Ebola News 2/5

[Buster's Uncle]

Number of new Ebola cases rises for first time in 2015: WHO
AFP
By Nina Larson  19 hours ago



A girls suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus has her temperature checked at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on August 16, 2014 (AFP Photo/Carl de Souza)



Geneva (AFP) - The weekly number of new Ebola cases registered across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone rose in the last week of January, marking the first hike in 2015, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

"Weekly case incidence increased in all three countries for the first time this year," the UN health agency said.

During the seven days leading up to February 1, 124 new cases were confirmed across the three west African countries at the epicentre of the devastating outbreak.

Thirty-nine of the new cases were in Guinea, where the outbreak began in December 2013, with at least 11 new cases attributed to a single unsafe burial.

A week earlier, the country had confirmed just 30 new cases.

Liberia meanwhile recorded five new cases last week, up from four the week before, and Sierra Leone confirmed 80 new cases, up from 65, according to the latest statistics.

"Continued community resistance, increasing geographical spread in Guinea and widespread transmission in Sierra Leone, and a rise in incidence show that the (Ebola) response still faces significant challenges," the WHO said.



Tombstones are seen at a cemetery at the Kenama Ebola treatment center on November 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Francisco Leong)


In total, 22,495 people have been infected with the virus across nine countries, and 8,981 of them have died, according to the latest numbers.

All but 15 of the deaths have occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.


- Unsafe burial sparks outbreak -

Massive efforts and funds have been poured into trying to rid the three west African countries of the Ebola scourge, and in recent weeks a sharp drop in new cases gave rise to optimism that the worst was over.

Ensuring safe burials of the highly contagious bodies of those who die from the virus has been a top priority.

But Wednesday's numbers showed the message still had not gotten through, with devastating consequences in Guinea, where a single unsafe burial in early January in the eastern prefecture of Lola, near the Ivory Coast, led to at least 11 infections there, the WHO said.



Health workers walking at the Kerry Town Ebola treatment center on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone on November 13, 2014 (AFP Photo/Francisco Leong)


And with a prefecture near the Mali border recording its first cases, the WHO said Mali and Senegal were planning a meeting with Guinea to strengthen the surveillance coordination.

Guinea counts a total of 2,975 cases, including 1,944 deaths, according to the latest statistics.

The situation in Liberia, once the hardest-hit country and counting a towering total of 8,745 cases and 3,746 deaths, meanwhile appeared under control.


- 'Intense transmission' -

But the WHO expressed deep concern over the situation in Sierra Leone, which counts the most cases, at 10,740, including 3,276 deaths.

The UN agency warned of "intense transmission" in the west of the country.

Freetown reported 22 new confirmed cases last week up from 20 the week before, while neighbouring district Port Loko "saw a resurgence of cases, with 36 new confirmed cases compared with six the previous week," it said.

The situation in Sierra Leone is far from under control, with 12 deaths last week occurring in the community and not in the safety of Ebola treatment centres and with 11 unsafe burials reported, the WHO said.

The country is also falling short of the target of having 100 percent of new cases arising among registered contacts, "so that each and every chain of transmission can be tracked and terminated."

In Liberia, 100 percent of new cases stemmed from already registered contacts at the end of last month, while in Guinea 54 percent did.

But in Sierra Leone, only 21 percent, or 26 of 121 confirmed cases, arose among already registered contacts during the week leading to January 18, the WHO said.

Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, is spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting.

People caring for the sick or handling the bodies of people infected with Ebola are especially exposed.

As of February 1, a total of 822 health workers were known to have contracted the virus and 488 of them had died, the WHO said.


http://news.yahoo.com/number-ebola-cases-rises-first-time-2015-185746687.html

[Buster's Uncle]

CDC: Ebola virus sent to lower-tier lab likely not dangerous
Associated Press
By MIKE STOBBE  16 hours ago



Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta (REUTERS/Tami Chappell/File)



NEW YORK (AP) — A high-security federal laboratory made a frightening mistake in sending certain Ebola samples to a lab with fewer safeguards, but an investigation concludes that the samples probably did not contain live virus.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday released the results of its internal investigation of the December 22 incident in Atlanta.

The mistake occurred during a study of how long Ebola-infected animals remain infectious. Lab technicians were working with cheek swabs from some guinea pigs that had survived exposure to the virus and some that had died, CDC officials said.

