What's new with Faculty Publications - Ebola edition

104 publications were added to Matas Faculty Publications in September, bringing the total citation count to 773 publications.

Of Note

Dr. Schieffelin

Dr John S. Schieffelin, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine & Pediatrics and
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, contributes to three articles concerning the Ebola virus outbreak. 

First, an editorial in  The Lancet raises a call for more "small-scale, methodologically sound studies in west Africa for the treatment of Ebola." (1)

Next, a genomic surveillance study from Science examines the origins of the current Ebola outbreak, tracing it's roots to a likely divergence from central African lineages around 2004 and then manifesting in Guinea in February 2014, spreading to Liberia in March, Sierra Leone in May, and Nigeria in late July. The virus "has exhibited sustained human-to-human transmission subsequently, with no evidence of additional zoonotic sources." This is important because "many of the mutations alter protein sequences and other biologically meaningful targets, [which] should be monitored for impact on diagnostics, vaccines, and therapies critical to outbreak response." (2)

Dr Khan (Photo courtesy of Pardis Sabeti.)

A final article from Antiviral Research pays tribute to healthcare workers who have acquired Ebola virus disease while fighting the epidemic in West Africa, including Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, Chief Physician of the Lassa Fever Research Program at Kenema Government Hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Dr. Khan died of Ebola virus disease on July 29th, 2014. Through the Lassa Fever Research Program, Dr Khan worked in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Tulane University , and the World Health Organization. When asked about fear of contracting Ebola, he knew the risks:

“I am afraid for my life, I must say…Health workers are prone to the disease because we are the first port of call for somebody who is sickened by disease.” His sister Aissata echoed the concern: “I told him not to go in there [the EVD Treatment Center], but he said ‘If I refuse to treat them, who would treat me?’”(3)

1. Jacob ST, Crozier I, Schieffelin JS, Colebunders R. Priorities for ebola virus disease response in west africa. Lancet. 2014 Sep 24.

2. Gire SK, Goba A, Andersen KG, Sealfon RS, Park DJ, Kanneh L, et al. Genomic surveillance elucidates ebola virus origin and transmission during the 2014 outbreak. Science. 2014 Sep 12;345(6202):1369-72.

3. Bausch DG, Bangura J, Garry RF, Goba A, Grant DS, Jacquerioz FA, et al. A tribute to sheik humarr khan and all the healthcare workers in west africa who have sacrificed in the fight against ebola virus disease: Mae we hush. Antiviral Res. 2014 Sep 6;111C:33-5.

About Matas Faculty Publications
This fully searchable online database collects publications by Tulane University faculty members in the School of Medicine, the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and the Tulane National Primate Research Center. The database will be updated monthly with fresh citations from PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science. To add a pubcliation to our database contact Maureen Knapp mknapp2@tulane.edu or Laura Wright lwright6@tulane.edu