Researchers often describe the battle between the Ebola virus and the humans it occasionally infects as a race—one that people win only if their immune systems manage to pull ahead before the virus destroys too many of their internal defenses. What they may not know is that the virus is a cheat.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS                                     NOV. 17, 2014

BERLIN  The World Health Organization has released a 17-page manual detailing how to safely bury people who have died from Ebola.

The U.N. agency said Friday the guidelines are part of an effort to reduce the likelihood of people contracting Ebola from corpses.

WHO Ebola expert Pierre Formenty says at least one in five infections occur during burials.

The guidelines give step-by-step advice to health workers for both Christian and Muslim burials.

See complete article
http://news.yahoo.com/un-releases-manual-safe-ebola-burials-154352654.html

See WHO manual

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/137379/1/WHO_EVD_GUIDANCE_Burials_14.2_eng.pdf?ua=1

http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/ebola/safe-burial-protocol/en/

NEW ORLEANS --The quest for an Ebola treatment is picking up speed. Federal officials have unveiled a plan to test multiple drugs at once, in an umbrella study with a single comparison group to give fast answers on what works.

"This is novel for us" and is an approach pioneered by cancer researchers, said Dr. Luciana Borio, head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Ebola response. "We need to learn what helps and what hurts" and speed treatments to patients, she said.

She outlined the plan Wednesday at an American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene conference in New Orleans....

Everyone in the umbrella study would get supportive care, such as intravenous fluids, then be assigned to receive one of several drugs or be in a comparison group. That's needed because without one, there's no way to know if any problems or deaths are from the drug or the disease, Cox said....

                                                                     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.

Read complete press release

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.

Read complete story

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

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

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

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME                                              Nov. 5, 2014

New York  -- The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is impairing the ability of governments to raise revenues, increasing their exposure to domestic and foreign debts and may make them more dependent on aid, according to the latest study (PDF) on the socio-economic impact of the crisis carried out by the UN development agency.

Investments in kick-starting economies and long-term development urgently needed

“We need to make sure that the Ebola outbreak does not lead to socio-economic collapse,” said Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, the Director of the Regional Bureau for Africa at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “This crisis is already taking a toll on budgets and reducing the governments’ policy leeway to make much-needed investments in critical areas such as health and education for their citizens.” He added that the effects of the Ebola crisis will last long after the epidemic is brought under control.

TIME MAGAZINE                                         Nov. 5, 2014

by Alice Park

As the world waits for new treatrments and a vaccine. doctors in Guinea have found the best way to help patients survive Ebola.

... from the tragic illness and mortality emerge some important lessons from the region.The latest, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, details the cases that first appeared in Guinea’s capital city of Conakry between March and April. Unlike in other parts of the region, where the mortality rate from Ebola averages around 60% to 70%, in Conakry it has remained around 43%.

UPDATE: Senate Appropriations schedules hearings for Wednesday, Nov. 12.

Moving quickly, the Senate Appropriation Committee announced it wil take up the administration's proposals at a hearng next Wednesday with a full slate of government officials from the key agencies. The committee will remaiend chaired bya  Democat, Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, until the end of this Congressional session. The Republican controlled House Appropriations Committee has not yet announced hearings.

See Senate statement.

http://www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/chairwoman-mikulski-statement-funding-request-white-house-fight-ebola-here-and-abroad, 

Text of White House letter to Congress

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/05/letter-president-emergency-appropriations-request-ebola-fiscal-year-2015

See earlier story

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS                                     Nov. 5, 2014

By JIM KUHNHENN and ANDREW TAYLOR

REUTERS                                                                                    Nov. 5, 2014
(WASHINGTON) - The World Bank's private sector arm pledged $450 million on Wednesday to support trade, investment and employment in the three West African countries affected the most by the deadly Ebola outbreak.

The announcement from the bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) brings total World Bank commitments for Ebola to nearly $1 billion in the past three months, an unprecedented rapid response for a development institution that has been accused of dragging its feet on project approval in the past.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, a doctor and anthropologist, said 

"The fear swirling around Ebola has the potential to do long-term harm to businesses globally, and especially in the Ebola-affected countries," Kim said in a statement. "IFC .. will find ways to help boost trade and investment in West Africa, which will be essential to ensure that private companies continue to operate and sustain employment under difficult circumstances."

Read complete story

BLOOMBERG  NEWS                                  Nov. 4, 2014
By Jason Gale and Makiko Kitamura

The countries most affected by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are still lacking about three-fourths of the treatment beds needed for patients, the World Health Organizationsaid.

As many as 4,388 beds are required in 50 Ebola treatment units across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and there are now 1,126 beds, about 25 percent of the necessary capacity, Fadela Chaib, a WHO spokeswoman, told reporters in Geneva today. Twelve of 28 laboratories needed are operational, and 20 more foreign medical teams are needed to staff existing treatment centers, she said.

While empty beds exist at some treatment centers in Liberia, it’s important to maintain overcapacity as new cases can appear anywhere across the country, Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s assistant-general in charge of Ebola responses, said last week. International responders to the crisis have a Dec. 1 target to isolate 70 percent of cases and bury 70 percent of dead bodies safely.

A Pulitzer winning science writer's saga of flying to the Ebola zones of Liberia
 
FOREIGN POLICY                                  Nov. 3, 014
By Laura Garrett

MONROVIA, Liberia — The journey to Liberia tests the mettle of any American wanting to help the nation in its Ebola crisis. The trek really begins with fears about how the Samaritan will be received once he or she returns from the epidemic, facing quarantines and stigma. And the first leg lands the traveler in a political and cultural climate in steamy West Africa marked by resilience in the face of genuine threat.

BLOOMERG BUSINESS WEEK                                                                                            Nov. 4, 2014
By John Tozzi

...Blocking most travel from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where a total of more than 13,000 people have been infected with Ebola since the outbreak began in March, would only modestly reduce how long it takes for the virus to reach new countries, according to mathematical simulations published in the journal Eurosurveillance. For example, stopping 71 percent of travelers from entering other nations in Africa from the three countries in which Ebola is widespread would delay a case from appearing elsewhere on the continent by only 30 days, according to the model. ...

Medical staff wait for passengers arriving from Guinea at the airport in Abidjan on Oct. 20,as Ivory Coast's airline resumed flights to the three west African countries worst-hit by Ebola. Photograph by Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Image