E B O L A

[dothedd]

JAN 14, 2015

U.S. soldier monitoring himself for Ebola dies near Texas base

DALLAS – A U.S. Army soldier who just returned from West Africa and was self-monitoring for Ebola symptoms was found dead on Tuesday near the Texas base where he was posted, Fort Hood officials said.

Army officials said initial screening results showed the soldier was not infected with Ebola. A more conclusive test was underway “and results will be released when complete to confirm the preliminary findings,” they said in a statement.

The unidentified soldier, who recently returned to Fort Hood in central Texas on emergency leave, was monitoring himself twice daily and reporting his status to medical officials, they said.

He was found dead at his off-post residence in the town of Killeen.

“We are not saying Ebola at all,” Killeen police spokeswoman Carol Smith said. “It’s just that because of the circumstances from West Africa, we are erring on the side of caution.”

A brigade from Fort Hood has been deployed in Liberia since October in support of “Operation United Assistance,” a program to help control the Ebola outbreak in the West African country.

[dothedd]

JAN 13, 2015

Ebola survivor Dr. Rick Sacra talks about going back into the Ebola hot zone as his wife, Debbie, listens Monday in Worcester, Massachusetts. Sacra plans to return to Liberia to help overworked colleagues in the missionary hospital where he has worked for years. | AP
WORLD / SCIENCE & HEALTH
U.S. doctor who beat Ebola heading back to Liberia

WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS – A U.S. doctor who beat Ebola plans to return to Liberia, where he contracted the deadly virus, in order to help overworked colleagues in the missionary hospital where he has worked for years.

Dr. Rick Sacra, 52, said Monday he won’t be working directly with Ebola patients but might be asked to help from time to time, since doctors say he’s now immune. He departs Thursday.

“The medical staff is a little bit reduced. They’ve been working very hard and frankly they need a little bit of a breather,” he said at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he is an assistant professor. “I just feel the need to return to hopefully give them a break so they don’t burn out.”

But Sacra said he has no interest in testing his immunity and promised to follow all the necessary Ebola safety protocols.

He expects to be mostly treating patients with malaria and chronic health issues like high blood pressure and diabetes at ELWA, a hospital in the Liberian capital of Monrovia that is run by Serving In Mission, a North Carolina-based Christian organization.

“I guess I’m less nervous about this trip because the thing that I was afraid of having last time, I’ve had it, and, thank God, I’m through it,” Sacra said.

Sacra contracted Ebola in August while caring for pregnant women not suspected to have Ebola, including delivering babies and performing several Caesarean sections. He was treated and released from an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital in September.

Sacra said he’s nearly at full strength now, after some “bumps in the road” to recovery that included treatment for vision problems, physical therapy and an upper respiratory tract infection that briefly sent him back to the hospital in October.

“I think of those in Liberia that are having to deal with all these same challenges, with so much less help than I’ve had,” he said.

Sacra returns to a country and a region that appears to be turning a corner in controlling the spread of Ebola, which has claimed over 8,000 lives, mostly in the West African nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, according to the World Health Organization.

During a recent three-week period, the organization reported 70 confirmed new cases of Ebola in Liberia, compared to some 900 in neighboring Sierra Leone and over 300 in Guinea.

Sacra also noted that each country now has enough beds to treat Ebola patients, and that 4 out of every 10 Ebola patients are now surviving the virus.

He is the first U.S. patient to return to West Africa. A British nurse, William Pooley, returned to Sierra Leone in October after being treated in London in September.

[dothedd]

Ebola Vaccine Landscape 

01-08-15

www.who.int/mediacentre/events/2015/S2.4_Robinson_ebola_MCM_landscape.pdf

[dothedd]

J&J gets $116M to help hustle along new Ebola vaccine 

January 16, 2015

Just days after Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) began a Phase I study of its new Ebola vaccine the pharma giant has organized an alliance to help accelerate its work and picked up a $116 million-plus grant to add to its $200 million commitment to get the job done as quickly as possible. 

