Sierra Leone

REUTERS  by Stephanie Nebehay                   April 10, 2015

GENEVA  West Africa's Ebola epidemic still poses a threat to other countries, but the risk of it spreading internationally appears to be diminishing, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The U.N. agency declared in August 2014 that the world's worst Ebola outbreak -- which began in December 2013 -- represented a "public health emergency of international concern" that forced all health officials to shore up defenses.

The WHO's Emergency Committee, comprising independent experts who held talks on Thursday, was "absolutely firm" in maintaining that view, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO Special Representative for the Ebola Response.

"They did note, however, that they believe the risk of international spread appeared to be reducing, this was a result of the work being done in the countries," Aylward told a news briefing at WHO headquarters. He cited control measures and exit screening of travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

NEW YORK TIMES   by Denis Grady                                                                 April 9. 2015

Two  new Ebola vaccines have passed an important test, protecting monkeys against the strain of the virus responsible for the current deadly outbreak, researchers reported on Wednesday. Only one dose was needed, and there were no apparent side effects..

Thomas W. Geisbert, an Ebola expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, in his office. Credit Michael Stravato for The New York Times

REUTERS                                                                                                           April 8, 2015

GENEVA -- Thirty confirmed cases of Ebola were reported in West Africa in the past week, the smallest number in nearly a year of the worst ever outbreak of the deadly fever, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

"This is the lowest weekly total since the third week of May 2014," the WHO said in its latest update.

The virus is receding in Liberia, which reported no cases in the week to April 5, and in Sierra Leone, which reported nine, its fifth consecutive weekly decrease, it said.

But the picture was "mixed" in Guinea, which had 21 new infections, the WHO said. Unsafe burials of bodies continued in Guinea and "unknown chains of transmission could be a source of new infections in the coming weeks", it warned.

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http://news.yahoo.com/30-ebola-cases-lowest-weekly-figure-nearly-193642702.html;_ylt=AwrBEiE_piVVVQwAjAnQtDMD

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INQUIRER.NET  by Kristine Angeli Sabillo                  APRIL 8, 2015

MANILA --As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa winds down, the United Nations is optimistic that a vaccine against the deadly virus will be made available in the next several months.

“Clinical trials have have now been undertaken of candidate vaccines, two of them. They are now at an advanced stage,” Dr. David Nabarro, UN secretary general special envoy on Ebola, told reporters in Manila on Wednesday.

“I believe that we will have a vaccine against Ebola that is available and can be used particularly for doctors and nurses who provide treatment for people with the disease in the coming months,” he added.

According to the World Health Organization, the two vaccine candidates undergoing efficacy trials are ChAd3-ZEBOV, developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and rVSV-ZEBOV, developed by NewLink Genetics and Merck Vaccines USA. The first is being developed in collaboration with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the second with the Public Health Agency of Canada.

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http://globalnation.inquirer.net/120463/un-envoy-expect-ebola-vaccine-in-coming-months/