West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative (WADPI)

Special consideration is merited for procedures that create the opportunity for contact with certain bodily fluids and tissues in which Ebola virus may persist, the CDC said. These include:

With two new cases of Ebola virus disease recently confirmed in Guinea, and three probable and two suspect cases identified, the Red Cross Society of Guinea, with the support of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), has mobilized teams of trained volunteers to aid in the response.

“The confirmation of new cases is a vivid reminder of the need to maintain a fast and efficient response capacity in all three West African countries which were affected by the Ebola outbreak,” said Norbert Allale, head of IFRC regional Ebola operations. “In Guinea, we have provided refresher training to some of our safe and dignified burial volunteers who are now on standby to respond should the number of confirmed cases increase.”

Forty beneficiary communications volunteers also received refresher training and have been deployed to the affected community and surrounding area to actively look for potential Ebola cases and to reinforce to residents how they can protect themselves from Ebola through proper hygiene.

Sierra Leone is recovering from the impact of the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak which struck in mid 2014. Before Ebola, the country had made steady progress towards a number of the Millennium Development Goal targets in the health and nutrition sectors like reduction in child and maternal mortality.  A 2014 National Nutrition Survey also confirmed major improvements in levels of under-nutrition. (Ref: Sierra Leone Ebola Recovery Strategy).

The health sector, notwithstanding the successes scored, has been faced with a number of challenges. In fact due to Ebola, by January 2015, a total of 296 health care workers were known to have been infected with the virus with 221 deaths (74.6 percent). The outbreak, health experts believe, led to a decline in the use of health care facilities for non-Ebola related health needs across the country.