Media/Policy Watch

Council on Foreign Relations
http://www.cfr.org/
Accessed 20 December 2014
Op-Ed
A New Direction for Global Health
by Thomas J. Bollyky, Thomas E. Donilon, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. December 15, 2014
Dramatic changes in urbanization, global trade, and consumer markets – which occurred over decades in wealthy countries – are happening at a faster rate, and at a much larger scale, in still-poor countries. These trends have brought substantial health benefits, but have given rise to significant challenges as well.

Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/
Accessed 20 December 2014
MedidataVoice: Fighting Viral Epidemics: The Long Road To A Dengue Vaccine
Dec 18, 2014
Guest post by Kasia Hein-Peters, VP, Head of Marketing Dengue Vaccine, at Sanofi Pasteur.
Dengue is currently the most common vector-borne virus disease and puts nearly half of the world at risk of this disease. Even though people living in Europe or the U.S. may not be familiar with it (and more […]
NHL Mumps Outbreak: What’s Up With The Vaccine?
Tara Haelle, Contributor Dec 16, 2014
The number of NHL hockey players diagnosed with the mumps may rise to 14 soon, depending on the test results that come back for Pittsburgh Penguins forward Beau Bennett. Though his symptoms could be the flu or another illness, a positive mumps result would make him the second Penguin to […]
The Ebola Treatment You Haven’t Heard Of
David Kroll, Contributor
Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology-derived products have attracted the greatest public and professional interest in treating victims of Ebola virus disease. But a privately-held, small company with a treatment for shock and multi-organ failure may be the dark horse victor in the race to stop the West African outbreak. LB1148 from San Diego-based Leading BioSciences is starting Phase 2 clinical trials that build on 12 years of NIH-funded research to address an underappreciated, common denominator in shock and organ failure, including shock caused by Ebola infection.

The Guardian
http://www.guardiannews.com/
Accessed 20 December 2014
NHS Ebola staff ‘insulted’ by UK travel ban
Volunteers’ anger at restrictions imposed on their return home from west Africa
Tracy McVeigh
Saturday 20 December 2014
As the latest of the six British-built Ebola treatment centres in west Africa admitted its first three patients this weekend, some of the volunteer NHS staff working there over Christmas said they felt insulted by a draconian ramping up of the protocols they have been told they will have to follow when they return to the UK.
Public Health England (PHE) has told the NHS personnel it is increasing restrictions on their movements when they return from the frontline of Ebola-infection, banning them from travelling on public transport for longer than an hour and increasing from two to three the number of weeks before they can return to work.
For Dr John Wright, a clinical epidemiologist from Bradford working at the clinic at Moyamba, Sierra Leone, which opened on Friday, it was a slap in the face for him and his colleagues.
“It’s a return to the ecology of fear that they insisted they were going to steer clear of,” he said. “No travel, no shared accommodation, no clinical work, a fever parole officer to report to daily. Why not issue us with plague masks and bells?…

Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/
Accessed 20 December 2014
China approves experimental Ebola vaccine for clinical trials
SHANGHAI Thu Dec 18, 2014 6:06am EST
(Reuters) – China has approved a domestically developed experimental Ebola vaccine for clinical trials, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday, citing the People’s Liberation Army logistics unit.
Scientists around the world are racing to develop Ebola vaccines after the world’s worst outbreak of the virus, which has killed more than 6,000 people in West Africa this year.
The Chinese vaccine is being developed by the Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Xinhua said, a military research unit which is also involved in developing a drug to treat the disease.
“This follows American and Canadian vaccines to become the third Ebola vaccine to enter clinical trials,” the official Chinese state news agency said.
The news agency did not say when the trials would start, but other media said it would be this month.
British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline PLC is one of the front runners in developing an Ebola vaccine along with a vaccine being developed by Merck and NewLink. Both are in clinical trials, while other experimental vaccines are expected to start clinical trials next year.
A big trial in Liberia, involving up to 30,000 participants, will test single shots of GSK’s vaccine, the rival one from NewLink and Merck, and a placebo.
Chinese biotechnology firm Tianjin CanSino Biotechnology Inc is also involved in developing the vaccine, Xinhua said.