Conakry

3 pitfalls Ebola recovery must avoid

Thu, 2015-02-19 14:15 — mike kraft

DEVEX by Molly Anders Feb. 19, 2015

...While the Ebola crisis is far from over, officials in government and the international development community have begun to think more the medium and long term. What can they learn from past post-crisis recovery initiatives?

Health worker Alivin Davis poses next to the a board featuring handprints of Ebola survivors in Liberia. Photo by: Neil Brandvold / USAID / CC BY-NC

Devex asked aid officials and government officials from the region how to avoid some of the most common pitfalls that can plague — haunt, even — recovery and reconstruction efforts. Here are three of them.

1. Quality over quantity.

....By not paying closer attention to the economic effects of foreign aid on the local market, humanitarian groups hurt livelihoods and slowed reconstruction in the country.

2. Prioritize local ownership....

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Ebola infection 'linked to visor'

Wed, 2015-02-04 12:54 — mike kraft

THE PRESS ASSOCIATION Feb. 4, 2015
LONDON --A British nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone possibly caught the virus by wearing a visor and not goggles, an investigation has suggested.
Press Association - Save the Children said Pauline Cafferkey, pictured on her return to health, may have contracted Ebola by wearing a visor rather than goggles when treating patients in Sierra Leone

The report by Save the Children said it cannot be completely certain how Pauline Cafferkey contracted Ebola but said both pieces of equipment are "equally safe".

The nurse, from Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, had volunteered with the charity at the Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) in Kerry Town before returning to the UK in December....

Save the Children published the findings of an independent review into the possible causes of how the 39-year-old caught the virus. The report said both visors and goggles are safe but there are slight differences in the type of clothing worn with each and in the protocols for putting them on and removing them....

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In pursuit of next-generation Ebola stockpile vaccines

Sun, 2015-02-01 16:16 — mike kraft

REUTERS by Kate Kell and Ben Herschler Feb. 1. 2015
LONDON --As West Africa's devastating Ebola outbreak begins to dwindle, scientists are looking beyond the endgame at the kind of next-generation vaccines needed for a vital stockpile to hit another epidemic hard and fast.

Research assistant Georgina Bowyer works on a vaccine for Ebola at The Jenner Institute in Oxford, southern England January 16, 2015. Credit: Reuters/Eddie Keogh

Determined not to lose scientific momentum that could make the world's first effective Ebola interventions a reality, researchers say the shots, as well as being proven to work, must be cheap, easy to handle in Africa and able to hit multiple virus strains.

That may mean shifting focus from the stripped-down, fast-tracked vaccine development ideas that have dominated the past six months, but it mustn't mean the field gets bogged down in complexities.

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IMF to provide new funds to help three main Ebola-hit nations

Thu, 2015-01-08 22:21 — mike kraft

REUTERS by James Harding Giahyue Jan. 8, 2015

The International Monetary Fund is preparing around $150 million in additional support to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the countries at the heart of the Ebola epidemic, the Fund's representative in Liberia told Reuters on Thursday.

"In Guinea and Sierra Leone, existing Fund financial programs are being augmented to provide more resources to these countries. In Liberia, a one-off disbursement under the Fund's Rapid Credit Facility is being considered," Charles Amo-Yartey told Reuters in an email.

The money could be made available in the first quarter of this year and would add to $130 million disbursed by the Fund in September.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/health-ebola-imf-idUSL6N0UN3RA20150108

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Ebola: as ZMapp stocks run out doctors turn to alternative treatments

Mon, 2015-01-05 20:50 — mike kraft

THE GUARDIAN by Sarah Boseley Jan, 5, 2015
LONDON --Even at the Royal Free hospital in London, the lead UK specialist centre for Ebola, doctors have limited options for treating their patients. In the end, survival may depend more on the strength of an individual’s immune system than anything medical science is currently able to do.

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Ebola fight sees Canadian Forces medical team deployed to Sierra Leone

Sun, 2014-12-07 15:35 — mike kraft

CBC NEWS Dec.6, 2014

A Canadian Forces medical team left CFB Trenton in Ontario on Saturday en route to Britain, where they’ll undergo training before deploying to Sierra Leone as part of the effort to combat the Ebola outbreak, the military said.

