Conakry

WASHINGTON POST by  Rachel Feltman                      Dec. 29, 2014

Pharmaceutical company Roche announced Monday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had provided an Emergency Use Authorization -- a sort of pre-approval for use in particularly bad outbreaks -- for a new kind of Ebola test.

This isn't the first test to get this kind of approval during the 2014 outbreak of the Zaire strain of Ebola, which has killed more than 7,500 people to date and is still an ongoing crisis in parts of West Africa.... 

So it's no surprise that Swiss company Roche has put its version of a rapid test forward. The LightMix Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test works in about three hours, and is designed for Roche's testing consoles.

Ebola death rate compared to other diseases

BBC   by James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website         Dec. 27, 2014

The world has witnessed the largest-ever epidemic of Ebola claim thousands of lives in West Africa in 2014....

Outbreaks such as Ebola have an ability to spread fear around the world, often through the prism of sensationalist media reporting.

So how does Ebola actually compare to previous outbreaks and other diseases? And while the world focuses on Ebola, are we guilty of ignoring much bigger killers?

Analysing the death rates from different viruses shows Ebola is certainly one of the most deadly infections ever encountered.
Read complete report
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29953765

ASSOCIATED PRESS  by By Michelle Faul                        Dec. 29, 2014

GUECKEDOU, Guinea – West Africa’s fight to contain Ebola has hampered the campaign against malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that is claiming many thousands more lives than the dreaded virus.

Woman in the Guinean village of Meliandou, above, near the area considered to be Ebola's ground zero. The fight against Ebola in West Africa is holding back efforts to prevent and treat malaria. Jerome Delay / AP Photo

In Gueckedou, near the village where Ebola first started killing people in Guinea’s tropical southern forests a year ago, doctors say they have had to stop pricking fingers to do blood tests for malaria.

Ebola: Year in Review of 2014 developments
LOS ANGELES TIMES      by Alexandra Zavis                   Dec. 28, 2014

...As 2015 approaches, there is reason to hope that what at first was a plodding international response is finally catching up with the virus. In Liberia, where just a few months ago bodies were left in the streets for days and patients were turned away from treatment facilities because there weren't enough beds or personnel, the number of cases has been dropping rapidly. There are also signs that the disease may be slowing in Sierra Leone, which has overtaken Liberia as the country with the biggest caseload.

...Although the tactics being used have stemmed smaller Ebola outbreaks, some experts are beginning to question whether this one has spread too far to be fully contained without a vaccine or cure.