Liberia

LIBERIAN OBSERVER  by Gloria T. Tambia                                                              Dec. 29, 2014

MONROVIA, Liberia --Two thousand persons have been quarantined in Lofe Town, Margibi County, after a corpse transported for burial was confirmed by the County Health Authorities of being Ebola infected.

The Margibi health authorities received a call that a body had been transported from Monrovia for burial, according to the Director of Community Health for Margibi County, Mr. Joseph J. Korhene. He said that the health team and Ebola Task Force, on arriving at the scene on December 18, took a specimen of the corpse that confirmed it to be Ebola positive.

Mr. Korhene...said that before the health team arrived in Lofe Town, the family had already finished the wake-keeping, which brought together people from eight surrounding villages. He said the infected corpse was that of a woman who had died in the Bushrod Island community near Monrovia.

Mr. Korhene who declined to reveal the identity of the deceased said that her family knew that she had died of Ebola but had decided to bury her without the involvement of the Ebola Task Force anyway.

Ebola death rate compared to other diseases

BBC   by James Gallagher Health editor, BBC News website         Dec. 27, 2014

The world has witnessed the largest-ever epidemic of Ebola claim thousands of lives in West Africa in 2014....

Outbreaks such as Ebola have an ability to spread fear around the world, often through the prism of sensationalist media reporting.

So how does Ebola actually compare to previous outbreaks and other diseases? And while the world focuses on Ebola, are we guilty of ignoring much bigger killers?

Analysing the death rates from different viruses shows Ebola is certainly one of the most deadly infections ever encountered.
Read complete report
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29953765

ASSOCIATED PRESS  by By Michelle Faul                        Dec. 29, 2014

GUECKEDOU, Guinea – West Africa’s fight to contain Ebola has hampered the campaign against malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that is claiming many thousands more lives than the dreaded virus.

Woman in the Guinean village of Meliandou, above, near the area considered to be Ebola's ground zero. The fight against Ebola in West Africa is holding back efforts to prevent and treat malaria. Jerome Delay / AP Photo

In Gueckedou, near the village where Ebola first started killing people in Guinea’s tropical southern forests a year ago, doctors say they have had to stop pricking fingers to do blood tests for malaria.

Doctor who survived describes the misery of being an Ebola patient in Liberia

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO  by Didrik Schanoh and Sami Yenigun                              Dec. 25, 2014

Dr. Senga Omeonga met us under a huge mango tree outside the St. Joseph's Catholic Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. Behind the main building, several dozens of disinfected rubber boots worn by health care workers were propped upside down on stakes planted on a patch of lawn.

This is the hospital where he works as general surgeon and the head of Infection Prevention Control. It's also where he came down with Ebola on August 2.

He says his days in treatment were "a living hell." And the experience has changed his view of the world — and the way he treats patients.

Read full interview.