The second lab, in the same CDC building as the first, was supposed to get samples that had been treated with a solution to kill the virus. But two trays of tubes were mixed up, and it received untreated samples instead.

A technician in the second lab worked with them before the mix-up was discovered.

The technician was considered at risk and was monitored for 21 days for symptoms of Ebola — a period that ended January 12. No symptoms appeared.

CDC officials now think it's unlikely the samples were dangerous. No live virus was found in other untreated samples taken before and after the ones that were sent between labs, said Michael Shaw, the CDC's senior adviser for laboratory science.

The report faults inadequate safeguards, including lack of a written study plan and insufficient monitoring for potential errors like this.

A CDC spokesman declined to say whether any employees are being fired or re-assigned as a result of the incident, saying the agency as a policy doesn't release details on disciplinary actions of personnel.

The CDC is currently recruiting for an administrator to oversee lab safety.


http://news.yahoo.com/cdc-ebola-virus-sent-lower-tier-lab-likely-232617995.html

[Buster's Uncle]

World Health Organization says Ebola cases increase slightly
Associated Press  5 hours ago



A woman is injected by a health care worker, left, as she takes part in an Ebola virus vaccine trial, at one of the largest hospital's Redemption hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. A large-scale human trial of two potential Ebola vaccines got under way in Liberia's capital Monday, part of a global effort to prevent a repeat of the epidemic that has now claimed nearly 9,000 lives in West Africa. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)



LONDON (AP) — The number of Ebola cases in West Africa has gone up for the first time this year, the World Health Organization says, warning that the coming rainy season could complicate efforts to contain the disease.

In an update published online Wednesday, the U.N. health agency said there were 124 confirmed cases last week, up from 99 the week before.

WHO said there are continuing problems tracking the spread of the virus. Only 21 percent of new cases in Sierra Leone were from known contacts, meaning health officials have no idea how the majority of new patients are being infected and where the virus might be lurking.

In Guinea, about half of new patients were from contacts of other cases, and 10 of 34 prefectures in the country reported at least one security problem or refusal to cooperate with international aid efforts in the last week. Ebola is also continuing to spread to new areas in Guinea, close to the border with Mali.

WHO noted that a single unsafe burial in Guinea in early January sparked nearly a dozen confirmed cases. The bodies of people killed by Ebola are highly infectious and traditional burial practices that involve washing or kissing the body are extremely risky.

"A rise in incidence shows that the (Ebola) response still faces significant challenges," WHO said, adding that the wet season will make it hard to get to remote areas.

To date, the virus is believed to have killed nearly 9,000 people and the death rate is estimated to be between 50 and 60 percent in West Africa for people hospitalized with the disease.

At a WHO Ebola meeting last month, the agency's chief Dr. Margaret Chan said data showed that "we have bent the (epidemic) curve and avoided the worst-case scenario," after earlier predicting there might be as many as 10,000 cases per week. She said the agency was focused on getting to zero cases but that "high-risk situations" were still occurring.


http://news.yahoo.com/world-health-organization-says-ebola-cases-increase-slightly-100732117.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Only a third of Ebola aid pledges delivered, says study
AFP  21 hours ago



Only about a third of the $2.89 billion (2.52 billion euros) in aid money pledged to fight Ebola was actually delivered as of December 31, according to an analysis in the British Medical Journal (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)



London (AFP) - Only about a third of the $2.89 billion (2.52 billion euros) in aid money pledged to fight Ebola was actually delivered as of December 31, according to an analysis in the British Medical Journal.

The report pointed to delays in the response since the first reports about the deadly outbreak in March 2014 and cited studies saying that "this may have contributed to the ongoing spread of the disease".

"Like the international response, contributions to fight the epidemic were slow to take off," said the report by Karen Grepin, assistant professor of global health policy at New York University.

The report, published on Tuesday, identified the United States as the top donor, saying it had disbursed $855 million (746 million euros) by December 31.

It was followed by Britain, the World Bank, Germany, France and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, a US philanthropist who sent $55 million.

A total of $1.09 billion had been delivered by the end of 2014 -- around 38 percent of the total pledged.



A nurse walks with a little girl suffering from Ebola, at the MSF facility in Monrovia on September 27, 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)


"We need a mechanism to enable more rapid disbursement of funds to fight public health threats such as Ebola," the report said, adding that "existing contracting mechanisms are too slow".

The World Health Organization was first alerted to the current outbreak of the Ebola virus in March last year but only declared a public health emergency of international concern in August, the report said.

