Meeting

Non-invasive contact with Ebola survivors 6 weeks after the virus has been cleared poses little risk for healthcare workers, though contact with semen, ocular humor, and cerebrospinal fluid requires Ebola-appropriate precautions, according to a study yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

A cross-sectional cohort study evaluated 555 specimens from 112 Ebola survivors without fever seeking follow-up care at a clinic in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from Apr 2 to Jun 16, 2015. Almost one third of survivors (34, or 30%) were under the age of 16, and 50 (40%) were male.

Samples were obtained from the armpit (103 specimens), blood (93), conjunctiva (92), forehead (54), mouth (105), rectum (17), semen (1), urine (69), and vagina (21). The median time from Ebola treatment unit discharge to specimen collection was 142 days.

As Plan International turns 40 years in dedicated service to Children in Sierra Leone, Youth Empowerment becomes critical. Plan is currently implementing the Post Ebola Early Recovery Strategic Framework 2015. In this plan, there is a strong focus on Livelihood support focusing on Women and Youth engagement to strengthen their income base to build their resilience against the effects of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).

On Friday 13th May 2016 The Minister of Youth Affairs Mr. Bai Mahmoud Bangura teamed up with Plan International Sierra Leone on a two- day working visit to the National Youth Farm at Masiaka.

The purpose of the visit by the newly appointed Minister of Youth Affairs was to conduct a tour to update himself on project achievements and challenges and to develop a revised road map to respond to the immediate next steps of the ongoing projects.

Some of the final cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone were transmitted via unconventional routes, such as semen and breastmilk, according to the largest analysis to date of the tail-end of the epidemic.

An international team of researchers has produced a detailed picture of the latter stages of the outbreak in Sierra Leone, using real-time sequencing of Ebola virus genomes carried out in a temporary laboratory in the country.