THE PRESS ASSOCIATION Feb. 4, 2015 LONDON --A British nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone possibly caught the virus by wearing a visor and not goggles, an investigation has suggested. Press Association - Save the Children said Pauline Cafferkey, pictured on her return to health, may have contracted Ebola by wearing a visor rather than goggles when treating patients in Sierra Leone
The report by Save the Children said it cannot be completely certain how Pauline Cafferkey contracted Ebola but said both pieces of equipment are "equally safe".
The nurse, from Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, had volunteered with the charity at the Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) in Kerry Town before returning to the UK in December....
Save the Children published the findings of an independent review into the possible causes of how the 39-year-old caught the virus. The report said both visors and goggles are safe but there are slight differences in the type of clothing worn with each and in the protocols for putting them on and removing them....
LONDON --A second UK military healthcare worker has been transported back to England after likely exposure to Ebola via a needle-stick injury while treating someone with the virus in Sierra Leone, Public Health England said.
Press Association - The healthcare worker has been admitted to the Royal Free Hospital in London
The healthcare worker arrived in the UK today and has been admitted to the Royal Free Hospital in London where they are undergoing an assessment.
They have not been diagnosed with Ebola and do not have symptoms, Public Health England added.
It comes after another British military healthcare worker was flown back to England for monitoring after suffering a needle-stick injury, also in Sierra Leone.
REUTERS by Kate Kell and Ben Herschler Feb. 1. 2015 LONDON --As West Africa's devastating Ebola outbreak begins to dwindle, scientists are looking beyond the endgame at the kind of next-generation vaccines needed for a vital stockpile to hit another epidemic hard and fast.
Research assistant Georgina Bowyer works on a vaccine for Ebola at The Jenner Institute in Oxford, southern England January 16, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Eddie Keogh
Determined not to lose scientific momentum that could make the world's first effective Ebola interventions a reality, researchers say the shots, as well as being proven to work, must be cheap, easy to handle in Africa and able to hit multiple virus strains.
That may mean shifting focus from the stripped-down, fast-tracked vaccine development ideas that have dominated the past six months, but it mustn't mean the field gets bogged down in complexities.
LONDON --The British nurse who almost died after contracting Ebola while volunteering in Sierra Leone has been discharged from hospital after making a full recovery.
Doctors had described her condition as “critical” during the three weeks she received treatment for the deadly virus and her family and friends were preparing for the worst. Cafferkey admited that then she had felt like “giving up”, but was now looking forward to returning to “normal life” and had no plans to go back to Africa.
The 39-year-old nurse was diagnosed with Ebola after returning to Glasgow last month and was admitted to the city’s Gartnavel hospital on December 29 before being transferred the next day to the Royal Free. She had been working with Save the Children at the Ebola treatment centre in Kerry Town before returning to the UK...
Save the Children has launched an investigation into how Cafferkey was infected, but admits it may never establish the exact circumstances.
LONDON- A British nurse diagnosed with Ebola last month is recovering and is no longer in a critical condition, the London hospital treating her said in a statement on Monday.
Pauline Cafferkey, a 39-year-old nurse who normally works at a Scottish health center, became the first person to be diagnosed with the disease in Britain after contracting it in Sierra Leone where she was volunteering at an Ebola clinic.
"Pauline Cafferkey is showing signs of improvement and is no longer critically ill," the statement from the Royal Free Hospital said. "She remains in isolation as she receives specialist care for the Ebola virus."
Cafferkey is being treated with blood plasma from an Ebola survivor and an unnamed experimental anti-viral drug, the hospital has said.
The International Monetary Fund is preparing around $150 million in additional support to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the countries at the heart of the Ebola epidemic, the Fund's representative in Liberia told Reuters on Thursday.
"In Guinea and Sierra Leone, existing Fund financial programs are being augmented to provide more resources to these countries. In Liberia, a one-off disbursement under the Fund's Rapid Credit Facility is being considered," Charles Amo-Yartey told Reuters in an email.
The money could be made available in the first quarter of this year and would add to $130 million disbursed by the Fund in September.
The charity Save the Children has said "no stone will be left unturned" in its investigation into how a British nurse working at an Ebola treatment centre contracted the disease.
Pauline Cafferkey was diagnosed after returning to Glasgow a week ago. She had been working with the charity in Kerrytown, Sierra Leone.
Ms Cafferkey is critically ill in a north London hospital after her condition worsened in recent days.
Save the Children's Sierra Leone Director Rob MacGillivray told the BBC the charity would carry out a special investigation over and above its routine reviews....
He said the investigation would look at how protective equipment is used, and at person-to-person contact both inside and outside the Kerrytown treatment centre where the nurse worked.
Pauline Cafferkey, the British nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone, is entering a “critical” stage of her recovery.
The nurse from Glasgow is being treated with an experimental anti-viral drug and blood from a survivor of the virus inside a quarantine tent at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, her doctor has said.
Dr Michael Jacobs said Ms Cafferkey was being treated with convalescent plasma taken from the blood of a recovered patient and an experimental anti-viral drug which is “not proven to work”.
UPDATE: Ebola Patient Is Moved to London, and 2 Others Are Tested in Britain
NEW YORK TIMES by Alan Cowell Dec. 30, 2014
LONDON — A health worker who returned from West Africa and was found to have Ebola when she arrived home in Scotland was transferred on Tuesday to Britain’s designated treatment center for the disease in London. The authorities also reported that two more people were being tested for the virus.
BBC By Smitha Mundasad Dec. 22, 2014 The first-ever trial of an Ebola vaccine in Africa shows promising initial results, according to a report in the Lancet medical journal.
Scientists say it is a crucial step as other vaccines have shown lower levels of protection in African populations.
Tests involving Ugandan and American volunteers reveal the vaccine is so far safe and generates an immune response in both populations.
It provides reassurance for other trials currently underway, they say.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health tested this experimental vaccine on healthy adults in Uganda, having first trialled it in the United States.
Dr Julie Ledgerwood, the lead researcher, said: "This is the first study to show comparable safety and immune response of an experimental Ebola vaccine in an African population.
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