BBC                                             Nov. 5, 2014
By Clive Myrie

FREETOWN --A British-run facility to treat people with Ebola is opening in Sierra Leone.

The facility offers 92 beds, with an additional 600 expected to be provided by five further centres

The 92-bed site in Kerry Town will be run jointly by the Department for International Development (DfID) and charity Save the Children.

The centre is the first of six which are being constructed by the British government as part of the effort to stop the spread of the disease.

The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee says it has raised £13m for tackling Ebola, a week after its appeal launch. The DEC, which is made up of 13 British aid charities, is helping to run treatment facilities and care centres.

Meanwhile in the UK, Manchester Airport has begun screening passengers arriving from the worst-affected countries.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29911551

Air Force personnel helped with the construction of the Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU) in Monrovia, Liberia. (Maj. Adrien Adams / AFRICOM)

MILITARY TIMES                                                                         Nov. 4, 2014 

By Patricia Kime

The Pentagon has no plans to scale back its response to the Ebola outbreak, Defense Department spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday.

The rate of new Ebola infections in Liberia has dropped sharply in the past several weeks, according to the World Health Organization, prompting questions as to whether the U.S. military needs to follow through on plans to build 17 medical treatment facilities in that country.

But despite the decline in cases, Kirby told reporters in a Pentagon news conference that DoD will proceed to build the 100-bed facilities unless told otherwise.

Kirby said the recent decline in the number of cases is “promising, but no one is taking that for granted. The history of the disease is the numbers fluctuate.”

Image: A transmission electron micrograph shows Ebola virus particles in this undated handout image released by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fredrick, Maryland. Credit: Reuters/USAMRIID/Handout

reuters.com - November 5th 2014 - Julie Steenhuysen

Scientists across the United States say they cannot obtain samples of Ebola, complicating efforts to understand how the virus is mutating and develop new drugs, vaccines and diagnostics.

The problems reflect growing caution by regulators and transport companies about handling Ebola as well as the limited resources of West African countries which are struggling to help thousands of infected citizens.

Ten scientists from eight major research institutions contacted by Reuters reported they were unable to get Ebola samples in recent months.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

UPDATE: Spanish nurse's press conference after her release

BBC                                                                                         Nov. 5, 2014

Ms Romero recovered after being given a variety of treatments including blood plasma from survivor Paciencia Melgar.

An antiviral drug was also given to Ms Romero but the hospital was unable to say which method had been successful.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29913739

-0-   Earlier story 

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                 NOV. 4, 2014
MADRID --A Spanish nursing assistant who recovered from Ebola is to be discharged from a Madrid hospital a month after she was admitted with the virus.

NEW YORK TIMES                                  Nov. 5, 2014
By ANDREW POLLACK

Searching for a new way to attack Ebola, companies and academic researchers are now racing to develop faster and easier tests for determining whether someone has the disease.

A researcher checks an Ebola diagnostic test in Marcoule, France.  Credit Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters

Such tests might require only a few drops of blood rather than a test tube of it, and provide the answer on the spot, without having to send the sample to a laboratory.

                                                    (Chart by Joss Fong/Vox with data from the One Foundation)

Every day... it seems there is news of a new country or organization pledging money to the Ebola fight. But it's difficult to know whether these promises vanish into thin air or lead to real action on the ground.

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http://www.vox.com/2014/11/3/7150149/chart-how-much-countries-have-actually-given-to-the-ebola-virus-outbreak

REUTERS                                            Nov. 4, 3014
ByJames Pearson

SEOUL, Korea --lAsian countries are not contributing enough to the global effort to fight Ebola, despite having a wealth of trained medical personnel who could help stop the spread of the deadly virus, World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim said on Tuesday.

World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim (L) listens to a reporter's question during a news conference in Seoul   November 4, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji

"Many countries in Asia who could help simply are not, especially when it comes to sending health workers," Kim told a news conference in Seoul....

"We need thousands of health workers, and we're going to need them over the next six months to a year. The fight against Ebola is not over until we get to zero cases in those three countries," Kim said.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/11/04/uk-health-ebola-asia-idUKKBN0IO0BJ20141104

BLOOMBERG  NEWS                                  Nov. 4, 2014
By Jason Gale and Makiko Kitamura

The countries most affected by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa are still lacking about three-fourths of the treatment beds needed for patients, the World Health Organizationsaid.

As many as 4,388 beds are required in 50 Ebola treatment units across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and there are now 1,126 beds, about 25 percent of the necessary capacity, Fadela Chaib, a WHO spokeswoman, told reporters in Geneva today. Twelve of 28 laboratories needed are operational, and 20 more foreign medical teams are needed to staff existing treatment centers, she said.