J&J sub Janssen has signed up a research consortium that now includes the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of Oxford, Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale, La Centre Muraz, Bavarian Nordic A/S, Vibalogics, Grameen Foundation and World Vision of Ireland. The European Commission's Innovative Medicines Initiative, or IMI, plans to back the group with grants totaling more than €100 million to finance development, manufacturing and patient education. 

Janssen started work on the Phase I January 6. To get it through trials as fast as possible, J&J and Bavarian Nordic are producing up to 400,000 jabs through April and expect to be able to deliver 2 million regimens through 2015.

"It is great to see the multiple partners come together to accelerate the development of an effective vaccine both for the current epidemic and future outbreaks," said Professor Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. "This is an opportunity to make sure that this is the last Ebola epidemic in which our only tools to control it are isolation and quarantine."

The IMI's grant came in response to J&J's request for some financial assistance to ramp up its work on the vaccine, one of several now in development as the outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa continues to kill people in several countries.

- here's the releases
Related Articles:

Merck hits a hiccup with its new Ebola vaccine
www.fiercebiotech.com/story/merck-hits-hiccup-its-new-ebola-vaccine/2014-12-11
Johnson & Johnson is third to bring Ebola vaccine to trials, but is it too late?
www.fiercevaccines.com/story/johnson-johnson-third-bring-ebola-vaccine-trials-it-too-late/2015-01-06
Massachusetts advances fast Ebola Dx tech with $1M grant
www.fiercediagnostics.com/story/massachusetts-advances-fast-ebola-dx-tech-1m-grant/2014-12-24

[dothedd]

Katie Meyler, founder and CEO of More Than Me, went to Liberia to build a school for young girls. But everything has changed since Ebola struck. Watch Ms. Meyler's journey unfold through her Instagram account.


Updated Jan. 23, 2015 9:05 a.m. ET

The National Institutes of Health detailed its plans to test an Ebola vaccine on thousands of Liberians, with the help of two major drug companies.

The NIH, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Merck & Co. plan to begin the effort as early as Friday, according to people familiar with the research. The plan is to enlist as many as 27,000 people for the study at a rate increasing to as many as 3,000 a week in the immediate vicinity of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia. Glaxo said its first doses of the vaccine candidate are scheduled to arrive in Liberia Friday.

“The number of reported Ebola cases has gone down, but the outbreak is not over until there are no cases in the area,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci said in an interview. He is director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is overseeing the work.

Dr. Fauci said the hope is to glean compelling evidence from the study of a vaccine’s effectiveness, but that the research can be useful even if there aren’t enough patients for statistical proof. He said a vaccine trial can produce enough new proof of safety and of patients’ immune response such that—coupled with evidence from animals—a vaccine could get Food and Drug Administration approval.

In a briefing Thursday with reporters, Dr. Fauci said it may take a few weeks before patients actually get the vaccines in the Liberian trial. In addition, he said, the FDA still needs to sign off on some details of the study. Dr. Fauci said in an interview that vaccines are being shipped and clinical sites set up. Researchers will work with public officials in Liberia to persuade them that their communities can safely be involved. He said the entire trial process could take nine months to a year to complete.

The Ebola epidemic has ebbed somewhat since its high-water mark last year, when hundreds of new cases were occurring by November. According to the World Health Organization, during the seven days ended Jan. 18, there were 20 new confirmed cases in Guinea, eight in Liberia and 117 in Sierra Leone.

The NIH and the two vaccine makers face a novel challenge: whether they can conduct a scientifically precise clinical study during an outbreak and in societies that aren’t typically used to the idea of participating in a placebo-controlled medical trial.

The NIH study will have three groups: The first two would get one of the vaccines, and a third would get a placebo. It is to be conducted with leadership provided by a Liberian health official, Dr. Stephen Kennedy. There are expected to be as many as 10 sites around Monrovia.

