Guinea

africa.undp.org - February 27, 2015

CLICK HERE - STUDY - CONFRONTING THE GENDER IMPACT OF EBOLA VIRUS DISEASE IN GUINEA, LIBERIA, AND SIERRA LEONE (9 page .PDF report)

Women need to be at the center of all efforts to help Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone recover from the Ebola crisis, according to a study by UNDP.

The epidemic has affected women disproportionately because of the essential role they play as caretakers, health personnel, farmers and small traders. For instance, as of December 2014, women represented 62 percent of the sick in Guéckédou, Guinea where the epidemic first appeared, and up to 74 percent in Télémilé, north of the capital Conakry.

“Buried in the aggregated impact is the plight of Ebola’s voiceless victims and agents of change—women and children,” say the authors of the study, adding that “Ebola response and recovery, and national development strategies must be gender-sensitive in addressing the associated negative impacts on women and girls.”

AFP  by Marie Julie                                                                                                        March 7, 2015
Berlin - - The impact of the deadly Ebola virus fell mainly on three African countries but tourism has taken a hit across the continent of more than 50 nations as fear has kept many visitors away, tourism chiefs say.

Visitors pass by a poster of flight route information at the 49th International Tourism Fair (ITB Berlin 2015) in Berlin on March 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz)

Some 56 million tourists visited Africa in 2014, a two-percent rise from the previous year, according to UNWTO figures, but growth in Africa lagged behind that in Europe, Asia or the Americas.

Africa had seen a robust 4.8-percent increase in tourists a year earlier.

"Africa... did well (last year) in spite of suffering from the Ebola symptoms which were associated unfairly" with Africa as a whole, Taleb Rifai, head of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), said at the Berlin tourism fair (ITB).

He said Africa needed support, especially after the Ebola crisis, adding: "It was very unfair the generalisation that happened."

THE ECONOMIST   by the Data Team                                                                         March 5, 2015

Graphics illustrating the Ebola situation.

See complete set of Graphics

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/03/ebola-graphics

Description of key Ebola areas---MSF

MSF                                                        March 3, 2015

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues, albeit with decreasing intensity. The virus has infected more than 23,700 people across the region since the outbreak was declared 11 months ago. While the number of new patients in Liberia is declining, numbers are still fluctuating in both Guinea and Sierra Leone. A total of 99 new confirmed cases were reported across the three worst affected countries during the week up to 22 February 2015.

The unpredictable nature of the epidemic means that teams from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) are maintaining a flexible approach and continuing to respond where the needs are greatest in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

See country-by-country analysis and complete story.

http://www.msf.org/article/ebola-epidemic-not-over-%E2%80%93-key-areas-still-need-be-tackled