Ebola news 11/16

[Buster's Uncle]

Mali on high alert with new Ebola cluster
Associated Press
By BABA AHMED  59 minutes ago



In this photo taken Friday, Nov. 14, 2014, a health worker sprays disinfectant near a mosque, after the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus was washed inside before being berried in Bamako, Mali. It all started with a sick nurse, whose positive test results for Ebola came only after death. In a busy clinic that treats Bamako’s elite as well as wounded U.N. peacekeepers, who was the patient who had transmitted the virus? Soon hospital officials were taking a second look at the case of a 70-year-old man brought to the capital late at night from Guinea suffering from kidney failure. On Friday, Malian health authorities went to disinfect the mosque where the 70-year-old’s body was prepared for burial - nearly three weeks ago. Already some are criticizing the government for being too slow to react when health authorities had announced his death as a suspected Ebola case earlier in the week. (AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)



BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — It all started with a sick nurse, whose positive test for Ebola came only after her death. In a busy clinic that treats Mali's elite as well as wounded U.N. peacekeepers, what patient transmitted the virus?

Soon hospital officials were taking a second look at the case of a 70-year-old man who died after being brought to the capital late at night from Guinea suffering from kidney failure. A friend who visited him later died under suspicious circumstances, too.

It wasn't renal disease, they then realized. The 70-year-old man had Ebola and all three of the relatives who brought him to the clinic that night had all since been admitted to an Ebola treatment center back home in Guinea, too.

On Friday, Malian health authorities went to disinfect the mosque where the 70-year-old's body was prepared for burial — nearly three weeks ago. Already some are criticizing the Malian government for being too slow to react when health authorities had announced his death as a suspected Ebola case earlier in the week.

"It's been 18 days since the Guinean man sick with Ebola died here. It's just too late," said Koumou Keita, his face full of worry.

For nearly a year, Mali had been spared the virus now blamed for killing more than 5,000 people across West Africa despite the fact the country shared a porous land border with Guinea, the country where the epidemic first erupted.



In this photo taken Friday, Nov. 14, 2014, health workers spray disinfectant around a mosque after the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus was washed inside before being berried in Bamako, Mali. It all started with a sick nurse, whose positive test results for Ebola came only after death. In a busy clinic that treats Bamako’s elite as well as wounded U.N. peacekeepers, who was the patient who had transmitted the virus? Soon hospital officials were taking a second look at the case of a 70-year-old man brought to the capital late at night from Guinea suffering from kidney failure. On Friday, Malian health authorities went to disinfect the mosque where the 70-year-old’s body was prepared for burial - nearly three weeks ago. Already some are criticizing the government for being too slow to react when health authorities had announced his death as a suspected Ebola case earlier in the week.(AP Photo/Baba Ahmed)


Now there are least three confirmed Ebola deaths, and two others suspected deaths in Mali's capital, Bamako. Residents here who have seen the carnage from Ebola in neighboring Guinea now fear the worst.

"I feel uneasy because I have the impression that our authorities are not giving us the whole truth," said Ibrahim Traore, who works at a supermarket in the capital. "There are a lot of things not being said about how the Ebola virus came to Bamako."

Health officials now must try to track down not only family and friends who visited the 70-year-old man at his hospital bed, but also the scores of people who prepared his body for burial and attended his funeral. Teams of investigators are also headed to the border community where authorities believe the Patient Zero in the Bamako cluster — the 70-year-old man — first fell ill.

"The future of Ebola in Mali will depend on the quality of the surveillance of these contacts. If they are rigorously followed, and any subsequent cases are quickly identified and isolated, the battle will be won. But if there are failures in the process, it will lead to further contamination and further problems," said Ibrahima-Soce Fall, Mali's WHO representative.

Among those placed under quarantine are about 20 members of the U.N. peacekeeping force who had had been treated for battlefield wounds at the Bamako hospital where the dead nurse had worked. The peacekeepers had been based in the north of the country, where they have been trying to stabilize a vast region where jihadists ruled until a French-led war in 2013.

In rencet years Mali already has suffered a separatist rebel insurgency, a coup that overthrew its longtime leader and a war against jihadists. No Ebola threatens to be another source of misery if it is not contained.

