Security forces in the Liberian capital fired live rounds and tear gas on Wednesday to disperse a stone-throwing crowd trying to break an Ebola quarantine imposed on their neighborhood, as the death toll from the epidemic in West Africa hit 1,350...
...Liberian authorities introduced a nationwide curfew on Tuesday and put the West Point neighborhood under quarantine to curb the spread of the disease.
The World Health Organization said that the countries hit by the worst ever outbreak of the deadly virus were beginning to suffer shortages of fuel, food and basic supplies after shipping companies and airlines suspended services to the region....
The French government on Wednesday recommended its nationals avoid Sierra Leone and Liberia due to the risk associated with the Ebola virus and asked Air France-KLM to suspend flights to the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown.
The government said its decision was aimed at those people whose presence was not absolutely necessary, and was driven by "developments in the epidemic and the state of the health systems" in those two West African countries.
It said flights to Nigeria and Guinea need not be suspended.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday it had shut a laboratory in Sierra Leone and withdrawn staff from there after a health worker there was infected.
“Authorities in Kisoro District have set up health teams to monitor cross border movements in four sub counties along the Uganda - DR Congo border in a bid to check the Ebola outbreak.
“he United Nations pointman on the virus has urged airlines to resume flights to the hardest-hit countries. Doctor David Nabarro says the flight ban is hampering efforts to contain the virus....”
BLOGYesterday’s announcement that the DRC Reported Two `Positive’ Ebola Cases was followed overnight by reports (as yet, uncorroborated) that one of these samples was identified as Ebola Sudan, and the other (a bit perplexingly) was described as a `hybrid’ between Ebola Sudan and Ebola Zaire...
Via Mel Melendrez-Vallard
Cabinet has issued an immediate travel ban for non-South Africans from countries affected by the Ebola virus outbreak, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Thursday. A total travel ban for all non-citizens travelling from these high-risk countries (Guinea, Kenya and Sierra Leone), unless the travel is considered absolutely essential," he told reporters in Pretoria. For citizens of South Africa who wish to travel to these countries, they will be requested to delay their travel unless it is absolutely essential for them to travel...
Travellers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone will not be allowed into the country as the deadly Ebola virus continues to ravage the three West African states.
The same also goes for any person found to have a fever of 37.5 degrees Celsius.
The order, issued yesterday by the Ministry of Health, also stated that anyone who has travelled to the three countries in the last 22 days will be stopped from entering Rwanda by any means of transport.
Some patients in the Ebola outbreak aren't honest about the people they've been in contact with. This is contributing to the spread of the Ebola outbreak.
World Health Organization (WHO) Country Representative has been withdrawn from Sierra Leone a week after President Ernest Bai Koroma openly expressed his disappointment at the apparent slow pace response of the international community to the Ebola crisis in the country. The President voiced his displeasure during his visits to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) housed at the WHO Country Office, Cantonment Road, Off Kingharman Road, Brookfields in Freetown....
Following confirmed cases of Ebola in neighboring DR Congo, and given the escalating outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in West Africa, the Rwanda Ministry of Health on Monday again reassured the public that preventive measures are in place and there should be no cause for panic.
Health experts in Sierra Leone are turning to radio DJs to combat the spread of Ebola -- by debunking the myths that put people at risk. Duration: 02:43
The Democratic Republic of Congo said as many as 13 people have died of Ebola in a separate outbreak from the one raging in three West African nations. It is the sixth reported outbreak in that country since 1976.The Democratic Republic of Congo said as many as 13 people have died of Ebola in a separate outbreak from the one raging in three West African nations. It is the sixth reported outbreak in that country since 1976.
Canada is in the process of evacuating its three-member mobile laboratory team from Sierra Leone over concerns for the safety of the scientists.
The Public Health Agency of Canada said late Tuesday that the team is being recalled to Canada after people at the hotel complex where they were staying were diagnosed with Ebola...
Only a few months ago, the threat from Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in large parts of the Gulf region appeared to be growing. Dozens of new cases were being reported every month and a key panel set up by the World Health Organization (WHO) advised that the “situation had increased in terms of its seriousness and urgency.”
