Science

For Ebola, don't forget lessons from the AIDS epidemic

Wed, 2014-11-12 17:35 — mike kraft

THE HILL Nov. 12, 2014
Commentary by Claire Pomeroy, M.D., M.B.A, President of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation.

...Without a commitment by Congress to fund basic medical research, the lives of millions are put at risk, along with the nation’s economic and national security. Outbreaks of deadly viruses – including AIDS or Ebola – have shown us the costs of not remaining vigilant.

So how much funding is enough? It’s time for us to have that national conversation once again. We do not know what the superbugs of tomorrow will look like. But we do know that novel pathogens will emerge or existing ones will mutate, and that as global travel and migration inexorably increase, disease knows no border. It is time for us to stop chasing at AIDS and Ebola from behind, and take stock of our capacity to commit.

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Fast-spreading killers: how Ebola compares with other diseases

Mon, 2014-11-10 16:04 — mike kraft

HOMELAND SECURITY NEWS WIRE Nov. 1, 2014
By Mick Roberts

The West African outbreak of Ebola has claimed more than 4,800 lives and this number is sure to rise. There is understandably a lot of fear about Ebola, but how does it actually compare with other fast-spreading infectious diseases?
Read complete article
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20141110-fastspreading-killers-how-ebola-compares-with-other-diseases

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Infection Secrets of Ebola Explained

Sat, 2014-11-08 15:07 — mike kraft

By attacking the body's first responders, the virus cripples the immune system before it can mount an effective defense

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Nov. 8, 2014
By Helen Branswell

Researchers often describe the battle between the Ebola virus and the humans it occasionally infects as a race—one that people win only if their immune systems manage to pull ahead before the virus destroys too many of their internal defenses. What they may not know is that the virus is a cheat.

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CDC Removed Info On Coughing And Sneezing From Ebola Q&A (UPDATE)

Sat, 2014-11-01 00:13 — mike kraft

TWO ARTICLES ON THE TRANSMISSION OF EBOLA AND THE LONGIVITY OF THE VIRUS ON VARIOUS SURFACES (Scroll down)

THE HUFFINGTON POST OCT. 31, 2014
By Arhur Delaney

WASHINGTON -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly removed some Ebola information from its website. The changes follow claims from news outlets and conservative blogs that the agency hasn't been forthcoming about how the virus spreads, but it was not clear on Thursday afternoon whether the removal was related to the reports.

The New York Post reported Tuesday that the agency "admitted" Ebola can be contracted through casual contact with a doorknob, seemingly contrary to the CDC's insistence that Ebola is only transmissible through direct contact with bodily fluids from a person sick with the disease. The Post cited a page on the CDC's website that said Ebola spreads through droplets that can travel short distances when a sick person coughs or sneezes....

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The Ebola questions

Fri, 2014-10-31 02:35 — mike kraft

Scientists know a lot about the virus that causes Ebola — but there are many puzzles that they have yet to solve.

NATURE SCIENCE International Weekly Journal of Science Oct. 29, 2014

By Erika Check Hayden

Scientists know a lot about the virus that causes Ebola — but there are many puzzles that they have yet to solve.

An Ebola virus particle from the 2014 outbreak.

To much of the world, the virus behind the devastating Ebola outbreak in Africa seems to have stormed out of nowhere. But Leslie Lobel thinks we should have seen it coming.

In 2012, Lobel and a team of researchers spent six months in Uganda studying the Ebola virus and related viruses. Over the course of their stay, these pathogens caused at least four separate outbreaks of disease in central Africa, affecting more than 100 people. To Lobel, a virologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel, the outbreaks felt like the small tremors that can precede a major earthquake. “We all said, something is going on here; something big is going to happen,” he says.

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Genes Influence How Mice React to Ebola, Study Says In ‘Significant Advance’

Fri, 2014-10-31 00:38 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 30, 2014

By Gina Kolata

Some people exposed to the Ebola virus quickly sicken and die. Others become gravely ill but recover, while still others only react mildly or are thought to be resistant to the virus. Now researchers working with mice have found that these laboratory animals, too, can have a range of responses to Ebola, and that in mice, the responses are determined by differences in genes.

Researchers at the University of Washington have been studying the Ebola virus in mice, and have found that the effects of the virus may be determined by genes.Video and photo by University of Washington.

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Assessing the Science of Ebola Transmission

Wed, 2014-10-29 22:24 — mike kraft

THREE ARTICLES DESCRIBING DETAILS OF THE EBOLA VIRUS AND OTHER VIRUSES.
(Scroll Down)

Advances in microscopy have allowed scientists like Sriram Subramaniam and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute to look at the workings of tiny viruses. In this case, microscopy was used to illustrate the complex process in which human cells infected with HIV-1, green and blue, are linked to uninfected cells. Credit Illustration by Donald Bliss/N.I.H, from The Journal of Virology/American Society for Microbiology

The research on how the virus spreads is not as ambiguous as some have made it seem

THE ATLANTIC Oct. 28, 2014

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French scientists roll out rapid diagnostic test for Ebola

Sat, 2014-10-25 22:17 — mike kraft

FIERCE DIAGNOSTICS Oct. 23, 2014

By Emily Wasserman

French scientists are developing a diagnostic tool that works similar to a home pregnancy test and can quickly identify the virus through a tiny fluid sample.

CEA's Ebola testing kit uses strips to rapidly identify the presence of the virus in fluid samples.--Courtesy of France's Atomic Energy Commission

France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is teaming up with European pharma company Vedalab to roll out a user-friendly testing system than could diagnose Ebola in less than 15 minutes, the agency said in a statement. The kit, dubbed "Ebola eZYSCREEN," includes a hand-held device that reads small samples of blood, plasma or urine to detect the virus, and shows results in stripes through a window on the tool.

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Review of Human-to-Human Transmission of Ebola Virus

Mon, 2014-10-20 19:42 — mike kraft

CDC Posted Oct. 20, 2014 from CDC Oct. 17 document

This document is a concise summary of published information on the current science about human-to-human transmission of Ebola virus. It is developed for use by healthcare personnel and public health professionals to use. It is a complement to the many guidance documents that CDC has issued already online at

www.cdc.gov/ebola.

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Canada to start shipping experimental Ebola vaccine on Monday

Sat, 2014-10-18 17:53 — mike kraft

CANADIAN PRESS Oct. 18, 2014

OTTAWA—The federal government says Canada will start shipping its experimental Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organization on Monday.

A lab worker at the JC Wilt Infectious Diseases Research centre at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. An experimental Ebola vaccine developed in Canada will be shipped to the World Health Organization in Geneva starting Monday.

The government says in a release the Public Health Agency of Canada is supplying the vaccine to the UN body in Geneva in its role as the international co-ordinating body for the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. It says Canada will ship 800 vials of its experimental vaccine in three separate shipments, as a precautionary measure.

The WHO will consult with its partners, including the health authorities from the affected countries, to determine how best to distribute and use the vaccine. For instance, it must take into account concerns about using an experimental vaccine in people.

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