News outlets highlight comments by WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and U.S. officials warning the Ebola epidemic threatens international security.

Associated Press: WHO: Ebola is modern era’s worst health emergency
“The World Health Organization called the Ebola outbreak ‘the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times’ on Monday but also said that economic disruptions can be curbed if people are adequately informed to prevent irrational moves to dodge infection…” (Gomez, 10/13).

Bloomberg News: Ebola’s Toll Threatens Security in Interconnected World
“As the Ebola virus spreads in and beyond Africa, it’s raising the possibility of a global pandemic that U.S. intelligence agencies have warned is among the greatest potential threats to global security…” (Gaouette, 10/14).

Financial Times: Ebola virus threatens state failure, World Health Organization warns
“The Ebola outbreak is threatening ‘state failure’ in West Africa, the World Health Organization warned, as the U.S. said it needed to overhaul its management of the virus following the infection of an American nurse…” (Jopson, 10/13).

New York Times: WHO Chief Calls Ebola Outbreak a ‘Crisis for International Peace’
“…Dr. Chan, who dealt with the 2009 avian flu pandemic and the SARS outbreaks of 2002-3, said the Ebola outbreak had progressed from a public health crisis to ‘a crisis for international peace and security’…” (Cumming-Bruce, 10/13).

VOA News: WHO: Ebola Threatens States, Societies in W. Africa
“…In a statement to a health conference in the Philippines, Chan warned the number of cases is ‘rising exponentially’ in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, and said the outbreak shows how the world is ill-prepared for a severe and sustained public health emergency…” (10/13).

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Associated Press: WHO: 10,000 new Ebola cases per week could be seen
“West Africa could face up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday, adding that the death rate in the current outbreak has risen to 70 percent….” (10/14).

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News outlets report on U.N. officials’ statements on responses to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

Agence France-Presse: Ebola work progressing but key goals may not be met: U.N. envoy
“Progress is being made to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the head of the United Nations mission said on Monday, but indicated key goals may not be met and more help was needed. Anthony Banbury said personnel from the U.N. Mission on Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) were already working alongside the U.S. military in Liberia and British troops in Sierra Leone. But he added that the operation may miss its goal of deploying all its material into the Ebola-stricken region within 30 days…” (10/13).

U.N. News Centre: Strong community engagement, activism key to defeating Ebola in West Africa — U.N. official
“Community engagement and activism are critical in Sierra Leone’s ongoing battle against the spread of Ebola, [Magdy Martínez-Solimán, director of policy at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said Monday], adding that only with the support of the local population could the country and the wider region of West Africa defeat the economic and health crises caused by the deadly virus…” (10/13).

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News outlets report on a meeting among U.S. President Barack Obama and high-ranking administration officials and his discussions with world leaders regarding the Ebola epidemic in the U.S. and abroad.

Associated Press: Obama reviews foreign, domestic response to Ebola
“President Barack Obama urged his top national security and public health officials on Monday to incorporate lessons from the most recent Texas Ebola infection into the U.S.’s response plans to the deadly virus. He also called on the international community to deliver assistance more quickly to the countries of West Africa that are struggling against the disease…” (Kuhnhenn, 10/13).

The Hill: Obama meets officials on Ebola response
“…The attendees at the meeting included Sylvia Burwell, the secretary of the Health and Human Services Department; Susan Rice, Obama’s national security adviser, and Lisa Monaco, the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), participated via telephone…” (Sink, 10/13).

Reuters: Obama urges more action to fight Ebola crisis
“President Barack Obama spoke to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday and agreed the international community had to step up its effort to ‘decisively address the Ebola crisis,’ the White House said. Obama also spoke to French President Francois Hollande and agreed more had to be done to establish treatment facilities in the African nations affected by the outbreak…” (Mason/Holland, 10/13).

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News outlets discuss how U.S. political parties are using the Ebola epidemic in their mid-term election campaign strategies.

The Hill: GOP amplifies calls for Ebola czar
“A growing number of Republicans are accusing President Obama of leadership failures on Ebola and urging him to hand over the government response to a single point person outside his administration. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) became the latest — and highest-ranking — Republican to call for an Ebola ‘czar’ on Sunday…” (Ferris, 10/13).

The Hill: Dem lawmaker: No need for Ebola ‘czar’
“Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) is pushing back against calls for President Obama to appoint an Ebola ‘czar’ to coordinate the fight against the deadly virus. In an interview on MSNBC, Casey said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) already had an official tasked with managing the response to such public health emergencies, citing the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act, which Congress reauthorized last year…” (Byrnes, 10/13).

