulative number reached 557 cases with 339 deaths, according to the latest figures provided by the competent authorities.

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showthread.php?p=555807#post555807

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CONAKRY, 5 novembre (Xinhua) -- Quatre nouveaux foyers de l'épidémie d'Ebola ont été détectés dans la préfecture de Macenta, située dans le sud-est de la Guinéee, le long de la frontière avec le Liberia, a-t-on appris mercredi de sources officielles. Mardi, la coordination préfectorale de riposte contre Ebola a recensé 18 malades au centre de transit amélioré de Macenta.

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China to build Ebola hospital in Liberia

THE GUARDIAN                                                                             NOV. 6, 2014
By Jonathan Kaiman                            

BEIJING -- China plans to build a 100-bed medical centre in Liberia to combat Ebola, officials announced on Thursday, after criticism that the country is not doing enough to fight the disease.

 

 Chinese medical staff receiving an Ebola training session in Beijing. The size of China's aid response to the outbreak has     been criticised. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

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UT nasal spray vaccine for Ebola effective in monkeys

By Todd Ackerman                                                                           Nov. 5, 2014

... researchers at the University of Texas-Austin have developed a nasal spray vaccine that has protected monkeys against the deadly Ebola virus even a year after immunization.

The vaccine, a genetically engineered cold virus containing a tiny portion of Ebola DNA, saved 100 percent of monkeys who got a single spray through the nose in a new UT study. Injecting the vaccine only saved the lives of about 50 percent.

 
 
 Maria Croyle, a professor of pharmaceutics and the study's principal investigator, said an inhaled Ebola vaccine is more attractive because it would be cheaper and safer than needle-delivered vaccines.

"The main advantage is the long-lasting protection after a single inhaled dose," Maria Croyle, a  professor of pharmaceutics and the study's principal investigator, said in a statement. "This is important since the longevity of other vaccines for Ebola (hasn't been) fully evaluated....

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Ebola cases rise sharply in Sierra Leone

USA TODAY                                                Nov.6, 200r

by Liz Aazbo

Sierra Leone is reporting an alarming increase in the number of new Ebola cases, with 435 confirmed in the past week.

About 24% of the Ebola cases in Sierra Leone have been reported in the past three weeks, although the outbreak began in March, according to the World Health Organization.

Mothers wait inline for their children to be vaccinated by heath workers at the Pipeline Community Health Center, situated on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia. The Ebola outbreak has spawned hidden cases of malaria, pneumonia, typhoid and the like that are going untreated because people in the countries hardest hit by Ebola either cannot find an open clinic or are too afraid to go to one.(Photo: Abbas Dulleh, AP)

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Treating Those Treating Ebola in Liberia

NEW YORK TIMES                                  Nov. 6, 2014
By Sheri FInk, MD
HARBEL, Liberia — As the number of people sickened with Ebolasoared this summer, American and Liberian officials faced a new challenge: How could they encourage international medical workers, understandably frightened about the risks, to come help fight the disease? The officials knew they would have to provide some assurances to the workers that they would be cared for if they fell ill.

Their answer, a dedicated Ebola field hospital for health workers, is scheduled to open soon outside Monrovia, the capital.

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