Global Biodefense February 18, 2021 The last outbreak of Ebola in West Africa that occurred between 2014 and 2015 and affected Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, was the world’s deadliest Ebola outbreak, which began in Guinea and in which more than 11,300 people died including over 500 health workers. But countries in the West African region are in a very different position seven years on. Liberia and Sierra Leone have already mobilised and activated their national response and preparedness plans. Countries in the region also have the experience of the past, experienced workforce, laboratory systems are more developed, regional organisations […]
Tag Archives: Ebola
Targeting the shell of the Ebola virus
Science Daily October 20, 2020 As the world grapples with COVID-19, the Ebola virus is again raging. Researchers at the University of Delaware are using supercomputers to simulate the inner workings of Ebola, observing the way molecules move, atom by atom, to carry out their functions. In the team’s latest work, they reveal structural features of the virus’s coiled protein shell that may be promising therapeutic targets, more easily destabilized, and knocked out by an antiviral treatment. They found that single-stranded viral RNA (ssRNA) is essential for maintaining structural integrity of the nucleocapsid. Other molecular determinants observed to stabilize the nucleocapsid […]
Ebola Outbreak in Congo Has Just Been Declared an “Emergency of International Concern”
Science Alert July 18, 2019 The last time the global health body declared an international emergency for Ebola was during the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people. Ebola began spreading in Congo’s conflict-ridden North Kivu province last summer and has infected more than 2,500 and killed nearly 1,700, according to official Health Ministry figures. The decision was made by a committee of 10 scientists who had three times earlier declined to issue the declaration for the current outbreak. The WHO and other public health organizations have been tracing giant webs of people who have come […]
Rethinking Ebola Vaccine Stockpile as Outbreak Threatens Mega-Cities
Global Biodefense December 20, 2018 The nature of Ebola outbreaks is changing as the virus finds its way out of rural villages into populous urban settings. Outbreak response experts at the WHO and GAVI are already talking to the leading Ebola vaccine manufacturer, Merck, to reassess just how much larger global stocks need to be. Besides Merk’s vaccine, another potential vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson could also eventually become part of the stockpile, global health officials say… read more.