"My mandate from the Secretary General is clear. Stop the spread of the virus; help attend to the well-being of the Liberian people and help government address the economic consequence of the outbreak. Restoring the confidence of the people and that rest of the world that the virus can be beaten back is also very cardinal," Dr. Nabarro indicated
He pointed out that his work in Liberia will be in partnership with the government and other actors to quickly break the spread of the virus. He also told President Sirleaf that mobilizing and coordinating resources from the various UN bodies, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank under a platform that can enhance the action and the result will be priorities for his work.
Strategizing on a comprehensive plan, tracing all contacts, providing proper care, building confidence locally and internationally and getting public health care are quick actions that are required if the spread of the disease must be contained, he stressed. He also emphasized that the apparent lack of health care response from non-Ebola diseases due to the impact of the outbreak on the health system must also be urgently addressed.
Making brief intervention, the Regional Director of the World Food Program (WFP) Denise Brown indicated that food availability is a priority for the WFP. She said the WFP will ensure that donors' action is fast and aggressive and expressed concern about an increase in the cost of food and other basic commodities. Madam Brown concluded that the World Food Program will make a strong intervention in the area of logistics and seek to address market and household levels of food security.
PARIS - Peter Piot, the Belgian scientist who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, on Tuesday said a 'perfect storm' in West Africa had given the disease a chance to spread unchecked.
Peter Piot, the Belgian scientist who co-discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, on Tuesday said a "perfect storm" in West Africa had given the disease a chance to spread unchecked.
Piot was quoted by the French daily Liberation as saying, "We have never seen an (Ebola) epidemic on this scale. In the last six months, we have been witnessing what can be described as a 'perfect storm' - everything is there for it to snowball. The epidemic is exploding in countries where health services are not functioning, ravaged by decades of civil war. In addition, the public is deeply suspicious of the authorities. Trust must be restored. Nothing can be done in an epidemic like Ebola if there is no trust."....
The outbreak of Ebola virus disease in west Africa is unprecedented in many ways, including the high proportion of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers who have been infected
To date, more than 240 health care workers have developed the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, and more than 120 have died.
A red rope guarded by police marks the "quarantine line" around the West Point slum in the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
Beyond it, more than 70,000 people are trapped -- angry, scared and increasingly hungry -- as authorities seek to halt the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.
As soon as a CNN team crossed the line, it was swarmed by people desperate to be heard.Since the government designated the slum an Ebola quarantine zone last week, there has been no way out. Stuck without sanitation or running water, and with food supplies for many running low, people fear for their lives....
If Africa – given its wealth of human and natural resources – cannot contain Ebola, then we must accept that the continent is not developing as fast as we thought, writes Fungai Machirori.
...Over the last few years, meticulous work has gone into crafting the ‘Africa rising’ narrative; a narrative founded upon the continent’s rising economies (like South Africa and Nigeria), the emergence of tech and innovation (think Kenya) and the growth of a middle class that we might call ‘post-African’; savvy, urban, cosmopolitan with no flies to swat off their faces and no begging bowls in their manicured hands...
...In many ways, the spread of Ebola shows up this ‘Africa rising’ narrative. It shows hysteria, fear and ‘othering’ – things which many Africans in poverty already have to live with daily, away from the narratives of luxury. Quite instantly, Ebola has become ‘the great leveller’ among Africans, re-perpetuating stereotypes of barbarism and savagery; that Africans eat ‘strange foods’ like fruit bats and bush meat and other ‘filthy creatures’, that we are unclean, diseased and therefore dangerous.
A meeting to discuss the Ebola threat in the East African Community (EAC) and how to respond, is to take place here soon.
Dr. Enos Bukuku, the EAC deputy Secretary General in charge of Planning and Infrastructure disclosed this during a speech to over 120 heath officials and practitioners from the Eastern, Central and Southern African region (APESCA) 2014 Congress
Sierra Leone's president has declared a two year jail sentence as punishment for harbouring infected Ebola victims. It follows warning that the hiding of victims and the existence of "shadow zones".
The Australian Government is contributing $1 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) to help control the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa and prevent further spread of the disease.
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