Disaster Response

Nigerian-virologist-delivers-scathing-analysis-africas-response-ebola

Mon, 2014-11-03 18:54 — mike kraft

SCIENCE INSIDER Nov. 3, 2014

VIENNA—After Oyewale Tomori finished his talk on Ebola here at the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance, there was stunned silence. Tomori, the president of the Nigerian Academy of Science, used his plenary to deliver a scathing critique of how African countries have handled the threat of Ebola and how corruption is hampering efforts to improve health. Aid money often simply disappears, Tomori charged, "and we are left underdeveloped, totally and completely unprepared to tackle emerging pathogens."

"Ebola is Africa's problem," says Oyewale Tomori.

Trained as a veterinarian, Tomori was the World Health Organization’s (WHO's) regional virologist for the African region in 1995 during the Ebola outbreak in Kikwit in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

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Emergency Preparedness: Ebola Outbreak Response

Mon, 2014-11-03 12:51 — mike kraft

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MedEdPORTAL Nov. 3, 2014

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC),in response to the Ebola, outbreak, has created on its MedEdPORTAL created this collection of peer-reviewed teaching materials, new and innovative resources (non peer-reviewed), and online continuing education activities for practicing healthcare providers focused on emergency preparedness for outbreaks.

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Can a U.S. military Ebola treatment center slow Ebola in one hard-hit city?

Mon, 2014-11-03 07:59 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON POST Nov. 3, 2014
By Kevin Sieff

GANTA, LIBERIA --
The U.S. is erecting a new Ebola treatment center, slated to be finished later this month and manned by newly imported doctors. Just the sight of American helicopters flying over Ganta, a city of about 50,000, has lifted hopes here.

...a modern treatment center won’t be enough to eliminate Ebola in a place where the outbreak appears to rise and fall every few weeks and where victims sometimes disappear into remote communities with the disease. The question is whether those victims can be persuaded to use the new facility once it is built, preventing the spread of the disease in some of the country’s most vulnerable areas.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/can-a-us-military-ebola-treatment-center-slow-ebola-in-one-hard-hit-city/2014/11/01/afb7b058-60fd-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html

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UK to build three new Ebola labs in Sierra Leone

Sat, 2014-11-01 22:07 — mike kraft

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH Nov. 1, 2014
By Colin Freeman

Britain has pledged £20 million to build three new Ebola testing laboratories in Sierra Leone, a move that will save lives by slashing the time required to tell whether a patient has the virus.

Chinese medical workers training staff in protection against ebola at the Sierra Leone-China Friendship Hospital, Freetown, Sierra Leone Photo: Xinhua News Agency/REX

At present, the sheer number of cases is overwhelming the ability of testing labs to cope, with a wait of up to five days or more for results to come back.

The building of the new labs is expected to reduce that time to a 24-hour turn around, meaning that patients who later get the all-clear do not have to spend several days waiting in treatment centres where they might be at risk of infection.

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WHO Updates Guidelines on Ebola Protective Gear

Sat, 2014-11-01 14:44 — mike kraft

WHO Oct. 31, 2014
GENEVA-- The World Health Organization \ WHO has conducted a formal review of personal protective equipment (PPE) guidelines for healthcare workers and is updating its guidelines in context of the current outbreak.

A U.S. doctor in a protective suit in Liberia adjust that of a colleague before entering an Ebola treatment unit in Monrovia in this photo released Sept. 16, 2014.

These updated guidelines aim to clarify and standardize safe and effective PPE options to protect health care workers and patients, as well as provide information for procurement of PPE stock in the current Ebola outbreak. The guidelines are based on a review of evidence of PPE use during care of suspected and confirmed Ebola virus disease patients.

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http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/ebola-ppe-guidelines/en/

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U.S. military to train more Ebola response teams

Sat, 2014-11-01 10:15 — mike kraft

USA TODAY Oct. 31, 2014
Patricia Kime, Military Times

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military will train more medical personnel to respond to domestic cases of Ebola should they occur, a senior Defense Department official said Thursday.