The recruits will include health-care workers treating patients with Ebola, as well as people living in communities where new cases have erupted recently. Dr. Fauci said it is possible the trial could be expanded to Sierra Leone, but that this will depend on further talks with the countries.

According to the WHO, there have been 21,689 cases of Ebola and 8,626 Ebola deaths during the current epidemic in the three West African countries most afflicted—Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The Glaxo vaccine was developed at the NIH by a group headed by Dr. Nancy Sullivan of the NIH’s Vaccine Research Center. Her work was done in collaboration with an Italian company, Okairos, now a unit of Glaxo.

The Merck vaccine was licensed from NewLink Genetics Corp. Johnson & Johnson said it also has begun early-stage testing of a vaccine in partnership with a Danish company, Bavarian Nordic.

[Aman A.K.A. Ahamburger]

Looks like they may have a though time coming up with a vaccine..

Mutant Ebola Virus May Evade Drugs, Study Finds

Also, the WHO/UN said this was ebbing and under control last March. More new research as to why that wasn't the case. This research could also point to something entirety undiscussed - nonsymptomatic carriers.

Study Finds Ebola Becomes More Deadly As It Spreads

The researchers found that the first animal infected was not affected by the virus. However, each time the virus made genetic changes as it infected an animal, it became more lethal.

They were able to identify genetic changes in the virus that made it more lethal.

"The work tells us that the evolutionary goal of Ebola virus is to become more lethal," said Julian Hiscox, a professor in the Institute of Infection and Global Health at the University of Liverpool and a co-author of the study.

[dothedd]

NOT GOOD NEWS!

"Based on our findings, the virus has changed and is continuing to change," said Jeffrey Kugelman, a viral geneticist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), who led the research published in the journal mBio.



JAN 26, 2015

WHO executive board approves Ebola reform proposals
CIDRAP News | Jan 26, 2015
The proposals aim to improve the agency's ability to handle global health emergencies.
JAN 23, 2015

Studies detail Ebola spread, response steps
CIDRAP News | Jan 23, 2015
Researchers note how chains of transmission helped Ebola spread in Conakry, Guinea, and 3 CDC reports detail outbreak response efforts.
JAN 23, 2015

Liberia moves a step closer to Ebola vaccine trials
CIDRAP News | Jan 23, 2015
The first batch of an experimental Ebola vaccine landed today in an outbreak country, with officials projecting a trial launch in Liberia within weeks.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/Node/64

 Ebola continues to stir the POT!

[dothedd]

     Ebola continues to stir the POT!


Scientists tracking the Ebola outbreak in Guinea say the virus has mutated.


Researchers at the Institut Pasteur in France, which first identified the outbreak last March, are investigating whether it could have become more contagious.

More than 22,000 people have been infected with Ebola and 8,795 have died in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Scientists are starting to analyse hundreds of blood samples from Ebola patients in Guinea.

They are tracking how the virus is changing and trying to establish whether it's able to jump more easily from person to person

"We know the virus is changing quite a lot," said human geneticist Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai.

A virus can change itself to less deadly, but more contagious and that's something we are afraid of”

Dr Anavaj Sakuntabhai
Geneticist
"That's important for diagnosing (new cases) and for treatment. We need to know how the virus (is changing) to keep up with our enemy."

It's not unusual for viruses to change over a period time. Ebola is an RNA virus - like HIV and influenza - which have a high rate of mutation. That makes the virus more able to adapt and raises the potential for it to become more contagious.

"We've now seen several cases that don't have any symptoms at all, asymptomatic cases," said Anavaj Sakuntabhai.

"These people may be the people who can spread the virus better, but we still don't know that yet. A virus can change itself to less deadly, but more contagious and that's something we are afraid of."

