“I lost my father, my mother, my stepmother. I lost nine relatives, including my husband,” says Aisha Kamara, a nurse at the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone who remarkably managed to survive Ebola, even after having treated her sick father.
Nine family members. Just like that. Gone. “Ebola just came and destroyed all our families,” says Aisha, whose story rings true for many families across Sierra Leone. Now, with the outbreak over (Sierra Leone reported two flare-up cases in January after the outbreak was declared over in November 2015), these families must somehow pick up the pieces and figure out a new normal.
Garmai Sumo welcomes us with a pleasant smile. Dressed in an elegant African printed top and basic jeans, she looks radiant with her new hairstyle. “I have put away the gloves, mask and gown. Ebola is now over!” she exclaims, transforming her smile into a real burst of laughter before hastening to add, “but washing my hands remains a daily reflex.”
The young woman of 29 was among the 5,000 volunteers trained and mobilized by the Liberia National Red Cross Society during the Ebola outbreak, displaying courageous efforts to stop the disease through the provision of safe and dignified burials, contact tracing, psychosocial support, and surveillance and social mobilization.
Bo – (02 April2016) – Sierra Leonean solar power provider Solar Era Holdings, on 2 April 2016, presented plans for the country’s first solar PV plant to an audience of Paramount Chiefsgathered in Bo for a showcase on renewable energy technologies.
The event, organised by Minister of EnergyAmb. Henry MacAulay for all Sierra Leone’s 149 Paramount Chiefs, was an opportunity to engage in discussion on power provision toall Sierra Leoneans, and renewable energy’s role in achieving this goal.
Zika was first noticed in Africa, in Uganda's Ziika forest (yes it's spelled with two i's) in 1947. It spread slowly at first, and seemed to be a pretty harmless virus, causing hardly any symptoms at all in most people. But it picked up speed in around 2007 when it started spreading in the South Pacific and it showed up inBrazil in 2013, according to the latest research. Because hardly anyone in the Americas has immunity to Zika, it's spread explosively since then.
Ebola. Pandemic flu. And now the Zika virus. These emergencies all test the mettle of the world’s public health officials.
Those who would face such a challenge must have some sense of what to do.
“We need to be prepared, and quite frankly, the country is underprepared,” said U.S. Rep Susan Brooks, who Wednesday convened a group of about 40 public health workers and other would-be first responders to run through a training exercise at the Fishers Public Library.
Dr. W. Craig Vanderwagen, former assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, led the thought experiment into how to handle a blossoming smallpox outbreak that starts in Europe and rapidly spreads overseas.
With 33 countries in the Americas now identified as carrying the Zika virus, the need for a solution to the epidemic is great. But with limited funds in the regions where it’s spreading the fastest, the need for a cost-effective one is even greater.
Salesian missionaries are assisting the small village of Kumbrabai, 100 kilometers from the capital city of Freetown in Sierra Leone, which has been severely impacted by the Ebola virus. The village once had 270 residents but 82 villagers succumbed to Ebola and 65 more who were infected fled the village. Entire families were lost and some are left with only one member. Those who remained in the village were shunned by their own people who were afraid to enter homes where someone had died. The community was stigmatized and isolated by other villages out of fear.
The United States Secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus, is in Sierra Leone, holding talks with President Ernest Bai Koroma, the office of the President said Thursday in a statement. The statement said Mr Mabus was accompanied to State House by the US Ambassador to Sierra Leone, John Hoover.
The discussion, according to the statement, centered on the improvement of maritime security.
Liberia's Ebola cluster grows to 3, linked to fatal case in Guinea
Two Ebola case-patients, both children, and one fatality in Liberia have been linked to a fatal Ebola infection in Guinea's ongoing flare-up, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced today, increasing the number of recent cases in Liberia to three.
The Liberian fatal case involves the wife of a deceased Ebola patient in Guinea's Macenta prefecture. She and her three children traveled to Monrovia, Liberia, following the man's death, where she developed symptoms of Ebola and died on Mar 31.
Two of her sons have tested positive for Ebola and are receiving treatment in a Monrovia hospital, the WHO said. More than 100 of the family's Liberian contacts are being monitored for signs of infection.
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Sierra Leone's president is urging foreign investment in the West African country now that Ebola has declined.
President Ernest Bai Koroma said Thursday great efforts are needed to restart the economy — especially the agricultural sector, which suffered most during the world's deadliest Ebola outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in West Africa.
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