Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Trump Admin Requests $1.4B For Ebola Quarantine Unit, Health Security Funds, Diplomatic Efforts
The White House is seeking more than $1.4 billion in new funds from Congress to address the widening Ebola ‌virus outbreak, including $800 million for humanitarian crisis response, according to a Trump administration official. The move is part of a larger supplemental funding request made by the White House on Wednesday in a letter to Congress. It includes $800 million for a quarantine center in Kenya for Americans exposed to the virus, supplies, treatment, contact tracing, a regional logistics network ​and infection-control practices, the official said. (Hunnicutt and Steenhuysen, 6/24)
A clinical trial testing two drugs against the Bundibugyo ebolavirus, which is driving a fast-moving outbreak in Central Africa, is set to begin next week, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday. (Branswell, 6/24)
Scientists racing to develop potential vaccines and treatments against a deadly Ebola outbreak are having to do so without a viable sample of the virus, highlighting growing disputes over pathogen sharing and the difficulty of moving infectious materials across borders for research. (Furlong and Gale, 6/25)
Since April, an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has ballooned to 1,114 confirmed cases and 279 deaths, already the third-largest such epidemic since the disease was identified 50 years ago. Despite its worrying size, this outbreak is threaded with mystery — particularly regarding its origins. (Zimmer, 6/24)
On hantavirus and vaccines —
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially ended its Hantavirus response Wednesday, more than a month after the first Americans were evacuated following an outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the North Atlantic. The wind-down comes after the final 42-day quarantine period for the Americans who were exposed to the virus ended earlier this week. (Weixel, 6/24)
When an outbreak of Andes hantavirus on a Dutch cruise ship sickened 13 passengers and crew members and caused three deaths this spring, a coordinated, multinational public health response helped contain the outbreak and kept the risk to the general population low. A report compiled by researchers from the Centre for Infectious Disease Control in the Netherlands and other international agencies details the public health response involving medical evacuations, international contact tracing, quarantine, and laboratory monitoring across several continents. (Bergeson, 6/24)
To bolster the US government’s vaccine policymaking process and restore trust in immunization, the Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP) at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) and The Evidence Collective today announced new research efforts. (Holohan, 6/24)