CONTINUED:
www.bbc.com/news/health-31019097

[dothedd]

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION 

E B O L A 

Meeting presentations


• ChAd3-EBO-Z Update on Phase 1
pdf, 453kb
Dr Ripley Ballou, GSK
• Review of ebola vaccines in phase 1 clinical evaluation
pdf, 703kb
Dr Johan Van Hoof, Janssen R&
• Ebola vaccine landscape
pdf, 254kb
Dr Robin Robinson, US Health & Human Services, BARDA
• ChAd3-EBO-Z update on a Phase 2 program to expand the safety database
pdf, 515kb
Dr Ripley Ballou, GSK
• The AVAREF joint review process of Ebola clinical trial applications
pdf, 732kb
Dr Matthias Stahl, World Health Organization
• The changing epidemiology of ebola virus in West Africa
pdf, 847kb
Dr John Edmunds, LSHTM
• Ebola prevention vaccine evaluation in Sierra Leone
pdf, 802kb
Dr Mandy Kader Kargbo, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone
• Second high-level meeting on Ebola vaccine access and financing
pdf, 379kb
Dr Seth Berkley, Gavi Alliance
Share
Print
www.who.int/medicines/ebola-treatment/meetings/evd_meet_p/en/

[dothedd]

Critics Say Ebola Crisis Was WHO's Big Failure. Will Reform Follow? 

FEBRUARY 06, 2015 5:02 AM ET

Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, has said of Ebola: "It overwhelmed the capacity of WHO, and it is a crisis that cannot be solved by a single agency or single country."

Ebola was the Hurricane Katrina for the World Health Organization — its moment of failure. The organization's missteps in the early days of the outbreak are now legendary.

At first the agency that's responsible for "providing leadership on global health matters" was dismissive of the scale of the problem in West Africa. Then it deflected responsibility for the crisis to the overwhelmed governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. After eight months, it finally stepped up to take charge of the Ebola response but lacked the staff and funds to do so effectively.
CONTINUED: www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/02/06/384223023/critics-says-ebola-crisis-was-whos-big-failure-will-reform-follow

[dothedd]

EBOLA QUOTES!


"WHO: Ebola cases rise in Guinea, Sierra Leone & Liberia....
Reuters: "The number of people sick with Ebola fever has doubled in Guinea in the past week following the discovery of cases previously unknown to health authorities, a Guinea health official said on Friday.

About two dozen new suspected and confirmed Ebola cases were recorded in the past two weeks, taking the total number to 53 as of Friday, Fode Tass Sylla, a spokesman for Guinea's anti-Ebola task force, said.

Sylla said the increase was expected because health authorities were only now gaining access to faraway villages where inhabitants had previously prevented them from entering.

"This increase in new case numbers is because we are now able to get to villages where we are discovering hidden sick cases," he said.

The new cases highlight difficulties authorities in the three worst-hit West African states -- Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia -- face in trying to curb the spread of the epidemic that has killed nearly 9,000 people.

Thought to be declining at the start of 2015, the number of new Ebola cases rose in all three countries for the first time this year in the past week, the World Health Organization said on Thursday."

I never believed the WHO data regarding "how many fewer cases" that were being claimed. We mapped the area and then did a "habitat" analysis and realized ebola was going to be quite slinky. What is truly SHOCKING is that the WHO does not use any of these measures to supplement their data. Now we hear them say "well, they were out there in villages" har har har...

China is where the WHO is truly dropping the ball even worse. I received a report that I don't dare share until I receive a second source confirmation. "

[dothedd]

THANK YOU .... 

We look forward to your contributions. 

DTDD

[dothedd]

In the news

Recommendations to fast-track Ebola vaccine development
3 hours ago
... of CIDRAP, their recommendations include that Ebola ... The accelerated development of candidate vaccines, ... “We believe the findings in our analysis and report have far ...


Recommendations to fast-track Ebola vaccine development
17 February 2015

EBOLA - sm A panel of international experts, concerned about the acknowledged risk that Ebola transmission could continue into the foreseeable future, today published a roadmap to fast-track development of Ebola vaccines. The experts were convened by the Wellcome Trust and the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP).

