Guinea

MONROVIA, Liberia — Soldiers and police officers in riot gear blocked the roads. Even the waterfront was cordoned off, with the coast guard stopping residents from setting out in canoes. The entire neighborhood, a sprawling slum with tens of thousands of people, awoke Wednesday morning to find that it was under strict quarantine in the government’s halting fight against Ebola.

Country / Region Tags:

Global

Africa

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Read more about Clashes Erupt as Liberia Sets an Ebola Quarantine
Log in or register to post comments

Boots on the Ground

Wed, 2014-08-20 18:47 — Elhadj Drame

Bloomberg School students assess Ebola interventions at outbreak epicenter.

When the Red Cross asked for help conducting Ebola-related research in Guinea, Bloomberg School doctoral students Tim Roberton and Clementine Fu immediately stepped forward. From July 19 to August 1, the two worked in the outbreak’s initial epicenter in Guéckédou, and in the capital city of Conakry.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about Boots on the Ground
Log in or register to post comments

Over 300 Ebola deaths traced back to a healer in Sierra Leone

Wed, 2014-08-20 17:18 — Elhadj Drame

Source: http://www.enca.com/sierra-leones-ebola-deaths-traced-back-one-healer

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - It has laid waste to the tribal chiefdoms of Sierra Leone, leaving hundreds dead, but the Ebola crisis began with just one healer's claims to special powers.

The outbreak need never have spread from Guinea, health officials told AFP, except for a herbalist in the remote eastern border village of Sokoma.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Over 300 Ebola deaths traced back to a healer in Sierra Leone
Log in or register to post comments

Liberian Security Forces Seal Slum

Wed, 2014-08-20 09:20 — JSole

Associated Press

Security forces deployed Wednesday to enforce a quarantine around a slum in the Liberian capital, stepping up the government's fight to stop the spread of Ebola and unnerving residents.

Liberia has the highest death toll of the four West African countries affected by the dreaded disease, and its number of cases is rising the fastest. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ordered the quarantine and imposed a nighttime curfew that begins Wednesday, saying that authorities have not been able to curtail the spread of Ebola in the face of defiance of their recommendations.

"These measures are meant to save lives," she said in an address Tuesday night.

During the raid this weekend in West Point slum, bloody items were stolen and potential Ebola patients fled, raising fears the disease would spread out of control in a densely populated area. It was not clear why people would steal items that might spread infection, but there are still many misconceptions about how dangerous the disease is and how it is spread.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Liberian Security Forces Seal Slum
1 comment
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola Crisis: 3 Receiving Untested Ebola Drug in Liberia Improving

Tue, 2014-08-19 21:50 — Kathy Gilbeaux

A girl suspected of being infected with the Ebola virus has her temperature checked at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Although the outbreak began in Guinea, Liberia has now recorded the highest number of deaths and Sierra Leone the most cases. (Carl de Souza/AFP/Getty)

Ebola situation is 'less alarming' in Guinea than it is in Liberia and Sierra Leone, WHO says

cbc.ca - Associated Press - August 19, 2014

Three Liberian health workers receiving an experimental drug for Ebola are showing signs of recovery, officials said Tuesday, though medical experts caution it is not certain if the drug is effective. . .

. . . The three Liberians are being treated with the last known doses of ZMapp, a drug that had earlier been given to two infected Americans and a Spaniard. The Americans are also improving, but the Spaniard died.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Read more about Ebola Crisis: 3 Receiving Untested Ebola Drug in Liberia Improving
Log in or register to post comments

WHO: Ebola-Hit Countries Must Screen All Departing Travellers

Tue, 2014-08-19 20:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

An immigration officer uses an infra-red laser thermometer to examine a policeman on his arrival at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, August 11, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde

reuters.com - August 18, 2014

GENEVA (Reuters) - Authorities in countries affected by Ebola should check people departing at international airports, seaports and major border crossings and stop any with signs of the virus from travelling, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday.

The U.N. health agency reiterated that the risk of getting infected with Ebola on an aircraft was small as infected people are usually too ill to travel, and said that the risk is also very low to travellers in affected countries, namely Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

There was no need for wider travel or trade restrictions, the WHO said in a statement.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about WHO: Ebola-Hit Countries Must Screen All Departing Travellers
Log in or register to post comments

Full Report - WHO - Ethical Considerations for Use of Unregistered Interventions for Ebola Viral Disease

Tue, 2014-08-19 16:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Full report of the WHO #Ethics Panel on experimental #Ebola medicines and vaccines http://t.co/pxpHukvLfk
— WHO (@WHO) August 18, 2014

(FULL REPORT - CLICK HERE - 12 page .PDF report)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

CDC’s Disease Detectives Respond to the 2014 Ebola Outbreak

Tue, 2014-08-19 13:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Ute, a CDC laboratory specialist, works on viruses like Ebola.

cdc.gov - August 18, 2014

The Most Important Test in West Africa

When a person in West Africa suddenly has a fever, how do you know whether it’s Ebola or something else? When an Ebola patient gets better, how do you know when that person is no longer infectious to others?

To get answers to both questions, you need a laboratory equipped with state of the art equipment. To get those urgently needed answers quickly, that lab ideally would be located close to an Ebola treatment center.

It sounds difficult to build such a safe, sophisticated lab in a major city – and seems nearly impossible in the remote parts of Africa where Ebola outbreaks occur – but CDC has done it for other outbreaks and is doing it now in West Africa. CDC mobile labs equipped with real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) equipment already are being set up next to West African Ebola treatment centers.

And Ute, a CDC expert, heads up the teams going with them. When she’s not traveling to remote regions of the world, she’s at CDC headquarters in Atlanta working to speed diagnosis of the world’s worst viruses.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report