Category Archives: Ebola

What we’re reading: Latest DRC Ebola outbreak poses new challenges, highlights ongoing R & D, training and resource needs

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Sustained US preparedness needed for Ebola and other pan-epidemic threats – Dr. Daniel Lucey of Georgetown University’s O’Neil Institute is familiar both with the on-the-ground obstacles to preventing the spread of disease with pandemic potential, and the on-the-ground consequences of delayed or inadequate responses. Having completed two volunteer stints caring for patients during the 2013-2016 […]

Ebola vaccine launch in North Kivu highlights urgency of seizing opportunities, closing health security gaps

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Ebola vaccine deployment reflects progress, need for ongoing strides in surveillance, laboratory resources, training Research toward the development of an Ebola vaccine had languished for more than a decade when the gravity of the outbreak in West Africa was recognized in 2014. Although the virus, and its potential to spread quickly and devastatingly in remote […]

New DRC Ebola outbreak poses high country-level, regional-level risks, WHO says

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“Tracking a deadly high threat pathogen across a war zone” puts response “at the top of the degree of difficulty scale” Risk of global spread remains low The context of the Ebola outbreak just announced in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province is “very different” from the context of the outbreak just declared […]

Reports add to findings of Ebola, Zika impacts

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Two years after recognition of the dangers posed by Zika virus infection during pregnancy, and two years after the waning days of the most devastating Ebola outbreak yet seen, new findings about the impacts of the diseases continue to emerge. Four newborns with paralyzed chest muscles and twisted joints as well as microcephaly, and lab […]

Report finds responsive research, innovative technology, training critical to controlling DRC Ebola outbreak

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Potential for spread, effective intervention highlighted importance of building local capacities The Democratic Republic of Congo had experienced eight previous Ebola virus outbreaks when the most recent emergence of the disease was confirmed there in early May, and hard-earned lessons from the past supplied much of the knowledge that drove the swift response that followed. […]

Health information system strengthening supports DRC government Ebola response

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The following is a guest post by Olivier Kakesa, MPH, of MEASURE Evaluation The Democratic Republic of Congo government’s response to the outbreak of Ebola in the country’s northwest Bikoro, Equatuer province includes mobilization of national epidemiological experts and local health staff to deal with the outbreak, vaccinating key personnel — such as health workers […]

DRC Ebola outbreak not a PHEIC, but challenges, risks remain daunting, requiring investments

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A World Health Organization-convened committee examining the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo concluded today that the current conditions of the outbreak do not constitute an international health emergency, but do continue to pose significant challenges that could warrant revisiting the question. WHO Director General Tedros Ghebreyesus called for the committee to weigh […]

White House rescission proposal, House resolution highlight disconnect between federal priorities, global realities

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On Tuesday, as the World Health Organization announced that Ebola had broken out in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the second time in a year, and the ninth time since the discovery of the disease there in the late 1970s, the White House released one more proposal to to cut funding for global and […]

Democratic Republic of Congo declares Ebola outbreak after two confirmed cases

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Laboratory confirmation of two cases of Ebola in Bikoro, a lakeside market town in the northwestern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo has prompted government health officials there to declare an outbreak of the virus, the World Health Organization announced today. WHO, Médecins Sans Frontières, and provincial health officials have sent teams to the […]