Situation Report

ALL AFRICA VANGUARD                                         April 11, 2015
FREETOWN -- The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that almost half of all Ebola infections in West Africa have been recorded in two districts located in the border region between Sierra Leone and Guinea. Winnie Romeril, WHO Sierra Leone Spokeswoman, said in Freetown efforts were being made to contain the disease in the two worst affected areas of Kambia , western Sierra Leone and Forecariah, eastern Guinea.

"Almost 50 per cent of all Ebola cases in West Africa are currently coming from the region between Kambia and Forecariah," she said. Romeril said the two districts were "the most active areas, adding that investigation was on going in the areas. She said the exercise became necessary because people were still dying at home, adding that there was very high likelihood of infections.

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NEW YORK TIMES  by NORIMITSU ONISHI                                                        April 12, 2015

MONROVIA, Liberia — As bodies littered the streets and the sick lay dying in front of overwhelmed clinics last year, President Obama ordered the largest American intervention ever in a global health crisis, hoping to stem the deadliest Ebola epidemic in history.

WHO                                                                                                 April 10, 2015
"The Ebola Diaries" is a series of first-person accounts describing what it has been like working on the front lines of a global health crisis of unprecedented proportions.

Dr Cota Vallenas talks about her experiences in the early days of the Ebola outbreak as an expert in infection prevention and control. She reminds us that health-care workers are among the most vulnerable and a cultural change is needed around self-protection to ensure these frontline workers don’t become infected.

It was Spring Break in the United States and WHO infection prevention and control (IPC) expert Dr Constanza (Cota) Vallenas was visiting her sons in New York. In late March 2014, she began seeing emails from WHO epidemiologist, Dr Pierre Formenty, about an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea. Although a French-speaking IPC specialist had been deployed, more were needed. On 4 April, she was deployed to Guinea to train health-care professionals in IPC practices that would prove critical to the health and safety of hundreds of frontline workers.

Excerpt:

REUTERS  by Stephanie Nebehay                   April 10, 2015

GENEVA  West Africa's Ebola epidemic still poses a threat to other countries, but the risk of it spreading internationally appears to be diminishing, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The U.N. agency declared in August 2014 that the world's worst Ebola outbreak -- which began in December 2013 -- represented a "public health emergency of international concern" that forced all health officials to shore up defenses.

The WHO's Emergency Committee, comprising independent experts who held talks on Thursday, was "absolutely firm" in maintaining that view, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO Special Representative for the Ebola Response.

"They did note, however, that they believe the risk of international spread appeared to be reducing, this was a result of the work being done in the countries," Aylward told a news briefing at WHO headquarters. He cited control measures and exit screening of travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.