Ebola Outbreak Update 2015 — A year after the deadly Ebola outbreak devastated the health systems and the economies of West Africa, a resurgence of the virus is now dreaded, particularly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. But, in a new study published in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Disease, a Canadian doctor revealed that space technology can control the Ebola outbreak.
In the study, University of Toronto Family and Community Medicine Assistant Professor and Lead Author Dr. Farhan Asrar outlined how space technology such as satellite images and telemedicine could play a significant role in controlling the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Satellites, combined with portable, self-scanning medical devices and telemedicine, have been used to fight Ebola and other potential applications, CBC News has learned.
Since there will always be a need to treat infected patients directly, Dr. Asrar added that he is hoping telemedicine and innovative devices could lessen exposure to the virus and enhance the monitoring of Ebola outbreaks.
A space spin-off in October 2014 has already played a part in the Ebola outbreak after the United Nations activated the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters on behalf of the World Health Organization for the first time to respond to an infectious disease, Dr. Asrar together with his co-authors from NASA, Canadian Space Agency, European Space Agency and Public Health Agency of Canada stated in their study.
Aside from the charter's activation, Doctors without Borders already use high-resolution, freely accessible satellite images from space to track the outbreak and plan its response including camp settlement, treatment centers and devoted resources.
"Space assets are readily available and being used to benefit global health, including Ebola virus disease and other infectious diseases," the authors said.
The researchers also called for a greater collaboration to enhance its applications in medical relief during Ebola outbreaks along with other humanitarian crises or emergencies. However, Dr. Asrar also admitted that space technology poses a major challenge, which is the magnitude or scaling up of the technologies are applied to the masses.
Meanwhile, a new study published in the journal Drug Discovery Research revealed that University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) researchers are taking a new approach to tackle the life-threatening Ebola virus. According to Medical News Today, by using powerful computational and analytical techniques, scientists have successfully blocked the Ebola infection in cell-culture experiments, in a critical early step to develop a vaccine for the virus.
"The premise for this work is that the virus is essentially nothing without a cell," Lead Study Author Professor Robert Davey explained, "It needs to rely on many cell proteins and factors for it to replicate. The idea is that if we can suppress the expression of those cell proteins for just a short time, we can then stop the disease in its tracks."
In line with the Ebola outbreak, the virus continues to spread fear in Liberia due to a potential resurgence of the epidemic despite ongoing precautionary responses in Monrovia, where over 140 people exposed to the virus, including 16 placed under isolation, are being closely monitored, On Islam reported.
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