Africa

Everybody and his uncle, it seems, has an idea of something that might work to cure people infected with the deadly virus

 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN    By Helen Branswell                        Dec. 4, 2014

When it comes to treatments for Ebola, there has been a nearly four-decade-long drought. Nothing in the medical arsenal attacks the virus directly....

Dr. John M. Dye, Jr., U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) Viral Immunology branch chief, works in a laboratory at the USAMRIID headquarters in Frederick, Maryland. Dr. Dye is leading a team that is conducting a study with nonhuman primates involving the experimental drug ZMapp, an experimental treatment for Ebola patients. Credit: CDC

BLOOMBERG--By Andrew Pollack and Doni Bloomfield                                                                  Dec.4, 2014

ATLANTA-- An American health worker who may have been exposed to the Ebola virus arrived at an Atlanta hospital today for possible treatment after being evacuated by air from West Africa, where the outbreak is at its worst.

The health worker, who hasn’t been publicly identified, was admitted this morning at Emory University Hospital, which has successfully treated four other Ebola patients, the hospital said in an e-mail.

“Emory cannot share more details out of respect for patient privacy and in accordance with the patient’s wishes,” the hospital said. Phoenix Air, a medical charter company, flew the patient from West Africa, according to the statement. Earlier this week, Emory was named one of 35 U.S. hospitals designated to treat Ebola patients.

Emory didn’t say in what country the health worker may have been exposed.
Read complete story.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-04/health-care-worker-who-may-have-ebola-headed-to-u-s-.html

THE NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE                                                                                 Dec. 3, 2014
By Edward Cox, M.D., M.P.H., Luciana Borio, M.D., and Robert Temple, M.D.

...Studying investigational therapies for EVD presents scientific, practical, and ethical challenges. Not surprisingly, there has been substantial debate about the best and most appropriate study approaches.2,3 It is generally agreed that a trial with a concurrent control group, in which patients are randomly assigned to receive the test drug plus the best available supportive care (BASC) or to BASC alone, would be the most efficient and reliable way to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of candidate products.

 Some people in the health care community, however, have argued against such trials, urging instead use of a historical control — that is, making investigational drugs as widely available as their supply allows and then comparing mortality rates among treated patients with rates that would have been expected absent the drugs, on the basis of past experience with EVD.

INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES                                                                                Dec. 2, 2014

Morocco’s refusal to host the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) from 17 January to 8 February next year, due to fears of Ebola,has sparked a furore among soccer lovers across the continent.

The North African kingdom has since become the target of some of the most aggressive xenophobia from fellow Africans, notably on social media. ‘Morocco is scared of outsiders,’ ‘Morocco is not an African country,’ are some of the insults that have been directed at the country in the wake of its decision.

... The competition has now been moved to Equatorial Guinea, co-host of the 2012 Afcon with Gabon. This decision has huge financial and political implications. Morocco has also been barred from participating in the 2015 Afcon, and risks more sanctions for its national team and Moroccan clubs.