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Can a U.S. military Ebola treatment center slow Ebola in one hard-hit city?

Mon, 2014-11-03 07:59 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON POST Nov. 3, 2014
By Kevin Sieff

GANTA, LIBERIA --
The U.S. is erecting a new Ebola treatment center, slated to be finished later this month and manned by newly imported doctors. Just the sight of American helicopters flying over Ganta, a city of about 50,000, has lifted hopes here.

...a modern treatment center won’t be enough to eliminate Ebola in a place where the outbreak appears to rise and fall every few weeks and where victims sometimes disappear into remote communities with the disease. The question is whether those victims can be persuaded to use the new facility once it is built, preventing the spread of the disease in some of the country’s most vulnerable areas.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/can-a-us-military-ebola-treatment-center-slow-ebola-in-one-hard-hit-city/2014/11/01/afb7b058-60fd-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html

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DOE Awards $53M to Cut Solar Cost

Sun, 2014-11-02 16:09 — Maeryn Obley

energymanagertoday.com - October 24th 2014

The US Department of Energy (DOE) is investing more than $53 million for 40 research and development projects to drive down the cost of solar energy, addressing key aspects of technology development in order to bring innovative ideas to the market more quickly. These awards upport the development of next-generation PV solar technologies and advanced manufacturing processes and address both hardware and non-hardware “soft” costs of solar installation.

DOE is awarding more than $14 million to 10 research institutions to improve the performance, efficiency and durability of solar PV devices.

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WHO Updates Guidelines on Ebola Protective Gear

Sat, 2014-11-01 14:44 — mike kraft

WHO Oct. 31, 2014
GENEVA-- The World Health Organization \ WHO has conducted a formal review of personal protective equipment (PPE) guidelines for healthcare workers and is updating its guidelines in context of the current outbreak.

A U.S. doctor in a protective suit in Liberia adjust that of a colleague before entering an Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia in this photo released Sept. 16, 2014.

These updated guidelines aim to clarify and standardize safe and effective PPE options to protect health care workers and patients, as well as provide information for procurement of PPE stock in the current Ebola outbreak. The guidelines are based on a review of evidence of PPE use during care of suspected and confirmed Ebola virus disease patients.

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http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/ebola-ppe-guidelines/en/

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Better Staffing Seen as Crucial to Ebola Treatment in Africa

Sat, 2014-11-01 10:36 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES Nov. 1, 2014

By Denise Grady

...The stark difference in the care available in West Africa and the United States is reflected in the outcomes...., In West Africa, 70 percent of people with Ebola are dying, while seven of the first eight Ebola patients treated in the United States have walked out of the hospital in good health. Only one died: Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian, whose treatment was delayed when a Dallas hospital initially misdiagnosed his illness.

Dr. Rick Sacra, a missionary who was infected with Ebola in Liberia and was successfully treated at the Nebraska Medical Center. Credit Brendan Sullivan/Omaha World-Herald, via Associated Press

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U.S. military to train more Ebola response teams

Sat, 2014-11-01 10:15 — mike kraft

USA TODAY Oct. 31, 2014
Patricia Kime, Military Times

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military will train more medical personnel to respond to domestic cases of Ebola should they occur, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday.

(Photo: Senior Airman Kayla Newman / Air Force)

Plans are under way to form more military Ebola medical response teams similar to the 30-member group that completed training this week at San Antonio Military Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

The official said the Pentagon is anticipating a request from the Health and Human Services Department for more medical personnel who would respond on short notice to civilian medical facilities should they need help treating Ebola patients....

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EBOLA EPIDEMIOLOGY: Strategies for containing Ebola in West Africa

Fri, 2014-10-31 20:52 — mike kraft

SCIENCE MAGAZINE Oct. 30, 2014

A study to assess the effectiveness of containment strategies, using a stochastic model of Ebola transmission between and within the general community, hospitals, and funerals, calibrated to incidence data from Liberia.

