Africa

USA TODAY                       By Greg Zoraya                                                                                 Nov. 23, 2014

MONROVIA, Liberia — A snapshot of the Ebola epidemic raging across West Africa shows a wildfire of infections only slightly contained.

While cases have been on the decline in Liberia, the outbreak is worsening in neighboring countries, where basic Ebola-fighting tools are impractical.

Identifying the infected and those they've touched, and isolating them to break the transmission chain are all but impossible in Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown as well as the jungles of Guinea, says Jordan Tappero, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's second-in-command for the regional response...

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO                                                                                                       Nov. 22, 2014

By Nurith Aizenman

Ebola is on the rise in Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown. Just this week, 234 new confirmed infections were reported, and every day hundreds of residents call the emergency line to report more possible cases in their neighborhoods.

To deal with the surge, the nation sends health surveillance teams into the community to investigate the alerts, visiting up to five homes a day to check on residents.

The following describes the daily activities of a suveillance team.

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/11/22/365759781/ebola-survey-teams-take-a-grim-census-in-sierra-leone

New research suggests that Ebola's deadly inflammatory effects may be caused by the result of protein shedding by infected cells. (Victor Volchkov / PLOS Pathogens)

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - PLOS Pathogens - Shed GP of Ebola Virus Triggers Immune Activation and Increased Vascular Permeability

latimes.com - by Monte Morin - November 20, 2014

New research suggests that the massive and destructive inflammation that characterizes Ebola virus disease may be caused by the release of foreign proteins from infected cells.

Although Ebola is infamous for causing bleeding in some of its victims, doctors say the vast majority of deaths are the result of organ failure and shock brought on by the uncontrolled release of cytokines, compounds that cells use to communicate with one another and control immune response. . .

. . . In a paper published Thursday in Plos Pathogens, researchers at the Claude Bernard University of Lyon, in France, argued that glycoprotein shedding by infected cells may explain the immune system's damaging response.

BBC                                                                                                                          Nov. 22, 2014

The Ebola outbreak is now "relatively stable" in Guinea, where the latest crisis began, the World Health Organization says.

There were still some flare ups in the south-east, but things were improving in other prefectures, WHO co-ordinator Dr Guenael Rodier told the BBC....

Ebola patients are taken to dedicated treatment centres across Guinea

"When you look in more detail, you see that it's still quite active in the Guinea forest area [in] the south of the country," Dr Rodier said.

However, he added that the situation was "actually improving in a number of prefectures, especially Conakry", where there was a fairly good understanding of how the disease was spreading.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30160659