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[stem-ebola] PRO/AH/EDR> Ebola virus disease - West Africa (191): Liberia, Sierra Leone, volunteers, vaccine testing

EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE - WEST AFRICA (191): LIBERIA, SIERRA LEONE,
VOLUNTEERS, VACCINE TESTING
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In this update:
[1] Liberia: 41 UN staffers now under observation
[2] West Africa: 591 Nigerians to Join Volunteer Group to Fight Virus
[3] Liberia: U.S. Ebola hospitals are going up ... slowly
[4] Mali: Vaccine being tested
[5] Sierra Leone: Officials admit a 'defeat'

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[1] Liberia: 41 UN staffers now under observation
Date: 11 Oct 2014
Source: O Canada [edited]
<http://o.canada.com/news/ebola-41-un-staffers-now-under-observation-in-liberia>


Liberia's United Nations peacekeeping mission has placed 41 staff
members, including 20 military personnel, under "close medical
observation" after an international member of its medical team was
diagnosed with Ebola this week, the 2nd mission member to test
positive for the deadly disease. "This measure is precautionary and
meant to ensure no possible further transmission of the disease," the
mission said in a statement Fri [10 Oct 2014]. "None of the personnel
who are contacts have shown any symptoms but will be observed for the
full 21-day possible incubation period."

The World Health Organization says 21 days is the maximum incubation
period for Ebola, which is spread via the bodily fluids of infected
people. The 41 staffers were identified as having possibly come into
contact with the member of the medical team, whose name and
nationality have not been disclosed.

The patient tested positive Mon [6 Oct 2014] and arrived in Germany
Thu [9 Oct 2014] for treatment, the 3rd Ebola patient to be flown
there. The St. Georg Hospital in Leipzig said this week the patient
would be placed in a special isolation unit.

[Byline: Jonathan Paye-Layleh]

--
Communicated by:
Ebola News Digest
<http://eboladigest.blogspot.com>

******
[2] West Africa: 591 Nigerians to Join Volunteer Group to Fight Virus
Date: 10 Oct 2014
Source: Bella Naija [edited]
<http://www.bellanaija.com/2014/10/10/ebola-591-nigerians-to-join-volunteer-group-to-fight-virus-in-liberia-guinea-sierra-leone>


Nigeria's success in containing the Ebola virus disease has been
hugely lauded by governments all around the world. Through the
formation of an international volunteer group, the country is set to
impart its knowledge and techniques about battling the virus to the
countries that are most affected by the deadly disease: Liberia,
Guinea, and Sierra Leone. A total of 591 Nigerians have registered to
join the Ebola volunteer group, which will be deployed to the
aforementioned countries, The Nation reports. Minister of Health
Onyebuchi Chukwu made the announcement yesterday [9 Oct 2014] while
giving updates about eradication of Ebola.

Nigerian volunteers from different heath professions have been
registering with us, willing to join the international force that will
go to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to help out with the
containment, and as of now, 591 Nigerians have already registered with
us in 3 registers we opened in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. Before
we allow them to leave, certain conditions must be met; the President
has to approve for them to leave Nigeria as volunteers." Secondly,
they have to be given proper training on how they would avoid the
disease and ensure that they don't get it. They have to be fully and
properly trained according to our standards in Nigeria, which are
fairly high," he said.

--
Communicated by:
Ebola News Digest
<http://eboladigest.blogspot.com>

[This will be a very significant contribution to the boots on the
ground when they arrive. - Mod.JW]

******
[3] Liberia: U.S. Ebola hospitals are going up ... slowly
Date: 7 Oct 2014 [note date]
Source: NPR [edited]
<http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/10/07/354121449/the-u-s-ebola-hospitals-in-liberia-are-going-up-slowly>


Last month [September 2014], the United States made 2 promises to
Liberia. On 8 Sep 2014, Obama pledged that the U.S. would construct a
25-bed hospital outside Monrovia, the capital, to treat health care
workers. They've been bearing the brunt of the outbreak: In Liberia
alone, at least 188 health workers have been infected, and 94 have
died. Then, on 16 Sep 2014, Obama announced a massive response to the
outbreak, involving thousands of U.S. troops on the ground to train
health care workers, deliver relief supplies, and build 17 Ebola
treatment centers for the general public.

At the time of the announcement, Obama stressed that time is of the
essence... Yet progress on the hospitals has been slow. As NPR's Jason
Beaubien reports from Liberia, a month later, workers are still
spreading gravel on the construction site of the 25-bed hospital.
Standing on the side are dozens of locals looking for work. Without
health care workers, the hospital won't be able to open its doors.

NPR's Nurith Aizenman is in Anniston, Ala., [USA] where officers from
the U.S. Public Health Services, who will run the hospital, are
[going] to get trained by CDC. Right now, she tells Morning Edition's
Steve Inskeep, only 8 of the 65 people needed are there. "Quite a
number of [officers] are being delayed for all sorts of reasons," she
says. "I'm told not all of them have passports; they have to get all
the vaccinations that you need to work in West Africa, so they're not
scheduled to get this training for another 2 weeks."

