Sierra Leone

PLOS PATHOGENS  by Marc-Antoine de La Vega,  Derek Stein, and GaryKopinger, University of Manitoba, Canada , Nov. 12, 2015    

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada The past year has marked the most devastating Ebola outbreak the world has ever witnessed, with over 28,000 cases and over 11,000 deaths. Ebola virus (EBOV) has now been around for almost 50 years. In this review, we discuss past and present outbreaks of EBOV and how those variants evolved over time. We explore and discuss selective pressures that drive the evolution of different Ebola variants, and how they may modify the efficacy of therapeutic treatments and vaccines currently being developed. Finally, given the unprecedented size and spread of the outbreak, as well as the extended period of replication in human hosts, specific attention is given to the 2014–2015 West African outbreak variant (Makona).

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http://journals.plos.org/plospathogens/article?id=10.1371/journal.ppat.1005221

submitted by George Hurlburt

Sierra Leonean doctors practice wearing protective clothing in the Ebola Training Academy in Freetown, Sierra Leone, December 16, 2014. Reuters

uk.reuters.com - by Kemo Cham and Emma Farge - October 21, 2015

. . . the case of Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey – the first known Ebola survivor to have an apparently life-threatening relapse – has revived concerns about the health of some 17,000 survivors in Sierra Leone, neighbouring Guinea and Liberia.

Doctors and health officials in Sierra Leone told Reuters that a handful of mystery deaths among discharged patients may also be types of Ebola relapses, stirring fear that the deadly virus may last far longer than previously thought in the body, causing other potentially lethal complications.

Diagnoses have not been made, partly because of a lack of relevant medical training and insufficient equipment for detecting a virus that can hide in inaccessible corners of the body - such as the spinal fluid or eyeball. In Cafferkey's case, the virus in her brain caused meningitis.

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Pauline Cafferkey previously spent a month in the specialist isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital in London

bbc.com - October 9, 2015

A Scottish nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone last year is in a "serious condition" after being readmitted to an isolation unit in London.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed that the virus is still present in Pauline Cafferkey's body after being left over from the original infection.

She is not thought to be contagious.

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ASSOCIATED PRESS                               Sept. 23, 2015

(Scroll down for links to WHO reports.)

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The United Nations says it's now planning for Ebola response activities to last into 2016, suggesting the battle against the virus won't be over by year-end after all.

In a report released Wednesday by the World Health Organization and its humanitarian partners, health officials said that there are plans for the Ebola response to continue until midyear 2016.

Those so-called Phase 3 efforts include stopping transmission, indicating cases are still anticipated.

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http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/09/23/un-ebola-response-now-planned-to-continue-into-2016

WHO SITUATION REPORT                      Sept. 23, 2015
http://apps.who.int/ebola/current-situation/ebola-situation-report-23-september-2015