"Ebola could case many deaths here in Mali, said Aminata Samake, who works at a bank in the capital. "We have a tradition of living closely together that could contribute to a huge contamination. Take the example of public transport — you find people crammed into a bus, one on top of the other. Large families share the same plates, even the same glasses for tea."


http://news.yahoo.com/mali-high-alert-ebola-cluster-161029502.html

[Buster's Uncle]

U.S. hospital says Sierra Leone doctor with Ebola extremely critical
Reuters
By Katie Knapp Schubert  9 hours ago






OMAHA Neb. (Reuters) - A surgeon from Sierra Leone being treated for Ebola in a Nebraska hospital on Saturday was critically ill after being airlifted back from Africa, medical officials said.

Dr. Martin Salia, 44, a permanent U.S. resident, caught the disease while working as a surgeon in a Freetown hospital, according to his family.

Doctors at the Nebraska hospital said his condition was extremely critical. He had been stable enough to take a flight from West Africa to Omaha but was too sick to walk off the plane, medical officials said.

"We will do everything humanly possible to help him fight this disease," Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medical Center, said in a statement. "This is an hour-by-hour situation."

Upon arrival Salia was transferred to a waiting ambulance in an isolation unit called an ISOPOD, a device used in the transportation of a potentially infectious patient, a hospital official said.



Dr. Martin Salia is placed on a stretcher upon his arrival at the Nebraska Medical Center Biocontainment Unit in Omaha, Nebraska, November 15, 2014. REUTERS/Brian C. Frank


Salia is the third patient to be treated for Ebola in the hospital's Biocontainment Unit since the virus broke out in West Africa earlier this year.

He was chief medical officer at the United Methodist Church's Kissy Hospital when he was confirmed on Tuesday to have contracted Ebola.

His evacuation was at the request of his wife, a U.S. citizen who lives in Maryland, the U.S. State Department said in a statement.

The current outbreak of Ebola is the worst on record. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, it has killed at least 5,177 people.

Most of the victims have been in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where already weak healthcare systems have been overrun. Some 570 local health workers have been infected, with 324 dying.

Salia would be the 10th known case of Ebola in the United States. All but one case was treated successfully.

The Nebraska clinic is one of four American hospitals approved by the federal government to treat Ebola.

(Reporting by Katie Knapp Schubert and Umaru Fofana; Additional reporting by Barbara Goldberg and Chris Michaud in New York; Writing by David Lewis and Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Andre Grenon and John Stonestreet)


http://news.yahoo.com/u-hospital-says-sierra-leone-doctor-ebola-extremely-082940062.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Chinese team arrives in Liberia to staff Ebola clinic
Reuters  9 hours ago



Chinese military health workers, part of a delegation sent by China to help in the fight against Ebola, arrive at Roberts airport outside Monrovia November 15, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue



MONROVIA (Reuters) - About 160 Chinese health workers arrived on Saturday in Liberia, where they are due to staff a new $41 million Ebola clinic that, unlike most other foreign interventions, is being built and fully run by Chinese personnel.

China, Africa's biggest trade partner, had come under fire for the level of its response to the Ebola crisis. But it said this week it would send 1,000 personnel to help fight an outbreak that has killed over 5,000 people in West Africa.

"Up to now in Liberia, China is the only country which provides not only the construction of an ETU (Ebola treatment unit), but also the running and operation and the staffing of an ETU," Chinese Ambassador Zhang Yue told Reuters.

The United States has pledged more money and personnel than any other nation pitching in to fight the worst Ebola outbreak on record. But its response is based on building clinics and training locals to run them.

Zhang said the new team in Liberia included a mix of doctors, nurses, technicians and engineers.

"They experienced SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome). They are very knowledgeable in this area," he said, referring to the contagious illness that was first identified in China in 2002 and killed several hundred people across the world.

On arrival, the Chinese health workers had their temperature taken and were made to wash their hands, a ritual adopted across the region as part of efforts to stem the disease.

Zhang said the establishment of the clinic in Liberia brought China's contribution to the anti-Ebola effort in the country to $122 million.

Before China's pledge to send 1,000 personnel, Cuba was the largest contributor of medical contingents to the crisis.

Both nations will see their teams work closely alongside the United States, which is providing much of the infrastructure of the international response.


http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-team-arrives-liberia-staff-ebola-clinic-084958782.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola-infected Sierra Leone doctor 'extremely ill' in US
AFP
By Olivia Hampton  4 hours ago



Dr. Martin Salia, a surgeon infected with the Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone, arrives at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska on November 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Eric Francis)



A doctor said to be "extremely ill" after being infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone was being treated in the United States on Sunday, while the world's most powerful economies vowed to "extinguish" the deadly epidemic.

