AFP                                                                                         Dec. 26, 2014

The global death toll from Ebola has risen to 7,588 out of 19,497 confirmed cases recorded in the year-old epidemic raging in West Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

The virus is still spreading intensely in Sierra Leone, especially in the north and west, with 315 new confirmed cases reported in the former British colony in the week to December 21, it said. These included 115 cases in the capital Freetown.

"The neighbouring district of Port Loko experienced a surge in new cases, reporting 92 confirmed cases compared with 56 the previous week," the WHO said.

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http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ebola-death-toll-rises-to-7-588-globally-who-says-1.2884197

Read  Full WHO report
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/situation-reports/en/

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO by Ofeibea Quist-Arcton        Dec. 25, 2014

MONROVIA -- Working with UNICEF and another nonprofit, Talking Drum, in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, the government aims to provide lessons to children across the country, hit by the Ebola outbreak. Most schools closed this past summer and will likely remain closed for months....

                            Florence Allen Jones, right, is part of the education ministry's classes-by-radio team.

The radio classes are broadcast on local stations, and on United Nations radio. The Education Ministry acknowledged that the broadcasts are not reaching nationwide. In any case, few children in Liberia's 15 counties have access to a radio, or even the batteries to power one. Wealthy parents have hired home tutors for their kids, but many other youngsters have taken to peddling petty goods, like trinkets or donuts, on the streets of Monrovia, to try to earn a little money for their families while schools are closed.

REUTERS                                                              Dec. 24, 2014

ACCRA—Medical detective work will be the next big phase in the fight against Ebola when the United Nations deploys hundreds of health workers to identify chains of infection as the virus passes from person to person, top U.N. health workers said.
Health workers bury the body of a suspected Ebola victim at a cemetery in Freetown, Dec. 21, 2014.

The health teams will travel to each district and region of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries at the center of the epidemic, to trace who each infected person has potentially contacted.

The effort will run in parallel with measures to minimize the spread of infection, such as treating all Ebola patients in specialized centers and burying all victims safely.

But Phase Two of the plan is to contain the virus by understanding its lines of transmission, said World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan.

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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."

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

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.

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.

BBC     By Smitha Mundasad                                Dec. 22, 2014
The first-ever trial of an Ebola vaccine in Africa shows promising initial results, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal.

Scientists say it is a crucial step as other vaccines have shown lower levels of protection in African populations.

Tests involving Ugandan and American volunteers reveal the vaccine is so far safe and generates an immune response in both populations.

It provides reassurance for other trials currently underway, they say.

No proven vaccine exists to prevent people from getting the disease, though several trials are underway.

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health tested this experimental vaccine on healthy adults in Uganda, having first trialled it in the United States.

Dr Julie Ledgerwood, the lead researcher, said: "This is the first study to show comparable safety and immune response of an experimental Ebola vaccine in an African population.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30577776

WALL STREET JOURNAL by Junian E. Barnes and Felicia Schwartz                                                 Dec. 22, 2014
WASHINGTON—The U.S. will complete the last of its Ebola treatment units in Liberia by the end of December, setting the stage for the military to decide next month whether to send some service members home or send them to another West African country, the top U.S. commander in Liberia said Monday.

The U.S. will decide by mid-January whether to redeploy troops to Sierra Leone or Guinea or simply further shrink the size of the military mission in Liberia, Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, the commander of the military’s Ebola task force, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

The military task force has been involved in the building of 14 treatment units, in addition to the treatment unit completed before the 101st Airborne Division arrived. ...

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-to-complete-ebola-treatment-units-in-liberia-by-end-of-december-1419285448

HUFFINGTON POST     by  Arthur Delany                                                                      Dec, 22, 2014

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) traveled to the West African nation of Liberia this week, partly to remind the American people that an Ebola epidemic is still going on, Coons told reporters Monday.

                     Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) elbow-bumps an Ebola survivor in Liberia. | Chris Coons Flickr | Flickr

"My hope was to remind the American people that this is an investment that helps keep the world safe, not just help Liberians, although helping Liberia is a worthy goal in and of itself," Coons said on a conference call in response to a question from HuffPost.

REUTERS       by  Julie Steenhuysen                                                                                 Dec. 22, 2014
CHICAGO --For months, Vanderbilt University researcher Dr. James Crowe has been desperately seeking access to the blood of U.S. Ebola survivors, hoping to extract the proteins that helped them overcome the deadly virus for use in new, potent drugs.

His efforts finally paid off in mid-November with a donation from Dr. Rick Sacra, a University of Massachusetts physician who contracted Ebola while working in Liberia. The donation puts Crowe at the forefront of a new model for fighting the virus...

MILITARY TIMES By Andrew Tilghman                                                                                Dec. 19, 2014
Thousands of troops deployed to West Africa to help contain the Ebola virus will have to wait a few more weeks to find out whether the policy of 21-day quarantines after their redeployment will continue, military officials said.

The Pentagon has granted an extension on the deadline for reviewing the controversial rule requiring a 21-day, post-deployment quarantine. The review will now be completed by Jan. 30, 2015.

When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced the quarantine on Oct. 29, he ordered military officials to conduct a review within 45 days to determine whether it was effective and necessary.

That review was due on Dec. 12, but Hagel granted a seven-week extension following a request from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.

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http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2014/12/19/ebola-quarantine-review/20637663/?utm_source=December+22+2014+EN&utm_campaign=12%2F22%2F2014&utm_medium=email

BBC                                                                                                                       Dec. 22 2014

Spending cuts imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may have contributed to the rapid spread of Ebola in three West African states, UK-based researchers say.

                      Sierra Leone, along with Liberia and Guinea, have poor health facilities

It had led to "under-funded, insufficiently staffed, and poorly prepared health systems" in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, they said.

The IMF denied the allegation.

"A major reason why the Ebola outbreak spread so rapidly was the weakness of healthcare systems in the region, and it would be unfortunate if underlying causes were overlooked," said Cambridge University sociologist and lead study author Alexander Kentikelenis....

The IMF said in a statement that health spending in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone had, in fact, increased in the 2010-2013 period.

NEW YORK TIMES SUNDAY REVIEW   by Jeffrey Gettleman                                            Dec. 21, 2014

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone --
...Ebola, however much some of its symptoms conjure up a horror film, is usually shockingly simple to treat. The virus is swift and ruthless, hideous and creepy, causing some patients to have bloody vomit, bloody diarrhea or even — in severe cases — bloody eyeballs. Ebola is one of the handful of viruses than can trigger a hemorrhagic fever, with internal bleeding, but in most cases the biggest threat is dehydration, which can be addressed by clean water and basic drugs.

REUTERS  by James Harding Giahyue                                                                                     Dec. 20, 2014

MONROVIA--Turnout for Liberian parliamentary elections on Saturday appeared to be low as concerns about Ebola kept many voters at home.

Polling stations were largely empty after voting began at 8 a.m. (3.00 a.m. ET) in the seafront capital Monrovia, with voters occasionally drifting in, despite precautions put in place by the National Elections Commission (NEC).

Staff with temperature guns at polling stations checked voters for any signs of the hemorrhagic fever, which is spread via bodily fluids. Voters were obliged to wash their hands with chlorine solution, to stand at least three feet apart in the queue, and bring their own pens to mark the ballot paper, officials said.

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