Updated Ebola Resources from the Office of Public Health Preparedness

Updated Ebola Resources from the Office of Public Health Preparedness

Nov 3, 2014

Ebola Update from MESH Coalition

As part of our commitment to providing actionable intelligence to our healthcare and emergency management partners in Central Indiana, the MESH Coalition is distributing this Ebola News Update seven days a week. This summary of the latest national and global news related to the outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa will also be provided free of charge to our NHCRC colleagues through November 11. After that, we will be assessing a nominal charge to cover our production costs.

Below you will find highlights from the latest Ebola news. The next update will be sent Thursday by 1 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

• Emory University Hospital in Atlanta is sharing lessons learned from its experience successfully treating four Ebola patients and offering access to its Ebola preparedness protocols. The hospital's critical care providers say a key to their success has been aggressive supportive care in order to keep the patients alive long enough to develop antibodies. (Sources: NPR, USA Today)
• The FDA has issued emergency use authorizations for new tests that allow U.S. hospitals with the proper machines to screen symptomatic patients' blood and urine samples for Ebola and receive results in about an hour. More than 300 U.S. hospitals already use the machine for other diagnostics and can now acquire kits to conduct the Ebola tests. (Sources: FDA, Defense One, Reuters)
• Debate continues over some states' implementations of mandatory 21-day quarantines for travelers who had contact with Ebola patients in affected West African countries, despite new and less restrictive guidance from the CDC. Maine officials are now requiring the Doctors Without Borders physician who vocally opposed her initial quarantine in Jersey after landing at the Newark airport to finish out a 21-day home quarantine in Maine. (Sources: Washington Post, New York Times)
• The U.S. Secretary of Defense announced today that all U.S. armed service members working in Ebola-stricken West African countries will undergo a mandatory 21-day isolation period on their American bases upon return. President Obama supports the policy, acknowledging it is more restrictive than the guidance for civilians in part because U.S. troops are not in Africa by choice. (Sources: Associated Press, New York Times, Reuters)
• There have been a growing number of reports around the country - including recent incidents in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Texas - of African children in U.S. schools being targeted by bullies or questioned by school authorities due to fears and stigmas about Ebola. (Sources: NBC News,Boston.com)
• Swiss regulatory authorities have approved a 120-person trial of an experimental Ebola vaccine. The WHO says this is the latest in a series of preliminary trials also under way in Mali, the United Kingdom and the United States that could see vaccine available for trial in affected West African nations as early as December. (Source: WHO)
• WHO's reported case count and death toll for the West African Ebola outbreak have not been updated: According to the October 25 situation report, there have been a total of 10,114 cases, including 4,912 deaths. (Source: WHO)

For information about how to continue receiving these e-mails after November 11, please e-mailjbrown@meshcoalition.org. or visit www.meshcoalition.org

Ebola: Clinician Concerns as Flu Season Begins

To view a video on clinician concerns on Ebola as flu season begins, as well as from other on Ebola from Medscape, please visit:  http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/833811