The first $500 million of aid only arrived in mid-October and the total reached $1.0 billion only in December, with Liberia being the single biggest recipient of aid ($882 million).

Quoting figures as of December 31, the report said the World Bank had pledged $230 million but disbursed only $117 million, although it added that that the data did not cover loans to the affected countries.

The World Bank said in a statement on Wednesday that it had pledged $518 million to date, of which $283 million had been disbursed.

It said that total World Bank Group commitments to the Ebola response totalled about $1.0 billion, including money from its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation.


http://news.yahoo.com/only-third-ebola-aid-pledges-delivered-says-study-103532178.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola cases on rise for first time this year, WHO says
Reuters
By Stephanie Nebehay  9 hours ago



Health workers push a wheeled stretcher holding a newly admitted Ebola patient, 16-year-old Amadou, in to the Save the Children Kerry town Ebola treatment centre outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, December 22, 2014. REUTERS/Baz Ratner



GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of new cases of Ebola rose in all three of West Africa's worst-hit countries last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, ending several weeks of encouraging declines across the region.

Suspicion of aid workers, especially in Guinea, and unsafe local practices were continuing to hamper efforts to halt the deadly virus, the United Nations agency said.

"An unsafe burial that took place in early January in the (Guinean) eastern prefecture of Lola, on the border with Côte d’Ivoire, has so far resulted in an outbreak of 11 confirmed cases," it said. Investigators had been initially rebuffed by the local population, it added.

Mourners have caught the haemorrhagic disease in the past by touching the highly-contagious bodies of dead loved ones, sometimes by laying hands on them to say goodbye.

The WHO said a week ago that there had been 99 confirmed cases in the week to Jan. 25, the lowest tally since June 2014, raising hopes that the tide might have turned.

But its new figures, for the week ending Feb. 1, showed the first recorded rise in new cases across all three countries this year.

Sierra Leone, the worst hotspot, accounted for 80 of the 124 new cases of the disease, Guinea recorded 39 while Liberia had just five, all near the capital Monrovia, the report said.

Nearly one third of Guinea's 34 prefectures had reported at least one security incident or other form of refusal to cooperate with health workers in the previous week.

Villagers are often alarmed by the approach of aid workers wearing space-age protective equipment and have resisted efforts to find cases, isolate those infected and chlorinate homes.

Meetings were planned between authorities from Guinea, Mali and Senegal to strengthen disease surveillance, the WHO said. A rapid response team has deployed in the border area with Ivory Coast, it added.

The WHO said there was an urgent need to step up efforts before the start of the April-May rainy season, when downpours can block roads and make it difficult for health teams to travel.

In all, 8,981 people have died of Ebola out of 22,495 known cases in nine countries since the outbreak began in December 2013, according to the agency.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-cases-rise-first-time-says-065804025.html

[Buster's Uncle]

MSF says lack of public health messages on Ebola 'big mistake'
Reuters
By Misha Hussain  February 4, 2015 10:14 AM



Medecins Sans Frontiers (MFS) health workers stand in an Ebola virus treatment center in Bo, Sierra Leone in this file photo taken on November 17, 2014. REUTERS/Benjamin Black



CONAKRY (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) made the "big mistake" of focusing too much on treatment early on in the Ebola epidemic rather than speaking to people about tackling the disease, a senior member of the medical charity said.

MSF's response to the worst ever outbreak of Ebola, which has killed more than 8,800 people mainly in West Africa, has been praised by the World Health Organization and governments.

With 20 years of experience of treating Ebola, MSF deployed hundreds to the Ebola "hot zones" and was quick to isolate patients and trace their contacts.

However, Claudia Evers, MSF's Ebola emergency coordinator in Guinea, said: "MSF made a big mistake. We advocated for an increase in beds for too long, and everyone listened to MSF."

"Instead of asking for more beds we should have asked for more sensitization activities," Evers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.



Volunteers for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, receive training on how to handle personal protective equipment during courses in Brussels aimed at helping deal with the Ebola disease in West Africa in this file photo taken on October 15, 2014, REUTERS/Francois Lenoir


The latest outbreak of Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever that kills roughly two-thirds of the people it infects, began in the forests of southern Guinea and was first identified in March 2014.

Mistrust of the government and health workers, partly due to lack of communication with ordinary Guineans, has prompted communities to hide infected people and bury bodies secretly, sparking fears the outbreak may flare up again, as it did twice in 2014.