ABSTRACT

The ongoing Ebola outbreak poses an alarming risk to the countries of West Africa and beyond. To assess the effectiveness of containment strategies, we developed a stochastic model of Ebola transmission between and within the general community, hospitals, and funerals, calibrated to incidence data from Liberia. We find that a combined approach of case isolation, contact tracing with quarantine and sanitary funeral practices must be implemented with utmost urgency in order to reverse the growth of the outbreak. Under status quo intervention, our projections indicate that the Ebola outbreak will continue to spread, generating a predicted 224 (95% CI: 134 – 358) cases daily in Liberia alone by December, highlighting the need for swift application of multifaceted control interventions.

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Home> International Liberia Opens 1 of Largest Ebola Treatment Centers

Fri, 2014-10-31 19:16 — mike kraft

In this photo taken Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014, aid is offloaded to be used in the fight of the Ebola virus, as it arrives by air from America at the airport in Conakry, Guinea. No African countries are on the United Nations list of contributors to fight the Ebola epidemic, and angry legislators from Sierra Leone and Liberia got up to protest at a session on peace and security at the Pan-African Parliament in South Africa last "They said as far as they are concerned, nobody wants to talk about Ebola," said Jeggan Grey-Johnson, a governance expert. (AP Photo/ Youssouf Bah)

REUTERS Oct. 31, 2014
ByJonathan Paye-Layleh

MONROVIA, Liberia —Remembering those who have died in the world's deadliest Ebola outbreak, Liberia's president opened one of the country's largest Ebola treatment centers in Monrovia on Friday amid hopes that the disease is finally on the decline in this West African country.

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World Bank funding for Ebola fight hits $500 million

Thu, 2014-10-30 23:18 — mike kraft

REUTERS Oct. 30, 2014

(GENEVA)- The World Bank pledged $100 million on Thursday to help recruit more foreign health workers in the fight against Ebola, taking its funding for the three worst-hit countries to more than half a billion dollars over the past three months.

People sit near a banner reading ''The Ministry of Agriculture, Dixinn Commune, Together to defeat Ebola,'' in Conakry, Guinea October 26, 2014.Credit: Reuters/Michelle Nichols

The latest tranche will go towards setting up a coordination hub to recruit, train and deploy qualified foreign health workers and support the three countries' efforts to isolate Ebola patients and bury the dead safely, the bank said.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/30/us-health-ebola-worldbank-idUSKBN0IJ1NV20141030

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Genes Influence How Mice React to Ebola, Study Says In ‘Significant Advance’

Thu, 2014-10-30 20:38 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 30, 2014

By Gina Kolata

Some people exposed to the Ebola virus quickly sicken and die. Others become gravely ill but recover, while still others only react mildly or are thought to be resistant to the virus. Now researchers working with mice have found that these laboratory animals, too, can have a range of responses to Ebola, and that in mice, the responses are determined by differences in genes.

Researchers at the University of Washington have been studying the Ebola virus in mice, and have found that the effects of the virus may be determined by genes.Video and photo by University of Washington.

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Ebola Virus Disease and the Need for New Personal Protective Equipment

Wed, 2014-10-29 21:13 — mike kraft

JOURNAL OF AMERICAN MEDICICAL ASSOCIATION Oct. 28, 2014
Michael B. Edmond, MD, MPH, MPA¹; Daniel J. Diekema, MD, MS¹; Eli N. Perencevich, MD, MS

"...it is clear that reengineering of personal protecion equipment is required, both in US hospitals but more critically for the outbreak zones in Africa. The use of cumbersome PPE in the extreme heat and difficult working conditions of Ebola treatment centers in Africa places great stress on health care workers and limits the time they can spend providing patient care.

" A novel approach to PPE that provides an impermeable fluid barrier that is both more comfortable and easier to don and remove would be a substantial step forward.

"This will require new materials and designs. Indeed, the US Agency for International Development, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, CDC, and US Department of Defense have recently announced a campaign to develop and test innovations for PPE in response to the Ebola outbreak."

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http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1920943

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