Professor Levine pictured with staff at Mali's Centre for Vaccine Development where the trial is taking place
Posted on 08/10/2014 12:46:23 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe
I have spent a little time compiling links to threads about the Ebola outbreak in the interest of having all the links in one thread for future reference.
Please add links to new threads and articles of interest as the situation develops.
Thank You all for you participation.
And I now longer see the CDC as a credible agency since they have
agreed with the administration to not limit air transportation with infected countries.
The ONLY known medical procedure control of a pandemic is to : ISOLATE, and QUARANTINE !!
Anything less than ISOLATE and QUARANTINE will perpetuate a disease pandemic !
WHO: More than 4,000 people now dead in Ebola outbreak
http://www.dw.de/who-more-than-4000-people-now-dead-in-ebola-outbreak/a-17987554
(excerpt)
More than 4,000 people have now died from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization. Most of those deaths have been in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
On Friday, the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), the UN’s health body, announced that 4,033 deaths had been confirmed in the current Ebola outbreak. The epidemic began in West Africa at the start of the year.
There have been a total of 8,300 registered cases in seven countries. Those countries have been divided up into two groups by the WHO. The first includes Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - by far the worst affected.
Liberia has seen 4,076 cases and 2,316 deaths, followed by Sierra Leone with 2,950 cases and 930 deaths. Guinea, where the epidemic originated, has seen 1,350 cases and 778 deaths.
The second group of countries includes Nigeria, Senegal, Spain and the United States, which have seen a small number of highly isolated cases.
A separate strain of Ebola has been seen in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 43 deaths up until October 7.
David Nabarro, the senior UN coordinator for the international response to Ebola, said the number of cases was probably doubling every three-to-four weeks.
Nabarro told the UN General Assembly on Friday that, without a global response,”the world will have to live with Ebola forever.” He said the international effort needed to be 20 times greater than it is currently.
(more at source)
Alert:....First Ebola vaccine trial starts in Africa :.....
with three health workers given experimental drug as WHO says disease is ‘entrenched and accelerating’...Two health workers in Mali have received an experimental vaccine.
The new clinical trial launched on October 8 and another 37 African medics will receive the vaccine
A second African clinical trial is due to start soon in Gambia to run parallel
Scientists say if successful trial ‘could alter the dynamic of the outbreak’
But it will be months before any effective vaccine is available they say
And the first small quantities would likely be reserved for health workers
WHO deputy head Bruce Aylward said the world’s response is not keeping up with the disease, adding it is accelerating in almost all settings
He said the virus is ‘entrenched’ in the capital cities of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea - the three worst-hit nations
Professor Levine pictured with staff at Mali's Centre for Vaccine Development where the trial is taking place
Alert:....UK FIRM DESIGN ‘FAST AND SIMPLE’ EBOLA SCREEN TEST
Scientists at a British company say they have come up with a test to fight the Ebola epidemic.
Experts at Primerdesign Ltd said it has developed a fast and simple way to screen suspected victims.
They say the kit detects the DNA fingerprint of the Ebola Virus in the blood in just 90 minutes and is ‘affordable’ and ‘easy to use’.
The firm is now in talks with the World Health Organisation about plans to roll out large numbers to the frontline in West Africa as soon as possible.
Doctor Jim Wicks, Managing Director of Primerdesign, a spin-off company from the University of Southampton, said it meets an ‘urgent’ need.
Dr Wicks said: ‘Accurate diagnostics is essential in controlling an outbreak like Ebola.
‘There is an urgent need for rapid testing to screen suspected patients and people travelling in and out of the region.
‘Our test is quick, affordable and easy to perform.’
By picking up minute quantities of the disease in the early stages, the kit makes pre-emptive healthcare intervention possible.
It works on the principle that viruses all have a unique genetic fingerprint, like humans, only its encoded in RNA (Ribonucleic acid) rather than DNA.
A blood sample is taken from the patient before RNA is extracted, placed in a tube with the kit’s ingredients and run through a machine.
The result is ready within 90 minutes.
What happened to there isn’t any left?
