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Slow International Response to Ebola Epidemic Cost Thousands of Lives: MSF

TIME MAGAZINE  by Helen Regan                                March 23, 2015
(Scroll down for link to full MSF report.)

Paris-based Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has slammedthe international community’s slow response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, saying it cost thousands of lives that could otherwise have been saved.

A Doctors Without Borders (MSF), health worker in protective clothing carries a child suspected of having Ebola in the MSF treatment center on October 5, 2014 in Paynesville, Liberia.

The leading international medical charity released a report Monday coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the outbreak’s start. It said warnings that the disease’s spread was out of control were dismissed as alarmist and that early calls for help were ignored by local governments and the World Health Organization (WHO), reports Reuters.

“For the Ebola outbreak to spiral this far out of control required many institutions to fail. And they did, with tragic and avoidable consequences,” said MSF’s general director Christopher Stokes in the report.

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One Year Later, Ebola Outbreak Offers Lessons for Next Epidemic

IN DEPTH OVERVIEW OF THE EBOLA CRISIS AND LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE
NEW YORK TIMES  by Sheri Fink, MD,   and Pam Belluck                                     March 23, 2015

One year has passed since the declaration of what became the largest Ebola outbreak in history, with more than 10,000 deaths..

Assessing the lessons of an Ebola outbreak that became the largest in history, with 10,000 dead. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

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Liberians overcome fear to volunteer for Ebola vaccine trial

ASSOCIATED PRESS  by Jpnathan Paye-Layleh             March 22, 2015

MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberians are overcoming their fears of Ebola to volunteer for a vaccine trial...

One year after the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak, vaccine trials are under way in Liberia and Guinea. Sierra Leone will start a trial later this month.

In Liberia, scientists have fanned out across the country to explain the studies and reduce the fear and confusion that have stymied efforts to contain Ebola.

Dr. Stephen Kennedy, the Liberian lead investigator for the study, was among the first people to volunteer for the vaccine trial, getting his injection in front of the media. Similarly, in Guinea, authorities started the study by injecting a series of prominent officials, including the head of the country's Ebola response.

The outreach worked in Liberia, where more than 700 people have volunteered, well beyond the 600 required, according to Kennedy.

Read complete story.
http://news.yahoo.com/liberians-overcome-fear-volunteer-ebola-vaccine-trial-120848405.html

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How to stop the next epidemic

THE ECONOMIST                                                                                    May 19, 2015

..when the next epidemic breaks out, how do we prevent it from spreading around the world? It is easier said than done.
 
First: Early detection is critical, and it relies on good surveillance. But only 64 of the 194 member states of the World Health Organisation (WHO) have the surveillance procedures, laboratories and data-management capabilities required by the International Health Regulations. Improvements in things like basic public health infrastructure are needed...

Second: A swift response to an outbreak – which might involve getting skilled people, equipment and money to the right places – can potentially save more lives than drugs and vaccines. ... The World Health Organisation and the global community were slow to recognise that there was an international public health emergency.

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Ebola data and statistics : WHO

 

 

WHO SITUATION SUMMARY                                                    March 20, 2015

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Ebola-proof tablet designed by Google rolled out in Sierra Leone disease centre

THE TELEGRAPH by Aislinn Laing                                                                         March 20, 2015

An Ebola-proof tablet that can survive being doused in chlorine and can be used while wearing gloves has been developed by Google and technology volunteers for use by health workers in Sierra Leone.

 

MSFStaff testing one of the Clinical Management Tablets at the Magburaka treatment centre in Sierra Leone Photo: MSF

The Android device, based in a waterproof Sony Xperia with an extra protective casing, allows medics to safely record and share patient temperatures and symptoms over days and weeks....

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Congressional Forum - “Building Resilient Communities: Ebola and Global Health Crises – Where We Need to Go”

Dr. David Nabarro - Congressional Forum

upmchealthsecurity.org

CLICK HERE -Agenda

CLICK HERE -Photos

CLICK HERE - Videos

On February 25, 2015 a Congressional Forum was convened.

Objectives:

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Ebola Outbreak in West Africa: Lessons Learned from Quarantine

THE ASSESSMENT CAPACITIES PROJECT (ACAPS)                     March  19, 2015

Ebola Outbreak in West Africa: Lessons Learned from Quarantine--Sierra Leone and Liberia (acaps) The use of quarantine in West Africa is debated by various stakeholders. Some INGOs have argued that quarantine can fuel panic and counterproductive behaviour. Others have defended quarantine as a vital complementary tool to prevent the spread of infection and facilitate contact tracing....

 See full study.

http://acaps.org/img/documents/t-acaps_thematic_note_ebola_west_africa_quarantine_sierra_leone_liberia_19_march_2015.pdf

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Liberia Reports First Ebola Case in Weeks

         

A man walks by a mural with health instructions on treating the Ebola virus, in Monrovia, November 18, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/James Giahyue

reuters.com - (Reporting by James Harding Giahyue; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Daniel Flynn)
March 20, 2015

(Reuters) - Liberia has reported its first Ebola case in weeks on Friday, health officials said, in a setback for its efforts to stamp out the worst recorded epidemic of the deadly virus.

A government official, who asked not to be named, said the patient came from Caldwell, a suburb of the capital not far from the last cluster of cases in the St Paul's Bridge neighborhood. . .

. . . "Today, a patient tested positive of Ebola at the transit center run by Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Liberia's Ministry of Health's Redemption Hospital," said Adolphus Mawolo, spokesman for MSF in Monrovia.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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