http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/health/ebola-contest-brings-ideas-for-cooling-suits-and-virus-repellents.html 2014-12-12 23:51:53 Ebola Contest Brings Ideas for Cooling Suits and Virus Repellents The United States Agency for International Development announced the preliminary results on Friday of its “Grand Challenges” contest for new tools for Ebola workers. === The well-prepared Ebola fighter in West Africa may soon have some new options: protective gear that zips off like a wet suit, ice-cold underwear to make life inside the sweltering suits more bearable, or lotions that go on like bug spray and kill or repel the lethal virus. Those ideas are among the contenders to win the Ebola “Grand Challenges” All still need to undergo testing, and some may prove impractical, but the 900 contest submissions “blew the roof off the number of responses we’ve ever had,” said Wendy Taylor, director of U.S.A.I.D.'s Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact. The agency’s The preliminary results of the Ebola challenge were revealed Friday, and Ms. Taylor said the agency would spend about $1.7 million testing the most promising possibilities. Some, including various brands of cooling undergarments, are repurposed off-the-shelf products. The heavy-duty A higher-tech alternative is Testing is needed, Ms. Taylor said, to see if the vest is comfortable enough and the sleeves cooling enough. Doctors and nurses working in midday tropical heat are often near collapse after 45-minute shifts. Anything that prolongs that period would let them see more patients — and that is important because there is a severe shortage of health care workers to fight Ebola. Other contenders include To see if it might be effective during the slow, dangerous process of taking off a protective suit, Zylast must be tested specifically against the Ebola virus and for its durability on skin running with sweat, Ms. Taylor said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health will do the tests or provide advice if an independent laboratory does them, she added. A spray-on barrier to repel microbes with electrostatic fields will also be tested, in the hopes that it will let protective gear be fashioned out of breathable fabrics. However, whether it can repel infectious vomit and A joint team of engineering and medical students from Johns Hopkins University and the Under Armour clothing company, both based in Baltimore, are refining a “You can see their smile,” Ms. Taylor said.