Science

NEW YORK TIMES by Andrew Pollack                               Jan. 23, 2015

As Ebola raged through West Africa last summer, an experimental drug was tried for the first time on two American aid workers in Liberia who were gravely ill with the virus. Both recovered, one of them rapidly.

Medicago, in North Carolina, is gearing up for possible production of the Ebola drug ZMapp using its plant-based technology. Credit Gerry Broome/Associated Press

Though it could not be said for sure that the drug, ZMapp, was responsible, patients and doctors began clamoring for it. But there was enough to treat only a handful of patients. Federal officials vowed to produce more.

MIT THE TECH  by Jennifer F. Switzer                         Jan. 14, 2015

CAMBRIDGE , MA-- At the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, in a lab run by accomplished computational geneticist Pardis Sabeti ’97, researchers have collaborated with institutions in the U.S. and abroad to sequence and analyze more than 99 Ebola virus genomes collected by fellow scientists in Sierra Leone. They are on the lookout for mutations that could aid in developing new treatment options for Ebola, or that could serve as indications that the virus is evolving to become more deadly.

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http://tech.mit.edu/V134/N62/ebola.htm

ASSOCIATED PRESS  by Maria Cheng                                                                          Jan. 9, 2015
LONDON --The World Health Organizationsays the two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe and will soon be tested in healthy volunteers in West Africa.

After an expert meeting this week, WHO said there is now enough information to conclude that the two most advanced Ebola vaccines ? one made by GlaxoSmithKline and the other licensed by Merck and NewLink ? have "an acceptable safety profile."

In a press briefing on Friday, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, who heads WHO's Ebola vaccine efforts, said "the cupboard (for Ebola vaccines) is filling up rapidly."

She said further trials in healthy people in West Africa, including health workers, are scheduled to start soon. Kieny added several other vaccines were being developed in the U.S., Russia and elsewhere.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/leading-ebola-vaccines-safe-tests-starting-28107527

NEW YORK TIMES  by Donald G. McNeil, Jr.                                                     Jan. 1, 2015

Medical experts seeking to stem the Ebola epidemic are sharply divided over whether most patients in West Africa should, or can, be given intravenous hydration, a therapy that is standard in developed countries. Some argue that more aggressive treatment with IV fluids is medically possible and a moral obligation. But others counsel caution, saying that pushing too hard would put overworked doctors and nurses in danger and that the treatment, if given carelessly, could even kill patients.

A nurse gave an Ebola patient intravenous fluids at the Red Cross treatment center in Kenema, Sierra Leone, in November. Credit Francisco Leong/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images