And this round of training is just the preliminary 3-day course.
"There's more training to come," she says. At this rate, the earliest
the hospital can open its doors for business is possibly around the
end of October [2014], about 7 weeks after the hospital was promised.
"Maybe that is a reasonable amount of time to staff up a hospital from
scratch," Aizenman says, "but reasonable amounts of time are a luxury
that we don't really have in this outbreak." The 17 other treatment
units that Obama promised are also under construction, though Beaubien
reports that the U.S. military [only] expects those to be fully
operational in 60 to 90 days...

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

[I suppose torrential rain and heavy equipment breakdowns are
responsible for the construction delays. I would have thought that
passports and visas would be expedited, and that AfriCom soldiers
would have already had all the required vaccinations to permit rapid
deployment in emergency (my personal opinion, not necessarily that of
ProMED). Yellow fever shots have to be given 10 days before arrival to
be valid. - Mod.JW]

******
[4] Mali: Vaccine being tested
Date: 11 Oct 2014
Source: The Verge [edited]
<http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/11/6962039/ebola-vaccine-is-now-being-tested-in-west-africa>


Mali has no known Ebola [virus disease] cases, though it shares a
border with Guinea, the nation in which the outbreak began. According
to The Guardian, 3 healthcare workers there have been given the
experimental vaccine to test that it has no adverse effects. It's
reported that 37 more workers will receive the vaccine in the coming
weeks before it can be used in Ebola-stricken nations. The efficacy of
the vaccine will largely remain unknown until it is used in areas hit
with the virus.

The vaccine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and developed by the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Maryland, has
been fast-tracked in hopes that it can help turn the tide in the
battle against the virus. Just a couple of weeks ago, it was tested on
volunteers in the US and UK. Last month [September 2014], it was
successfully tested in monkeys with no ill effects. It's not unusual
for a typical vaccine to take as long as a year to go through the same
process.

It's said that as many as 10 000 doses of the vaccine, which uses a
[common] cold virus to deliver a inactive portion of the ebolavirus to
the body, could be ready by year's end [2014]. The focus, however, is
on protecting doctors and other healthcare workers in the region, with
hopes that a reliable vaccine could bring more health workers to the
area.

[Byline: Dante D'Orazio]

--
Communicated by:
Ebola News Digest
<http://eboladigest.blogspot.com>

[A HealthMap/ProMED-mail map can be accessed at:
<http://healthmap.org/promed/p/54>.]

******
[5] Sierra Leone: Officials admit a 'defeat'
Date: 11 Oct 2014
Source: NY Times [edited]
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/world/africa/officials-admit-a-defeat-by-ebola-in-sierra-leone.html?_r=1>


Acknowledging a major "defeat" in the fight against Ebola,
international health officials battling the epidemic in Sierra Leone
approved plans on Friday [10 Oct 2014] to help families tend to
patients at home, recognizing that they are overwhelmed and have
little chance of getting enough treatment beds in place quickly to
meet the surging need.

The decision signifies a significant shift in the struggle against the
rampaging disease. Officials said they would begin distributing
painkillers, rehydrating solution and gloves to hundreds of
Ebola-afflicted households in Sierra Leone, contending that the aid
arriving here was not fast or extensive enough to keep up with an
outbreak that doubles in size every month or so.

"It's basically admitting defeat," said Dr. Peter H. Kilmarx, the
leader of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's
[CDC] team in Sierra Leone, adding that it was "now [Sierra Leone's]
national policy that we should take care of these people at home.  For
the clinicians, it's admitting failure, but we are responding to the
need," Dr. Kilmarx said. "There are hundreds of people with Ebola that
we are not able to bring into a facility."...

--
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail
<promed@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

[The HealthMap/ProMED map of Sierra Leone can be found at:
<http://healthmap.org/promed/p/46>.]

[See Also:
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (190): Liberia, Sierra Leone, China
monitoring 20141010.2852077
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (189): Sierra Leone, Liberia, OIE
20141008.2841244
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (188): international cases, Liberia,
clinical 20141007.2837773
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (187): UN, aid, Sierra Leone, ECDC,
Liberia 20141005.2834551
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (186): WHO, Cuban HCWs arrive,
prevention 20141004.2832637
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (185): WHO, CDC, Liberia, vaccine
20141001.2823670
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (184): USA (TX) first case ex
Liberia 20140930.2819341
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (183): great apes as sentinels
20140930.2818170
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (182): vaccine, orphans, S.Leone,
prevention 20140930.2817719
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (181): Liberia, Europe, Senegal, sea
law 20140929.2816072
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (180): S. Leone, Liberia, USA,
drugs, Guinea 20140928.2813292
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (179): Liberia, protection, aerosol,
prevention 20140927.2811394
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (178): WHO Roadmap Update
20140927.2810521
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (177): WHO, quarantine, vaccine,
Liberia, surv. 20140926.2808526
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (176): Sierra Leone, USA, Nigeria
20140925.2806004
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (175): CDC, Sierra Leone, drugs,
survivors RFI 20140924.2802601
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (174): WHO, UNMEER, AU, Sierra
Leone, Liberia 20140924.2799482
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (173): WHO, Sierra Leone,
respirators, aid 20140922.2792415
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (172): Sierra Leone, volunteers,
Senegal free 20140921.2790986
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (171): lockdown, serum, aerosol,
team killed 20140920.278947
Ebola virus disease - West Africa (170): WHO, volunteers, risk,
training 20140919.2788195
Undiagnosed viral hemorrhagic fever - Guinea: (NZ) RFI
20140319.2342420]
.................................................jw/msp/mpp
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