New York Times: Debate Over Ebola Turns to Specific Policy Requests
“The public health concerns about Ebola have now spread to both political parties, which are engaged in a finger-pointing policy debate that could jar midterm elections just weeks away…” (Weisman, 10/13).

Wall Street Journal: Ebola Health Crisis Becomes Political Campaign Fodder
“…Republicans are accusing President Barack Obama of not doing enough to protect Americans from Ebola, part of a broader strategy to frame the election as a referendum on his leadership. … Democrats, meanwhile, are linking Republican-backed budget cuts to the spread of the disease, to help argue that dire consequences result when the GOP is in charge…” (Reinhard/Armour, 10/13).

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News outlets report the CDC is rethinking its Ebola strategy to ensure health care worker safety after a nurse who treated an infected Liberian man at a Dallas hospital contracted the virus.

The Hill: Feds rethinking Ebola strategy
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday said it is starting to ‘rethink’ its Ebola strategy after the first-ever U.S. transmission of the virus put a ‘relatively large’ number of health care workers at risk…” (Ferris/Viebeck, 10/13).

New York Times: CDC Rethinking Methods to Stop Spread of Ebola
“The transmission of the Ebola virus to a nurse [in Dallas] forced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday to reconsider its approach to containing the disease, with state and federal officials re-examining whether equipment and procedures were adequate or too loosely followed, and whether more decontamination steps are necessary when health workers leave isolation units…” (Fernandez et al., 10/13).

Reuters: U.S. needs to rethink Ebola infection controls, says CDC chief
“… ‘We have to rethink the way we address Ebola infection control. Even a single infection is unacceptable,’ Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters. ‘The care of Ebola is hard. We’re working to make it safer and easier’…” (Garza/Wade, 10/13).

Wall Street Journal: CDC Director Calls for Rethinking Approach to Ebola Infection Control
“…A team of senior infection control experts from the public health agency is poring over equipment, how protective gear is donned and removed, and other procedures at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Dr. Frieden said, to try to determine how the nurse became the first person known to have become infected with the virus in U.S….” (McKay et al., 10/13).

Washington Post: CDC chief: After Dallas nurse’s Ebola infection, U.S. must ‘rethink’ protocols
“…Frieden did not detail precisely how the extensive, government-issued safety protocols in place at many facilities might need to change or in what ways hospitals need to ramp up training for front-line doctors or nurses. But his message was clear: With Ebola, there is no margin for error. The Dallas case made that certain…” (Nutt et al., 10/13).

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News outlets examine U.S. hospitals’ preparations to handle Ebola cases.

New York Times: Questions Rise on Preparations at Hospitals to Deal With Ebola
“Federal health officials have offered repeated assurances that most American hospitals can safely treat Ebola, but Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which had years of preparation for just such a crisis, found out how hard that is while it cared for three Ebola patients…” (Grady, 10/13).

Wall Street Journal: Ebola Response Strains Hospitals
“As the Ebola epidemic in West Africa expands, more cases could require treatment at U.S. hospitals far from the specialized centers that have handled patients so far. But the challenges even these medical centers have encountered show the steep learning curve others face…” (McKay/Loftus, 10/13).

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Reuters: U.S. health officials reject ban on travel from Ebola-stricken countries
“The United States has no plans to eliminate travel from countries in West Africa suffering the worst Ebola outbreak on record, Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a briefing on Monday…” (Begley, 10/13).

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Reuters published several articles discussing how Europe is addressing the Ebola epidemic.

Reuters: Diplomats discuss E.U. military coordination against Ebola
“European Union diplomats will discuss a plan to give the E.U. a coordinating role for European military missions countering the spread of Ebola in West Africa. E.U. officials and diplomats said the plan proposed by foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton lists several options to step up and coordinate efforts by the bloc’s 28 countries…” (Guarascio/Macdonald, 10/13).

Reuters: France says will build more Ebola treatment centers in Guinea
“France said on Monday it had agreed to set up new treatment centers for Ebola in Guinea after the United States asked for further assistance to fight the deadly epidemic in West Africa. The French president’s office said Francois Hollande had spoken to his U.S. counterpart in the evening about ways to tackle the worst outbreak of the disease on record…” (Huet, 10/13).

