Ebola- the latest from the Pebtagon

[nitpicker]

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20141026/NEWS05/310260013/Pentagon-speeds-up-effort-find-Ebola-treatments

Pentagon speeds up effort to find Ebola treatments
Oct. 26, 2014 - 11:22AM
By Ray Locker
USA Today

(snip)
A new proposal released Friday by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency calls for proposals from researchers and companies that can develop new vaccines, testing procedures and other methods to fight the disease.

“Specifically, DTRA is seeking products that can be accelerated towards clinical evaluation in the near-term (3 to 6 months) to provide additional (medical countermeasure) capabilities to mitigate the epidemic in West Africa,” the document says.
(snip)

The agency is seeing a quick turnaround for the new proposals. For example, a proposal turned in by the end of October could be reviewed and analyzed for a final decision by December, the proposal says.
(snip)

The details cited by the Pentagon in the latest document show the urgency. It wants to take vaccines that are in late stages of development and get them into the affected areas more quickly and eliminate barriers to rapid production of the vaccines.

One vaccine in development is called BPSC-1001, the agency said. In previous studies, the vaccine has shown promise in animal testing, but it is made in lots of 1,000 to 5,000 vials. There may be risks, DTRA says, in producing larger amounts of the vaccine, which “requires a cold chain to maintain stability, which introduces complexity and risk into the use of this vaccine in austere conditions.”

[Downwinder]

1. About time.

Last edited Mon Oct 27, 2014, 05:23 AM - Edit history (1)

The bio-weapons labs are supposed to have been working on a vaccine for the last thirty five years.

How many other pathogens are they carrying in their inventories that they are supposedly working on antidotes or vaccines for. Anthrax we know and West Nile was sent to Saddam.

[nitpicker]

2. Pentagon builds isolation units to transport Ebola patients

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20141026/NEWS04/310260018/Pentagon-builds-isolation-units-transport-Ebola-patients

Pentagon builds isolation units to transport Ebola patients
Oct. 26, 2014 - 12:38PM
Greg Zoroya
USA Today

As more U.S. troops head to West Africa, the Pentagon is developing portable isolation units that can carry up to 12 Ebola patients for transport on military planes.
(snip)

“We want to be prepared to care for the people we do have there just out of an abundance of caution,” Defense Department spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said. She said prototypes would be tested in the next month before being deployed in the field by January.
(snip)

The Pentagon’s transportation system will allow the Air Force to use C-17 or C-130 transport planes to carry up to eight patients on stretchers or 12 patients who are able to walk, said Charles Bass, a Defense Department chemical engineer working on the project. Elzea said the cost of the units couldn’t be provided as the final contract for the project is still under negotiation.
(snip)

Phoenix Air, which currently offers the only medically approved means of carrying Ebola patients at a cost of $200,000 a flight, has flown more than a dozen missions since late July, said Dent Thompson, company vice president of operations.

That includes flights carrying three people infected with Ebola — physician Kent Brantly, missionary Nancy Writebol and cameraman Ashoka Mukpo — from Africa to the United States. The company also has carried other patients or those exposed to the virus to Europe and within the USA, Thompson added.

Phoenix Air handles emergency Ebola flights, including for the U.S. military, through a contract with the U.S. State Department. Non-governmental groups seeking the service reimburse the U.S. government for Phoenix Air services, Thompson said.
(snip)