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Sent through the ISARIC mailing list today:
Please find the latest Ebola, MERS-CoV and H7N9 updates below:
Ebola
WHO update, 10 September, epidemiological situation in DRCWHO update. 4 SeptemberECDC Case definition for EVD for epidemiological reportingNEJM, Breman. J.G. & Johnson, K.M.: Ebola Then and NowJAMA, Hampton, T.: Largest-Ever outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease thrusts experimental therapies, vaccines into spotlightAnitviral Research, Bausch, D. et al. A tribute to Sheik Humarr Khan and all the healthcare workers in West Africa who have sacrificed in the fight against Ebola virus disease: Mae we hush
Funding: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – Emergency response to Ebola
Please also see the urgent call for volunteers as distributed through ProMED-mail copied in below.
MERS-CoV
KSA MoH – reporting 1 new case of MERS-CoV, 8 September
Vaccine, Kim, E. et al.: Immunogenicity of an adenoviral-based Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus vaccine in BALB/c mice
H7N9
WHO update, 4 September
The Lancet Infectious Diseases - Dunning, J. et al. on behalf of ISARIC: Antiviral combinations for severe influenza
Best wishes,
Kajsa
EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE - WEST AFRICA (158): URGENT CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS*******************************************************************A ProMED-mail post<http://www.promedmail.org>ProMED-mail is a program of theInternational Society for Infectious Diseases<http://www.isid.org>
[ProMED is brought to you through the good auspices of ISID, theInternational Society for Infectious Diseases, based in Brookline,Massachusetts, USA. Now ISID has been asked to spread the call forvolunteer clinicians to go to West Africa to coordinate isolationunits and supervise local staff in their care for patients with EVD.We start with an e-mail from the hot zone. - Mod.JW]
[1]Date: Tue 9 Sep 2014From: Oliver Johnson <oliver.johnson@kcl.ac.uk> [edited]
Re: International Society of Infectious Diseases (ISID) request forhow they can help----------------------------------------------------------------------The situation in Freetown [Sierra Leone] is rapidly deteriorating asthere simply aren't enough isolation beds to contain suspected orconfirmed cases. The country's 2 treatment centres are full so we areunable to refer confirmed cases out of isolation units to free upspace. As a result suspected cases are now staying at home in theircommunities -- this will quickly lead to an exponential increase incases. At Connaught (the government's main referral hospital) today [9Sep 2014] our isolation unit is full with adult and paediatric casesand we have suspected cases in the waiting area and emergency roomthat we can't isolate -- I don't know how much longer the hospitalwill be able to stay open in these circumstances.
King's is working to urgently set up new isolation units and trainlocal staff. We're working round-the-clock trying to set up a new unitevery 48 hours, but we are the only partner undertaking this work andwe simply won't be able to keep up with demand.
What we most need right now are international clinicians willing tocome out and volunteer to help coordinate these units and superviselocal staff in the larger isolation units. We can train them here[Freetown] when they arrive. If anyone can help advertise volunteeringopportunities in the USA or UK that would be hugely helpful. Theinternational response to the outbreak remains virtually non-existent,in terms of actual impact on the ground.
--Dr Oliver JohnsonProgramme DirectorKing's Sierra Leone Partnership2nd Floor Admin, Connaught Hospital, FreetownSierra Leone2.13 Weston Education Centre, London SE5 9RJUnited Kingdom<oliver.johnson@kcl.ac.uk>
[King's Sierra Leone Partnership (<http://www.kslp.org.uk>) is aninitiative of King's College London UK. - Mod.LM]
******[2]Date: Tue 9 Sep 2014From: Daniel Lucey <daniel.lucey8@gmail.com> [edited]
Dr Lewis Rubinson (cc), the incoming WHO doctor in Kenema, was delayedin transit in Guinea from Paris and his baggage was misplaced;however, hopefully he arrives in Freetown [Sierra Leone] today [9 Sept2014]. He is aware of the WHO-Geneva announcement that the WHO doctorhe is replacing in Kenema has tested positive for Ebola...You perhapsknow more in Freetown...
Last evening [8 Sep 2014] I was fortunate to be able to talk with 3senior persons in the International Society for Infectious DiseasesISID), a large global organization of clinicians. They asked what theycan do as an organization to help in some way with the EVD crisis.
One of the 3 suggestions I made was to contact persons like yourselvesin West Africa who are directly involved with the crisis, and ask youfor your ideas on how they can help.