Reuters: Spain to increase Ebola training as nurse remains seriously ill
“Spain will ramp up training for health workers and emergency services dealing with Ebola cases, authorities said on Monday, as a nurse who caught the virus in Madrid after caring for infected patients remained seriously ill. A broader training program is being developed, said health care academic Fernando Rodriguez Artalejo, who is part of a scientific committee advising the government…” (De Miguel/White, 10/13).

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Reuters: Ebola may change how aid is spent on health care in Africa
“The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has exposed major gaps in development aid, prompting a rethink of the balance between building health systems and tackling specific diseases like AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis…” (Wroughton, 10/13).

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New York Times: Doctors Without Borders Evolves as It Forms the Vanguard in Ebola Fight
“…The first to respond to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, Doctors Without Borders remains the primary international medical aid group battling the disease there. As local health systems have all but collapsed and most outside institutions, including the United States military, have yet to fulfill all their pledges of help, the charity has erected six treatment centers in West Africa, with plans for more. Its workers have treated the majority of patients, just as they have in previous Ebola outbreaks and some other epidemics in the developing world…” (Fink et al., 10/10).

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New York Times: Head of World Bank Makes Ebola His Mission
“…[World Bank President Jim] Kim — a 54-year-old Korean-American whose brash style has alienated many at the bank he leads — [has become] a key figure in a crisis that has exposed yawning gaps in the world’s capacity to respond to deadly epidemics. … The nomination of Dr. Kim, who is trained as a medical doctor and an anthropologist, was met with skepticism by the development establishment. But he has found his moment with Ebola, a large-scale test of ideas that he and his medical school friend Paul Farmer have been developing since 1987, when they and others founded Partners in Health, a nonprofit that provides health care to some of the world’s poorest people…” (Tavernise, 10/13).

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News outlets report on the start of clinical trials testing a Canadian Ebola vaccine.

Agence France-Presse: Experimental Canadian Ebola vaccine starts human tests (10/13).
Globe and Mail: As vaccine trials begin, Canada set to review Ebola strategy (Wingrove, 10/14).
Reuters: Human testing begins on NewLink Genetics’ Ebola vaccine (Grover, 10/13).
Toronto Star: Canadian-made Ebola vaccine starting clinical trials in humans (Pelley, 10/13).

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News outlets provide coverage on a new report issued by the U.S. Department of Defense discussing climate change as a national security threat and the role of the U.S. military in responding to climate change-related disasters.

Associated Press: Hagel: Climate change will challenge U.S. military
“Rising sea levels and other effects of climate change will pose major challenges for America’s military, including more and worse natural disasters and the threat that food and water shortages could fuel disputes and instability around the world, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday…” (Baldor, 10/13).

New York Times: Pentagon Signals Security Risks of Climate Change
“The Pentagon on Monday released a report asserting decisively that climate change poses an immediate threat to national security, with increased risks from terrorism, infectious disease, global poverty, and food shortages. It also predicted rising demand for military disaster responses as extreme weather creates more global humanitarian crises…” (Davenport, 10/13).

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News outlets provide coverage on the new Global Health Index report from the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Agence France-Presse: ‘Hidden hunger,’ often overshadowed but devastating: report
“A major international research group rang alarm bells Monday over the scourge of hidden hunger, also known as vitamin and mineral deficiencies, which affects over two billion people with often devastating consequences. In its Global Hunger Index report, which identified 16 countries with ‘extremely alarming’ or ‘alarming’ hunger levels, the International Food Policy Research Institute also stressed the challenge of fighting the often overshadowed form of malnutrition that occurs when people do not absorb enough nutrients…” (Barriaux, 10/13).

EurActiv: Report: 2 billion worldwide suffer from ‘hidden’ hunger
“The number of people suffering from hunger worldwide is not decreasing fast enough, says the latest Global Hunger Index (GHI) report published on Monday (13 October)…” (Tost, 10/14).

The Guardian: ‘Hidden hunger’ affects 2 billion despite better access to food
“More than two billion people are malnourished because they do not receive enough nutrition from the food they eat, even though access to food has improved substantially over the past two decades. Widespread consumption of poor-quality food leads to ‘hidden hunger,’ which ravages economies and worsens poverty, according to the 2014 Global Hunger Index (GHI), released on Monday by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide…” (Anderson, 10/13).

Reuters: Burundi, Eritrea, East Timor top global hunger index
“Sixteen countries have alarming levels of hunger, with Burundi the worst affected, according to an annual index released on Monday which also reveals that two billion people worldwide suffer from ‘hidden hunger.’ Hidden hunger, which is a lack of vitamins and minerals, weakens the immune system, stunts physical and intellectual growth, and can lead to death…” (Guilbert, 10/13).

