It's no surprise that there has been an outflow of papers on a variety of Ebola topics such as: Transmissability, who, if any, non-infected persons to quarantine. Predictions of how the Ebola epidemic will pay out: a few, scattered cases in the US, Australia, Europe, South America, and much more harshly in the affected areas.
Today there are a few articles that are interesting. The first is from the Journal of the American Medical Association. In Viewpoint | October 28, 2014
There's "Ebola Virus Disease and the Need for New Personal Protective Equipment."
This article explains that while current PPE is very good, there could be a few things that still need tweaked to make things even better. Additionally, the paper stresses education and training using the new PPE and having a trained observer there to monitoring owning and doffing.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/...
Descend beneath the buried shepherd's crook virion for more articles and information.
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report sent out an early publication before print. That's usually done when the information is fairly topically hot. This article, plus maps, gives a total count of Ebola patients (as best as we can get considering the circumstances and infrastructure.) Guinea may be having a few FEWER Ebola cases than previously, though that would need a few more weeks of study to validate that. Sierra Leone and Liberia seem to have increasing cases, still.
Some areas that were previously Ebola-free are now showing some Ebola cases.
And the epidemic has moved somewhat. When it started, most cases were in the area where Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia conjoined. Now the the case numbers have shifted. More patients are being seen in Monrovia, itself, than previously. Changes in location of cases for Guinea and Sierra Leone can be seen on the map.
http://www.cdc.gov/...
Next, Anthony Fauci, MD, noted virologist and researcher, narrates a short video on Ebola. It's primarily about the public health, public safety aspects of Ebola in the US. He presents some additional information and does a really good job. It's a good, basic presentation on Ebola that those, not caught up in "The Game of Ebola" would find interesting.
http://www.hhs.gov/...
The last article is a challenge. A scientist broke down how Ebola enters the cell, takes it over, begins replication and producing its own RNA, makes its capsule, enzymes, etc. Then he focuses on areas where medications directed against the virus would be most effective He's effectively looked for the chinks in the virus' coat and wants to shoot arrows into them.) This is a pretty technical paper. But it's excellent that he explains just what Ebola is and how it kills us. And how we might kill it. For those who do not have a science bent, you can ignore many of the terms (glycoprotein, lipid, reverse transcriptase, etc. and just follow along the trail he leaves through the terms. This is the perfect answer for people who say things like, "Why don't we have a vaccine or a wonder drug yet?"
Well, part of the reason is that a virus is simple but also tremendously complex. This isn't something that you can just press down on with your thumb and say, "Me crush widdle bug." Over generations Ebola, and other predator viruses, develop strategies. Some have methods of hiding that are pretty successful (e.g. HIV hiding in dendritic cells and others. Viral load becomes undetectable. CURE! No more antiretrovirals. Then 8 months later, the hidden virus reemerges and the viral load starts climbing again. Other viruses use decoys to distract the immune system. Some viruses can even attack the immune system. This article explains just how many steps are needed to go from an experimental hypothesis, preexisting research, through data collection, statistical studies, etc. Actually studying a SMALL part of the virus (or a small part of what the virus does) is incredibly complex and time consuming. Then, if interesting results are obtained, there needs to be more research, then clinical trials, etc. It can easily be a decades-long process. And it's expensive, very expensive.
http://www.quora.com/...
As always, the previous Ebola Readers have additional links to the CDC, WHO, AAAScience magazine, NEJM, and other helpful sites.