The recommendations will help guide global efforts to expedite the availability of effective and safe Ebola vaccines to help bring an end to the current epidemic in West Africa, in addition to providing a framework to ensure the world is better prepared for inevitable future outbreaks of Ebola and other infectious diseases.

Despite ongoing public health efforts and a fall in the number of cases, the potential for Ebola virus disease (EVD) to become endemic in West Africa is still a real and concerning possibility. The availability of an effective and safe Ebola virus vaccine will be a crucial component of an integrated approach that includes classic public health measures, medical treatment and community interventions based on the social factors that lead to virus transmission.

To support international efforts, the Wellcome Trust and CIDRAP established the Ebola Vaccine “Team B” in November 2014. The 26 distinguished international leaders in public health, medicine, bioethics, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and humanitarian relief are involved in one or more areas of vaccine work, and provided collective critical analysis in key areas of vaccine development.

Co-chaired by Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, and Professor Michael Osterholm, Director of CIDRAP, their recommendations include that Ebola vaccine manufacturing could be accelerated by streamlining production using existing vaccine technologies and that Phase 2/3 clinical trials should be continued even if definitive data on vaccine efficacy cannot be guaranteed. They also recommend that African stakeholders must be at the forefront of ethical decisions that affect the safety and wellbeing of those populations hardest hit by the current outbreak, and that once this outbreak has been controlled stockpiling vaccines for future outbreaks must be considered.

“Despite falling infection rates in West Africa, the risk that the current Ebola outbreak may not be brought completely under control remains. The accelerated development of candidate vaccines, in collaboration between governments, industry, academia and philanthropy, is essential,” said Dr Farrar. “We may see an end to this Ebola epidemic within the year if we continue with the current remarkable efforts, but we must not be complacent about the inevitable future epidemics of Ebola and other emerging infectious diseases. This framework, designed to guide global preparations and focusing on what needs to be done now for this epidemic and put into place in the period between future epidemics, will prove critical in minimising the chances of the world finding itself in a position again when we do not have treatments and vaccines for these predictable and often devastating diseases.”

“We believe the findings in our analysis and report have far reaching implications for vaccine development for Ebola vaccines and for other emerging infectious diseases,” said Professor Osterholm. “It represents a real road map for soon realising the availability of effective and safe Ebola vaccines in Africa. This is the tool that will provide the ultimate public health lever needed to address Ebola today and in the future.”

This full report from Team B, follows an interim framework published last month, and provides the complete list of Ebola Vaccine Team B findings. The group is called “Team B” in recognition of the principal role played by the World Health Organization and national governments in leading the international Ebola response.
www.pressreleasepoint.com/recommendations-fast-track-ebola-vaccine-development

[dothedd]

Rapid Manufacture and Release 

of a GMP Batch of Zaire Ebolavirus 

Glycoprotein Vaccine Made Using 

Recombinant Baculovirus-Sf9 

Insect Cell Culture Technology

By TIMOTHY J. HAHN, BRIAN WEBB, JOHN KUTNEY, ED FIX, NANCY NIDEL, JAMES WONG, DANA JENDREK, CELIA BAULA, JODY  LICHAA,
MIKE SOWERS, YE V. LIU, JOHN HIGGINS, KWAN-HO ROH, ZHENG MENG, CYNTHIA OLIVER, ERICA SHANE, LARRY ELLINGSWORTH, SARATHI
BODDAPATI, CHRISTI MCDOWELL-PATTERSON, ZIPING WEI, OLEG BORISOV, WIN CHEUNG, JINGNING  LI, VICTOR GAVRILOV, KATHLEEN
CALLAHAN, KARIN LÖVGREN BENGTSSON, MAGNUS SÄVENHED, MATS SJÖLUND, SUSANNA MACMILLAR, MALIN SCHENERFELT, LINDA
STERTMAN, CAMILLA ANDERSSON, KATARINA RANLUND, JENNY REIMER, DENISE COURBRON, STEPHEN J. BEARMAN, VALERIE MOORE,
D. NIGEL THOMAS, AMY B. FIX, LOUIS F. FRIES, GREGORY M. GLENN, and GALE E. SMITH

Introduction
In 1976, a new virus (later designated genus Ebolavirus), which caused acute hemorrhagic fever in people of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) was reported.[4] Since then, five ebolavirus species have been identified.