Martin Salia, a US resident who was infected with the deadly hemorrhagic fever while treating patients in his home country, was flown to Nebraska for treatment.

World leaders meeting at the G20 summit in the Australian city of Brisbane said they were prepared "to do what is necessary to ensure the international effort can extinguish the outbreak".

Ebola has killed more than 5,100 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, since the outbreak began earlier this year.

Mali was also scrambling to prevent a new outbreak of the disease that has killed three people in the desert nation, despite hopeful signs elsewhere in Africa.

Liberia has lifted its state of emergency and the Democratic Republic of Congo announced the end of its own outbreak of the disease.

In London, musicians including boy band One Direction and Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant recorded a new "Band Aid" single to help combat the virus.



Protestors carry clocks to show time is running out during an Ebola protest event on November 15, 2014 in Brisbane, the venue for the G20 summit (AFP Photo/Greg Wood)


In Brisbane, G20 members welcomed an International Monetary Fund initiative to release $300 million to combat Ebola and promised to share best practices on protecting health workers on the front line.

In the United States, attention was focused on the University of Nebraska Medical Center where Salia arrived in an "extremely critical condition" Saturday from Sierra Leone's capital Freetown where he had gone to treat Ebola patients.

"This is an hour-by-hour situation," said Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit at UNMC, one of a handful of medical facilities in the United States specially designated to treat Ebola patients.

"He is extremely ill," Smith said. "We will do everything humanly possible to help him fight this disease."

Salia is the third Ebola patient to be treated by the UNMC -- the previous two survived.

Of the nine Ebola patients treated in the United States before Salia's arrival, only one has died: Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan.



A member of a Chinese military medical contingent takes a 'selfie' at Beijing airport on November 14, 2014, before leaving for West Africa (AFP Photo/Wang Zhao)


In sharp contrast, the disease has proved deadly in an estimated 70 percent of cases in west Africa.


- 'Mali situation worrying' -

The G20 pledge came as Togo, whose president is coordinating the west African fight, warned that the world "cannot relax efforts" despite some encouraging signals.

Senegal said Friday it was reopening its air and sea borders with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, although its land border with Guinea will remain closed.

The news came a day after Liberia lifted its state of emergency after announcing huge gains in fighting Ebola.

The DR Congo -- where a three-month outbreak of a different strain of the disease claimed at least 49 lives since August -- declared itself Ebola-free on Saturday.



Irish musician Bob Geldof arrives at a west London studio to record the new Band Aid 30 single on November 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Andrew Cowie)


But Mali is the latest source of concern, where there are fears an isolated outbreak could spark a major crisis after the deaths of three people infected by a Guinean imam who died of Ebola.

A fourth person, a doctor at the Bamako clinic where the cleric died, is in intensive care. More than 250 people have been placed under observation.

Former colonial power France added Mali to its list of destinations subject to Ebola flight checks.

"The situation in Mali is worrying," French development minister Annick Girardin said in the Guinean capital Conakry, adding she would meet Malian authorities "to see how we can scale things up."

There is no known cure for Ebola, one of the deadliest known pathogens, but trials for several possible treatments were announced this week in west Africa and Canada. The disease spreads through contact with bodily fluids.

The World Health Organization said Friday that 5,177 people are known to have died of Ebola across eight countries, out of a total 14,413 cases of infection, since December 2013.


- Makes humans 'untouchable' -

UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged "G20 countries to step up," warning that Ebola's disruptive effect on farming could potentially spark a food crisis for a million people.

"Transmission continues to outpace the response from the international community," Ban told reporters.

Artists also including U2 frontman Bono, Coldplay's Chris Martin and Sinead O'Connor recorded late into the night for a 30th anniversary version of the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?"

"It's not just about what's happening in west Africa, it could happen here tomorrow," said rocker-turned-activist Bob Geldof, one of the forces behind the original Band Aid.

Set to air on Sunday before its official release Monday, the single will be the fourth incarnation of the song, which became one of the biggest-selling singles ever after its release in 1984 to raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-infected-doctor-sierra-leone-lands-us-hospital-211125557.html

[Buster's Uncle]

US Hospital: Surgeon with Ebola 'extremely ill'
Associated Press
By MARGERY BECK and JESSICA GRESKO  31 minutes ago



Health workers in protective suits transport Dr. Martin Salia, a surgeon working in Sierra Leone who had been diagnosed with Ebola, from a jet that brought him from Sierra Leone to a waiting ambulance that will take him to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014. Dr. Salia is the third Ebola patient at the Omaha hospital and the 10th person with Ebola to be treated in the U.S. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)



OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A surgeon who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone was in extremely critical condition Sunday at a Nebraska hospital, his doctors said.

