NEW YORK TIMES by NICK CUMMING-BRUCE                                                                         Jan. 23, 2015

GENEVA — The number of people falling victim to the Ebola virus in West Africa has fallen to the lowest level in months, the World Health Organization said on Friday, but dwindling funds and a looming rainy season threaten to hamper efforts to control the disease.

REUTERS    By Ben Hirschler                                   Jan. 23, 2015

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 23 (Reuters) - The worst-ever Ebola epidemic is waning, but after ravaging three West African nations and spreading fear from Dallas to Madrid, it has hammered home the message that the world needs a better detective system for emerging diseases.

Risks posed by pandemic threats such as deadly strains of flu and drug-resistant superbugs have shot up the agenda of global security issues at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos as politicians and scientists grapple with the lessons from an Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 8,600 people.

One thing is certain: more epidemics are coming and dense urban living, coupled with modern travel, will accelerate future infectious disease outbreaks.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/23/flu-drug-resistance_n_6531066.html

THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES   by Amy Nordrum                                                                      Jan. 23, 2015

The recent Ebola outbreak, for which the number of new cases reported each week in the three most severely affected countries is finally beginning to fall, underscores the need to prepare for the next disease outbreak. Global health leaders are asking what it will take to prevent the next disease outbreak from spiraling out of control as the global population approaches 7.5 billion people and grows more connected.

     A research assistant works on a vaccine for Ebola at the Jenner Institute in Oxford, England. Eddie Keogh/Reuters

REUTERS             by Stehane Nebehy                                                                                    Jan. 23, 2015

GENEVA --Halting the spread of Ebola in West Africa will depend on mobilising funds and aid workers before the rainy season hits in April-May, otherwise it could up to take a year, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday.

But the WHO is set to run out of cash in mid-February, a key period as it tries to halt the deadly disease, a senior WHO official said.

"It is a programme that can stop transmission if we have the money and the people, and we don't have either," Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO assistant director-general in charge of the Ebola response, told a news briefing before a special session of WHO's Executive Board on Sunday.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/23/us-health-ebola-who-idUSKBN0KW1NL20150123

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY                                             Jan. 22, 2015

Ebola is a "zoonotic" disease: the virus starts out in animal populations - believed to be fruit bats - and then spills over into humans. Now, a new study that investigates landscape features of where spillover occurs suggests human population density and vegetation cover may be important factors.

The study is the work of two researchers from SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, who write about their findings in the open-access journal PeerJ.

First author Michael G. Walsh, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics in SUNY Downstate's School of Public Health, says they found significant interaction between density of human populations and the extent of green vegetation cover in the parts of Africa that have seen outbreaks of Ebola virus disease (EVD).

NEW YORK TIMES by Andrew Pollack                               Jan. 23, 2015

As Ebola raged through West Africa last summer, an experimental drug was tried for the first time on two American aid workers in Liberia who were gravely ill with the virus. Both recovered, one of them rapidly.

Medicago, in North Carolina, is gearing up for possible production of the Ebola drug ZMapp using its plant-based technology. Credit Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Though it could not be said for sure that the drug, ZMapp, was responsible, patients and doctors began clamoring for it. But there was enough to treat only a handful of patients. Federal officials vowed to produce more.

Twenty percent of the nation’s surgical practitioners have been killed by Ebola

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN  by Seema Yasmin and Chethan Sathya                                   Jan. 22, 2015

Thaim Kamara is 60 years old and would like to retire this year. But he is one of only eight remaining surgeons in Sierra Leone, a west African country of about six million people. Kamara lost two friends to Ebola in 2014—Martin Salia and Thomas Rogers, fellow surgeons at Connaught Hospital in the capital, Freetown. In light of the dire circumstances, Kamara has postponed his plan to retire.

VOICE OF AMERICA by Joe DeCapua                              Jan. 22, 2015

Even though the Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues, the U.N. says it’s time to plan for the recovery of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. A joint mission has just completed its assessment in Sierra Leone.

A man suffering from the Ebola virus lies on the floor outside a house in Port Loko Community, situated on the outskirts of Freetown, in Sierra Leone. (AP Photo/Michael Duff, File photo)

REUTERS by Stephanie Nebehay                                                                        Jan. 22, 2015

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Ebola epidemic in West Africa appears to be ebbing, with fewer than 150 cases reported in the past week, but efforts must be pursued to stamp out the deadly disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Sierra Leone remains hardest-hit, accounting for 117 of the 145 new confirmed cases, against 184 there the previous week and 248 the week before that, the WHO said in its latest update.

"Case incidence continues to fall in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone," the United Nations agency said, adding that disease surveillance was being stepped up in border districts of Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal....

The WHO's Emergency Committee on Ebola said on Wednesday that passengers should still be screened on leaving Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone for temperature or other signs of infection.

The independent experts said in a statement that "more than 40 countries have implemented additional measures, such as quarantine of returning travellers and refusal of entry. Such measures are impeding the recruitment and return of international responders.

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Gravemarkers at a cemetary at the Kenama, Sierra Leone Ebola treatment center. (Francisco Leong, AFP)

MAIL&GUARDIAN    by Emma Farge and Umaro Fofana                                            Jan. 21, 2015

A military-style operation to fight Ebola in Sierra Leone has helped dramatically reduce new cases in what health officials say is a major step towards defeating the deadly disease.

Since it was launched about a month ago, the operation has doubled the number of ambulances for patients in the densely populated west of Sierra Leone, the worst-affected country where more than 3 000 people have died.

 Aid workers have reported success in changing behaviour in rural areas, notably discouraging people from burial rituals involving direct contact with the dead, a major source of transmission.

As a result, transmission of the haemorrhagic fever has slowed sharply in the West African country, which has recorded more than 10 000 cases since May. There were just 184 new cases in the week to January 11, the lowest in five months.

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BALTIMORE SUN     by Scott Dance                                                   Jan. 20, 2015

In the year since Ebola began spreading across West Africa, the virus has mutated in more than 600 ways that change it slightly from versions studied in labs and used to develop treatments, according to researchers at Fort Detrick. And 10 of the mutations could make some drugs used to treat the virus ineffective, they wrote in research published Tuesday.

The "genomic drift," as the scientists called it, could make agents similar to the experimental drug ZMapp unable to bind to the virus anymore.

While the changes affect only a tiny fraction of Ebola's genome, they offer new lessons about the virus that might not have been learned because of the wide scope of the outbreak, larger than all others combined
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http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-ebola-mutation-20150120-story.html

VOICE OF AMERICA    by  Jennifer Lazuta                                                         Jan. 20, 2015
DAKAR, SENEGAL—Sub-Saharan African countries have made relatively small, but “vitally important,” contributions towards the fight against Ebola according to the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. This includes sending much-needed health care workers and medical supplies, as well as dedicating already-limited resources toward prevention and surveillance measures within their own borders to stop the further spread of the disease.

Health workers accompany a nine-year-old who contracted the Ebola virus to a Monrovia treatment center.

More than 850 doctors and nurses from African countries have been deployed to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to help bring an end to West Africa’s Ebola outbreak, which has killed more than 8,500 people since it began nearly a year ago.  

African countries also have collectively donated tens of millions of dollars in financial aid and material resources.

BBC  by Joe Miller                                                                                                    Jan. 21, 2015
DAVOS Switzerland -- The Western world is "vulnerable" to epidemics such as Ebola, and must invest more in researching vaccines, a leading scientist has warned.

Prof Peter Piot told the BBC that developed nations would be in "deep trouble" if they failed to adequately prepare for another outbreak.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, he urged global leaders to take a "long-term view". Public health policies must "transcend politics and borders", he said.

The threat of Ebola, and other infectious diseases such as influenza and Sars, are set to be discussed in Switzerland this week, as politicians and business leaders from around the globe gather for the annual WEF.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30907630

BLOOMBERG  By Simeon Bennett and Makiko Kitamura                                                       Jan. 21, 2015
(Two links. Scroll below.)

Ebola remains a global health emergency, the United Nations said today as it sought another $1 billion in donations to fight the deadly outbreak in West Africa.

More money is needed for the World Health Organization, Unicef and the World Food Programme, David Nabarro, the UN’s special envoy for Ebola, said at a briefing today at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

“We can’t let down our guard,” Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a Bloomberg Television interview at Davos. “We have to get over the finish line and then learn from this experience to build better systems so that it doesn’t get out of control the next time” an infectious disease epidemic occurs.

Ebola treatment centres have often not been completed until the virus has passed its peak.
Photograph: Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images

UN’s lead Ebola co-ordinator en route to Davos says last third of the $1.5bn pledged to tackle disease needs to be paid in order to end the outbreak

theguardian.com - by Sarah Boseley - January 20, 2015

Half a billion dollars of aid pledged to end the Ebola outbreak in west Africa still hasn’t been paid, according to the UN’s response co-ordinator.

Dr David Nabarro, in London and on his way to Davos to discuss progress against Ebola and future plans, said about two-thirds of the promised $1.5bn had been paid so far. “This last third is the most precious money but probably the most difficult money,” he told the Guardian. “My focus over the next few days here and in Davos is trying to ensure we have enough money to enable the task to be completed.