The species designated Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV), Sudan ebolavirus, and Bundibugyo ebolavirus have caused multiple, major Ebola virus disease
(EVD) outbreaks in Africa.[5] From 1976 to 2013, EVD is estimated to have claimed the lives of 1590 people.[6] In March 2014, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of a new outbreak of EVD in Guinea that had expanded to Liberia.

Further outbreaks were identified in Sierra Leone (May) and Nigeria (July).[6]  In August, WHO DirectorGeneral Dr.  Margaret Chan declared a public health emergency of international concern, characterizing the 2014 EVD outbreak as “the largest, most severe and most complex outbreak in the nearly four-decade history of this disease.”
[7] Beyond the initial countries, a first-case-in-country was reported in both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal in August, in the United States of America, Spain, and Mali in October, and in the United Kingdom in December.
[8] Worldwide, reported
statistics for the 2014 outbreak through February 1, 2015
summarize a total of 22,495 confirmed, probable, and
suspected cases of EVD with 8981 associated deaths[9] — eclipsing five times the reported total from 1976 to 2013.

CONTINUED: 

www.novavax.com/download/file/J141-Hahn.pdf

[dothedd]

Cases in Ebola outbreak region top 23,000 

The number of confirmed, probable, and suspected Ebola cases in the three main outbreak countries passed the 23,000 mark today, with children in Liberia returning to school amid the country's steep decline in cases but with responders still struggling with new community-resistance incidents in Guinea.

The World Health Organization (WHO) in an update today put the overall number in those two countries and Sierra Leone at 23,182 cases, an increase of 183 cases since the group's last report on Feb 13. The number of deaths has risen to 9,353, representing 100 more than the WHO reported 3 days ago.

Ebola infections and deaths included in today's WHO report reflect cases reported in Guinea and Sierra Leone as of Feb 14 and ones in Liberia as of Feb 12.

Schools reopening, some with difficulty
Meanwhile, schools in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, reopened today, 6 months after the country's health ministry shuttered them to curb the spread of the disease. In measures designed to open the schools safely, health officials distributed about 5,000 kits containing thermometers and chlorine for hand washing, the Associated Press (AP) reported today. The country's health ministry has limited class sizes to about 50 instead of 100 to avoid overcrowding, and students' temperatures are being taken as they enter the school.

Schools started reopening in Guinea on Jan 19, and Sierra Leone's are scheduled to reopen on Mar 30.

The start of school in Guinea got off to a rocky start in certain areas, with some parents afraid to send their children owing to fear of infection.

Details about a round of community resistance in Guinea's capital, Conakry, were fleshed out today by the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) in its daily update. Apparently rumors have been circulating in the community that Ebola responders will spray and disinfect the schools, fueling fears of contamination. National officials have repeated that public areas won't be sprayed and that the practice is limited to the homes of Ebola patients.

Community resistance hampers progress 

According to today's UNMEER report, a crowd burned an Ebola treatment unit, a Doctors without Borders (MSF) office, and a vehicle. UNMEER's crisis manager in Guinea, Abdou Dieng, condemned the attacks against national and international responders and called for communities to cooperate.

The WHO has said community resistance is one of the ongoing challenges hampering progress in battling the disease, especially in Guinea and to a lesser extent in Sierra Leone. On Feb 12 the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cross Societies (IFRC) issued a statement about ongoing attacks on its workers in Guinea and asked national and international groups to redouble their community sensitization efforts in the troubled areas to tamp down the public's fears and misconceptions about the disease.

