REUTERS   by  Katie Nguyen                                                                                       Feb. 11, 2015

LONDON - Britain's decision to stop direct flights to Ebola-hit countries had "no scientific justification", probably increased the cost of dealing with the outbreak and should be reversed, a parliamentary watchdog said on Wednesday.

Several airlines including British Airways and Emirates stopped flights last year to countries in West Africa affected by the worst outbreak of Ebola since the deadly virus was identified in 1976.

In September, independent health advisers to the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that there should be no general ban on travel or trade with Ebola-affected areas....

The committee also criticized the Department for International Development (DFID) for failing to respond to the crisis with enough urgency. It said DFID should focus on strengthening healthcare systems in the region so they could cope better with future public health emergencies.
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http://news.yahoo.com/uk-resume-flights-ebola-hit-nations-parliamentary-watchdog-132034795--finance.html;_ylt=AwrBEiHpi9tUnhAA7srQtDMD

REUTERS   by Sharon Begley                                                                                      Feb. 10, 2015

NEW YORK --An experimental Ebola drug from Sarepta Therapeutics Inc protected six of eight lab monkeys injected with the virus, scientists from the company and the U.S. Army reported on Tuesday.

The drug, called AVI-7537, joins ZMapp from Mapp Biopharmaceutical and a compound from Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp as the agents shown to cure non-human primates given otherwise-lethal injections of Ebola virus.

The ZMapp and Tekmira drugs protected 100 percent of lab monkeys in studies, giving them a possible edge. But, unlike those, Sarepta's drug has been formally tested in healthy human volunteers at high doses and caused no serious side effects.

Sarepta's $300 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to develop drugs against Ebola and the related Marburg virus ended in 2012 due to government funding cuts. The study was completed just before then but not published until the current Ebola outbreak increased interest in the drug....

The search for an Ebola cure is gearing up — but there may be too few patients.  (Scroll down for Graphics.)

WASHINGTON POST     by  Amy Brittain                                                                      Feb. 10, 2015                        

UPDATE: Obama says US has ‘risen to the challenge’ of fighting Ebola

ASSOCIATED PRESS  BY Edith Lederer in New York and Josh Lederman in Washington               Feb. 11, 2015

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama heralded a “new phase in the fight” against Ebola on Wednesday and said progress against the outbreak in West Africa will allow the U.S. to withdraw nearly all American troops sent to Liberia last fall.

He cautioned the mission was not over, and he set an ambitious goal of eliminating the disease. “We have risen to the challenge,” he said at the White House. “Our focus now is getting to zero.”

Obama said only 100 of the 2,800 troops sent to Liberia will remain there after April 30. About 1,500 have returned home.

...Earlier in the day, he met with philanthropists and foundation leaders who had supported the fight against the outbreak, which had threatened to spiral out of control and fostered fears in the U.S. and elsewhere beyond West Africa.

At the height of the outbreak, Liberia was experiencing 119 confirmed Ebola cases per week. This week there were only three. But Guinea reported a sharp increase with 65 new confirmed cases compared with 39 the week before. Sierra Leone reported 76 new confirmed cases.

Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization.
Credit Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone, via Associated Press

nytimes.com - by The Editorial Board - February 10, 2015

The World Health Organization’s anemic performance in handling the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa may yield one positive outcome: sweeping, and long overdue, institutional reforms to improve its ability to respond more quickly to the next outbreak of a lethal infectious disease. Scrambling to answer growing criticism, the W.H.O.’s executive board recently endorsed changes to enhance the agency’s rapid response capabilities.

The reforms call for well-trained public health workers to rush to the aid of beleaguered countries and an emergency fund to support their initial operations, among other advances.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(CLICK HERE - WHO - RESOLUTION AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION)

An imam gives information on Ebola during Friday prayers at a mosque in Conakry, Guinea, on April 11, 2014
(AFP Photo/Cellou Binani)

reliefweb.int - Conakry, Guinea - February 10, 2015

Around a dozen Guineans were wounded Monday in clashes with police after the arrest of an imam who led funeral prayers for a suspected victim of Ebola.

Demonstrators put up barricades, burned tyres and overturned rubbish bins in the capital Conakry, before using sticks and stones to attack officers who responded with tear gas and baton charges.

"They came for the third imam of our mosque because yesterday he led the funeral prayers in the mosque here for a relative who died a natural death," a protester told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"For the Guinean authorities no one can now die a natural death. All those who die have inevitably died of Ebola," he said.

A policeman told AFP that the officers wanted simply to question the imam on the cause of death and the conditions at the burial.

"It is especially important to know that he didn't have Ebola to ensure the safety of his family and neighbours, including potential contacts," he said.

A Red Cross truck carrying the body a woman who died of the Ebola virus drives in the Aberdeen district of Freetown, Sierra Leone, in this file photo taken on October 14, 2014.  Credit: Reuters/Josephus Olu-Mammah

reuters.com - by Misha Hussain - February 10, 2015

LOLA, Guinea (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Red Cross pickups crawl through the streets of the Guinean town of Lola in search of Ebola victims, crowds of women gather to shoo the medical workers away, young boys throw stones and angry men reach for their machetes.

In the country where West Africa's Ebola outbreak began, hostility towards aid workers - fueled by ever more far-fetched rumors - is undermining efforts to contain the deadly virus. . .