Dr Larry Madoff of ISID and Editor of the Program for MonitoringEmerging Diseases (ProMED-mail) is copied here, and he or hiscolleague (Dr Britta Lassman) will contact you.
Already Larry, Jack Woodall, and ProMED have posted on ProMED-mailletters by 3 of you: Noa Freudenthal and Sara Hommel (29 Aug 2014)[archive no 20140829.2735183] and Vanessa Wolfman (31 Aug 2014)[archive no 20140831.2738054]. Perhaps the Connaught team would wantto post a communication from Sierra Leone.
My 2nd suggestion to ISID was to work with the US CDC to advertise andendorse the new Ebola PPE [personal protective equipment] andtreatment training course that CDC will offer 22-24 Sep 2014 in thestate of Alabama (not as hot as Sierra Leone but good simulation forwearing PPE there). My understanding is that the training will be forvolunteers who then are interested in either coming to West Africaand/or forming an 'Ebola response team' for their own US hospitals. Ianticipate the official CDC announcement today (9 Sep 2014) about thisprogram.
My 3rd suggestion to ISID was to contact directly other organizationsglobally and their leaders, to share ideas on how to respond and helpduring this long-lasting EVD crisis. For example, the head of PublicHealth England (PHE), Dr David Heymann (cc), who worked duringmultiple EVD outbreaks in Africa such as the initial one in 1976, andwas himself a leader in the response to the 1995 Kikwit outbreak. (Healso led the WHO global response to SARS). PHE also has sentphysicians to Freetown, such as Dr Emma Aarons (cc) who worked inmid-August 2014 initiating the PPE training for the MOH in theauditorium near the Sports stadium. Emma, Dr Jattu Navo, Joseph, Doris(all from Sierra Leone), and I together helped train about 160 nursesand doctors in 9 days.
Andrew Hall from King's College London (KCL) has by now likely trainedthe same number of persons at Connaught hospital by himself over thepast 2+ weeks. Marta and Oliver have trained many people at Connaughtbefore they have gone into work in the Ebola Testing and IsolationUnit.
Yesterday [8 Sep 2014] I received from MSF the contract to go toLiberia for 6 weeks, departing Washington DC on 28 Sep 2014 andfinishing in Monrovia on 10 Nov 2014. Let's stay in contact in thecoming days and weeks and interact with colleagues wherever they mightbe in the world who are willing to help.
--Daniel Lucey MD, MPHGeorgetown University Medical CenterWashington DC, USA<daniel.lucey8@gmail.com>
******[3]Date: Tue 9 Sep 2014From: Colin Brown <colinbrown@doctors.net.uk> [edited]
As Oliver says the situation on the ground in Freetown is nearunbelievable with international response/rhetoric not translating intoboots on the ground. Now I'm back in London and we have treated a casehere; we were talking about the different resources we had available.What first registers is not the availability of ZMapp, or the abilityto measure viral load and blood parameters, but the sheer volume ofstaff we had available to treat one patient versus the exceptional jobthat Oliver and the team are doing to both work clinically andoperationally, given such limited human resources. That they havemanaged to stay afloat is a testament to their professionalism, but asOliver says they urgently need help.
I've spoken a lot over the past weeks to ID fellows in the UK who wantto contribute but feel they can't get time off given constraints withtheir rotas [schedules]. As this call will go to many seniorphysicians, that is, the leave granters, rota coordinators, and powersthat be, could we include a line urging them to do whatever they canto facilitate anyone in their employ who wishes to volunteer to berelieved from clinical commitments.
--Dr Colin Brown BSc MSc MBChB MRCP FRCPathInfectious Diseases Lead,King's Sierra Leone Partnership<colin.1.brown@kcl.ac.uk>
[Please note the call to senior physicians to facilitate the grantingof leave to subordinates. - Mod.LM]
[For a harrowing report from the field by an international physicianwho has returned from Sierra Leone's only pediatric hospital, read<http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-doctor-shares-story-of-ebola-encounter-in-sierra-leone-a-990464.html>
They had 150 beds, 3 children to a bed, being treated for malaria andother diseases, but had to close the hospital last month (August 2014)and send the sick children back home when they discovered one of themhad EVD. - Mod.JW]
[For a map showing the countries where EBV cases have been reported inWest Africa, see <http://www.healthmap/ebola>. - Mod.MPP]