Sierra Leone

Medical charity MSF opens Ebola clinic for pregnant women

Sat, 2015-01-10 18:10 — mike kraft

REUTERS BY Umaru Fofana Jan. 10, 2015

FREETOWN --Medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) has opened the first care center in the current Ebola epidemic for pregnant women, whose survival rate from the virus is virtually zero, the charity said on Saturday....

An Ebola virus treatment center is seen in Bo, Sierra Leone, November 17, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Benjamin Black

There is currently one patient in the clinic, which is perched on a hill in the compound of a disused Methodist boys high school in the Sierra Leone capital.

Women are particularly vulnerable to a disease spread through direct contact with infected people and with the corpses of victims, because women often care for sick family members, said MSF Field Coordinator, Esperanza Santos.

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Ending Ebola in '15 Depends on Locals as Much as Foreign Aid

Sat, 2015-01-10 16:01 — mike kraft

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS By MARIA CHENG and CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY Jan 9, 2015

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone --

...Whether the world's worst-ever Ebola outbreak can be wiped out in West Africa in 2015 is uncertain. To a large extent, it depends as much on locals changing their practices and beliefs as it does on continued international assistance.

One of the biggest problems is finding all contacts of confirmed cases. Teams are in place in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three worst-hit countries, to monitor suspect cases, but too little is known about where the virus is spreading. Typically, every confirmed Ebola case has about 12 to 20 possible contacts who must be monitored. In Sierra Leone, the epicenter of the current crisis, officials are reporting just eight, leading to suspicions that contact tracing is inadequate....

Among concrete progress since the crisis gained international attention last summer, a major initiative led by the U.N. has been put into place, including:

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/ending-ebola-15-depends-locals-foreign-aid-28121449?singlePage=true

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Health 2 Leading Ebola Vaccines Appear Safe, Further Tests Starting

Fri, 2015-01-09 10:13 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS by Maria Cheng Jan. 9, 2015
LONDON --The World Health Organizationsays the two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe and will soon be tested in healthy volunteers in West Africa.

After an expert meeting this week, WHO said there is now enough information to conclude that the two most advanced Ebola vaccines ? one made by GlaxoSmithKline and the other licensed by Merck and NewLink ? have "an acceptable safety profile."

In a press briefing on Friday, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, who heads WHO's Ebola vaccine efforts, said "the cupboard (for Ebola vaccines) is filling up rapidly."

She said further trials in healthy people in West Africa, including health workers, are scheduled to start soon. Kieny added several other vaccines were being developed in the U.S., Russia and elsewhere.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/leading-ebola-vaccines-safe-tests-starting-28107527

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Ebola: vaccine trials can offer ‘signs of hope’ says UN health chief

Thu, 2015-01-08 21:26 — mike kraft

UNITED NATIONS NEWS CENTRE Jan. 8, 2015

GENEVA--The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today convened in Geneva its second ever high-level meeting on Ebola vaccines access and financing, to review the current status of clinical trials and plans for Phase II and Phase III efficacy trials.

WHO mobile lab scientists at the crossing point between Guinea and Sierra Leone, two of the countries affected by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Photo: WHO/Saffea Gborie

“We are here to take stock, plan the next steps, and make sure that all partners are working in tandem. We all want the momentum and sense of urgency to continue,” Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO said as she kicked off the meeting.

The most advanced candidate Ebola vaccine is scheduled to enter Phase III efficacy clinical trials in West Africa in January/February 2015, and if shown effective – will be available for deployment a few months later.

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IMF to provide new funds to help three main Ebola-hit nations

Thu, 2015-01-08 17:21 — mike kraft

REUTERS by James Harding Giahyue Jan. 8, 2015

The International Monetary Fund is preparing around $150 million in additional support to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the countries at the heart of the Ebola epidemic, the Fund's representative in Liberia told Reuters on Thursday.

"In Guinea and Sierra Leone, existing Fund financial programs are being augmented to provide more resources to these countries. In Liberia, a one-off disbursement under the Fund's Rapid Credit Facility is being considered," Charles Amo-Yartey told Reuters in an email.

The money could be made available in the first quarter of this year and would add to $130 million disbursed by the Fund in September.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/health-ebola-imf-idUSL6N0UN3RA20150108

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Ebola: A day with the burial team

Thu, 2015-01-08 09:52 — mike kraft

BBC by Tulip Mazumdar Jan. 7, 2015
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone --

...One factor crucial to ending the outbreak is the safe burial of Ebola victims, because their bodies are particularly toxic.

