United Nations

ASSOCIATED PRESS by Edith M. Lederer                                           June 1, 2015

The U.N. Ebola chief said Monday he believes "it's only a matter of weeks" before the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone ends, but stopping the deadly disease in Guinea will take more time because in some areas unsafe traditions still hold sway over what's good for people's health.

Dr. David Nabarro stressed in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday that the Ebola epidemic "absolutely isn't over" though Liberia has been Ebola free since May 9.

"We have cases occurring, not in huge numbers but enough to be very disturbing, in Sierra Leone and in Guinea," he said, and the situation in Guinea is especially troubling because surprise cases have been popping up that are not part of known chains of transmission.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/official-ebola-end-sierra-leone-weeks-31457174

NEW SCIENTIST  Opinion                                   May 6, 2015

...HOW the world has changed. In 1948, the first commercial jet airliner was still a few years away from take-off, and the global population was just over 2 billion. Less than one-third lived in cities. Back then, safeguarding global health seemed an eminently manageable project. The newly formed United Nations agreed, and established the World Health Organization.

 Now, over half the planet's 7 billion people are packed into urban areas. Between us, we travel tens of billions of kilometres around the globe every year, with plenty of pathogens and parasites coming along for the ride. The WHO, largely unchanged since its creation, is ill-equipped to deal with the disease threats that this new world creates.

The recent Ebola outbreak is a case in point. Even the WHO's director-general, Margaret Chan, said her organisation was "overwhelmed" and admitted that a crisis on that scale "cannot be solved by a single agency".

BIOPREPWATCH                                               May 4, 2015

Peter Jan Graaff, during his first week as the secretary-general’s acting special representative and head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, declared his commitment to stopping the Ebola outbreak.

“We have made great progress in fighting the virus, but we are not done yet,” Graaff said. “The rainy season is fast approaching, which will complicate efforts to contain the disease. We have a very small window of opportunity, and that window is closing fast. We can’t risk falling behind the virus again. We need to stay ahead of it and eliminate it before it is too late....”

If no cases present themselves by May 9, Liberia will be declared free of Ebola.

“Until we reach zero cases in every country, Ebola still poses a threat to the region, and to the world,” Graaff said. “We must keep up our efforts over the next few weeks to trace and treat every last case.”

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http://bioprepwatch.com/news/head-of-u-n-ebola-response-stresses-importance-of-stopping-virus-before-rainy-season/341712/

SCI DEVELOPMENT NET                                                                                April 29, 2015
(includes links to five feature stories and editorials on communication issues and other subjects.)
The outbreak of Ebola that has affected West Africa since December 2013 is the largest to date, with enormous human and economic costs. It has also exposed weaknesses in the global response system, including the handling of communication and complex social responses. What can we learn from this to better manage future health emergencies?

This Spotlight presents an in-depth analysis including opinions, facts and figures, and key resources. It features commentary by Sylvie Briand of the WHO, Rosamund Southgate of Médecins Sans Frontières and Annie Wilkinson of the Institute of Development Studies. 

It includes first-hand accounts by researchers with experience in the field, and interviews with social science expert Melissa Leach and communications managers at Médecins Sans Frontières-UK and BBC Media Action.
Read complete articles.