The Ebola response in Congo is running short of money - The Economist

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Ebola has spread for nearly a year in Congo. Officials are scrambling to ‘reset’ the response. - The Washington Post

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June 20 at 4:06 PM BUTEMBO, Congo —  A dozen young men revved their motor­cycle engines in front of the wooden gate of a makeshift checkpoint — too impatient to have their temperatures checked or to wash their hands with chlorinated water. Health workers manning the post had little choice but to let them pass. Every day, thousands of people travel this road through the epicenter of Congo’s ongoing Ebola outbreak, where they are supposed to comply with field nurses toting gun-shaped thermometers testing for fevers. But that operation is far from perfect, and extinguishing the nearly year-old outbreak is months away at best. Days with a dozen new cases are normal.  “Ebola is like water. If you don’t build a perfect dam, even a small hole can lead to a flood of new cases,” said Marie Roseline Belizaire, the World Health Organization’s deputy manager for the response.  Health officials are confident the outbreak is not spiraling out of control but are worri...
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Emergency vaccinations - Doctors Without Borders

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The key to ending this outbreak was informing and engaging with the community, reducing the stigma associated with Ebola, providing care closer to where people lived, and adapting aid to what people identified as their most urgent health needs. Once they felt more involved in the Ebola response, they were more likely to trust the vaccine During DRC's eleventh outbreak, centered in Équateur province, MSF supported community-based outreach and care that complemented vaccination efforts led by other partners. This time, the outbreak was brought under control within five months. Having a licensed Ebola vaccine was critical, but only as part of a more comprehensive approach. Reaching more people Since first responding to cholera epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s, MSF has been one of the lead organizations working to prevent and treat the disease. Cholera outbreaks happen in many of the settings where we operate, including remote villages, overcrowded cities, refugee c...
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HIV Drug Sunlenca (Lenacapavir) Gets FDA Approval - Everyday Health

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Sunlenca (lenacapavir), a new type of medication for the most common variant of HIV, HIV-1 (human immunodeficiency virus type 1). Lenacapavir is designed for heavily treatment-experienced adults with multidrug-resistant HIV who are not able to adequately manage the virus with their current treatment regimen. It is an injectable medication administered under the skin (subcutaneously) once every six months. Developed by Gilead Sciences, lenacapavir is the first of a new class of HIV medications called capsid inhibitors, which work by blocking the virus's protein shell (the capsid), thereby interfering with essential steps of the virus's life cycle. In a clinical trial, lenacapavir was able to lower the viral load in patients who were not responding adequately to other therapies. "Today's approval ushers in a new class of antiretroviral drugs that may help patients with HIV who have run out of treatment options,...
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