A total of 42 new cases were recorded last week as well as three burials, according to government figures. In Guinea, there were just over 150 confirmed cases of Ebola in January compared with around 500 confirmed cases in December.

Sakoba Keita, head of the national Ebola response, said Ebola transmission was still active in 14 of the country's 34 prefectures in the last week.

He said there were 11 new confirmed cases in Lola prefecture on the border with Ivory Coast and two new cases in northern Tougue, which had never before reported a case.

"Before we can get to 'zero Ebola', we have to get to zero resistance," Keita told donors and aid workers at a coordination meeting on Monday, referring to the government's 60-day Ebola eradication plan, which started at the beginning of the year.

MSF's Evers said the next stage of the Ebola response required a new approach if the disease was to be brought under control, centered on the promotion of good hygiene practices.

"Isolate your sick and bring them in for treatment," she said. "In the first nine months, if people had been given (these) proper messages, all this could have been prevented."

(Editing by Katie Nguyen)


http://news.yahoo.com/msf-says-lack-public-health-messages-ebola-big-151400436.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Secret burials thwarting efforts to stamp out Ebola: U.N
Reuters
By Stephanie Nebehay  40 minutes ago



A transmission electron micrograph shows Ebola virus particles. REUTERS/U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases



GENEVA (Reuters) - Efforts to stamp out West Africa's Ebola epidemic are being thwarted by villagers touching and washing the infectious bodies of dead victims at secret burials and difficulty in tracing those exposed to the virus, U.N. officials said on Thursday.

The number of new cases rose for the first time this year in the past week, coinciding with a looming funding shortfall and the approach of the rainy season that will hamper aid efforts from April, they warned.

"The commonest way in which people are getting Ebola is through the rituals that take place when somebody is buried, particularly the important cleansing and touching that goes on," Dr. David Nabarro, U.N. Ebola special envoy, told a briefing.

Some communities in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone believe traditional practices are needed for the departed's spirit and the society, so it is "asking a lot of them" to change, he said.

"The flares (in new cases) that we're seeing are usually because there has been an unsafe burial, probably done secretly," Nabarro said.

Dr. Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization's special representative on Ebola, said that the 124 new cases recorded in the week to Feb. 1, up from 99 the previous week, also reflected the virus' spread to border areas near Mali and Senegal.

"The virus has told us this week loud and clear I'm not going to go away the way you are expecting me to based on these (epidemiological) curves. And all I have to do is survive out the next couple of weeks or months until the rains hit, and then you're going to have a very, very difficult situation," he said.

But the WHO, the U.N. agency leading the fight against the year-old epidemic that has killed nearly 9,000 people, faces financial constraints.

"Right now though, our funding for those 800 people out there in the field, it ends at the end of February. That is how precarious the situation is right now in terms of being able to sustain this," Aylward said.

The five new cases reported in Liberia last week were all people on lists of contacts of Ebola patients, he said, noting that the success rate may prove hard to sustain. In Guinea the rate was 54 percent and in Sierra Leone 57 percent.

"As soon as they develop fever and become sick, if you get them into isolation they will not initiate another chain of transmission," Aylward said.

"This is part of the end-game of Ebola, it is trying to monitor those contacts."

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Andrew Heavens)


http://news.yahoo.com/secret-burials-thwarting-efforts-stamp-ebola-u-n-195125105.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Wisconsin patient in isolation after testing negative for Ebola
Reuters
By Brendan O'Brien  2 hours ago



(Reuters) - A preliminary test for the Ebola virus has come back negative for a patient who remains in isolation and doing well on Thursday at a Wisconsin hospital, health officials said.

The unidentified patient, whose age and gender have not been released, is being treated in the isolation unit at Meriter Hospital in the state capital Madison, according to hospital spokeswoman Leah Huibregtse.

The patient is "doing well" after a preliminary test came back negative for the Ebola virus, she said.

The patient came to the hospital on Monday after recently traveling, Huibregtse and the Department of Public Health for Madison and Dane County said.

"This is not an indication of Ebola virus disease and there is no risk to the public," the health department said in a statement.

At least 10 people are known to have been treated for Ebola in the United States, four of them diagnosed with it on U.S. soil, during a West African outbreak that has killed at least 8,900 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Will Dunham)


http://news.yahoo.com/wisconsin-patient-isolation-testing-negative-ebola-175240125.html