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U.N. News Centre: U.N. calls for increased food security measures to offset threat of ‘shocks’
“With some 805 million people still chronically undernourished in the world, a United Nations committee focusing on food security opened its current session in Rome [yesterday] with the stated goal of adopting a set of principles for responsible investment in agriculture and food systems…” (10/13).

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U.N. News Centre: On World Disaster Reduction Day, U.N. spotlights unique needs, vulnerabilities of older persons
“Marking International Day for Disaster Reduction, the United Nations is spotlighting the need to address the vulnerabilities facing older persons, who suffer disproportionately high levels of death and injuries in different types of emergencies and disasters, ranging from weather events and epidemics to armed conflict…” (10/13)

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News outlets report on the growing risk of polio in Pakistan and conflict zones in the Middle East.

Deutsche Welle: Conflict and polio
“Polio is on the rise in countries at conflict, such as Syria and Iraq. The disease was eradicated there 14 years ago. But regional conflict and a breakdown in public health services have brought polio back and, again, children are at risk…” (Erlich, 10/13).

New York Times: Polio on the Rise Again in Pakistan, Officials Say
“Polio is surging again in Pakistan, frustrating world health officials trying to wipe out the disease. Last week, the country reported 202 cases of paralysis, the first time in 14 years the figure topped 200…” (McNeil, 10/13).

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Reuters: Pharmaceutical companies, WHO help India in HIV/AIDS drug crisis
“Indian companies and global health groups are stepping up efforts to provide a critical medicine for the country’s free HIV/AIDS drugs program after more than 150,000 patients risked going without their dosages this month. Delayed tender approvals and poor coordination with states left the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) scrambling for supplies. Reuters reported on Oct. 1 that the supplies were due to run out next week…” (Kalra, 10/13).

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U.N. News Centre: South Sudan: U.N. envoy, Government agree on steps to tackle widespread sexual violence
“Back from her first visit to South Sudan, United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Mrs. Zainab Hawa Bangura warned [Monday] that sexual violence is a consistent characteristic of the conflict there, and is being perpetrated by all the parties. … Her visit concluded with a Joint Communique with the government that outlines clear steps they will take to prevent and address sexual violence crimes…” (10/13).

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Agence France-Presse: U.N. cuts Syria food aid over funding shortfall: official
“The United Nations said on Monday that it has started cutting the food aid it provides to 4.2 million Syrians ravaged by war because of a shortfall in funding. … Around two million Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, and Egypt would also be affected by the WFP’s decision to scale back assistance from next month, [the WFP’s assistant executive director Elisabeth] Rasmusson said…” (10/13).

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U.N. News Centre: Somalia: amid unstable security, U.N. warns of growing humanitarian crisis
“The top United Nations official in Somalia today condemned the car bombing which left an estimated 13 people dead and many more injured in Mogadishu, the capital, amid a precarious humanitarian situation in the rest of the country…” (10/13).

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The following editorials and opinion pieces discuss various aspects of the Ebola epidemic.

New York Times: The Worsening Ebola Crisis
Editorial Board

“…The pace of international aid needs to be stepped up dramatically. … President Obama needs personally to ramp up the urgency of the American response and the level and speed of the resources provided. … The CDC is urging all hospitals, no matter how small, to take travel histories to identify any patients who have been in West Africa within the past 21 days, and immediately place those with Ebola-like symptoms in isolation. The CDC plans to increase its training efforts for hospital personnel … But all of these efforts, however useful, pale against this country’s much larger responsibility to help defeat the disease at its source” (10/13).

SFGate: How to fight (the next) Ebola
Editorial Board

“…Ebola emerged 40 years ago, but the biggest reason there is no cure or vaccine is that pharmaceutical companies, focused on profits, decided it wasn’t worth developing vaccines or remedies for a virus that overwhelmingly affected only the world’s poorer regions. Now those decisions are coming back to haunt all of us. … One potential solution, which has been endorsed by economists and has been successfully used by other countries seeking scientific solutions, would be to offer a prize for pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs in neglected categories. … A lot of money? Yes. Yet we’re learning just how expensive it is to do nothing” (10/14).

New York Times: The Instruction of Pestilence
Roger Cohen, New York Times columnist

“…Plague and epidemics are a thing of the past, of course they are. … A virus contracted in West Africa, perhaps by a man hunting fruit bats in a tropical forest to feed his family, and cutting the bat open, cannot affect a nurse in Dallas, Texas, who has been wearing protective clothing as she tended a patient who died. Except that it does. ‘Pestilence is in fact very common,’ Camus observes, ‘but we find it hard to believe in a pestilence when it descends upon us’…” (10/13).