Expenditures in Sierra Leone questioned

In other developments, an internal audit of Ebola response expenditures in Sierra Leone recently found that about one third of expenditures didn't include a receipt or the necessary paperwork to justify them, and the government today vowed to launch a full investigation, according to a separate AP story.

CONTINUED: 
www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/02/cases-ebola-outbreak-region-top-23000

[dothedd]

Q&As on EBOLA Transmission

What are body fluids?
Ebola has been detected in blood and many body fluids. Body fluids include saliva, mucus, vomit, feces, sweat, tears, breast milk, urine, and semen.

What does “direct contact” mean?
Direct contact means that body fluids (blood, saliva, mucus, vomit, urine, or feces) from an infected person (alive or dead) have touched someone’s eyes, nose, or mouth or an open cut, wound, or abrasion.

Can Ebola be spread by coughing or sneezing?
There is no evidence indicating that Ebola virus is spread by coughing or sneezing. Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the blood or body fluids of a person who is sick with Ebola; the virus is not transmitted through the air (like measles virus). However, droplets (e.g., splashes or sprays) of respiratory or other secretions from a person who is sick with Ebola could be infectious, and therefore certain precautions (called standard, contact, and droplet precautions) are recommended for use in healthcare settings to prevent the transmission of Ebola virus from patients sick with Ebola to healthcare personnel and other patients or family members.

How long does Ebola live outside the body?
Ebola is killed with hospital-grade disinfectants (such as household bleach). Ebola on dry surfaces, such as doorknobs and countertops, can survive for several hours; however, virus in body fluids (such as blood) can survive up to several days at room temperature.

Are patients who recover from Ebola immune for life? Can they get it again - the same or a different strain?
Recovery from Ebola depends on good supportive clinical care and a patient’s immune response. Available evidence shows that people who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years, possibly longer.

We don’t know if people who recover are immune for life or if they can become infected with a different species of Ebola.

If someone survives Ebola, can he or she still spread the virus?
Once people recover from Ebola, they can no longer spread the virus to people in the community. Scientists know that the Ebola virus can stay in semen and in vaginal fluids even after recovery. Scientists continue to study whether and for how long Ebola can be spread through sex. Until more is known, Ebola survivors should not have sex (oral, vaginal, or anal) for at least three months after recovery. If abstinence is not possible, a condom should be used every time.

Can Ebola be spread through mosquitoes?
There is no evidence that mosquitoes or other insects can transmit Ebola virus. Only mammals (for example, humans, bats, monkeys and apes) have shown the ability to spread and become infected with Ebola virus.

Can Ebola be spread through blood transfusions?
Some people in the United States who rely on blood and blood products to maintain their health have raised concerns about blood safety related to Ebola Virus Disease (Ebola). CDC has systems in place to monitor blood safety.

Scientific evidence indicates that the virus can be passed to others from infected patients only when they start to show symptoms.

To date, there have been no reports of transfusion-transmitted Ebola in countries experiencing widespread outbreaks. However, these countries do not have systems to monitor the safety of blood products. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has policies in place for whole blood donations that would result in deferral of potential donors from countries in Africa experiencing the Ebola outbreak due to the risk of malaria. In addition, plasma derived products have viral clearance steps that have been demonstrated to be effective for lipid-enveloped viruses. It is likely that Ebola virus would be inactivated by such methods used in the manufacture of plasma derivatives because it is a lipid-enveloped virus.

FDA is considering issuing guidance for blood establishments related to this issue. CDC has no recommendations at this time.

