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What Employers Are Doing To Counter Ebola

FORBES MAGAZINE                              NOV. 11, 2014
By Tevi Troy, President, American Health Policy Institute

Ebola has killed over 5,000 people, roiled U.S. hospitals, and shaken the faith of Americans in the government’s ability to respond. At the same time, and below the radar, U.S. companies are responding to Ebola with a variety of steps to protect themselves, their employees, and their operations.

The most important element of communicating the threat of the Ebola outbreak for both the government and corporate leaders is to provide factual information while also preventing panic and fear. There have been 5,000 false alarm cases of Ebola as people flock to U.S. emergency rooms out of fear that their common cold or seasonal flu symptoms are early manifestations of the Ebola virus. This hysteria not only has potential mental and physical health implications, but also economic implications. Fear may incentivize some people to change their behavior, whether through cancelling flights and vacation plans or visiting the doctor and stocking up on medications. Furthermore, treating suspected Ebola patients, even if they don’t pan out, is expensive and labor intensive for hospitals.

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Another Sierra Leonean Doctor Infected With Ebola

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                                                        Nov. 11, 2014
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone --A doctor in Sierra Leone has tested positive for Ebola, dealing yet another blow to the country's fight against the deadly outbreak, an official announced Tuesday.

Dr. Martin Salia, a specialist surgeon at a major hospital in the capital of Freetown, is the sixth Sierra Leonean doctor to become infected in this outbreak. Salia is receiving treatment, said Dr. Brima Kargbo, Sierra Leone's chief medical officer. He offered no other details.

.. Even with the proper protection, staying safe while treating Ebola patients requires rigorous attention to detail, and the smallest mistake can lead to an infection.

 Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair met with officials in Sierra Leone on Tuesday and urged the international community not to let up the fight against the disease.

"More beds, more medical personnel and laboratory testing need to be done, faster, to be on top of this situation," said Blair, who founded the Africa Governance Initiative to help leaders make reforms and meet development goals.

Read complete story

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Economic impact of the Ebola crisis on select Liberian markets

 

Focus on Monrovia and Lofa and Nimba Counties

MERCY CORPS Study of the impact of Ebola on the Liberian Economy
While the main focus of the Ebola virus disease crisis in Liberia has been around prevention, treatment, and public health, the economic impact of Ebola is also affecting the lives of the majority of Liberians. Households have less access to basic goods on the market because of reduced incomes, which is resulting in a change in eating habits; the supply of goods is constrained due to border and market closures, as well as transportation problems; and challenges in the agricultural sector may affect farmers’ ability to have a normal harvest in the upcoming planting seasons.

Some of these issues may have immediate remedies, while others will require medium to long-term interventions. If attention is not paid to the economic impact of the crisis, the situation will continue to deteriorate over the coming months.

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N.Y. doctor, free of Ebola, discharged from hospital

USA TODAY                                             Nov. 11, 2014
By Matthew Diebel, Doug Stanglin and Liz Szabo

NEW YORK — Craig Spencer, a New York doctor whose hospitalization for Ebola stirred fears that the disease might spread throughout Manhattan, was declared free of the virus Tuesday and released from the hospital...

Dr. Craig Spencer, center, is flanked by New York City Mayor Bill Bill de Blasio, left, and his wife Chirlane McCray as he leaves Bellevue Hospital after being declared free of the Ebola virus on Nov. 11 in New York. (Photo: Andrew Gombert, European Pressphoto Agency)

The release of the 33-year-old physician, who tested positive for the virus Oct. 23, means there are no longer any known Ebola cases being treated in the United States.

The volunteer with Doctors Without Borders, who contracted the disease while treating Ebola patients in Guinea in West Africa, said:

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Fujifilm says tests results on Avigan as Ebola drug by end-2014

REUTERS                                                 Nov. 11, 2014
By Ayai Tomisawa and Reiji Murai

TOKYO--Fujifilm Holdings Corp said it expects its influenza drug Avigan to be approved by international government bodies to treat Ebola after it receives clinical test results as early as the end of the year.

Tablets of Avigan (generic name : Favipiravir), a drug approved as an anti-influenza drug in Japan and developed by drug maker Toyama Chemical Co, a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Co. are displayed during a photo opportunity at Fujifilm's headquarters in Tokyo October 22, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Issei Kato

Fujifilm has been growing its pharmaceutical division through a series of mergers and acquisitions as its photography business wanes. In 2008, it bought Toyama Chemical Co, whose drug Avigan has been drafted to the global fight against Ebola.