Washington Post: U.S. hospitals not prepared for Ebola threat
RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of National Nurses United

“With reports that a nurse who treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas has been infected, one thing urgently needs to be made clear: Our hospitals are not prepared to confront the deadly virus. … And Ebola is exposing a broader problem: the sober reality of our fragmented, uncoordinated private health care system. We have enormous health care resources in the United States. What we lack is a national, integrated system needed to respond effectively to a severe national threat such as Ebola. … We know what works: a federal agency with the authority to ensure local, state, and national coordination in response to outbreaks…” (10/13).

The Guardian: We can no longer ignore Ebola’s wider impact — particularly on women
Jeanne Kamara, Sierra Leone country manager for Christian Aid

“…Each day brings stories of the hidden harm [of Ebola] to all facets of people’s lives, including education, maternal health care, food security, and livelihoods. From the accounts I’ve heard, one thing is evident: women are particularly vulnerable to the virus. … Thanks to [Sierra Leone’s] national free health care initiative (for pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children under five), we had made some strides in getting pregnant women to move away from using traditional birth attendants. Sadly, there is now a huge decrease in the numbers of women going to clinics for antenatal care and deliveries. … Meanwhile, access to family planning services is limited. This means that the meager gains are being further eroded…” (10/14).

CNBC: Budget cuts are NOT why there’s no Ebola vaccine
Jake Novak, supervising producer of “Street Signs”

“…NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins has it a bit wrong when he blamed government budget cuts as the reason that we don’t have a fully-approved and stocked Ebola vaccine already. Where he misses the mark is by not realizing that too much government involvement changes the priorities from vital projects like eradicating killer diseases and makes a priority out of political patronage and pet projects. Regulation and control of drug development makes that vital process too dependent on politics and budget cuts in the first place. All those regulations and controls discourage the for-profit pharma industry from the vaccination business almost entirely…” (10/13).

Wall Street Journal: No More Ebola Whac-A-Mole
Nathan Wolfe, founder and CEO of Metabiota

“…[U]nless the world takes broader, more coordinated steps aimed at anticipating outbreaks like Ebola and controlling them early, we’ll be vulnerable to this and other devastating diseases. … Guarding against the threat means putting in place robust, resilient laboratory and surveillance infrastructure in those parts of the world — Africa and elsewhere, most notably Asia — most susceptible to viral epidemics, and we must support regional scientists and health experts who will sustain this infrastructure at all times. Local political leaders have to buy in to this effort, and countries and governmental agencies in the region will need to coordinate their work…” (10/13).

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Huffington Post: Tuberculosis: A Crisis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia That the West Cannot Ignore
Michel Kazatchkine, U.N. secretary general’s special envoy on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

“…The World Health Organization’s Euro Bureau reports that fifteen countries in [Eastern Europe and Central Asia] are among the high burden countries for MDR-TB in the world, which leaves only very few of the countries out of that list. … Tuberculosis is at a crisis point in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and it is a crisis that the West can no longer afford to ignore and it is my hope that the issue begins to receive the attention it deserves at international forums such as the upcoming 45th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Barcelona” (10/13).

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CDC’s “Our Global Voices”: CDC Director: Why I don’t support a travel ban to combat Ebola outbreak
CDC Director Tom Frieden writes, “A travel ban is not the right answer [to combat Ebola]. It’s simply not feasible to build a wall — virtual or real — around a community, city, or country. A travel ban would essentially quarantine the more than 22 million people that make up the combined populations of Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. When a wildfire breaks out we don’t fence it off. We go in to extinguish it before one of the random sparks sets off another outbreak somewhere else…” (10/13).

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USAID’s “IMPACTblog”: Reducing Disaster Risk for All Generations
Laura Powers, senior humanitarian adviser, and Sara Westrick Schomig, special projects adviser for USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, write about the International Day for Disaster Reduction, recognized on October 13. “…This year we pay special attention to the global aging population and how we must include all generations in our disaster planning, preparedness, and mitigation efforts,” they note (10/13).

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Humanosphere: Visualizing how Syria’s war undermines health
Katie Leach-Kemon, a research specialist at IMHE and Humanosphere columnist, discusses how war in Syria is having a “destabilizing effect on the country’s health system and other essential infrastructure…” (10/13).

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