Disaster Risk Reduction

NEW YORK TIMES  by Austin Ramzy                                                                 Dec. 7, 2014

LEGAZPI, the Philippines — As Typhoon Hagupit churned across the Philippines on Sunday, residents of the eastern part of the island nation expressed relief that they had joined the hundreds of thousands who had evacuated to safer ground.

Residents waded through floodwaters on Sunday in Borongan City, the Philippines. Typhoon Hagupit is expected to churn over the country until Wednesday. Credit Francis R. Malasig/European Pressphoto Agency

By late Sunday, what had been classified as a super typhoon was far weaker than Haiyan was when it hit, and was continuing to weaken. The storm, which is expected to push its way across the country until Wednesday, was generating strong winds and rain, but the overall effect was not as devastating as worst-case scenarios had anticipated.

BLOOMBERG BUSINESSWEEK                                Nov. 17, 2014
by Jason Gale

The best medical advice for surviving Ebola right now might fit in one word: drink.

Dr. Fadipe Akinniyi Emmanuel, Ebola survivor, shows the daily dose of oral rehydration salts, or ORS, he and other survivors took to survive in Nigeria. Photographer: Andrew Esiebo/World Health Organization via Bloomberg

With targeted drugs and vaccines at least months away, doctors and public health experts are learning from Ebola survivors what simple steps helped them beat the infection. Turns out drinking 4 liters (1 gallon) or more of rehydration solution a day -- a challenge for anyone and especially those wracked by relentless bouts of vomiting -- is crucial. “When people are infected, they get dry as a crisp really quickly,” said Simon Mardel, an emergency room doctor advising the World Health Organization on Ebola in Sierra Leone. “Then the tragedy is that they don’t want to drink.”

BIOPREPWATCH                                                           Nov. 14, 2014

By Danial Daw

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that $2.7 million worth of personal protection equipment will be sent to hospitals to assist in the care of Ebola patients.

Altogether, 50 kits have been prepared and can be rapidly sent to hospitals. The kits include five days worth of protective equipment for clinical teams to treat one Ebola patient.

The kits follow the most up-to-date guidelines issued by the CDC. While the numbers of kits are limited at the moment, the CDC said it should be sufficient to treat cases in the short-term.

Read complete story
http://bioprepwatch.com/countermeasures/medical/u-s-hospitals-to-be-supplied-ebola-protective-equipment/339963/

By Todd Ackerman                                                                           Nov. 5, 2014

... researchers at the University of Texas-Austin have developed a nasal spray vaccine that has protected monkeys against the deadly Ebola virus even a year after immunization.

The vaccine, a genetically engineered cold virus containing a tiny portion of Ebola DNA, saved 100 percent of monkeys who got a single spray through the nose in a new UT study. Injecting the vaccine only saved the lives of about 50 percent.

"The main advantage is the long-lasting protection after a single inhaled dose," Maria Croyle, a  professor of pharmaceutics and the study's principal investigator, said in a statement. "This is important since the longevity of other vaccines for Ebola (hasn't been) fully evaluated....