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US Envoy: 'Alarming Gaps' Remain in Fighting Ebola

Fri, 2014-10-31 21:01 — mike kraft

VOICE OF AMERICA Oct. 31, 2014

By Al Pessin

The international community must do more to fill "alarming gaps" in the fight against the Ebola epidemic, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said to an audience in Brussels as she headed home from a visit to the three hardest-hit countries in West Africa.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power speaks during a lecture regarding the Ebola virus at the Residence Palace in Brussels, Oct. 30, 2014.

Power said the initial international response is making a difference, and has created what she called “the first tangible signs that the virus can and will be beaten.”

But, she said, many countries have not done enough, and urged them to not assume the job is done...

She called for more flexible planning, faster decision-making, and for support for the affected countries as they try to rebuild and expand their health care systems. Those systems were inadequate before the epidemic and have now been devastated by the deaths of hundreds of doctors and nurses.

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World Bank funding for Ebola fight hits $500 million

Fri, 2014-10-31 03:18 — mike kraft

REUTERS Oct. 30, 2014

(GENEVA)- The World Bank pledged $100 million on Thursday to help recruit more foreign health workers in the fight against Ebola, taking its funding for the three worst-hit countries to more than half a billion dollars over the past three months.

People sit near a banner reading ''The Ministry of Agriculture, Dixinn Commune, Together to defeat Ebola,'' in Conakry, Guinea October 26, 2014.Credit: Reuters/Michelle Nichols

The latest tranche will go towards setting up a coordination hub to recruit, train and deploy qualified foreign health workers and support the three countries' efforts to isolate Ebola patients and bury the dead safely, the bank said.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/30/us-health-ebola-worldbank-idUSKBN0IJ1NV20141030

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Clinical Illness and Outcomes in Patients with Ebola in Sierra Leone

Thu, 2014-10-30 22:28 — mike kraft

NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE

A study and analayisis of patients in Siere Leone suspected of Ebola infections, tested between May 25 and June 18, 2014
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http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1411680#t=articleTop

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Ebola outbreak: UK aid ship docks in Sierra Leone

Thu, 2014-10-30 21:41 — mike kraft

The Argus arrives with supplies and medical personnel to assist Serra Leone

BBC Oct. 30, 2010

By AndrewHarding

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone-- A British Navy support ship ship has arrived in Sierra Leone to help deal with the deadly Ebola outbreak in the West African country.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary Argus is carrying food, medical equipment, three helicipeters and 32 pick-up trucks, to help keep hard-pressed Ebola treatment centres going.

Doctors, nurses and military personnel are also on board.

The BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding said it would act as an offshore base for the aid effort. and described it as an "important moment".

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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29836657

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NGA Ebola Map

Thu, 2014-10-30 17:18 — Elhadj Drame

View larger map

https://nga.maps.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=8c8dae9c136c4e05b495587fa1c4ea86&extent=-18.9948,4.1568,-2.768,13.7387

https://nga.maps.arcgis.com/home/index.html

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Home> Health Ebola: Danger in Sierra Leone, Progress in Liberia

Thu, 2014-10-30 14:01 — mike kraft

UPDATE WITH TEXT OF LATEST WHO REPORT

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/137376/1/roadmapsitrep_29Oct2014_eng.pdf

ASSOCIATED PRESS Oct. 30, 2014
By CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY and JONATHAN PAYE-LAYLEH

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone --Liberia is making some progress in containing the Ebola outbreak while Sierra Leone is "in a crisis situation which is going to get worse," the top anti-Ebola officials in the two countries said.

The people of both countries must redouble efforts to stop the disease, which has infected more than 13,000 people and killed nearly 5,000, the officials said. Their assessments underscore that Ebola remains a constant threat until the outbreak is wiped out. It can appear to be on the wane, only to re-emerge in the same place or balloon elsewhere if people don't avoid touching Ebola patients or the bodies of those who succumb to the disease.

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Assessing the Science of Ebola Transmission

Wed, 2014-10-29 22:24 — mike kraft

THREE ARTICLES DESCRIBING DETAILS OF THE EBOLA VIRUS AND OTHER VIRUSES.
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Advances in microscopy have allowed scientists like Sriram Subramaniam and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute to look at the workings of tiny viruses. In this case, microscopy was used to illustrate the complex process in which human cells infected with HIV-1, green and blue, are linked to uninfected cells. Credit Illustration by Donald Bliss/N.I.H, from The Journal of Virology/American Society for Microbiology

The research on how the virus spreads is not as ambiguous as some have made it seem

THE ATLANTIC Oct. 28, 2014

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Sierra Leone Leader: Change Behavior to End Ebola

Wed, 2014-10-29 19:32 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS Oct. 29, 2014

By Clarence Roy-Macaulay

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Low HIV and Aids rates saw west Africa ‘miss out on health investment'

Wed, 2014-10-29 15:33 — mike kraft

THE GUARDIAN Oct. 28, 2014
By Sarah Boseley

West Africa, now in the throes of a calamitous Ebola epidemic, missed out on significant health investment over the past decade or more because it had low rates of HIV, a detailed survey of the changing health of Africa and Asia reveals.

The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power (centre), visits an ebola emergency response centre in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Healthcare in west Africa now has the world’s attention. Photograph: Reuters

A major project called Indepth, which has looked at the causes of death of more than 110,000 people in 13 countries shows that health improved generally in those given substantial international aid to try to turn around the HIV and Aids epidemic. But west Africa, with severe poverty and low healthcare standards but relatively little HIV, did not benefit.

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State Department plans to bring foreign Ebola patients to U.S.

Wed, 2014-10-29 14:32 — mike kraft

LEAKED MEMO SAYS STATE DEPARTMENT CONSIDERING TREATING NON-AMERICAN HEALTH WORKERS BUT AN OFFICIAL SAYS DISCUSSIONS WERE SHELVED

THE WASHINGTON TIMES Oct. 29, 2014
By Stephen Dinan- The Washington Times - Tuesday, October 28, 2014

The State Department has quietly made plans to bring Ebola-infected doctors and medical aides to the U.S. for treatment, according to an internal department document that argued the only way to get other countries to send medical teams to West Africa is to promise that the U.S. will be the world’s medical backstop.

Some countries “are implicitly or explicitly waiting for medevac assurances” before they will agree to send their own medical teams to join U.S. and U.N. aid workers on the ground, the State Department argues in the undated four-page memo, which was reviewed by The Washington Times.... (Editor's note: Australia and Canada are among the countries.)

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