You are here

Conakry

UN security council criticises discrimination against those from Ebola-hit regions

THE GUARDIAN                                                    Nov. 21, 2014
THE UNITED NATIONS --The UN security council has criticized travel bans against nationals from Ebola-hit countries.

Last month the Australian immigration minster, Scott Morrison, announced Australia would stop granting temporary visas to visitors from west Africa. The security council statement criticised such blanket bans and urged countries to maintain links with affected countries.

“The security council expresses its continued concern about the detrimental effect of the isolation of the affected countries as a result of trade and travel restrictions imposed on and to the affected countries as well as acts of discrimination against the nationals of Guinea, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone,” said Julia Bishop, the Australian foreign mniister who was presiding over the session Thursday.

The council statement also described the Ebola outbreeak in Africa as "a threat to international peace and security..."

General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Officials Revise Goals on Containing Ebola After Signs of Wider Exposure in Mali

NEW YORK TIMES                                     Nov. 21, 2014
By and

The leaders of the United Nations and the World Health Organization expressed renewed alarm on Friday about Ebola’s tenacity in Africa and, in particular, its potential to ravage a fourth country, Mali, where they said hundreds of people had been exposed to an infected cleric who died last month.

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Ebola Deaths Near 5,500 As Virus Still Rages

WALL STREET JOURNAL                                                                                               Nov. 21, 2014

By Andrew Morse

ZURICH—Nearly 5,500 people have died from Ebola, the World Health Organization said Friday, adding that the rate of transmission remains intense in the three West African countries at the center of the epidemic.

Medical staff members of the Croix Rouge NGO put on protective suits before collecting the corpse of a victim of Ebola, in Monrovia, Liberia. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

In an update, the United Nations health agency said 15,351 confirmed, suspected or probable cases of Ebola had been reported in eight countries that have been affected by the disease. Most of the cases were concentrated in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A total of 5,459 people have died of Ebola since the outbreak began, the WHO said. On Wednesday, the WHO reported 15,145 cases and 5,420 deaths.

Ebola’s true overall toll is difficult to gauge because some hard-hit villages are remote and urban centers have showed resistance toward clinics....

Read complete account

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

WHO Declares End to Ebola Outbreak in DRC

VOICE OF AMERICA                                                                                                       Nov. 21, 2014

The World Health Organization has declared an end to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The outbreak -- unrelated to the one affecting West Africa -- was centered in Congo's northwestern Equateur province and killed at least 49 people.  Nurses from Uganda’s Ministry of Health check passengers arriving from Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa at Entebbe Airport Kampala Uganda, Friday, Aug. 8, 2014.

The WHO released a statement Friday saying it has been 42 days, or twice the maximum incubation period, since a new case of Ebola has been detected in the DRC.

The WHO declaration confirms a statement by the DRC government last week that the outbreak there is over.

Read complete story

http://www.voanews.com/content/who-declares-end-to-ebola-outbreak-in-drc/2529068.html

See complete WHO statement

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Ebola Spread Has Slowed in Liberia, C.D.C. Says

NEW YORK TIMES                                                                                                         Nov. 21, 2014

By Helene Cooper

...Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the C.D.C. director,  says “there is no longer exponential increase, and in fact, there’s been a decrease” in the rate of Ebola infections in Liberia...

A security guard in West Point, a densely populated neighborhood of Monrovia, the Liberian capital, in September. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

His comments to reporters came a day after the Pentagon said it was scaling back the size and number of Ebola treatment facilities that American troops are building in Liberia. Defense officials said that instead of building 17 units, as promised by President Obama, the military would build 10 treatment facilities, and that seven of them would have 50 beds each, rather than the 100 beds previously planned.

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Researchers Develop Real-Time Monitoring for Ebola Outbreaks

VOICE OF AMERICA                                                                                                        Nov. 20, 2014
By Joe DeCapua
Knowing where the Ebola hot spots are in a country is crucial to getting an outbreak quickly under control. Many have criticized the initial slow response to the West Africa outbreak, saying it’s a big reason the virus quickly spread. Now, a German research center is developing a project to monitor Ebola and other outbreaks in real time.

Professor Gérard Krause said the new project – called EBOKON – uses real-time monitoring to better manage an outbreak.Krause is head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research – and EBOKON project leader for the German Center for Infection Research....

He said, “This is an information technology tool that we are developing together with colleagues from Nigeria that will take care of all those management aspects.”

The EBOKON project calls for setting up a command center, so to speak, in the capital of affected countries. Then health workers would use cellphones to relay in real time information on suspected cases around the country.

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

U.S. to allow people from nations hit by Ebola to stay temporarily

REUTERS                                                                                                                      Nov. 20, 2014
By Julia Edwards

WASHINGTON-- The Department of Homeland Security will grant temporary protected status to people from the three West African countries most affected by Ebola who are currently residing in the United States, department officials said on Thursday.

A U.S. Coast Guard Corpsman working with the Office of Field Operations checks the temperature of a traveler who has recently traveled to either Guinea, Sierra Leone, or Liberia in this handout picture from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection taken at Washington Dulles International Airport October 16, 2014.Credit: Reuters/U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Josh Denmark/Handout via Reuters

People from Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone in the United States as of Thursday may apply for protection from deportation, as well as for work permits, for 18 months, said a Department of Homeland Security official.

General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Liberian president hopes to defeat Ebola by Christmas

USA TODAY                                                       Nov. 20, 2014

by Greg Zoroya

MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf declared Wednesday that her nation is turning the tide against the deadly Ebola virus, and "we want to have zero cases by Christmas."

"It's a tall order. We're trying to work at that," Johnson Sirleaf said in an interview with USA TODAY. "We like to say that Ebola was running after us two months ago. Today, we are running after Ebola."

The World Health Organization released figures Wednesday showing that nearly 3,000 Liberians have died from Ebola since the virus first flared in a northern county last spring before exploding into the capital in June and July. The country has had more cases and deaths than any other.

As assistance from aid groups, the United Nations and the United States flooded into the country, the rate of infection and death declined dramatically in recent weeks... The number of daily Ebola infections in Liberia has declined from nearly 100 a day in September to about 25.

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Ebola response in Liberia is hampered by infighting

NEW YORK TIMES                                                                                                      Nov. 20, 2014
By Donald G. McNeil Jr.

The global response to the Ebola virus in Liberia is being hampered by poor coordination and serious disagreements between Liberian officials and the donors and health agencies fighting the epidemic, according to minutes of top-level meetings and interviews with participants. Medical workers handling a blood sample of an Ebola victim as the girl, 9, lay in a shawl in Monrovia, Liberia. She later died. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

Country / Region Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Ebola Spreading Intensely In Sierra Leone As Death Toll Rises: WHO

WHO status reports on West Africa
(Two items. Scroll down)

REUTERS                                                                                                                      Nov. 19, 2014

By Stephanie Nebehay
 GENEVA - The toll in the Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,420 deaths out of 15,145 cases in eight countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday, with transmission of the deadly virus still "intense and widespread" in Sierra Leone.

The figures, through Nov. 16, represent a jump of 243 deaths and 732 cases since those issued last Friday, and cases continue to be under-reported, the WHO said in its latest update.

Sierra Leone, a former British colony, confirmed 533 new cases in the week to Nov. 16, it said, accounting for much of the increase. It also reported 63 deaths since last Friday.

"Much of this was driven by intense transmission in the country's west and north," the WHO said.

Country / Region Tags: 
General Topic Tags: 
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 

Pages

Subscribe to Conakry
howdy folks
Page loaded in 0.561 seconds.