Find all the latest information weekly about the Ebola crisis in the DRC and the response of the Government, UNICEF and their partners to control the outbreak.
Ebola Outbreak 2014
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A COLLECTION OF EBOLA-RELATED ARTICLES FOR GENERAL REFERENCE
Curated by
Robin Landis
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Video + Podcast Ebola The ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest and most complicated that the world has even seen. Since it was first identified in the forested regions of south eastern Guinea in March 2014, it has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, and has now been declared a “public health emergency of international concern” by the World Health Organization. Via Krishan Maggon 
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Remarks by Dr. Joanne Liu, International President Médecins Sans Frontières to UN member states in Geneva, 16 September 2014.
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While U.S. President Obama sends ships and troops to West Africa's Ebola zone, for the first time in its 36-year history, Mercy Ships, operating the world's largest civilian hospital ship, has canceled a scheduled port--expanding costs, lengthening travel time, reassigning volunteers . . . and saving lives. Fitted solely for surgeries and specific non-disease treatments, and with a volunteer professional crew and staff, the NGO has postponed its intended field services to Guinea and Benin, adjacent to West Africa's Ebola outbreak, to serve instead in the Republic of Madagascar.
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A mathematical model that replicates Ebola outbreaks can no longer be used to ascertain the eventual scale of the current epidemic, finds research conducted by the University of Warwick.
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"...The WHO decision seems to be making a distinction between western health workers in the region who are, rightly, given live-saving treatment – and those from the countries concerned who are taking equal risks, are equally courageous and are equally important in the struggle, but condemned to take their chances in a poorly funded healthcare system that can barely cope. And the decision was hugely counterproductive too, because if Ebola is to be tackled, everything must be done to encourage those in the frontline to continue their work despite the huge risks they face."...
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Sierra Leone's economy is down 3.5%, and there's a quarantine. Is the government doing all it can to fight Ebola?
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(Reuters) - Minerals group Sierra Rutile Ltd said its operations would be restricted during the three-day countrywide lockdown to halt the spread of Ebola across Sierra Leone and that it would optimize
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The World Bank President Jim Yong Kim declared the world's response to the current Ebola outbreak as “disastrously inadequate”. Till now, more than 4,000 cases have been reported and 2,000 have been dead; the actual figures could be much higher. This feature discusses what is Ebola, and why WHO is failing to build an adequate response to the epidemic. It also addresses the question why public health systems and pharmaceutical companies are failing in providing vaccines and cures for diseases such as Ebola that primarily affect the poor.
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If you are a qualified medical professional and want to volunteer to work in West Africa, please fill out the form embedded below to submit your contact information to USAID's Center for International Disaster Information.
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The African Development Bank (AfDB) has offered to give west African countries hardest hit by the Ebola epidemic US$150 million to help balance their public finances, if they show they are trying to improve their health systems. On Friday, the IMF said economic growth in Liberia and Sierra Leone could decline by almost 3.5 percent and Guinea by 1 percent, exposing financing gaps of US$100 million to US $130 million in each of the three countries. Efforts to stem the spread of Ebola have disrupted regional trade and transport and domestic commerce in several states. The urgency is to stabilise public finances," AfDB chief Donald Kaberuka told Le Monde newspaper in remarks published on Saturday. "The bank is ready to unblock $150 million to help Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea
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Ebola prevention and preparedness activities continued in South Sudan's Equatoria region to prevent spread of the deadly virus in the country.
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In West Africa, the World Health Organization says the Ebola virus has so far infected over 3,700 people and killed over 1,800. There is no cure for disease, and a potential vaccine could be months, or years, away. However, some health care professionals are looking at alternative approaches for helping Ebola patients survive the virus...
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...There’s never been a connection between Ebola and first-rate medical care,” says Paul Farmer, the renowned co-founder of Partners in Health, before pointing out that none of the health care workers flown back to the U.S. for treatment have died. Could the answer to the outbreak lie in the care regiment for those afflicted? We’ll soon find out. Farmer landed in Liberia this morning, at the center of a coalition quietly formed to specifically – and quickly – test that thesis. In the next few weeks, the Farmer group will open a top-notch treatment facility in one of Liberia’s most rural provinces, along with strategies designed to maximize its effectiveness...
