Links to new research on Ebola: March 2016

And part II of my attempts to get up-to-date, research that came out in March.

Therapeutics and Vaccines

• Daouda Sissoko and colleagues analysed the non-randomized JIKI trial of Favipiravir. Experimental Treatment with Favipiravir for Ebola Virus Disease (the JIKI Trial): A Historically Controlled, Single-Arm Proof-of-Concept Trial in Guinea
• Amanda Semper and colleagues presented results of a field trial of GeneXpert in the Port Loko diagnostic lab. Performance of the GeneXpert Ebola Assay for Diagnosis of Ebola Virus Disease in Sierra Leone: A Field Evaluation Study

Epidemiology

• Li-Qun Fang and colleagues provide a comprehensive evaluation of the transmission dynamics of Ebola in Sierra Leone at both the chiefdom and household levels. Transmission dynamics of Ebola virus disease and intervention effectiveness in Sierra Leone
• Rachel Leander and colleagues modelled data from the initial outbreak in Meliandou, Guinea, to highlight the density-dependent nature of infection and the impact of mortality on behaviour. Modelling Ebola within a community
• Kathryn Curran and colleagues presented a case study of a funeral-centred cluster of cases. Cluster of Ebola Virus Disease Linked to a Single Funeral — Moyamba District, Sierra Leone, 2014

Epidemic control strategies

• Kangbai Jia and Koroma Mohamed compared standard sentinel surveillance community cellphone systems for passive case finding in Moyamba, Sierra Leone. Evaluating the use of cell phone messaging for community Ebola syndromic surveillance in high risked settings in Southern Sierra Leone
• Kamalini Lokuge and colleagues analysed how Kailahun district successfully controlled their Ebola outbreak by December 2014. Successful Control of Ebola Virus Disease: Analysis of Service Based Data from Rural Sierra Leone
• Christopher Lee and colleagues compared national and local phone-based systems for passive case finding in Guinea. Evaluation of a National Call Center and a Local Alerts System for Detection of New Cases of Ebola Virus Disease — Guinea, 2014–2015

Health care for Ebola

• Adrienne Strong and colleagues reviewed how healthcare workers interact with pregnant women in normal and crisis times to suggest how to lessen the impact of future Ebola outbreaks on those who are pregnant. Sociocultural aspects of risk to pregnant women during the 2013-2015 multinational ebola virus outbreak in West Africa
• Romain Palich and colleagues described a case report for a child who was successfully discharged from care. A 6-Year-Old Child with Severe Ebola Virus Disease: Laboratory-Guided Clinical Care in an Ebola Treatment Center in Guinea
• Andres Colubri and colleagues presented a method for using Machine Learning to generate prognostic reports on patients, and an app within which it could be deployed. Transforming Clinical Data into Actionable Prognosis Models: Machine-Learning Framework and Field-Deployable App to Predict Outcome of Ebola Patients

Ebola epidemic impact

• Christopher Hands provided a personal view of how the healthcare system in Sierra Leone has been recovering post-Ebola. Healthcare after Ebola
• Diddy Mymin Kahn and colleagues evaluated support provided to those working on the ‘117’ hotline. Evaluation of a support group for Ebola hotline workers in Sierra Leone

Survivors

• Pauline Vetter and colleagues reviewed the existing literature on those surviving Ebola, and suggested areas for research and for focused care. Sequelae of Ebola virus disease: the emergency within the emergency
• Amanda Tiffany and colleagues described clinical results for over 1000 consultations with 166 survivors at a clinic in Freetown. Ebola virus disease complications as experienced by survivors in Sierra Leone

Other items

• Third World Quarterly published a special issue on The international politics of Ebola, considering the outbreak from an International Relations point of view. Their focus was on four themes: (1) allocating responsibility globally; (2) the perception of Ebola as a global crisis; (3) the security-driven approach to global health emergencies; and (4) inequality of gender, resources and power.
• Harris Ali and colleagues presented an overview of socio-political, medical, legal and environmental factors associated with the West African outbreak. The Social and Political Dimensions of the Ebola Response: Global Inequality, Climate Change, and Infectious Disease
• Judy Kuriansky curated a book on a wide range of psychosocial impacts of Ebola. Book: The Psychosocial Aspects of a Deadly Epidemic: What Ebola Has Taught Us
• Jennifer Salerno and colleagues described key issues raised at a symposium on ethics and Ebola at the American Clinical Epidemology 2015 annual meeting. Emergency response in a global health crisis: epidemiology, ethics, and Ebola application

Links to new research on Ebola: February 2016

Many apologies for the long radio silence.  I have, unfortunately, not had time to build proper summaries over the past few months.  But rather than leave my initial work to fester, I am putting up these unadorned lists of links, in case others find them to be of use. Starting with materials from February.