Can’t find a ticker symbol., And I don’t think my broker is lisc. for UK trading. :(
Several details in the CDC protocols for use of this basic equipment deserve mention. Gloves should be rinsed in disinfectant while being worn whenever they are grossly contaminated; ‘they should also be rinsed in disinfectant before they are removed.’ The order in which clothing is removed is also important. The proper sequence is (1) shoe covers, (2) cap, (3) respirator-goggles (which should be stored in containers, such as plastic bags, and reused by a single individual), (4) gown, and (5) gloves. The poster, however, shows the gloves being removed first.
In addition, the CDC indicates in their publication “Bio-safety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories,” http://www.cdc.gov/biosafety/publications/bmbl5/bmbl5_sect_iv.pdf, that within a laboratory analyzing such infectious agents: “Laboratory—Personnel must wear a positive pressure supplied air protective suit.”
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Why does the CDC have two different protocols for individuals who, in essence, handle the same infectious agent, although in different venues? I understand that laboratory staff, who obtained their sample from the HCW, are more likely to become exposed while handling samples: pipetting, centrifuging, preparing samples, etc. Yet by the established guidelines, the CDC believes that the health care worker, who has potentially equay exposure to the virus, does not need this level of protection.
Given: 1. the number of HCW and scientists in West Africa that have been exposed to and died from exposure to the Ebola virus; 2. the CDC recommendations for PPE to be worn by laboratory scientists handling a Level 4 virus (Ebola); 3. the protection worn by HCW from MSF while treating positive Ebola patients; 4. the extensive training given to level 4 laboratory scientists and MSF HCW in donning and removal of PPE prior to analyzing samples or treating confirmed Ebola patients; and 5. the extensive procedures for decontamination prior to removing PPE of laboratory staff and MSF HCW workers handling or treating confirmed or suspected Ebola samples/patients, The present CDC guidelines for HCW treating suspect/confirmed Ebola patients are patently ridiculous. I cannot believe this "misinformation" is not purposeful.
"Vaccinating potential contacts is a tactic that has worked to contain outbreaks of other diseases, and would work with Ebola ... Yet we only vaccinated people who are at occupational risk of getting it [rabies], such as veterinarians."
In the case of the late Mr. Duncan in Dallas, that would have meant everyone exposed to him including the schoolchildren, every resident in the entire apartment complex, everyone who entered the apartment in question, the paramedics and law enforcement exposed to him, every worker at Texas Presbyterian who wanted a vaccination, etc.
Which didn't happen because the vaccines haven't finished testing, let alone entered production.
But this is clearly what should be done in future outbreaks and, eventually, will be done. It's just a question of how many Americans will unnecessarily die, and how much damage will be done to the economy, before then. We have the means of snuffing out Ebola when it comes here. Only the political will to do so is lacking.
Quarantine of arrivals for 30 days, while not as good as a travel ban, would also work.
The US Public Health Service, which administers CDC, was founded to run quarantine stations. Perhaps they should get back to their roots.
That is assuming the vaccine works.. Which I am not sure that is a safe assumption at this point..
You wouldn’t need to vaccinate all of those people. I’m sure vaccination would be offered after a risk assessment, just as rabies vaccine/prophylaxis is offered now. So, not everyone in the apartment building would be offered vaccine, but Mr. Duncan’s family would receive it.
I will interject that it has now been 12 days since anyone was potentially exposed to Mr. Duncan, and no one has become ill. That’s good, since the average incubation is around 7 or 8 days. In 9 more days, his contacts are all officially out of danger.
The big problem with Ebola vaccines and drugs is that we cannot test them using the normal clinical trial protocols. No one is going to volunteer to be exposed to Ebola to see if the vaccine works, and there is no way such a trial can contain a placebo arm. Drugs can be tested on actual Ebola patients, but then there is an ethical problem with including a placebo arm to the trial.
I can't emphasize enough how encouraging your response was. My analysis from the middle of August has been that only vaccination (in addition to effective anti-viral treatment) can end this outbreak once Ebola becomes endemic in West Africa, and that the latter is inevitable.
Your reminder about how real-world vaccination campaigns against existing, but not yet truly widespread, epidemic outbreaks are implemented led me to finally understand how Ebola can be snuffed out here without mass quarantines. I feel much more confident about the future.
Thank you very much.
You’re welcome!
I think what scares people the most is the unknown. So I try to convey accurate knowledge... I owe that to all of the taxpayers who kindly (and unknowingly) paid for my education!
I'll retire to Medford, Oregon, halfway between my brother in Portland and my wife's sister in Redding.
bfl
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