(Photo: Senior Airman Kayla Newman / Air Force)

Plans are under way to form more military Ebola medical response teams similar to the 30-member group that completed training this week at San Antonio Military Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

The official said the Pentagon is anticipating a request from the Health and Human Services Department for more medical personnel who would respond on short notice to civilian medical facilities should they need help treating Ebola patients....

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Home> International Liberia Opens 1 of Largest Ebola Treatment Centers

Fri, 2014-10-31 19:16 — mike kraft

In this photo taken Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014, aid is offloaded to be used in the fight of the Ebola virus, as it arrives by air from America at the airport in Conakry, Guinea. No African countries are on the United Nations list of contributors to fight the Ebola epidemic, and angry legislators from Sierra Leone and Liberia got up to protest at a session on peace and security at the Pan-African Parliament in South Africa last "They said as far as they are concerned, nobody wants to talk about Ebola," said Jeggan Grey-Johnson, a governance expert. (AP Photo/ Youssouf Bah)

REUTERS Oct. 31, 2014
ByJonathan Paye-Layleh

MONROVIA, Liberia —Remembering those who have died in the world's deadliest Ebola outbreak, Liberia's president opened one of the country's largest Ebola treatment centers in Monrovia on Friday amid hopes that the disease is finally on the decline in this West African country.

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China To Send Elite Army Unit To Ebola-Hit Liberia

Fri, 2014-10-31 17:19 — mike kraft

REUTERS Oct. 31, 2014
By Megha Rajagopalan

BEIJING, -- China will dispatch an elite unit of the People's Liberation Army to help Ebola-hit Liberia, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, responding to U.N. calls for a greater global effort to fight the deadly virus in West Africa.

Washington has led the international drive to stop the spread of the disease...sending thousands of troops and committing about $1 billion, but Beijing has faced criticism for not doing enough although it is Africa's largest trading partner.

The PLA squad, which has experience from a 2002 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), will build a 100-bed treatment center in Liberia, the first such facility in the three countries most impacted by Ebola to be constructed and run by a foreign country, said Lin Songtian, director general of the ministry's Department of African Affairs.

The center will be open for operation in a month's time, he told a briefing in Beijing. China will also dispatch 480 PLA medical staff to treat Ebola patients, he said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/31/china-ebola-liberia_n_6080396.html

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Africans Worst Responders in Ebola Crisis

Fri, 2014-10-31 10:49 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS Oct. 31, 2014
By MICHELLE FAUL

JOHANNESBURG-With few exceptions, African governments and institutions are offering only marginal support as the continent faces its most deadly threat in years, once again depending on the international community to save them.

Ebola "caught us by surprise," the chairwoman of the 53-nation African Union, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, said this week at a meeting with the U.N. secretary-general and the World Bank president in Ethiopia.

"With the wisdom of hindsight, our responses at all levels - continental, global and national - were slow, and often knee-jerk reactions that did not always help," she said.

She is a medical doctor from South Africa, where mining magnate Patrice Motsepe Tuesday announced he has donated $1 million to the fight against Ebola in Guinea, where the outbreak started.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/africans-worst-responders-ebola-crisis-26596929

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World Bank funding for Ebola fight hits $500 million

Thu, 2014-10-30 23:18 — mike kraft

REUTERS Oct. 30, 2014

(GENEVA)- The World Bank pledged $100 million on Thursday to help recruit more foreign health workers in the fight against Ebola, taking its funding for the three worst-hit countries to more than half a billion dollars over the past three months.

People sit near a banner reading ''The Ministry of Agriculture, Dixinn Commune, Together to defeat Ebola,'' in Conakry, Guinea October 26, 2014.Credit: Reuters/Michelle Nichols

The latest tranche will go towards setting up a coordination hub to recruit, train and deploy qualified foreign health workers and support the three countries' efforts to isolate Ebola patients and bury the dead safely, the bank said.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/30/us-health-ebola-worldbank-idUSKBN0IJ1NV20141030

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