Dr. Martin Salia, who was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday, arrived in Omaha on Saturday to be treated at the Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit that has successfully treated two other Ebola patients this fall.

Salia is "extremely ill," said Dr. Phil Smith, who is helping oversee Salia's treatment. The 44-year-old Salia might be more ill than the first Ebola patients successfully treated in the United States, according to the hospital.

"This is an hour-by-hour situation," Smith said Sunday, adding that a team of specialists is treating Salia's most serious issues. "We will do everything humanly possible to help him fight this disease."

Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leona. Of the 10 people treated for the virus in the U.S., all but one has recovered.

After Salia arrived in Omaha, his ambulance to the hospital was accompanied by a single Nebraska State Patrol cruiser and a fire department vehicle — a subdued arrival in contrast to the August delivery of Dr. Rick Sacra, whose ambulance was flanked by numerous police cars, motorcycles and fire vehicles.

Salia has been working as a general surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown. It's not clear whether he was involved in the care of Ebola patients. Kissy is not an Ebola treatment unit, but Salia worked in at least three other facilities, United Methodist News said, citing health ministry sources.

Salia, a Sierra Leone citizen who lives in Maryland, first showed Ebola symptoms on Nov. 6 but tested negative for the virus. He eventually tested positive on Monday.

The U.S. State Department said it helped facilitate the transfer of Salia; the U.S. Embassy in Freetown said he paid for the expensive evacuation. The travel costs and care of other Ebola patients flown to the U.S. have been covered by the groups they worked for in West Africa.

Salia's wife, Isatu Salia, said in a telephone interview that when she spoke to her husband early Friday his voice sounded weak and shaky. But he told her "I love you" in a steady voice, she said.

The two prayed together, and their children, ages 12 and 20, are coping, Isatu Salia said, calling her husband "my everything."



There have been 14,098 reported cases of Ebola, with 5,160 reported deaths, up to November 12, 2014. (World Health Organization/Yahoo News)


Nebraska Medical Center spokesman Taylor Wilson said members of Salia's family were not at the hospital Saturday, but were expected to arrive "in the near future."

Sierra Leone is one of the three West Africa nations hit hard by an Ebola epidemic this year. Five other doctors in Sierra Leone have contracted Ebola, and all have died.

___

Gresko reported from New Carrollton, Md.

___

Associated Press writers Clarence Roy-Macauley in Freetown, Sierra Leone; Mike Stobbe in New York; and Matthew Barakat in McLean, Va., contributed to this report.
___


http://news.yahoo.com/surgeon-ebola-arrives-us-treatment-083546973.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Sierra Leone frees journalist detained over Ebola criticism
Reuters  November 15, 2014 7:30 AM



FREETOWN (Reuters) - Authorities in Sierra Leone have freed a journalist arrested 11 days ago for making supposedly disparaging comments about the country's effort to fight Ebola.

Local rights groups and British parliament had criticized the detention of David Tam-Baryoh, who was arrested under emergency measures put in place to combat the worst Ebola outbreak on record.

Sierra Leone is one of the three West African nations worst hit by an Ebola outbreak that has killed at least 5,177 people in West Africa. U.N. officials warned last week the disease was surging in Sierra Leone as it stabilized in Guinea and Liberia.

"I am fine and I forgive those who detained me," Tam-Baryoh told Reuters after his release late on Friday.

Tam-Baryoh said he still did not know what he said to elicit the accusations against him, and had not been given any reason for his release. Authorities did not comment.

Days after his arrest, Attorney General Frank Kargbo said Tam-Baryoh had "made disparaging and inflammatory statements" about the fight against Ebola and accused him of inciting "public hatred, disaffection and instability".

Tam-Baryoh said he must report to the police every Monday morning.

(Reporting by Umaru Fofana; Writing by David Lewis; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-frees-journalist-detained-over-ebola-criticism-123021909.html

[Buster's Uncle]

US to screen travelers from Mali for Ebola
Associated Press
By MIKE STOBBE  21 minutes ago



NEW YORK (AP) — Travelers from Mali will be subject to the same screening and monitoring that was ordered for people arriving from three other Ebola-affected countries, U.S. health officials said Sunday.

