Africa

WHO’s list of guidance on COVID-19

Sat, 2020-07-18 15:52 — mike kraft

There’s a lot of information out there about how governments, health professionals and the general public should respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO has published guidance and advice every step of the way.

During health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic, one of WHO’s most vital roles is to gather data and research from around the world, evaluate it, and then advise countries on how to respond.

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Opinions If we want any vaccine to actually work, we have to prepare for it now

Fri, 2020-07-17 22:01 — mike kraft

Opinion | If we want any vaccine to actually work, we have to prepare for it now A vaccination campaign — the kind that could really make everything go back to normal — is going to take a vast, coordinated public effort. Megan McArdle Washington Post

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More than 150 countries sign up for global vaccine plan

Wed, 2020-07-15 21:25 — mike kraft

More than 150 countries sign up for global vaccine plan LONDON (AP) — More than 70 rich countries have signed up to a global coronavirus vaccine initiative intended to ensure that any effective shots are fairly distributed around the world - but which... AP NEWS

Associated Press July 15, 2020

By Masria Cheng

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Global surge in coronavirus cases is being fed by the developing world — and the U.S.

Wed, 2020-07-15 14:40 — mike kraft

Global surge in coronavirus cases is being fed by the developing world — and the U.S. While some areas have recovered, case counts are hitting new highs in many regions. Griff Witte, Mary Beth Sheridan, Joanna Slater, Liz Sly

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Coronavirus crisis may get "worse and worse and worse," WHO chief warns

Tue, 2020-07-14 14:00 — mike kraft

CBS NEWS July 14, 2020

The World Health Organization warned Monday that there could be no return to normality any time soon as too many countries were bungling their response to the coronavirus pandemic. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that if public health guidelines are not followed, the crisis will get "worse and worse and worse."

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UN Ebola mission winds down, WHO takes reins in West Africa

Fri, 2015-07-31 19:45 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS by MARIA CHENG and RAPHAEL SATTER July 31, 2015

LONDON — The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response is officially winding down Friday, handing its leadership role and senior staff to the Geneva-based World Health Organization as efforts to contain the deadly virus continue.

"We have reached an important milestone in the global Ebola response," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Friday, while noting that that crisis "is not yet over."

The Ebola mission, also called UNMEER, was established last year as WHO struggled to get a handle on an outbreak that has killed more than 11,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. WHO had been strongly criticized for fumbling its response to the epidemic, and the creation of UNMEER was widely seen as a rebuke to its leadership.

Speaking to reporters Friday, UNMEER chief David Nabarro said he had seen signs that WHO had already absorbed some of the lessons of the Ebola disaster, recovering its coordination role in West Africa and deploying more 1,000 staffers to the field.

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http://www.seattlepi.com/news/medical/article/WHO-works-to-reform-itself-after-fumbling-Ebola-6416880.php

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Readability of Ebola Information on Websites of Public Health Agencies, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Europe

Tue, 2015-06-16 17:41 — mike kraft

CDC IED JOURNAL by Enrique Castro-Sánchez , Elpiniki Spanoudakis, and Alison H. Holmes Volume 21, Number 7- July 2015

Public involvement in efforts to control the current Ebola virus disease epidemic requires understandable information. We reviewed the readability of Ebola information from public health agencies in non–Ebola-affected areas. A substantial proportion of citizens would have difficulty understanding existing information, which would potentially hinder effective health-seeking behaviors....

Several factors, including readability of information provided (8), can help reduce health literacy deficits...It is recommended that health information materials should be written at a level typically understandable by an 11-year-old person ... anxiety or panic attributed to a highly virulent infection, such as Ebola, might hinder comprehension of related information (11).

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Global health leaders ask G7 for post-Ebola rapid response unit

Fri, 2015-06-05 15:48 — mike kraft

(Two stories. Scroll down.)
REUTERS by Kate Kelland June 5, 2015
LONDON -- Global health leaders will ask G7 leaders this weekend to back the creation of a specialist rapid response unit to tackle outbreaks of infectious killer diseases.

The corpse of a patient who passed away is given back to the family for funerals after being decontaminated by the MSF teams. It was washed with chlorine solution and put it in a hermetic bag also disinfected to leave the high risk area.

The move reflects how the World Health Organization in particular was caught unprepared last year by Ebola, which spread through three West African countries, has killed 11,000 people, and will not be stamped out before the end of this year.

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, said the unit should come under the WHO, but be free of bureaucracy and able to act independently "in days" when a potentially fatal epidemic begins...

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Ebola survivors donate plasma to tackle outbreak

Thu, 2015-04-23 02:58 — mike kraft

EUREKALERT April 22, 2015
UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL --
The first donations of plasma, from survivors of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, have been received by an international research team working to help tackle current and future disease outbreaks in West Africa.

The team, led by scientists at the University of Liverpool and colleagues at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Services, Ministry of Health, Sierra Leone, is investigating how plasma from Ebola survivors could help treat patients with the disease at the Ebola Treatment Unit, run by the 34th Regiment Military Hospital group in Freetown.

Dr Calum Semple, from the University's Institute of Child Health, and his collaborators developed a convalescent plasma protocol in readiness for an outbreak, such as Ebola, as part of the outbreak preparatory work of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium.

The study is one of several being supported by the Wellcome Trust's platform for evaluating experimental Ebola therapeutics in West Africa.

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http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-04/uol-esd042215.php

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Scientists to share real-time genetic data on deadly MERS, Ebola

Tue, 2015-04-21 16:39 — mike kraft

REUTERS by Kate Kelland April 21, 2015

LONDON, April 21 - Genetic sequence data on two of the deadliest yet most poorly understood viruses are to be made available to researchers worldwide in real time as scientists seek to speed up understanding of Ebola and MERS infections.

The project, led by British scientists with West African and Saudi Arabian collaboration, hopes to encourage laboratories around the world to use the live data -- updated as new cases emerge -- to find new ways to diagnose and treat the killer diseases, and ideally, ultimately, prevent them.

"The collective expertise of the world's infectious disease experts is more powerful than any single lab, and the best way of tapping into this...is to make data freely available as soon as possible," said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity which is funding the work.

The gene sequences, already available for MERS cases and soon to come in the case of Ebola, will be posted on the website virological.org for anyone to see, access and use.

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http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0NC19W20150421?sp=true

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