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Medical Experts Look For New Ways To Test Ebola Drugs

NPR                                             Nov. 11, 2014
By Richard Harris

Medical experts are meeting today and tomorrow at the World Health Organization in Geneva to figure out how to test potential Ebola drugs in Africa. In addition to determining which experimental drugs should be the highest priority, the experts are sorting through some difficult ethical issues.

In short, they're trying to figure out how to design tests that will provide the fastest and most trustworthy answers — and yet minimize the need for comparison groups who won't be offered the experimental treatments.

Nurses assist a new patient at an Ebola center in Liberia's Lofa County. As drug trials get underway, patients may receive experimental medicines. photo by Trenchard/NPR

Practice in the United States has set an unrealistic standard. When American health care workers fell ill with Ebola in Africa, they flew home and received medical care vastly better than what Africans were getting, including experimental therapies.

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Governments, groups striving to become as agile as the Ebola virus

THE WASHINGTON POST                                                                                        Nov. 11, 2014
By Lena H. Sun, Brady Dennis and Joel Achenbach

The news out of West Africa in recent days — good and bad — has demonstrated a fundamental challenge in the fight against Ebola: The virus is more nimble than the human response to it. The landscape of infection and disease has changed dramatically in recent weeks, even as institutions have largely stuck to blueprints drafted months ago.

Archie C. Gbessay, coordinator of the Active Case Finders and Awareness Team in West Point, a large slum in Monrovia, Liberia, discusses efforts to combat Ebola with his team in a school classroom in September. (Michel du Cille/The Washington Post)

The looming question now is whether governments and other organizations can find a way to become as agile as the virus, which has vanished suddenly in some hard-hit places while erupting just as quickly in new locations.

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In Ebola Fight, Jewish Groups Help Caregivers Cope With Psychosocial Trauma

Additional Assistance: Israeli group provides psychological counseling, German Air Force flies in relief supplies (Two stories, scroll down.)

JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY                    Nov. 10, 2014
By Uri Heilman
IsraAid is providing psychosocial counseling and training to service providers – health workers, social workers, teachers, police — dealing with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. The locals staffing Freetown’s Ebola hotline are among those receiving counseling.

IsraAid psychosocial trauma specialists Hela Yaniv, left, and Sheri Oz lead a counseling and training session for service providers in Sierra Leone.

“Dealing with the psychosocial trauma is critical to addressing the Ebola outbreak,” Shachar Zahavi, IsraAid’s founding director, told JTA in an interview. “A major deterrent to treatment is that people don’t trust one another. If you don’t feel well, your family immediately hides you and you then infect your entire family. We’re trying to teach police, social workers, health workers and teachers how to deal with people who are afraid of them – and how to manage their own stress and anxiety.”

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First Test Of Ebola Vaccine On Humans In Germany Gets Underway

ALLIANCE NEWS                                                  Nov. 10, 21014

Hamburg - Researchers at the Hamburg University Clinic (UKE) have begun the first tests on humans in Germany of an Ebola vaccine. The vaccine delivered by the World Health Organisation (WHO) is initially to be tested on 30 volunteers over the next six months, the clinic said Monday, noting that tests on animals had been successful.

If all the testing phases in Hamburg go successfully, then it is hoped that the vaccine can start to be employed by the fall of 2015, a UKE spokeswoman said.

It is hoped that the vaccine "rVSV-ZEBOV," (developed in Canada) can provide protection after just a single dose. Additionally, it might prove to be effective if applied immediately after an Ebola infection starts.

Parallel to the UKE research, scientists from the University Clinic of Tuebingen are to start testing the vaccine on volunteers in Gabon. Other studies are underway in the US and are soon to get started up in Switzerland, Hamburg doctors said.

http://www.lse.co.uk/AllNews.asp?code=vdoolxoa&headline=First_Test_Of_Ebola_Vaccine_On_Humans_In_Germany_Gets_Underway

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Quick Response and Old-Fashioned Detective Work Thwart Ebola in Mali

NEW YORK TIMES                                          Nov. 10, 2014
By and KATARINA HÖIJE

Mali is about to release from the 21-day quarantine period all 108 persons who had contact with a two year old girl who died of Ebola shortly after her grandmother brought her by bus from neighboring Guinea.

A worker disinfected a bus that arrived in Kayes from Bamako — the same route taken by Fanta Condé and her family from Guinea. They rode with Africa Star, another transport company that no longer takes this precaution. Credit Nick Loomis for The New York Times

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