Africa Resilience Initiative

By Lena H. Sun September 11 - washingtonpost.com

More than six months into the worst Ebola outbreak in history, there is no clear sense of who is leading the international response, how funds are being collected and disbursed, which organizations are providing equipment and personnel, and when any of these efforts will make a significant difference in slowing the epidemic in West Africa.

The confusion and lack of coordination have delayed shipments of desperately needed supplies; some of those being pledged now won’t arrive for months. For example, a 62-bed facility that the British government on Monday promised to deliver will take eight weeks to be operational; the 25-bed field hospital the Pentagon has offered will take at least a month before it is up and running.

By Lena H. Sun, The Washington Post, September 9 at 8:47 PM

Despite President Obama’s call for increased involvement of the U.S. military in the fight against the rapidly escalating Ebola epidemic in West Africa, the United States is hamstrung by a lack of military medical personnel with expertise dealing with the deadly virus, a top official in charge of coordinating the U.S. response said Tuesday.

“There isn’t an existing cadre of people who have experience in treating this epidemic other than” the aid group Doctors Without Borders, said Nancy Lindborg of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

By By BASHIR ADIGUN and JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH - Updated: 08/23/2014 1:00 pm EDT

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Two alarming new cases of Ebola have emerged in Nigeria, widening the circle of people sickened beyond the immediate group of caregivers who treated a dying airline passenger in one of Africa's largest cities.

The outbreak also continues to spread elsewhere in West Africa, with 142 more cases recorded, bringing the new total to 2,615 with 1,427 deaths, the World Health Organization said Friday.

Most of the new cases are in Liberia, where the government was delivering donated rice to a slum where 50,000 people have been sealed off from the rest of the capital in an attempt to contain the outbreak.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/22/nigeria-ebola-quarantine_n_5699062.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Sierra Leone will impose a three-day countrywide shutdown starting Sept. 19

Thomson Reuters Posted: Sep 06, 2014 7:12 AM ET

Last Updated: Sep 07, 2014 2:05 PM ET

Sierra Leone's proposed countrywide "lockdown" will not help control an Ebola outbreak and could lead to the disease spreading further as cases are concealed, medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Saturday.

The government plans to order citizens not to leave the areas around their homes for three days from Sept. 19 in a bid to halt new infections and help health workers track down people suffering from the disease, the information ministry said on Saturday.