Global

al.gov - by Mike Oliver - September 15, 2014

ANNISTON, Alabama -- Everything you need to know about treating Ebola -- and staying alive doing so -- will be taught in training sessions which kick off with a pilot program Sept. 22 in this northeastern Alabama town.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is behind this series of 3-day training sessions for health care workers who may deploy to Africa's hotspots, said CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund.

"This is something new we are doing for the outbreak," she said.

According to a sample syllabus, topics range from laboratory and diagnostic testing to simulating drawing blood from an Ebola patient (no real Ebola patients will participate.)

Participants will also learn how to transport or move patients, proper ways to dispose of waste and burial procedures.

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CLICK HERE - CDC Safety Training Course for Healthcare Workers Going to West Africa in Response to the 2014 Ebola Outbreak

DON'T TOUCH Health workers in protective gear prepare to see patients at the Ebola-treatment center in the courtyard of Donka hospital, in Conakry, Guinea.  Photo: by Jeffery E. Stern

vanityfair.com - by Jeffery E. Stern - October 2014

As the Ebola epidemic rages, two questions have emerged: How did the deadly virus escape detection for three months? And why has a massive international effort failed to contain it? Traveling to Meliandou, a remote Guinean village and the likely home of Patient Zero, Jeffrey E. Stern tracks the virus’s path—and the psychological contagion that is still feeding the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

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submitted by Mike Kraft

homelandsecuritynewswire.com - September 17, 2014

A mathematical model that replicates Ebola outbreaks can no longer be used to ascertain the eventual scale of the current epidemic, researchers find. When applying the available data from the ongoing 2014 outbreak to the model, it is “out of all proportion and on an unprecedented scale when compared to previous outbreaks,” says the model developer.

A mathematical model that replicates Ebola outbreaks can no longer be used to ascertain the eventual scale of the current epidemic, finds research conducted by the University of Warwick.

Dr. Thomas House, of the University’s Warwick Mathematics Institute, developed a model that incorporated data from past outbreaks that successfully replicated their eventual scale.

whitehouse.gov - September 16, 2014

As the President has stated, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and the humanitarian crisis there is a top national security priority for the United States.  In order to contain and combat it, we are partnering with the United Nations and other international partners to help the Governments of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal respond just as we fortify our defenses at home. Every outbreak of Ebola over the past 40 years has been contained, and we are confident that this one can—and will be—as well.

Our strategy is predicated on four key goals: