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Merged So Ebola's back......

Meanwhile in the real world, the analysis of the initial round of testing of the experimental GSK EVD vaccine is primising; the vaccine caused no serious side effects and produced an immune response.
 
Good news, everyone! (No, really!)

It looks like they are getting it under control:

WHO official says Liberia, Guinea meeting Ebola reduction targets

GENEVA — Liberia and Guinea have met a Dec. 1 target for isolating 70 percent of people infected with Ebola and safely burying 70 percent of those who die but Sierra Leone has not, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Only last week, the U.N. health agency said only Guinea was on track to meet the targets for getting the Ebola outbreak under control in the three hardest-hit West African countries.

But at a news conference in Geneva, WHO's Dr. Bruce Aylward said the organization had revised its conclusion based on more analysis of its data. Sierra Leone also probably met the targets in the west of the country, he said, and likely will improve to the 70 percent target nationwide "in the coming weeks."

Aylward also told reporters that WHO's ambitious plan to stop the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa has shown it is possible to quickly reduce the "yawning gap" between disease levels and the capacity to respond.

"You can catch up with Ebola even on this scale," he said.

WHO launched its Ebola its 70 percent plan two months ago.

In Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Monday, the chief executive of the National Ebola Response Centre, retired Maj. Alfred Palo Conteh, acknowledged that "as far as meeting the 70 percent isolation target, we did not do well and could have done better."

He said authorities there need more beds for isolation, adding that 400 beds are expected in the next two weeks.

From: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/206486b07bd648038177f318c3589448/EU--Ebola-West-Africa
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15,935 total cases and 5689 deaths as of Dec. 1 according to the site:

http://healthmap.org/ebola/#timeline

That's only 2,232 more cases than as of Oct. 31, whereas the increase in October was over 7,000. Even accounting for that fact that the numbers are probably incomplete, that looks like the spread is being slowed, rather than increasing exponentially.
 
An interesting article in The Lancet on the Cuban response to the EVD outbreak and how their model of medical education is suited to less developed countries.
More than 160 Cuban doctors and nurses arrived in Sierra Leone on Oct 2, 2014, to support local teams in controlling the Ebola epidemic. 300 more are being trained in Cuba at present and will be on their way to Liberia and Guinea in the coming weeks. The worldwide response to the Ebola epidemic has been slow and small. More nurses and doctors are certainly needed, not only from Cuba, but also from other countries.

The Cuban health-care system is capable of responding to international crises quickly. After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, more than 1000 health-care professionals were deployed. Cuba has provided free medical training for Haitians, graduating nearly 1000 doctors, with a further 400 in training at present. The Cuban approach to a crisis is not just a high-profile acute-phase response, but also involves going to where services are most needed, working with local communities, setting up infrastructure, with a long-term view.

Cuban medical education is backed by a rigorous accreditation system, which includes medical schools established in partnership with other Latin American and African countries.1 The Cuban approach emphasises prevention and social responsibility. Although conventional medical education trains all doctors to a particular level at which they can choose their specialty, primary care being one of these, the Cuban model (curriculum runs for 5 years with a 1 year internship) trains all doctors to become primary care and community practitioners first; further specialisation comes later. This approach is especially relevant in low-income countries where a commitment exists to universal health coverage with few financial and human resources.
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http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/285495481.html

BETHESDA, Md. — An American nurse who was exposed to the Ebola virus while volunteering in Sierra Leone has been admitted the National Institutes of Health near Washington, D.C.

The NIH says in a statement that the nurse arrived at the Bethesda, Maryland, facility Thursday afternoon. The hospital says the patient was transferred from an overseas location by private charter medevac in isolation and was admitted to the NIH Clinical Center.
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Here's a website that has been graphing the World Health Organization's data for this latest outbreak. It seems the increase in the number of total cases has been pretty much linear for some time now and is at a rate of about 140 new cases a day. The death rate looks to be about a third of that.

https://sites.google.com/site/ebolagraph/
 
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Well the supposed EVD cases in Iraq has reached the Daily Mail and Christian Post, so still no reliable source. It has also been denied by Iraq's Ministry of Health; the WHO has stated it has no information on any EVD cases.
The story remains big in the nuttier parts of the 'net, the survivalists and rapturians are happy.
 
A South Korean medic treating EVD cases in Sierra Leone has suffered a needle-stick injury and has been flow to Berlin, where he's being treated in an isolation unit at the Charite hospital.
 
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