Mali is not suffering widespread Ebola illnesses. But federal officials are growing increasingly alarmed about a new cluster of seven illnesses in Mali that have left health public health workers scrambling to track and monitor at least 450 other people who may have had contact with the seven people and may be at risk.

"At this point we can't be confident that every exposed person has been identified, or that every identified person is being monitored daily," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Starting Monday, anyone arriving in the United States from Mali will undergo the same screening procedures that were ordered last month for travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. That includes taking arriving travelers' temperatures, and questioning them about their health and possible exposure to the Ebola virus. They also will be asked to provide contact information and to agree to — for 21 days — have daily communications with local health officials who will be asking them to take their temperatures twice each day and monitoring them to see if they develop symptoms.

West Africa is currently suffering the worst Ebola epidemic in world history, with at least 14,000 illnesses and more than 5,100 deaths so far. Nearly all of the cases have been in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. About 75 people arrive from those three countries each day, on average. They are funneled through five airports — two in New York and one each in Washington, Chicago and Atlanta.

In contrast, only about 15 to 20 passengers arrive from Mali to the United States on an average day. The majority end up arriving through the same five airports. But in the next few days, steps will be taken to make sure all funnel through those airports, Frieden said.

The CDC is quickly expanding its staffing in Mali, with at least four people there as of Sunday and about a dozen expected to be in place within the next couple of days, agency officials said.

The most common symptoms of the epidemic strain of Ebola include fever, headache and vomiting and diarrhea. People are only considered to be infectious while they are suffering symptoms, which can begin anywhere from two to 21 days after a person is infected.

The CDC has not advised against travel to Mali, and noted the latest cases are in one place — Bamako. The CDC is warning travelers to Mali to avoid contact with blood or body fluids from anyone who might be sick with Ebola or who recently died from the disease.


http://news.yahoo.com/us-screen-travelers-mali-ebola-220329290.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Liberia sets national target of no new Ebola cases by December 25
Reuters  3 hours ago



Medical vehicles are seen at a health facility near the Liberia-Sierra Leone border in western Liberia, November 5, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue



MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia has set a national goal of having no new cases of Ebola by Dec. 25, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said in a radio address on Sunday, in a further sign that authorities believe they are getting on top of the virus.

Liberia is the nation hardest hit by the epidemic. At least 2,812 people have died in the West African country, out of a total of 5,165 victims in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data on Friday.

"We continue to combat the Ebola virus and strive to achieve our national objective of zero new cases by Christmas," Sirleaf said in an address that also announced a cabinet reshuffle.

Sirleaf named George Werner as health minister, a key position given the epidemic, to replace Walter Gwenigale.

The WHO said last week there were signs that the incidence of new cases is declining in Guinea and Liberia, although it reported steep increases in Sierra Leone.

The U.N. mission to combat Ebola has set a target of having 70 percent of patients under treatment by Dec. 1 and 70 percent of bodies safely buried by the same date.

(Reporting by Alphonso Toweh; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by David Holmes)


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-sets-national-target-no-ebola-cases-december-191003291.html

[Buster's Uncle]

160 Chinese health workers in Liberia to fight Ebola
AFP  7 hours ago



The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 5,160 people since it first emerged in West Africa in December 2013, according to the World Health Organisation (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)



A contingent of 160 Chinese healthcare workers has arrived in Liberia to staff a $41 million Ebola treatment unit in the country the hardest-hit by the deadly virus, the Chinese embassy said Sunday.

Many of the doctors, epidemiologists and nurses who will work in the unit previously helped tackle the SARS epidemic in Asia, it said in a statement.

"They experienced SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). They are very knowledgeable in this area," ambassador Zhang Yue said.

Engineers hope to get the unit built and operational within 10 days.

Since the unit will be made of concrete, the embassy said it would leave a lasting legacy to the impoverished west African country, where at least 2,812 people have so far died of the deadly virus.

Zhang said the unit would be unique because most of the other treatment units are temporary structures.

"China is the only country which provides not only the construction of an Ebola treatment unit, but also the running, operation and the staffing of it."

"Further on we will provide additional material to Liberia worth around $5 million. So all together $46 million of our aid is exclusively to Liberia," Zhang added.

So far Beijing has promised Ebola-hit countries the equivalent of $122 million to help fight the epidemic.

China is Africa's largest trading partner, and its diplomatic footprint across the continent has expanded hugely in recent years as it seeks resources to power its economy.

