Links to new research on Ebola: June 2016

The last hurrah. New material from June 2016. From here on, good luck and I look forward to skimming the literature from time-to-time without posting it up here.

Therapeutics and Vaccines

• Lieselotte Cnops and colleagues show the performance of the rapid Idylla™ prototype Ebola virus test. Development, Evaluation, and Integration of a Quantitative Reverse-Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Diagnostic Test for Ebola Virus on a Molecular Diagnostics Platform.
• Mingjuan Yang and colleagues show the performance of a strain-specific rapid nucleic acid test based on recombinase polymerase amplification (EBOV-RPA). Development and Evaluation of a Rapid and Sensitive EBOV-RPA Test for Rapid Diagnosis of Ebola Virus Disease.
• Jestina Doe-Anderson and colleagues describe the practicalities of running the PREVAIL I trial. Beating the odds: Successful establishment of a Phase II/III clinical research trial in resource-poor Liberia during the largest-ever Ebola outbreak.

Epidemiology

• Thomas Weppelmann and colleagues describe the epidemiology of the 607 suspected/probable/confirmed Ebola cases in Bong county. Determinants of patient survival during the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Bong County, Liberia.
• Yngvar Lunde Haaskjold and colleagues describe 31 cases admitted to Moyamba ETC over three months. Clinical Features of and Risk Factors for Fatal Ebola Virus Disease, Moyamba District, Sierra Leone, December 2014–February 2015. Javier Arranz and colleagues describe the clinical features of 75 admitted individuals at the same ETC in the same period. Clinical features of suspected Ebola cases referred to the Moyamba ETC, Sierra Leone: challenges in the later stages of the 2014 outbreak.
• Kim Lindblade and colleagues analyse 17 transmission chains covering 347 individuals to estimate risk factors for ongoing infection. Secondary Infections with Ebola Virus in Rural Communities, Liberia and Guinea, 2014–2015.
• Constantinos Siettos and colleagues model the age-specific per-contact probability of Ebola virus transmission in Liberia using agent-based simulations.
• Zhe Xu and colleagues describe the epidemiolgy of 139 patients with Ebola virus disease at the Jui Holding and Treatment Centre in western Sierra Leone.
• Tejshri Shah and colleagues review the epidemiology of 91 children admitted to MSF management centres in Sierra Leone in 2014. Inpatient signs and symptoms and factors associated with death in children aged 5 years and younger admitted to two Ebola management centres in Sierra Leone, 2014: a retrospective cohort study.

Epidemic control strategies

• Ruwan Ratnayake and colleagues review 12,126 community event–based surveillance events in Sierra Leone between Feb and Sept 2015, evaluating their (low) sensitivity and suggesting improvements for the future. Assessment of Community Event–Based Surveillance for Ebola Virus Disease, Sierra Leone, 2015.
• Hai Jiang and colleagues report on a survey of community members after the implementation of the intensified training for an EVD response project (ITERP) in March 2015. Rapid assessment of knowledge, attitudes, practices, and risk perception related to the prevention and control of Ebola virus disease in three communities of Sierra Leone.
• Olushayo Olu and colleagues review the 3,838 confirmed cases and 32,706 contacts in the Western Areas Districts, highlighting gaps in the contact tracing process and potential improvements in future outbreaks. Contact Tracing during an Outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in the Western Area Districts of Sierra Leone: Lessons for Future Ebola Outbreak Response.
• Oliver Johnson and colleagues review the Kings/SL government EHU system. Ebola Holding Units at government hospitals in Sierra Leone: evidence for a flexible and effective model for safe isolation, early treatment initiation, hospital safety and health system functioning.
• Yang Luo and colleagues describe the design and implementation of a Chinese ETC outside Monrovia. Toward sustainable and effective control: Experience of China Ebola Treatment Center in Liberia.
• John Vinson and colleagues model the potential impact of sexual transmission on an Ebola outbreak.The potential for sexual transmission to compromise control of Ebola virus outbreaks.

There were also a couple of more conceptual modelling papers this month:

• Gianluca Frasso and Philippe Lambert add Bayesian inference to a compartmental model to flexibly estimate early epidemic parameters. Bayesian inference in an extended SEIR model with nonparametric disease transmission rate: an application to the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone.
• Kamalaldin Kamalaldin and colleagues review modelling approaches to Ebola. Modelling Ebola.

Survivors

• Ionara Rabelo and colleagues present focus group research on psychological distress among Ebola survivors discharged from an Ebola Treatment Unit in Monrovia, Liberia.

Health care for Ebola

• Shannon McMahon and colleagues use qualitative interviews with 35 providers working in eight non-Ebola health units in Bo and Kenema Districts to describe the impact of the epidemic on healthcare workers. Healthcare providers on the frontlines: a qualitative investigation of the social and emotional impact of delivering health services during Sierra Leone’s Ebola epidemic.

Ebola epidemic impact

• Wenshu Li and colleagues report on a national household survey conducted in Sierra Leone in July 2015. Public Confidence in the Health Care System 1 Year After the Start of the Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak.
• Ben Morse and colleagues describe a rebound in healthcare seeking behaviour post-Ebola based on a cellphone-based panel survey. Patterns of demand for non-Ebola health services during and after the Ebola outbreak: panel survey evidence from Monrovia, Liberia.
• GianLuca Quaglio and colleagues describe how paediatric care in Pujehun district changed as the epidemic progressed. Maintaining Maternal and Child Health Services During the Ebola Outbreak: Experience from Pujehun, Sierra Leone.
• Owolabi Bjälkander and colleagues describe the suspension of traditional FGM during Ebola and how this situation is now being reversed. FGM in the time of Ebola—carpe opportunitatem.
• Henry Perry and colleagues outline the opportunity and potential benefits of national community healthworker programmes post-Ebola. Community health worker programmes after the 2013–2016 Ebola outbreak.

Other items

• Gloria Chidimma Nwafor, in her thesis, takes a human rights lens to healthcare provision for people infect with Ebola.
• Danielle Westhoff Smith and colleagues consider survival of Ebola virus on fomites. Ebola Virus Stability Under Hospital and Environmental Conditions.
• Emmie de Wit and colleagues describe the Ebola laboratory response in Monrovia. Ebola Laboratory Response at the Eternal Love Winning Africa Campus, Monrovia, Liberia, 2014–2015.

That’s all folks, thanks.