Vaccines & Viruses: Ebola makes a comeback

Ebola is back. Cases of Ebola are ticking up again in Guinea and Sierra Leone, after the virus was eradicated from Liberia in May and seemed to be on the decline. In Ghana, where no Ebola cases have yet been reported, officials halted a vaccine trial after local leaders protested, telling Reuters, “We don’t want to be guinea pigs.” The international president of Doctors Without Borders, Joanne Liu, is criticizing G-7 nations for not moving quickly enough last year to stop the outbreak that killed more than 11,000 people: “Unlike the Cubans, the U.S. [officials] were not ready to expose their people. So even though they opened 11 centers with 150 beds each in Liberia, they treated just 28 people, because they deployed late and refused to staff the centers.” Liu said of the current Ebola situation, "The reality today is if Ebola were to hit on the scale it did in August and September, we would hardly do much better than we did the last time around.”

Sleep injury. A U.K. court awarded $188,000 in compensation to the family of a 12-year-old boy who developed narcolepsy as a result of GlaxoSmithKline’s Pandemrix swine flu vaccine. The boy’s parents said he falls asleep throughout the day and is unable to shower or ride the bus unattended. The award could open the door to compensation for other teens and youngsters who received the swine flu vaccine and now suffer from sudden sleep attacks and cataplexy. Previously, authorities had said such teens were not disabled enough to qualify for the country’s vaccine injury claim system. The law requires such disabilities to be equal to the loss of a hand. A 2013 study found that about 1 in 55,000 British children and teens who received the Pandemrix shot developed narcolepsy. The vaccine was only used in Europe.

Urchin inspiration. Australian scientists, inspired by sea urchins, say they’ve developed molecular technology to preserve vaccines and medicines that normally require refrigeration. Heat-resistant vaccines would be beneficial for disease-stricken nations with warm climates but scarce electricity.

Horse jab. TheHorse.com says veterinarians highly recommend horse owners vaccinate their animals twice a year to protect against West Nile virus. That’s because the virus is zoonotic—it can pass not just from mosquitoes to humans, but from mosquitoes to other animals.