Judith Bosse, (left to right), Assistant Deputy Minister at the Public Health Agency of Canada, Defence Minister Rob Nicholson, Health Minister Rona Ambrose and Dr. Gregory Taylor, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, watch a nurse demonstrate how to remove protective clothing after treating a hypothetical Ebola patient. (Patrick Doyle/Canadian Press)

The Forces said about 40 nurses, doctors, physicians’ assistants, medics and support are to train alongside U.K. military personnel, and most of them will continue on to Sierra Leone by later this month.

The Canadian Forces team will be working at a British-built clinic in Sierra Leone treating local and international health care workers, who themselves have become infected in the course of treating Ebola patients from the general population.

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Nigerian and British Ebola volunteers fly into Liberia, Sierra Leone

Fri, 2014-12-05 22:21 — mike kraft

Additonal Nigerian and British health workers arrive in Liberia and Sierra Leone to help counter Ebola

(Two stories, scroll down)

REUTERS by James Harding Giahyue and Umaru Fofana Dec. 5, 2014
MONROVIA/FREETOWN --More than 175 Nigerian medics arrived in Liberia and Sierra Leone on Friday to join the fight against Ebola, the first of 600 volunteers promised by the regional giant which contained its own outbreak earlier this year.

An army medic teaches NHS staff how to dispose of potentially contaminated waste last month, before their deployment to Sierra Leone. Photograph: Simon Davis/AFP/Getty Images

The medics will boost weak local health systems that are also struggling to contain other preventable diseases as Ebola discourages people from going to clinics for fear of contracting the fever.

"This is the African spirit you are showing, this is the Nigerian spirit,” Nigeria's ambassador to Liberia, Chigozie Obi-Nnadozie, told 76 Nigerian medics who landed there.

Another 100 volunteers landed in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Months into the Ebola response, experts say they are still short of medical personnel to staff treatment centers.

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Government accused of failing to provide emergency care for British ebola volunteers

Wed, 2014-11-26 15:09 — mike kraft

THE TELEGRAPH By Colin Freeman Nov. 26, 2014British medics who have volunteered to fight the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone have accused the Government of failing to offer them proper emergency back-up if they get infected.

The government is planning to despatch up to 1,500 NHS volunteers to the west African nation over coming months, as part of a £125m aid programme that a force of 800 British troops began rolling out last month.

But officials have refused to guarantee that any medic who catches the virus will be flown back to Britain for treatment, insisting that most cases can be dealt by a British army clinic that has been set up in the capital, Freetown.

The ruling has caused disquiet among some medics, who point out that the British army facility is not equipped with either kidney dialysis machines or artificial lungs, both of which could be necessary for treatment of anyone with advanced Ebola symptoms.

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First British volunteers fly to Sierra Leone to battle Ebola

Sat, 2014-11-22 14:47 — mike kraft

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Nov. 22, 2014

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone -- The first wave of volunteers from Britain's National Health Service arrived in Sierra Leone Saturday amid what the World Health Organization has described as an "intense" surge in cases.

A sign reading 'Kill Ebola Before Ebola Kill You', on a gate is mounted as part of the country's Ebola awareness campaign in the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Sept. 14, 2014. (AP / Michael Duff, File)

More than 30 NHS staffers, including general practitioners and nurses, were expected to stay in Freetown, the capital, for one week of training before moving to treatment centres across the country, Britain's Department for International Development said in a statement.

They join nearly 1,000 British soldiers, scientists and aid workers already in the country participating in the Ebola fight, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said.

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http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/first-british-volunteers-fly-to-sierra-leone-to-battle-ebola-1.2114407#ixzz3JoBAvT2i

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Queen Fears Ebola Push at Expense of Other Killer Diseases

Wed, 2014-11-19 17:56 — mike kraft

ABC NEWS Nov. 19, 2014

By LAMA HASAN

LONDON --Britain's Queen Elizabeth rarely voices her opinion on social issues, but she has publicly worried that all the attention being given to Ebola was at the expense of other killer diseases, like malaria.