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3 pillars of WFP support:
In numbers:
Highlight—UNHAS Special Operation WFP manages the Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), a common service which plays a key role in the response to the ebola outbreak. UNHAS facilitates the movement of humanitarian workers and the delivery of light cargo between and within the three affected countries. Since 16 August, UNHAS is operating a 19 seat airplane between Conakry, Freetown, Monrovia and field locations (including Kissidougou and N’zerekore), as well as a helicopter for internal flights within Liberia, to reach remote treatment centres and areas of widespread and intense transmission. In addition, WFP is deploying a 35 seat airplane to Conakry to ensure the links to regional hubs. As of 14 September, UNHAS has transported over 290 passengers and 3.3 mt of light cargo for 18 organizations (NGO, UN, donors, government partners and media).
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The Australian Government has provided an extra $7 million to fight the Ebola virus after the United States committed 3,000 troops to contain the epidemic now branded a global security threat.
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Only Ethiopia and Algeria are judged ready to handle an Ebola crisis. The White House said today it's sending aid and 3,000 American troops to join the battle..... ...Six months into the worst Ebola outbreak in history, only two African nations – Ethiopia and Algeria – are adequately prepared to handle the potential arrival of the virus, according to the World Health Organization. Nineteen countries are partially prepared, and 20 were described are not prepared at all....
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..."Hiccups is something that's associated — for reasons we're still not entirely sure of — with hemorrhagic fever, but especially with Ebola," Stern says. Once they pinpointed the culprit, he says, aid organizations like Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization had an incredibly fast response — almost too fast. Health care volunteers were immediately sent in to track contacts and set up isolation wards, but public communication couldn't keep up with the efforts....
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Under pressure to do more to confront the Ebola outbreak sweeping across West Africa, President Obama on Tuesday is to announce an expansion of military and medical resources to combat the spread of the deadly virus, administration officials said. The president will go beyond the 25-bed portable hospital that Pentagon officials said they would establish in Liberia, one of the three West African countries ravaged by the disease, officials said. Mr. Obama will offer help to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia in the construction of as many as 17 Ebola treatment centers in the region, with about 1,700 treatment beds.
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Following the outbreak of the Ebola Virus in West Africa, Cotonou port authorities have taken the below preventive measures to fight the spread of the virus.
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African governments are due to meet in Nairobi from Tuesday for a regional conference on Ebola preparedness, Kenya's health ministry said on Monday. The Sept. 16-17 regional conference will be attended by ministers in charge of transport, health, immigration and East Africa Community (EAC) affairs from Burundi, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), South Sudan and Ethiopia. "The objective of the meeting was to craft a united, comprehensive and collective response to the Ebola outbreak that has so far affected a number of countries in West Africa," the ministry said in a statement. Officials from the health ministry said Kenya would also be offering its regionally advanced diagnostic services to further consolidate the Ebola preparedness effort....
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A lack of coordination and clarity on responsibilities between the different tiers of government "seems to have led to a situation where government primary healthcare services are perceived as the responsibility of everyone and of no one," the health ministry said in 2010.
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The African Union is sending a team of health workers and other specialists to tackle the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa under its operation AU Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA). The first batch of 30 volunteers under ASEOWA , to be deployed to Liberia , is now at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa and is undergoing pre deployment briefing to prepare them for the mission. The team, comprising epidemiologists, clinicians, public health specialists and communications personnel, is expected to depart the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa on Wednesday 17th September.
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The national committee in charge of coordinating national efforts against Ebola has set guidelines to be taken to prevent the deadly virus from entering into the country. The committee that comprises of high level government officials has also evaluated the preparations undertaken so far. The committee saw that screening of passengers at bole international airport terminal and at border crossings have continued in a strengthened manner. According to Ethiopian Minster of Health, Dr Kesetebirhan Admasu, health extension workers and farmers' unions are also assisting the screening process in Kumruk, Humera, Togo Wuchalle and Moyale corridors in the country.
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When they learned that a concurrent outbreak had just occurred in South Sudan—this one in an isolated area, virtually impossible to reach—their bewilderment deepened....
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