Please also see the following statements from American Association of Blood Banks and Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association.


www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/transmission/qas.html

[dothedd]

Published on FierceVaccines 
Novavax's Ebola vaccine is in hot pursuit of
GSK, Merck, J&J candidates

February 18, 2015 

Novavax ($NVAX) announced on Thursday that it would take its Ebola
candidate to Australia for a Phase I trial involving 230 healthy adults. It is the
fourth company to bring an Ebola vaccine to human trials--behind Big
Pharmas GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK), Merck ($MRK) and Johnson & Johnson
($JNJ)--but Novavax isn't worried. Novavax's R& chief, Dr. Greg Glenn,
says it has a better vaccine.

"The need for an Ebola vaccine is not going to go away. … I think there's
going to be a need for a very good vaccine. I think this vaccine is really a
high-quality construct and we intend to see it developed," Glenn told
FierceVaccines.

The Ebola GP vaccine is named so because it's a glycoprotein (GP)
recombinant nanoparticle jab. This differentiates it from the other candidates
in development, which are all vector-based.

In vector-based vaccines, there can be a mismatch between the strain that is causing the disease and the predicted strain used to make the vaccine, like in this year's flu shot, Glenn said.

The other vaccines that have been deployed in the field "have been matched to old strains of Ebola," he said. What's different about Novavax's vaccine is that the gene sequence it uses is matched to the sequence of the strain that is causing the current epidemic.

The immunity induced by the Ebola GP vaccine is "more robust" than that offered by vaccines being deployed in the field, Glenn said. In a nonhuman primate challenge, the vaccine provoked the creation of "high-quality antibodies" and lots of them. It also requires a very low dose due to its adjuvant, Matrix-M.

The smaller dose, coupled with Novavax's capacity to produce millions of doses each month, could  make it a key player in the Ebola vaccine arena. Early data from Glaxo's trial suggest that a single dose of its candidate may not trigger an immune response strong enough to fend off Ebola.

"[Novavax's] goal is to accelerate the development of this vaccine through funding collaborations with any one of a number of global healthcare entities or U.S. governmental entities," said Barclay "Buck" Phillips, Novavax chief financial officer.

[dothedd]

Doctor’s Mishap Sheds Light on Ebola Vaccine’s Effects 

MARCH 5, 2015

The moment he felt a needle jab into his thumb last September on an Ebola ward in Sierra Leone, Dr. Lewis Rubinson knew he was at risk of contracting the deadly disease. What could he do but wait to see if he got sick, and hope that treatment would pull him through?

Dr. Rubinson, an intensive-care specialist and associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, chose another option, described in an article and editorial published on Thursday in The Journal of the American Medical Association. He was quickly given a shot of an experimental vaccine, a type that had been used in only one other person. The hope was that if he had been exposed to Ebola, the vaccine would stimulate his immune system to fight off the virus.

VIDEO: The Path of the Ebola OutbreakDEC. 28, 2014
VIDEO:  Why Ebola Patients Are Rejecting CareJULY 27, 2014

As it turns out, it is not clear whether the vaccine could have protected him against Ebola, because blood tests indicate he was almost certainly never infected. It is clear, though, that the vaccine stirred up his immune system: He had fever, chills, nausea, muscle pains and a headache. But the symptoms ebbed after a few days, and when it was all over blood tests suggested that he was probably immune to Ebola.


CONTINUED:  www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/health/doctors-mishap-sheds-light-on-ebola-vaccines-efficacy.html?ref=health&_r=0

[dothedd]

Ebola in graphics
The toll of a tragedy
May 5th 2015, 13:31 BY THE DATA TEAM

www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/05/ebola-graphics

[dothedd]

Ebola crisis: The tree thought to be the source of outbreak 

1 June 2015 Last updated at 00:06 BST

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March 2014, and has rapidly become the deadliest occurrence of the disease since its discovery in 1976.

In fact, the current epidemic sweeping across the region has now killed more than 11,130 people - five times more than all other known Ebola outbreaks combined.

Award-winning filmmaker Dan Edge has been investigating why the spread of Ebola was not curtailed sooner.  He was taken to the tree in Guinea thought to be the source of the latest outbreak.

www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-32930892