The lasting influence of Ebola: a qualitative study of community-level behaviors, trust, and perceptions three years after the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic in Liberia.

The majority of disease transmission during the 2014-16 West Africa Ebola epidemic was driven by community-based behaviors that proved difficult to change in a social paradigm of misinformation, denial, and deep-seated distrust of government representatives and institutions. In Liberia, perceptions and beliefs about Ebola during and since the epidemic can provide insights useful to public health strategies aimed at improving community preparedness. In this 2018 study, we conducted nine focus groups with Liberians from three communities who experienced Ebola differently, to evaluate behaviors, attitudes, and trust during and after the epidemic.

Community trust of government and non-governmental organizations during the 2014-16 Ebola epidemic in Liberia.

The West African Ebola Virus Disease epidemic of 2014-16 cost more than 11,000 lives. Interventions targeting key behaviors to curb transmission, such as safe funeral practices and reporting and isolating the ill, were initially unsuccessful in a climate of fear, mistrust, and denial. Building trust was eventually recognized as essential to epidemic response and prioritized, and trust was seen to improve toward the end of the epidemic as incidence fell.

Barriers and Opportunities for Sustainable Hand Hygiene Interventions in Rural Liberian Hospitals.

Hand hygiene is central to hospital infection control. During the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola virus disease epidemic in Liberia, gaps in hand hygiene infrastructure and health worker training contributed to hospital-based Ebola transmission. Hand hygiene interventions were undertaken post-Ebola, but many improvements were not sustainable.

Results, rhetoric, and randomized trials: the case of donepezil.

Whether donepezil provides meaningful benefit to patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) is controversial, but drug sales annually total billions of dollars. A review of data from published randomized clinical trials (RCTs) found rhetorical patterns that may encourage use of this drug. To create a reproducible observation, the sentences occurring at five specific text sites in all 18 RCTs of donepezil for AD were tabulated, as were study design, sources of financial support, and outcomes that could be compared between trials.

Relationship between age and platelet activation in patients with stable and unstable angina.

The objective of this study was to examine platelet reactivity and activation as a function of age in patients with both stable and unstable angina. This was a retrospective cohort study to compare platelet function in older patients with and without acute coronary syndromes. Participants were 55 individuals presenting with acute coronary syndromes and 54 with stable angina whose age ranged from 38 to 92 years.