Africa Resilience Initiative

Clinical Trials Are Being Launched in Africa but Face Challenges in Designing Ethical Studies, Compensating Donors

WALL STREET JOURNAL                                                                                                    Dec. 5, 2014
by Betsy McKay in Atlanta, David Gauthier-Villars in Conakry, Guinea, and Patrick McGroarty in Monrovia, Liberia

...Nearly a year after Ebola began spreading in West Africa, and with a proven drug or vaccine still far off, researchers are launching clinical trials on a product at hand: the blood of survivors.

 They want to determine whether so-called convalescent plasma or serum, chock full of antibodies, can help fight off the disease. But they face a number of complexities in carrying out the trials, including persuading survivors to participate....

ASSOCIATED PRESS  by Mike Stobbe                                                                                   Dec. 5. 2014

NEW YORK--A new government report counts hundreds of times U.S. doctors and hospitals raised false alarms about possible Ebola cases, finding that fewer than one in five warranted even additional investigation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report ? released Friday  looked at Ebola-related calls the federal agency received this year from doctors, hospitals, and state and local health departments.

In most calls, it turned out the patient had neither traveled to an Ebola-affected country nor had contact with an Ebola patient. Of 650 patients flagged to federal officials, four ended up testing positive.

But health officials say there was a national learning curve for Ebola ? even for doctors and nurses ? and they had no complaint about all the nervous phone calls.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/cdc-report-ebola-reports-rarely-panned-27396939

Additonal  Nigerian and British health workers arrive in Liberia and Sierra Leone to help counter Ebola

(Two stories, scroll down)

REUTERS  by James Harding Giahyue and Umaru Fofana   Dec. 5, 2014
MONROVIA/FREETOWN --More than 175 Nigerian medics arrived in Liberia and Sierra Leone on Friday to join the fight against Ebola, the first of 600 volunteers promised by the regional giant which contained its own outbreak earlier this year.

An army medic teaches NHS staff how to dispose of potentially contaminated waste last month, before their deployment to Sierra Leone. Photograph: Simon Davis/AFP/Getty Images

The medics will boost weak local health systems that are also struggling to contain other preventable diseases as Ebola discourages people from going to clinics for fear of contracting the fever.

"This is the African spirit you are showing, this is the Nigerian spirit,” Nigeria's ambassador to Liberia, Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie, told 76 Nigerian medics who landed there.

Another 100 volunteers landed in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Months into the Ebola response, experts say they are still short of medical personnel to staff treatment centers.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS By JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH and MIKE CORDER                                                Dec. 5, 2014

MONROVIA- A U.N. peacekeeper who contracted Ebola in Liberia will be flown to the Netherlands for treatment, a Dutch Health Ministry spokeswoman said Friday.

The Nigerian soldier is expected to arrive in the Netherlands this weekend and will go into isolation at the University Medical Center Utrecht, according to Inge Freriksen.

This is the third infection for the mission, which comprises about 7,700 troops and police. The previous two died.

Sixteen people who came into contact with the Nigerian soldier have been quarantined, the mission said.

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http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/peacekeeper-liberia-tests-positive-ebola-27383914