The UK is funding more than 100 burial teams in Sierra Leone. Tulip Mazumdar spent the day with one of them, the Sierra Leone Red Cross Burial Team 9 in the capital Freetown. Here she describes her day....

The team is called to collect a body and, before it is removed, the group takes a moment to pray

Each burial team had around 10 people, including family liaison officers, disinfectant sprayers and drivers....

These were not highly trained medics or undertakers used to seeing dead bodies. They were people from the community, for example students and other volunteers. Depending on their job they are being paid approximately $10 (£6.60) a day.This is considered a very good wage in a country where most people survive on much less.

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UNMEER SRSG Pleads for Regional- Collaboration to Battle Ebola

Thu, 2015-01-08 09:04 — mike kraft

THE DAILY OBSERVER by Gloria T. Tamba Jan. 8, 2015

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MONROVIA -The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) Special Representative to the Secretary General (SRSG), Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, has called on the Liberian government, as well as other Ebola-affected countries, for regional collaboration to battle the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)....

Head of UNMEER Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed (second right) meets in Monrovia with Special Representative for Liberia, Karin Landgren (second left), to discuss cooperation on Ebola between the two UN entities. Photo: UNMEER/Simon Ruf

According to him, Liberia has made great progress in the fight against the deadly virus, but said that a lot needs to be done. He called on health authorities of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, the three hardest hit Ebola-affected countries in West Africa, to carry on regional collaboration by handling Ebola matters in a unique way that could eradicate the killer virus.

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Ebola outbreak: Quarantine 'just like a jail' in Sierra Leone

Wed, 2015-01-07 12:34 — mike kraft

Door-to-door community campaigns seen as key to educating Freetown residents

CBC NEWS by Carolyn Dunn Jan. 6, 2015

FREETOWN --For 18 days, Alieru Deen Bangura’s family has been quarantined in a slum in Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown.

As part of the West African city's efforts to stem the spread of the deadly Ebola virus, the family lives under the watchful eye of armed guards 24 hours a day.

Members of the Bangura family are quarantined after a family member died of Ebola. Seventeen families are living under armed guard behind a rope cordoning them off from their community. (Carolyn Dunn/CBC News )

Seventeen families are cordoned off with a thin, orange, plastic rope, a constant reminder that they are not free to go about their daily business.

“I would say it’s just like a jail for someone to be sitting down the whole day,” Bangura says.

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What providers can learn from infectious disease outbreaks

Wed, 2015-01-07 10:56 — mike kraft

FIERCEHEALTHCARE by Leslie Small Jan. 5. 2015

(Two items. Scroll down.)

With the Ebola crisis far from over as a new year begins, both this current threat to global health as well as past infectious disease outbreaks carry important lessons for critical care providers, according to an article in the American Journal of Critical Care.

Because new pathogens are so unpredictable, "outbreaks reinforce the importance of critical care knowledge, skill and teamwork in uncertain situations," wrote Cindy L. Munro, R.N., Ph.D., and Richard H. Savel, M.D, both editors of the AJCC. "The recent Ebola outbreak reminds us that hand-washing, personal protective equipment and pristine technique are essential."

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Ebola deaths top 8,000; exposures trigger health worker evacuations

Tue, 2015-01-06 15:58 — mike kraft

Ebola: Roundup of recent developments

(Two items. Scroll down for UNMEER report.)

CENTER FOR INFECTIOUSNESS DISEASE AND POLICY by Lisa Schnirring Jan. 5, 2015

As deaths in West Africa's Ebola outbreak officially topped 8,000 over the weekend, leadership of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) changed hands, and Guinea launched a new effort to battle the disease amid continuing reports of community resistance....

In other developments, Guinea's government has announced the launch of a campaign called "zero Ebola in 60 days", UNMEER said today. Guinea's Ebola case counts have been oscillating over the past several months, and in its most recent update, the WHO said it's not clear what the trend is. The first part of Guinea's campaign will start Tuesday, with expert teams traveling to six regions to assess local response efforts and form an action plan for each prefecture that dovetails with Guinea's national action plan.

UNMEER said the campaign's working groups are targeting surveillance, case management, infection control, community engagement and social mobilization, and safe burials.

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