While empty beds exist at some treatment centers in Liberia, it’s important to maintain overcapacity as new cases can appear anywhere across the country, Bruce Aylward, the WHO’s assistant-general in charge of Ebola responses, said last week. International responders to the crisis have a Dec. 1 target to isolate 70 percent of cases and bury 70 percent of dead bodies safely.

Rate of infection in Liberia seems to plateau, raising questions over the usefulness of models in an outbreak

NATURE  International Weekly Journal of Science                                     Nov. 4, 2014
by Declan Butler

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has infected at least 13,567 people and killed 4,951, according to figures released on 31 October by the World Health Organization (WHO). Now, in a rare encouraging sign, the number of new cases in Liberia seems to be flattening after months of exponential growth. Scientists say it is too soon to declare that the disease is in retreat: case data are often unreliable, and Ebola can be quick to resurge. But it is clear that mathematical models have failed to accurately project the outbreak’s course.

 The reality of the Ebola outbreak is not reflected by model projections of high case numbers. Daniel Berehulak/NYT/Redux/eyevine

Researchers are now struggling to understand whether reports of empty beds at treatment centres and declining burial numbers are signs that fewer people are developing Ebola, or whether cases and deaths are going unrecorded.....

Keeping hands-off without abandoning the patient.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC                               Nov. 3, 2014
By Melissa Pandika

Description of the way that the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which has successfully treated two Ebola patients, uses blue tooth technology and the " no-touch approach."

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141106-science-ebola-cure-medicine-health-africa-disease-technology/

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                                                              Nov. 4, 2014

by Sarah DiLorenzo

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Thousands of people in Sierra Leone are being forced to violate Ebola quarantines to find food because deliveries are not reaching them, aid agencies said....

Large swaths of the West African country have been sealed off to prevent the spread of Ebola, and within those areas many people have been ordered to stay in their homes.

The government, with help from the U.N.'s World Food Program, is tasked with delivering food and other services to those people. But there are many "nooks and crannies" in the country that are being missed, Jeanne Kamara, Christian Aid's Sierra Leone representative, said Tuesday....

Read complete story
http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-break-ebola-quarantine-food-124818527.html

A Pulitzer winning science writer's saga of flying to the Ebola zones of Liberia
 
FOREIGN POLICY                                  Nov. 3, 014
By Laura Garrett

MONROVIA, Liberia — The journey to Liberia tests the mettle of any American wanting to help the nation in its Ebola crisis. The trek really begins with fears about how the Samaritan will be received once he or she returns from the epidemic, facing quarantines and stigma. And the first leg lands the traveler in a political and cultural climate in steamy West Africa marked by resilience in the face of genuine threat.

BLOOMERG BUSINESS WEEK                                                                                            Nov. 4, 2014
By John Tozzi

...Blocking most travel from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, where a total of more than 13,000 people have been infected with Ebola since the outbreak began in March, would only modestly reduce how long it takes for the virus to reach new countries, according to mathematical simulations published in the journal Eurosurveillance. For example, stopping 71 percent of travelers from entering other nations in Africa from the three countries in which Ebola is widespread would delay a case from appearing elsewhere on the continent by only 30 days, according to the model. ...

Medical staff wait for passengers arriving from Guinea at the airport in Abidjan on Oct. 20,as Ivory Coast's airline resumed flights to the three west African countries worst-hit by Ebola. Photograph by Issouf Sanogo/AFP via Getty Image

THE GUARDIAN                                    Nov. 4, 2014
By Lisa  O'Carroll

A fresh outbreak of Ebola in a part of Sierra Leone where the virus was thought to have been contained has raised fears of a new, uncontrolled infection chain that could send the death toll soaring.

A Red Cross ambulance team was sent to the remote district of Koinadugu, which had prided itself on being the only area to have kept Ebola at bay, on Tuesday to urgently collect 30 corpses for medical burial.

A family home under quarantine in the Port Loko district of Sierra Leone, where the Ebola outbreak is widespread. Photograph: Michael Duff/AP

The outbreak is a major setback for the Ebola response force and the district, which two weeks ago remained resolved to control the spread of the virus that has officially infected 5,338 people and claimed 1,510 lives in the country.

Detailed discussion of the difficulties in recruiting health workers for West Africa

A health care worker dressed in protective clothing in an Ebola ward last month in Liberia. Organizing workers in West Africa has been a problem. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

 NEW YORK TIMES                                Nov. 4, 2014
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN, M.D.

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of government and civilian workers of all stripes, and thousands of military personnel, have braved the terrifying prospect of infection to respond to the Ebola emergency in West Africa. And thousands more will be needed for an effort that is expected to go well into 2015.