• Robert Lever and Christopher Whitty presented a broad overview of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. Ebola virus disease: emergence, outbreak and future directions

Epidemiology

• Natalie E. Dean and colleagues presented a meta-analysis of key epidemiological parameters. The transmissibility and pathogenicity of Ebola virus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of household secondary attack rate and asymptomatic infection

Epidemic control strategies

• Sylvie Njankou, in her Master’s degree thesis, modelled the relative benefits of various control strategies. Modelling the potential role of control strategies on Ebola virus disease dynamics [pdf]
• Paul Pronyk and colleagues  evaluated the impact of Community Care Centres on the epidemic’s progression. The Effect of Community-Based Prevention and Care on Ebola Transmission in Sierra Leone
• Katherine Atkins and colleagues evaluated how behaviour change affected the course of the 2014 Liberian epidemic. Retrospective Analysis of the 2014–2015 Ebola Epidemic in Liberia
• Daniel H. de Vries and colleagues analysed how communities experienced an earlier epidemic in Uganda. The first mile: community experience of outbreak control during an Ebola outbreak in Luwero District, Uganda
•  Rui Gama Vaz and colleagues highlighted how the Ebola response in Nigeria reliaed on existing Polio infrastructure. The Role of the Polio Program Infrastructure in Response to Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Nigeria 2014

Health care for Ebola

• Felicity Fitzgerald and colleagues presented a poster on a child cohort in Freetown. Ebola virus disease in children in Sierra Leone: a retrospective cohort study
• A.M. Baldé and colleagues evaluated traditional healers’ responses in Guinea. Ethnomedical and ethnobotanical investigations on the response capacities of Guinean traditional health practioners in the management of outbreaks of infectious diseases: The case of the Ebola virus epidemic
• Matthew K. O’Shea and colleagues present a case study of a health care worker. A Health Care Worker with Ebola Virus Disease and Adverse Prognostic Factors Treated in Sierra Leone
• Pascal Cherpillod and colleagues reviewed a range of real-time PCR Ebola tests. Ebola virus disease diagnosis by real-time RT-PCR: A comparative study of 11 different procedures

Ebola epidemic impact

• Dr Daniel Youkee and colleagues presented a poster on how the epidemic affected emergency care at a referral hospital in Freetown.  The impact of the 2014–15 Ebola virus disease epidemic on emergency care attendance and capacity at a tertiary referral hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone: a retrospective observational study
• Kim Brolin Ribacke and colleagues analysed data on how delivery rates dropped during the Ebola outbreak. The Impact of the West Africa Ebola Outbreak on Obstetric Health Care in Sierra Leone
• Alyssa Parpia and colleagues modelled the impact of reduced healthcare during the outbreak on mortality for other health conditions. Effects of Response to 2014–2015 Ebola Outbreak on Deaths from Malaria, HIV/AIDS, and Tuberculosis, West Africa
• Tine Van Bortel and colleagues reviewed how the epidemic affected various populations psychosocially. Psychosocial effects of an Ebola outbreak at individual, community and international levels
• Sarah Benifei and colleagues reviewed the experiences of French military health service personnel, and their approach’s impact on patient well-being. Ebola crisis in Guinea: psychosocial support for patients and caregivers

Vaccines

• Data on all three PREVAIL studies (I: Vaccine trial; II: ZMapp trial; III: natural history in survivors) were all presented at CROI. Findings from Three PREVAIL Ebola Studies
• Lori Dodd and colleagues described how they designed the PREVAIL II trial, focused on safety/efficacy of ZMapp. Design of a randomized controlled-trial for Ebola virus disease medical countermeasures: PREVAIL II, the Ebola MCM study

Survivors

• Janet Scott and colleagues conducted a survey of all survivors of a Freetown ETU three weeks post-discharge. Post-Ebola Syndrome, Sierra Leone
•  Maria Berghs considered how “survivorship” has been framed within a discussion of “disability”.  Neoliberal policy, chronic corruption and disablement: biosecurity, biosocial risks and the creation of ‘Ebola survivors’?
• Julii Brainard and colleagues reviewed which fluids might be infectious amongst survivors of filoviruses, finding limited evidence. Presence and Persistence of Ebola or Marburg Virus in Patients and Survivors: A Rapid Systematic Review

Other items

• Xiang Huo and colleagues report on a survey regarding vaccine knowledge and attitudes amongst 400 community members close to Freetown. Knowledge and attitudes about Ebola vaccine among the general population in Sierra Leone
• Jesca Batidziraia reviews ethical and feasible approaches to conducting Ebola vaccination trials. Randomisation in a clinical trial: is it feasible in the Ebola crisis? If it is, then which method is suitable?