Transportation

Fighting Ebola, and the Mud

Tue, 2014-10-21 20:12 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES Oct. 21, 2014

Op-ed in Today's New York Times by Karen Huster, a nurse working in Liberia for Last Mile Health says that Liberia’s dysfunctional transportation system is standing in the way of fighting the Ebola epidemic and suggests some solutions

"Patients have died on grueling journeys to treatment units. Blood samples have sat waiting for days, eventually becoming invalid....

"The best solution is removing the need to travel altogether by building more easily accessible treatment centers all over the country, where patients with confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola can be housed and treated. The United States military is building these structures, but it is taking time. Nimbler nongovernmental organizations must also step in. Save the Children has already done so and is also building smaller community care centers — sort of homes away from home, where families can continue to care for their sick loved ones safely removed from the community. A makeshift center with tents instead of permanent structures could be set up within a week.

Country / Region Tags:

Global

Africa

General Topic Tags:

Contagion

Disaster Risk Reduction

Disease

Health

Transportation

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Read more about Fighting Ebola, and the Mud
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola crisis: Worst-hit African nations get key supplies

Tue, 2014-10-21 19:42 — mike kraft

BBC Oct. 20, 2014

Vital supplies and resources to tackle Ebola are beginning to arrive in the three worst-hit West African countries, Ghana's President John Mahama has said.

Mr Mahama, who heads the regional bloc Ecowas, also told the BBC that treatment centres were being set up in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. But he called for proper co-ordination between agencies to avoid duplication.

Red Cross workers are among those fighting the outbreak in Sierra Leone

Mr Mahama told the BBC that the World Food Programme was airlifting humanitarian aid to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

"Vehicles, motorcycles and other means of transport are going in there. There's more protective clothing being provided," he said.

"But there's no need for us to duplicate each other and have more treatment centres when we do not have volunteers and health workers to treat the people in the treatment centres.

Read full story

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Disaster Risk Reduction

Health

Transportation

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Ebola crisis: Worst-hit African nations get key supplies
Log in or register to post comments

DHS requires West Africa travelers to arrive at five airports

Tue, 2014-10-21 18:55 — mike kraft

USA TODAY Oct. 21, 2914By Bart Jansen

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday that all travelers from Ebola outbreak countries in West Africa will be funneled through one of five U.S. airports with enhanced screening starting Wednesday.

(Photo: Melissa Maraj, AP)

Customs and Border Protection within the department began enhanced screening — checking the traveler's temperature and asking about possible exposure to Ebola — at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Oct. 11.

Enhanced screening for travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea was expanded Oct. 16 to Washington's Dulles, Chicago's O'Hare, New Jersey's Newark and Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson international airports.

Those airports were supposed to screen 94% of the average 150 people per day arriving from the three countries. But lawmakers from other states asked for enhanced screening at their airports, too.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Disaster Risk Reduction

Disease

Health

Transportation

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Situation Report

Read more about DHS requires West Africa travelers to arrive at five airports
1 comment
Log in or register to post comments

CDC's Frieden: U.S. not ruling out Ebola travel ban

Thu, 2014-10-16 19:29 — mike kraft

UPDATE

CONGRESSIONAL HEARING ON EBOLA: STORIES AND LINK TO TESTIMONY BEFORE A HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE SUBCOMMITTEE (scroll down)

By Will Duham

(Reuters) - Congressional lawmakers criticized the government's response to Ebola in the United States on Thursday as some called, at a congressional hearing probing efforts to contain the virus, for a ban on travel from epidemic-stricken West Africa.

Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told reporters separately that the United States is assessing whether to issue a travel ban "on a day-to-day basis" but that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had determined that a ban would not address the challenges posed by Ebola.

...Several schools in Ohio and Texas were closed after concerns that a nurse with Ebola traveled on a plane with people with ties to the schools.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about CDC's Frieden: U.S. not ruling out Ebola travel ban
1 comment
Log in or register to post comments

France announces Ebola screenings at Paris airport

Thu, 2014-10-16 14:10 — mike kraft

FRANCE 4 INTERNATIONAL NEWS OCT. 16, 2014

PARIS French health officials tday said screening measures for Ebola among passengers arriving from Guinea would start Saturday at Charles de Gualle airport in Paris.

France became the fourth country –after Britain, the United States and Canada–to announce screening checks for the virus at its main international airport, as the United Nations warned Ebola was outpacing efforts to combat the epidemic.

The announcement came as Spanish authorities said they had isolated an Air France plane at Madrid airport and activated emergency health procedures after one of the passengers was reported to have a fever and shivers in what is being treated as a suspected Ebola case, officials said Thursday.

... French President François Hollande held a video conference Wednesday with his US counterpart Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian premier Matteo Renzi to discuss their response to the virus.

EU health ministers are meeting in Brussels on Thursday to discuss measures to deal with the epidemic....

See full story

http://www.france24.com/en/20141016-ebola-france-airport-screening-eu-health/

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Disaster Risk Reduction

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about France announces Ebola screenings at Paris airport
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola Fight in Africa Is Hurt by Limits on Ways to Get Out

Wed, 2014-10-15 20:24 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES

By ANDREW HIGGINS OCT. 15, 2014

BRUSSELS — When a French nurse working as a volunteer in West Africa tested positive for Ebolalast month, it took 50 hours to get her to Paris for treatment on a private American plane that had to fly all the way from Georgia to pick her up.

The nurse survived, but according to the aid group that sent her to Liberia and arranged to get her out, Europe’s failure to establish a swift evacuation service for infected medical workers has become a serious hurdle impeding the battle against Ebola in West Africa.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem