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West Africa: Companies Fill Gaps in Ebola Response

All Africa                                                                                    Oct. 7, 2014

New York dateline article by Tami Hultman contains a description of what some companies are doing to help counter the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

 

 
                      ArceloMittal employee in Liberia
                                Photo: Tami Hultman/AllAfrica

The story described contacts  with various companies and said:

"The prompt corporate response is the result of a months-long preparatory process to coordinate actions that began with aggressive programs information and education programs. Since March, when the Ebola threat re-emerged in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, after a relatively small rural outbreak earlier in the year, companies with operations in the area had been preparing for an emerging crisis."

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Ebola outbreak: UK sending 750 troops to Sierra Leone

UK and Israel send additional assistance. Two stories

 

 British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and U.S. Secretary of State Kerry urged all nations to boost their response to combat the Ebola virus

BRITAIN SENDS 750 MILITARY PERSONNEL AND MEDICAL SHIP

BBC                                                                Oct. 8, 2014

The UK is sending 750 military personnel to Sierra Leone to help deal with the deadly Ebola outbreak, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed.

The UK will also send medical ship the RFA Argus and three helicopters. The personnel will be deployed next week.

It comes as Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was "now entirely possible that someone with Ebola will come to the UK either by one route or another".

See full story

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29542129

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More Ebola screening to begin at five US airports

Associated Press                          October 8, 2014 updated 3:43 PM

By Licia A. Caldwell

WASHINGTON (AP) - The government will begin taking the temperatures of travelers from West Africa arriving at five U.S. airports as part of a stepped-up response to the Ebola epidemic.

President Barack Obama said the new efforts would provide yet another tier of protection at key U.S. points of entry.

However, the focus is still on stopping the epidemic in West Africa, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Thomas Frieden, said in Atlanta.

At the White House, spokesman Josh Earnest said the additional layer of screening would begin at New York's JFK International and the international airports in Newark, Washington Dulles, Chicago and Atlanta. He said the new steps would include taking temperatures and would begin Saturday at JFK.

Read full story
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/nation_world/20141008_ap_4142a3851ff8431eacb7c7a0515d6611.html

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EU sends Ebola airlift to West Africa

AFP                           OCT. 8, 2014

Brussels (AFP) - The European Union said Tuesday it is urgently airlifting relief goods to West Africa to combat the Ebola crisis, as the disease threatened its shores with an infection in Spain.

Three 747 jumbo jet cargo planes carrying 100 tonnes of aid will be sent to the worst-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, the European Commission said.

The first plane leaves on Friday for Freetown carrying personal protection equipment including masks and gloves and medicines.

 SEE FULL ARTICLE

http://news.yahoo.com/eu-sends-ebola-airlift-west-africa-191524011.html?utm_source=October+8+2014+EN&utm_campaign=10%2F8%2F2014&utm_medium=email

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'In 1976 I Discovered Ebola - Now I Fear an Unimaginable Tragedy'

Professor Peter Piot, the Director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine: ‘Around June it became clear to me there was something different about this outbreak. I began to get really worried’ Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP

theguardian.com - October 4, 2014
Rafaela von Bredow and Veronika Hackenbroch

. . . "it should be clear to all of us: This isn't just an epidemic any more. This is a humanitarian catastrophe. We don't just need care personnel, but also logistics experts, trucks, jeeps and foodstuffs. Such an epidemic can destabilise entire regions. I can only hope that we will be able to get it under control. I really never thought that it could get this bad" . . .

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Obama: U.S. Will Beef Up Airport Screenings for Ebola

UPDATED  With additional information  (Scroll below).

TIME

By Zeke J. Miller                              Oct. 6. 2014                5:24 PM

President Barack Obama said Monday that the U.S. is working on additional passenger screenings for airline passengers flying from Ebola-stricken West Africa, two weeks after a Liberian man infected with the disease entered the country.

Officials are “going to be working on protocols to do additional passenger screenings both at the source and here in the United States,” Obama said, addressing reporters following a briefing on his administration’s response to the epidemic in Africa and efforts to keep the disease from spreading to the U.S. “All of these things make me confident that here in the United States at least the chances of an outbreak, of an epidemic here are extraordinarily low.”

The president did not give specifics on the new screening measures, and Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declined to elaborate further in an interview with CNN after the meeting.

 

 

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FDA approves use of experimental Ebola drug

THE HILL                     Oct. 6, 2014
By Sarah Ferris

Washington --The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday approved the use of an experimental drug that has been hailed as one of the pharmaceutical industry's best chances at fighting the Ebola virus.

Chimerix, a North Carolina-based biopharmaceutical company, announced Monday that it has received approval to administer an antiviral drug called brincidofovir that has successfully treated Ebola in lab tests.

The drug has also been tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, though it is not expected to win approval for wide public use until late 2016.

 Another drug that has been used to treat Ebola-infected patients, TKM-Ebola, has also been permitted for emergency use by the FDA.... The drug, produced by Canadian drugmaker Tekmira, was given a "fast track" designation and is still undergoing clinical trials. 

See full story

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/219856-fda-approves-use-of-experimental-ebola-drug

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Medical Research: Ebola Therapy Protects Severely Ill Monkeys

nature.com

Thomas W. Geisbert

Nature 514, 41–43 (02 October 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13746 - Published online 29 August 2014

A blend of three monoclonal antibodies has completely protected monkeys against a lethal dose of Ebola virus. Unlike other post-infection therapies, the treatment works even at advanced stages of the disease. See Article p.47

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v514/n7520/full/nature13746.html

Reversion of advanced Ebola virus disease in nonhuman primates with ZMapp

Nature 514, 47–53 (02 October 2014) doi:10.1038/nature13777
Received 05 August 2014 - Accepted 21 August 2014 - Published online 29 August 2014

Abstract

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Are Hospitals Prepared for Ebola?

cnn.com - October 1, 2014

CNN's Jake Tapper speaks to Gavin Macgregor-Skinner and Jeffery Stern. With the first Ebola diagnosis in the U.S., is the country prepared to handle a potential outbreak?

http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2014/10/01/only-four-u-s-hospitals-prepared-for-outbreak/

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Sequence for Putting On and Removing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

                                   CLICK ON THE IMAGES BELOW - TO ENLARGE (2 page .PDF file)

      

      

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/pdf/ppe-poster.pdf

http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/resources/factsheets.html

 

     

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