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Liberia Reports First Ebola Case in Weeks

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Fri, 2015-03-20 16:58 — Kathy Gilbeaux

         

A man walks by a mural with health instructions on treating the Ebola virus, in Monrovia, November 18, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/James Giahyue

reuters.com - (Reporting by James Harding Giahyue; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn)
March 20, 2015

(Reuters) - Liberia has reported its first Ebola case in weeks on Friday, health officials said, in a setback for its efforts to stamp out the worst recorded epidemic of the deadly virus.

A government official, who asked not to be named, said the patient came from Caldwell, a suburb of the capital not far from the last cluster of cases in the St Paul's Bridge neighborhood. . .

. . . "Today, a patient tested positive of Ebola at the transit center run by Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Liberia's Ministry of Health's Redemption Hospital," said Adolphus Mawolo, spokesman for MSF in Monrovia.

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Country / Region Tags: 
Global
Africa
Liberia
General Topic Tags: 
Contagion
Disease
Health
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Problem
Situation Report
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Guinea Resilience System
Africa Resilience Initiative
Global Health
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Sat, 2015-03-21 15:56 — mike kraft

FRONTPAGEAFRICA    Staff report                                                                         March 21, 2015
OLSO, Norway  – The Publisher and Editor of FrontPageAfrica says complacency on the part of the Liberian government and ordinary Liberians is to blame for the recent relapse of the deadly Ebola virus which saw the emergency of a new case of the virus, for the first time in 20 days. 

Addressing the annual conference of SKUP, the organization dedicated to promoting investigative journalism based in Oslo, Norway, Saturday, the FPA publisher said many in Liberia have become overwhelmed at the total eradication of the virus from the country that they are forgetting to stick to the basic formula that led to the decline of the virus....

 “At the height of Ebola, virtually every household and businesses had buckets and containers of chlorine for visitors and shoppers to wash their hands. Now many, including the legislative building and some government offices are throwing the buckets and containers away because they feel the declining numbers mean, Ebola is no more.”

The FPA publisher also criticized the government for prematurely reopening the borders with Guinea and Sierra Leone as well as shutting down Ebola centers when Liberia had not yet reached the 42-day period required to be declared Ebola free by the World Health Organization and the international community.
Read complete story.

http://www.frontpageafricaonline.com/index.php/news/4756-complacency-behind-liberia-ebola-relapse-fpa-editor-at-skup-seminar

Sat, 2015-03-21 16:19 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES by Sheri Fink and Rick Gladstone         March 21, 2015

The Information Ministry issued a statement saying “initial suspicion is that it may be the result of possible sexual intercourse with an Ebola survivor.”

While that is only speculative, researchers have found evidence that Ebola may persist in semen for up to three months after recovery, and abstinence is recommended.

In part for this reason, the World Health Organization intends to release new guidelines for when an Ebola epidemic ends, a W.H.O. official said.

To be declared Ebola-free, countries must wait 42 days from when the last patient tests negative for a second time. The new guidelines would recommend “heightened surveillance” for an additional 90 days, to take into account the potential for sexual transmission and hidden transmission chains.

Read complete account

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/21/world/africa/liberia-reports-first-ebola-case-in-weeks.html

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