. . . Concerns about violence directed at aid teams comes as the number of new cases of Ebola rose at the start of February in all three of West Africa's worst-hit countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - ending previously encouraging declines.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Investigations yield insights into Ebola outbreak's early months

cidrap.umn.edu - by Lisa Schnirring - December 30, 2014

With West Africa's Ebola epidemic passing the 1-year mark, two new reports yielded details about factors that fueled the event, including bats in a hollow tree that may have infected the index patient, a young Guinean child, and a silent chain of transmission that caused the disease to flare again in May after cases had sharply dropped off.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

See also:

Dec 30 EMBO Molecular Medicine study

Dec 29 New York Times story

Dec 30 WHO timeline

Dec 30 WHO situation summary

Eric Gweah, 25, grieves as he watches members of a burial team carry the body of his father, Ofori Gweah, 62 in Monrovia, Liberia.  Photo - Daniel Berehulak

nytimes - by Rick Gladstone - February 5, 2015

Officials from the United Nations and the World Health Organization expressed concern on Thursday over data showing the first weekly rise in new Ebola cases this year, countering the downward trend in the disease that has ravaged three West African nations.

The 124 new cases — 39 in Guinea, five in Liberia and 80 in Sierra Leone for the week ended Feb. 1 — amounted to a relatively small increase from the 99 new cases the week before, and paled in comparison with the hundreds of new cases per week that traumatized those countries and alarmed the world in the later months of 2014. . .

. . . However, the weekly increase in new cases, although small, was worrisome for a few reasons, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization special representative on Ebola, and Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations special envoy on Ebola.

allafrica.com - by Winston W. Parley - February 6, 2015

The head for Liberia's Incidence Management System, Tolbert Nyenswah, has disclosed that Lofa and Margibi Counties are faced with renewed threat from the Ebola Virus due to two separate cases that recently entered the two counties from Montserrado.

Mr. Nyenswah, who is also Assistant Health Minister for Preventive Services, told a local radio talk show hosted on Hot FM Thursday morning, February 5, 2015, that Lofa has about 18 contacts just from a single case from Monrovia.

"We are praying that nobody will get sick and we will get confirmed case from Lofa; Lofa is threatened right now because of that case; Margibi is also threatened because somebody left from Monrovia and went in a village in Margibi and died there. And that person was positive," he said yesterday.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

submitted by Novil Wijesekara

communityresiliencecenter.org

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe, illness in human with average case fatality rate of around 50% (range 25%-90%). At present, survivors of EVD face psychological effects, social isolation and serious repercussions on health care seeking behavior for EVD.  Ebola Survivor Corps is a comprehensive and sustainable program aimed at getting survivors of EVD back to their communities and society as helpers, advocates, champions and heroes of health and development.

Vision of Ebola Survivor Corps:

A world with zero discrimination for Ebola Survivors

Mission of Ebola Survivor Corps:

To establish a comprehensive and sustainable social organization with Ebola Survivors at the heart for reintegrating, empowering and engaging Ebola Survivors as leaders, advocates, champions and heroes of health and development.

Objectives:

Unsafe burials have spurred some of the newly reported cases, the WHO said.  UNMEER, Martine Perret / Flickr cc

CLICK HERE - WHO - Ebola Situation Report
4 February 2015

submitted by Stephen Morse

cidrap.umn.edu - by Lisa Schnirring - February 4, 2015

In a sign that West Africa's Ebola response still faces several challenges, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone all reported an uptick in cases last week, the first time this year that all three countries have seen an increase, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Some of the remaining problems include stubborn pockets of community resistance in some areas, the disease's increased reach in Guinea, and widespread transmission in Sierra Leone, the agency said. The WHO warned of an urgent need to curb the outbreak in as many areas as possible, with the approach of the wet season that will make remote areas difficult for responders to reach.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Volunteers knocking on doors and advising people to wash their hands as a precaution against the Ebola virus.  Photo - UNHCR

submitted by Gavin Macgregor-Skinner

allafrica.com - by Stephen D. Kollie - February 3, 2015

Monrovia — Despite tremendous efforts by the government of Liberia and international partners aimed at eradicating the deadly Ebola virus, it seems the fight is becoming difficult to reach an end as new cases of Ebola are again being reported in the country.

For the past few days, Liberia, which was recording dozens of Ebola cases daily was only battling with the last five confirmed Ebola cases, but that record is now on a slippery path as five new Ebola cases have been reported in the St. Paul Bridge Community in Montserrado County.

Addressing the Ministry of Information daily Ebola press briefing, Assistant Health Minister and Head of the Incident Management System Tolbert Nyenswah explained that the government has identified a fresh Ebola outbreak in the St. Paul Bridge area, describing it as "the St. Paul bridge cluster infection chain."

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

THOMPSON REUTERS By Misha Hussain                   Feb. 4, 2015

CONAKRY -- Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) made the "big mistake" of focusing too much on treatment early on in the Ebola epidemic rather than speaking to people about tackling the disease, a senior member of the medical charity said.

 ...With 20 years of experience of treating Ebola, MSF deployed hundreds to the Ebola "hot zones" and was quick to isolate patients and trace their contacts.

However, Claudia Evers, MSF's Ebola emergency coordinator in Guinea, said: "MSF made a big mistake. We advocated for an increase in beds for too long, and everyone listened to MSF."

"Instead of asking for more beds we should have asked for more sensitisation activities," Evers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. Evers said the next stage of the Ebola response required a new approach if the disease was to be brought under control, centred on the promotion of good hygiene practices.

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http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0L81SM20150204?sp=true

MONROVIA --Assistant Health Minister and head of Liberia’s incident management system, Tolbert Nyensuwah, told journalists in Monrovia on Monday that five confirmed cases had been reported around Monrovia over the past seven days.

According to Minister Nyensuwah, the cases were reported from three communities in the western suburbs of the capital....

He has partially blamed the situation on some infected people refusing to seek treatment despite the availability of treatment centres, noting that a full-scale investigation is underway to ascertain why.

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