Still it is a long way behind the European Union, whose leaders have boosted their Ebola aid to one billion euros ($1.26 billion).

The United States has earmarked more than $350 million in aid, while the World Bank and African Development Bank pledged $400 million and $225 million respectively.


http://news.yahoo.com/160-chinese-health-workers-liberia-fight-ebola-151632096.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Togo minister says 'we cannot relax efforts' against Ebola
AFP
By Nicolas Revise  November 15, 2014 2:59 AM



Togolese Minister of Planning and Development, and regional coordinator for Ebola response in West Africa, Dede Ahoefa Ekoue speaks during an interview in Washington, DC, November 14, 2014 (AFP Photo/Jim Watson)



Washington (AFP) - Togo, which is coordinating the fight against West Africa's deadly Ebola outbreak, says the international community "cannot relax efforts" to combat the disease, Social Action Minister Dede Ahoefa Ekoue told AFP.

Speaking ahead of the G20 summit in Australia, Ekoue said "global solidarity" is essential to beat the epidemic, which has already killed more than 5,100 people, mostly in hardest-hit Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.

In this interview, Ekoue underlines the critical need for a comprehensive and rapid response to the deadliest-ever Ebola outbreak.

Liberia lifted its state of emergency this week, announcing huge gains in the fight against Ebola. Is the epidemic slowing in West Africa?

First of all, we have to be pleased with the reduction in cases in these countries. It's very important because our efforts are now producing results. But we definitely cannot relax efforts. We need to reassess the measures we've taken, and we have to continue -- but without panic -- we must be vigilant at all times.

Is foreign aid from wealthy nations, including the United States and in Europe, enough in the fight against Ebola? Are you afraid of a weakening in the international effort?

We welcome the leadership of the United States and other countries that allowed us to tackle Ebola not only as a health issue, but also as a matter of global safety.

When it comes to international solidarity, it's not simply a matter of charity. Ebola could have an impact on national economies, on regional economies and at a global level too. The United Nations Security Council said Ebola posed an international threat... It is an international problem, and we need an international solution.

For President (of Togo, Faure Gnassingbe), this call for international solidarity is very important and it's a message that will be delivered at the G20.

Some say the International Monetary Fund-imposed austerity measures in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s undermined the health systems struggling today to respond to the Ebola outbreak. Do you agree?

On the International Monetary Fund, at such times, it is important to not simply criticize... It's true that our systems were undermined by problematic investments in the social sector, and the health sector in particular.

But today, countries know that we urgently need to reinforce national health systems... We need to make key investments. Now is not the time to get lost in criticisms. It's time to act.


http://news.yahoo.com/togo-minister-says-cannot-relax-efforts-against-ebola-075926121.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Senegal partially reopens borders with worst-hit Ebola states
AFP  November 14, 2014 11:02 PM



Vehicles wait for police clearance to drive across the border into neighboring Guinea from Senegal's southern border region on September 3, 2014 (AFP Photo/Seyllou)



Dakar (AFP) - Senegal has reopened air and sea borders with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the countries worst hit by the Ebola virus.

The frontiers had been closed since August 21, but the restriction was lifted with immediate effect, Senegalese Interior Minister Abdoulaye Daouda Diallo said Friday.

"Senegal has decided to partially open its borders with the Republic of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone as of this Friday... this measure applies only to air and maritime borders excluding the land border," Diallo said in a statement.

Guinea shares a land border with Senegal, which will remain closed.

The announcement came after Liberia lifted its state of emergency Thursday, announcing huge gains in the fight against Ebola.

Smaller, more mobile treatment units are being deployed in remote areas of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to act quickly to prevent the spread of the deadly virus.

No mention was made of neighbouring Mali in the statement, which has recorded deaths from the Ebola virus. The land border between the two countries remains open.

The World Health Organization announced on Friday that 5,177 people have now died of Ebola across eight countries, out of a total 14,413 cases of infection, since late December 2013.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have suffered the most during the deadliest ever outbreak of the disease.

In its latest toll, WHO said that through November 10, 2,812 people had died in Liberia, out of 6,878 cases.

In Sierra Leone, 1,187 people had died as of November 11 out of 5,586 cases, WHO said.

Guinea, where the outbreak began late last year, counted 1,166 deaths and 1,919 cases, also as of November 11.

Senegal was declared Ebola free by the WHO in October after a single, non-fatal case was earlier detected in the country.


http://news.yahoo.com/senegal-partially-reopens-borders-worst-hit-ebola-states-040217611.html