UPDATE with testimony to Congress.

Obama says Ebola-fighting goal is to prevent any new cases

(Scroll down for earlier story and link to Congressional testimony by administration officials)

ASSOCIATED PRESS       by Jim Kuhnhenn                                              APRIL 15.                                    

WASHINGTON — Citing significant gains in fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, President Obama declared Wednesday that the international goal now is to prevent any new cases of the deadly virus in the afflicted region....

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, back right, meets with, from left, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Guinean President Alpha Condé, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, to discuss progress made in the international Ebola response. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)

AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION               April 9, 2015

Liberia's anti-corruption watchdog says some $800,000 in funding to fight the Ebola epidemic has not been properly accounted for, most of it passing through the defence ministry.

A report by the General Auditing Commission (GAC) covering the height of the outbreak last year analysed more than $13 million spent by the National Ebola Trust Fund (NETF).

"The conduct of the affairs of the ... [NETF] were marred by financial irregularities and material control deficiencies," read the report, published on the GAC web site....

The audit did not include donations from international organisations including the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign donors whose contribution did not flow through the NETF.
Read complete story.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-10/liberia-watchdog-says-some-ebola-funds-unaccounted-for/6382402

VOICE OF AMERICA by Benno Muchler                          March 30, 015
MONROVIA—For Liberian survivors of Ebola, the struggle is not over.  Many have lost property and family members, and often face tremendous stigma after being released from the hospital. Unresolved medical issues are another problem.  Despite their suffering, they are still waiting for support a year into the Ebola crisis.

People shun them.  Landlords terminate their leases.  Some lost their jobs.  Many survivors also suffer from headaches and eye problems.  Doctors do not know yet if these Ebola side effects are only temporary.

To make their voices heard, survivors formed a network under the umbrella of Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare last September.

Korlia Bonarwolo was part of that, but then broke away and formed his own group. He said that after months without support, it seemed to him the government only used survivors to attract foreign aid.

NEW YORK TIMES  by Rick Gladstone                                                                   March 12, 2015 

The president of Liberia acknowledged on Wednesday that she had erred in ordering a tough security crackdown at the height of the Ebola crisis last year, describing the deadly virus as an “unknown enemy” that had frightened her.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf during a video address last Deceber to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee