Ebola News 12/10

[Buster's Uncle]

Mass drug campaign needed to fight malaria in Ebola countries - expert
Reuters
By Astrid Zweynert   9 hours ago



LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Mass drug treatment for malaria is a key step towards preventing a rise in the mosquito-borne disease in Ebola-stricken countries and to ease the burden on medical staff, a leading disease control expert said on Tuesday.

Sierra Leone began a campaign on Friday to protect 2.4 million people - nearly half its population - from malaria, reducing pressure on health services from people visiting clinics wrongly fearing they have Ebola.

"It is a good example of how looking at the broader picture is the right approach - because the number one killer in Sierra Leone is malaria, not Ebola," Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, executive director of Roll Back Malaria, an alliance of global groups, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"We can't win the fight against either disease by looking at it in isolation."

More than 9,300 trained community health workers in Sierra Leone have been going door-to-door in districts where the risk of Ebola is highest to administer anti-malarial tablets to people aged six months and above.

Families will also be educated on the similarities of the symptoms of Ebola and malaria and the importance of taking the life-saving medicine during the campaign spearheaded by UNICEF, the United Nations' children's agency.

Malaria symptoms of fever, headache and aching joints are similar to Ebola in its early stages, said Nafo-Traore, a former health minister of Mali.

"The disease is easily misdiagnosed at this stage and as a result many people going to Ebola treatment centres turn out to have malaria," she said. "That puts extra pressure on health staff dealing with Ebola but also means people affected by malaria may not get the treatment they need quickly enough."

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that the deadly Ebola outbreak has had a "devastating impact" on malaria treatment in West Africa and the roll-out of malaria control programmes.

In Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia -- the countries worst hit by Ebola -- many inpatient clinics are closed and attendance at outpatient facilities is a fraction of rates seen before the outbreak, it said.

Some 6.6 million people fell ill with malaria in 2013 and 20,000 died in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the WHO said. At least 6,331 people have died of Ebola in the three countries.

UNICEF will kick off a second round of the anti-malaria drug distribution in Sierra Leone next month.


http://news.yahoo.com/mass-drug-campaign-needed-fight-malaria-ebola-countries-072431686.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Arca's potential Ebola drug gets 'orphan drug status'
Reuters  48 minutes ago



(Reuters) - Arca Biopharma Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted its experimental drug orphan drug status as a potential treatment for viral hemorrhagic fever after exposure to the Ebola virus.

The Westminster, Colorado-based company, whose stock rose about 11 percent on Wednesday, joins a list of drugmakers looking for ways to fight the largest Ebola outbreak on record, which has killed at least 6,300 so far.

Securing this designation accords the developer with several incentives, including fee waivers and seven years of market exclusivity.

Arca's drug, rNAPc2, is a selective inhibitor of tissue factor (TF) - the protein responsible for initiating the primary coagulation mechanism in humans.

The drug, which was originally being developed as a cardiovascular therapy for thrombosis among other indications, has shown effectiveness against the Ebola and Marburg virus in animal models.

The company said on Wednesday it was exploring options for the development of rNAPc2 including seeking development partners, out-licensing the compound and government funding.

(Reporting by Natalie Grover in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)


http://news.yahoo.com/arcas-potential-ebola-drug-gets-orphan-drug-status-162221476--finance.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola survivors crucial to containing the epidemic: experts
Reuters
By Magdalena Mis  13 minutes ago



LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Thousands of Ebola survivors with little to no risk of re-infection are critical to controlling the epidemic and training them has the potential to save thousands of lives and decrease the spread of the virus, experts said on Wednesday.

Survivors have developed immunity and are effectively the only people in the world protected from the virus, which could allow them to care for the sick without risking their lives, said experts in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

The worst Ebola outbreak on record has killed 6,331 in the three worst hit countries Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and infected 17,800, including 7,719 in Liberia and 7,798 in Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization said.

"In a sense survivors are the only people in the world who are 'vaccinated' against further Ebola infection with the strain in circulation," Zena Stein of the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at the New York State Psychiatric Institute wrote in an editorial.

"This uniquely positions them to mediate between the infected and uninfected and between local people and foreign responders."

As survivors speak local languages and are familiar with local culture, they might also be seen more favorably than outsiders by local communities who often mistrust foreigners, chasing away health workers and shunning treatment, said the paper.

Community-based epidemic response - like an HIV campaign in South Africa - has been  effective in turning survivors into advocates and educators and helping to tackle stigma and gain trust.

Although survivors could still face stigmatizing by their communities, people were starting to see them as a real sign of hope and help, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF has noted.

Creating jobs by employing Ebola survivors as caregivers might also be beneficial for sub-Saharan Africa's economy, which has been hit by an estimated $3-$4 billion in financial damage through the virus outbreak.

Survivors can also donate their blood as their antibodies might be protective and help those infected to survive the virus, the experts said, even though this has not yet been proven to be effective.

With a case recovery rate of around 30 percent for the current epidemic, there are already thousands of survivors whose immunity can be established through blood tests.

(Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, corruption and climate change. Visit www.trust.org)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-survivors-crucial-containing-epidemic-experts-170336429.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola survivors, doctors named "person of the year" by Time
Reuters  4 hours ago



(Reuters) - Time magazine named those fighting Ebola its 2014 "Person of the Year," applauding the work of medical relief teams, doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and burial teams working in western Africa, where an outbreak of the virus has killed thousands.

"For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are Time's 2014 Person of the Year," the magazine said in a statement.

The magazine pictured five people on its covers, including: Dr. Jerry Brown, a Liberian surgeon; Salome Karwah, an Ebola survivor whose parents died from the disease; and Dr. Kent Brantly, an American missionary who became infected while in Liberia.

Ebola has killed 6,331 people out of 17,800 cases in the latest outbreak, almost all in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the United Nations' World Health Organization.

The current death rate is estimated to be about 70 percent of all cases.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-survivors-doctors-named-person-time-134756356.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Why Ebola fighters are Time Magazine's 'Person of the Year'
Time magazine lauds the brave caregivers, nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors, and health-care workers who rose to the Ebola challenge.
Christian Science Monitor
By Husna Haq  6 hours ago



The courageous Ebola fighters around the world who are responding to the largest Ebola outbreak in history are Time Magazine's 2014 "Person of the Year," the magazine's editors announced Wednesday morning.

Ebola has now claimed more than 6,000 lives (mostly in West Africa), more than 17,000 people have been diagnosed as infected, and the disease has tested the world's health-care infrastructure. Essentially, Time is paying homage to the brave caregivers, nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors, and health-care workers who rose to this challenge.

"For their tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to strengthen its defenses, for the risks they took and the lives they saved, the Ebola fighters are Time's 2014 Person of the Year," Time editor Nancy Gibbs said in a video posted on the magazine's Web site.

In deciding upon their "Person of the Year," the magazine considers "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or ill, and embodied what was important about the year."

This year's runners-up included pop music artist Taylor Swift, Apple CEO Tim Cook, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Alibaba founder and CEO Jack Ma, the Ferguson protesters, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Kurdish leader Massoud Karzani. In 2013, the magazine selected Pope Francis as its Person of the Year.

This year, it picked a group of people rather than one individual, and its choice also cast the spotlight on one of the most pressing global health issues.

The Ebola virus, which first emerged as a problem in the west African nations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and was declared an outbreak in March of 2014, has ravaged regional economies, as well as testing local and global health systems. As such, it has dominated the headlines for much of the year.

It has also thrown the spotlight on the selfless individuals who have cared for Ebola patients. According to the World Health Organization, 622 health-care workers are known to have been infected with Ebola through the end of November; 346 of them have died. According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the incidence rate of Ebola cases in Sierra Leone is about 100 times higher for health-care workers than it was for other people in the country.

And yet, they continue to fight the virus.

"Ask what drove them and some talk about God; some about country; some about the instinct to run into the fire, not away," writes Time Magazine. "'If someone from America comes to help my people, and someone from Uganda,' says Iris Martor, a Liberian nurse, 'then why can’t I?'"

Adds Foday Gallah, an ambulance driver who survived infection, “I am going to fight Ebola with all of my might.”

Sierra Leone doctor Komba Songu-M’briwa, who contracted the disease after treating a fellow Sierra Leone physician (who later died), told the Associated Press that the Ebola field work was "the 'most difficult, most pitiful' work of his life." But he vowed to return to the field to fight the virus. "I don't have regrets because I'm enjoying my job, and I think it's been a blessing to other people."

Asked how surviving Ebola changed him, Dr. Kent Brantly told Time, “[W]henever we go through a devastating experience like what I’ve been through, it is an incredible opportunity for redemption of something. We can say, How can I be better now because of what I’ve been through? To not do that is kind of a shame.”

As such, the Ebola outbreak has been both a source of inspiration and a challenge for the global community, suggests Time Magazine.

"So that is the next challenge," writes Time. "What will we do with what we’ve learned? This was a test of the world’s ability to respond to potential pandemics, and it did not go well. It exposed corruption in African governments along with complacency in Western capitals and jealousy among competing bureaucrats. It triggered mistrust from Monrovia to Manhattan. Each week brought new puzzles."

For inspiration on the road that lies ahead in the fight against Ebola, the magazine points readers once again to its "Person of the Year."

"The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight. For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are Time’s 2014 Person of the Year."


http://news.yahoo.com/why-ebola-fighters-time-magazines-person-162710832.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Time names Ebola fighters as 'person' of 2014
AFP  2 hours ago



The worst-ever Ebola outbreak has left more than 6,300 people dead worldwide, nearly all in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia (AFP Photo/Cellou Binani)



New York (AFP) - Time magazine on Wednesday named as its "Person of the Year 2014" the healthcare workers treating the Ebola epidemic, which has killed more than 6,300 people worldwide, in a move welcomed by the White House.

The hemorrhagic fever mushroomed from an outbreak into an epidemic in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, and there have been scattered cases in Nigeria, Mali, Spain, Germany and the United States.

"The rest of the world can sleep at night because a group of men and women are willing to stand and fight," wrote Time editor Nancy Gibbs, announcing the prestigious annual title.

"For tireless acts of courage and mercy, for buying the world time to boost its defenses, for risking, for persisting, for sacrificing and saving, the Ebola fighters are Time's 2014 Person of the Year."

The worst ever Ebola outbreak has left more than 6,300 people dead worldwide, nearly all in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

Health workers have been among the worst hit, with 340 deaths out of 592 cases.

The White House welcomed the accolade as a tribute to the "heroism and selflessness" of countless health care workers.



This image courtesy of TIME shows the Person of the Year cover (C) for December 22/December 29, 2014 (AFP Photo/)


"The administration, including the president, could not be prouder of the brave men and women who've committed themselves to this effort in a foreign land," said spokesman Josh Earnest.


- White House tribute -

"These are men and women who deserve international recognition, and today we are pleased that they're receiving more of it."

President Barack Obama has made a pointed effort to calm hysteria in the United States over how Ebola is contracted by welcoming survivors to the White House.

Nina Pham, a nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for the first patient diagnosed on US soil, said she was delighted to be part of the accolade.

"So honored to be a part of @Time Magazine's POY!" she tweeted.



United Nations Ebola czar David Nabarro has welcomed widespread progress in the fight against Ebola but warned the outbreak was still surging in western Sierra Leone and northern Guinea (AFP Photo/Timothy A. Clary)


Pham, who was hugged by Obama at the White House after surviving her ordeal, and another nurse in Dallas became infected with Ebola while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, who died on October 8.

Both nurses survived.

Duncan was diagnosed after travelling from his homeland Liberia to the United States, where he was initially sent home from hospital.

The White House said the only way to bring the epidemic under control and prevent additional cases in the United States was to recruit and train more medical professionals.


- 'Ebola is a war and a warning' -

On Tuesday, the United Nations' Ebola czar, David Nabarro, welcomed widespread progress in the fight against the virus, but warned cases were still surging in western Sierra Leone and northern Guinea.

He called for more foreign health workers and specialists in areas where the disease was still spreading quickly, as well as more treatment units and beds.

Gibbs said governments were not equipped to respond to the crisis, the World Health Organization had been in denial and snarled in red tape, and first responders were accused of crying wolf.

She paid tribute to the people in the field: those sent by charities such as Doctors Without Borders, as well as local doctors and nurses, ambulance drivers and burial teams.

"Ebola is a war, and a warning. The global health system is nowhere close to strong enough to keep us safe from infectious disease," wrote Gibbs.

"And 'us' means everyone, not just those in faraway places where this is one threat among many that claim lives every day."

The runners-up chosen by Time were protesters who took to the streets in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson to condemn the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer.

Also shortlisted were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, and China's richest man Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba.


http://news.yahoo.com/time-names-ebola-fighters-person-2014-133814980.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Sierra Leone area to hold 2-week Ebola 'lockdown'
Associated Press
By MICHELLE FAUL and CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY  52 minutes ago



This image provided by Time Magazine, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, features Salome Karwah as one of the Ebola fighters named as the Person of The Year for 2014. The title, according to the magazine, goes to an individual or group who has had the biggest impact on the news over the course of the previous year. (AP Photo/Time Magazine)



FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Health workers sent to Sierra Leone to investigate an alarming spike in deaths from Ebola have uncovered a grim scene: piles of bodies, overwhelmed medical personnel and exhausted burial teams.

The World Health Organization says the health workers from several local and international agencies are racing to the latest Ebola hotspot, a diamond-mining area that Sierra Leone put on "lockdown" Wednesday.

"In 11 days, two teams buried 87 bodies, including a nurse, an ambulance driver, and a janitor who had been drafted into removing bodies piled up at the only area hospital," the WHO said in a statement Wednesday night.

"Our team met heroic doctors and nurses at their wits end, exhausted burial teams and lab techs, all doing the best they could, but they simply ran out of resources and were overrun with gravely ill people," said Dr. Olu Olushayo, an official in WHO's response Ebola team.

In the five days before its members arrived, 25 people had died in a makeshift, cordoned-off section of the hospital in Sierra Leone's eastern Kono district. The Ebola virus carries its heaviest load right after death, with bodies being a frightening source of contagion.

Sierra Leone authorities said they ordered a two-week "lockdown" there until Dec. 23, in hope of containing transmission of the virus, which was confirmed in seven people Tuesday.



In this photo taken Sunday, Nov. 23, 2014, a child grabs food from a woman in the Guinean village of Meliandou, some 400 miles (600 kms) south-east of Conakry, Guinea, believed to be Ebola's ground zero. The official theory is that somehow the virus was transmitted from fruit bats to humans and spread through the region plagued with bad roads, dense population, and a problematic health care system along a porous borders that people used to cross regularly –before the outbreak—whether to join family or engage in trade. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)


People will be able to move within the district, but no one will be allowed to enter or leave, said Emmanuel Lebbie, a local official of the Independent Media Commission.

More than 6,000 people have died from Ebola in West Africa over the last year, including more than 1,500 in Sierra Leone since June. The country also has suffered a disproportionate number of deaths of health care workers. By the end of November, the virus had infected 622 health carers in West Africa and killed 346 of them, according to WHO figures.

Earlier this year, Sierra Leone ordered a nationwide lockdown for three days that authorities declared a success, keeping people inside their homes as health workers went door to door, handing out information about Ebola and uncovering new cases.

The latest hotspot is an indication of how long it could take to control the epidemic that started in Guinea a year ago, in an area bordering on Sierra Leone and Liberia, and quickly spread to capital cities in all three West African nations. Previous outbreaks had been contained in faraway villages in the rain forests of Central Africa.

Also Wednesday, Sierra Leone's junior doctors continued their strike for a third day, seeking access to better medical care should they contract the Ebola virus.



This image provided by Time Magazine, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, announces the Ebola fighters as its Person of The Year for 2014. The title, according to the magazine, goes to an individual or group who has had the biggest impact on the news over the course of the previous year. The issue carries five covers, and here, shows Dr. Jerry Brown, the Liberian surgeon who turned his hospital's chapel into the country's first Ebola treatment center. (AP Photo/Time Magazine)


WHO said its workers, along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Sierra Leone National Ebola Response Center and the country's Ministry of Health and Sanitation, are "sounding the alarm and are now rallying all-comers in a massive buildup to contain this burgeoning Ebola outbreak" in Kono district.

WHO acknowledged that many cases go unreported "and are exacerbated when overwhelmed and under-resourced front-line workers are unable to reach remote areas to get the truth from reluctant villagers."

In Kono, surveillance officers had no vehicles, and WHO and the CDC had to rush rugged trucks to the scene.

WHO quoted a dire warning from Dr. Amara Jambai, Sierra Leone's director of disease prevention and control, who used a local proverb equated to "the tip of the iceberg" to describe fears of what remains to be discovered. "We are only seeing the ears of the hippo" he said.

---

Faul reported from York, England.


http://news.yahoo.com/sierra-leone-area-hold-2-week-ebola-lockdown-140920923.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Little Christmas cheer in economies shattered by Ebola
AFP
By Zoom Dosso with Rod Mac Johnson in Freetown  14 hours ago



Monrovia (AFP) - Slumped behind a table in Monrovia's sprawling Waterside market, stallholder Massa Gborlie gazes forlornly at the rare Christmas shoppers who pass by, ignoring the goods she has on offer.

Normally the most lucrative time of year, the festive season has been transformed into a month of anxiety and boredom for thousands of traders in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"Usually, every year from December 1 to 30 business is OK with us, but this year it is a different story altogether. Ebola has spoiled everything," she says.

Monrovia and Freetown have a combined Christian population estimated at a million, and yet in the streets, tinsel and nativity displays have given way to posters warning of the dangers of Ebola.

The outbreak has claimed more than 6,000 lives since it emerged in the forests of southern Guinea in December, but it is also killing off manufacturing and agriculture.

The World Bank said in early December the fallout from the epidemic would push the region's growth this year down below four percent and plunge Sierra Leone and Guinea into recession next year.

The cost to the two countries plus Liberia of closed businesses and curtailed investment will run over $2 billion in 2014-2015, the bank said.

The mining sector is the cornerstone of the west African economies, which sit atop some of the largest deposits of iron ore, diamonds and other minerals in the world.

But two key extractors, London Mining and Africa Minerals, are facing difficulties in Sierra Leone, according to the government, while expatriate workers have mostly left Liberia.

More worryingly, agriculture is at risk and a food crisis is looming, according to the United Nations food agency, the FAO.


- Abruptly banned -

An FAO study in Sierra Leone found that 47 percent of people questioned believe the crisis has seriously affected their farming activities.

Since the onset of the crisis, "buying power" -- the measure of how far your dollar goes -- has decreased by a fifth in Sierra Leone and by more than a quarter in Liberia, according to the UN.

In Liberia's bread basket province of Lofa, staple goods prices have risen between 30 and 75 percent since August.

In Monrovia, the price of cassava, a woody shrub used extensively in west African cuisine and one of the most important food crops in Liberia, has soared 150 percent.

In the rare markets functioning normally, traders have been hit hard by the restrictions that came with Ebola.

Esther Jallabah, one of 900 bushmeat traders in Monrovia, borrowed $3,500 to buy tonnes of produce before it was identified as a source of possible Ebola transmission and abruptly banned.

"Those I gave the goods to have not paid because they could not sell. I am highly indebted," she said.

The crisis has proved all the more calamitous because Liberia and Sierra Leone, among the world's poorest countries, are still struggling to recover from ruinous civil wars spanning the 1990s.


- Business 'bad all round' -

Across Freetown, a city of 1.2 million, clubs and bars have been shut down by emergency legislation while motorcycle taxis no longer operate in the evenings.

"I'm lucky not to have been laid off as some of my friends have, because business all round is bad," said Isata Kanu, 36, a secretary in a Freetown insurance company.

Sierra Leoneans are also losing out on the crucial backstop of remittances from abroad -- worth around $50 million a year, according to the World Bank.

While many developing countries rely on bank transfers from overseas relatives, Sierra Leoneans prefer the unofficial and cheaper method of moving money in person.

Freetown resident Jacob Smith has three children in the United States who usually give him US dollars via friends coming for Christmas.

"This year, things will change because they don't know of anyone brave enough to come so they will use a courier service which gives you local currency at a drastically reduced rate," he said.

Monrovia-based financial and political analyst Samuel Jackson says the crisis presents an opportunity for Liberia to take a new approach to the economy by stimulating growth.

"We need to start doing properly things we did not do well in the past, especially roads and electricity, which we can accelerate in the post-Ebola economic sector," he said.

"If we apply the resources effectively we can recover sooner and be better than pre-Ebola."

Such optimism is in scarce supply on the ground, however.

"By this time, takings should have been high but they are not so. When you look at the stern faces of people, you must have guts to put a plate before them," a beggar in Freetown told AFP.

"People are holding on to what they have, not knowing what tomorrow will bring."


http://news.yahoo.com/little-christmas-cheer-economies-shattered-ebola-080817741.html

[Buster's Uncle]

'We were slow': WHO admits mistakes in Ebola response
AFP
By Nina Larson  8 hours ago



China's Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization, WHO, speaks during the WHO's high level meeting on building resilient systems for health in Ebola affected countries, in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)



Geneva (AFP) - The head of the World Health Organization conceded on Wednesday that the UN body was slow to respond to the outbreak of Ebola that has now killed more than 6,300 people in west Africa.

"It is fair to say the whole world, including WHO, failed to see what was unfolding, what was going to happen in front of our eyes," WHO director general Margaret Chan told the BBC in an interview.

"An old disease like Ebola, when we put it in a new context, we were slow. All of us were slow to see the impact of social, cultural and economic situations on the ground."

She added: "With the benefit of hindsight, I can tell you -- we could have mounted a much, much more robust response."

The WHO has faced criticism over its initial response to Ebola, including for being overly bureaucratic and too politicised to react quickly to global health crises.



There have been 17,942 reported cases of Ebola, with 6,388 reported deaths, up to December 10, 2014. (World Health Organization/Yahoo News)


Chan was speaking before she opened a high-level meeting in Geneva on how to improve the frail healthcare systems in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the three countries worst affected by the outbreak.

The failure to recognise and address the deadly virus in the early stages has been blamed as one of the reasons that it has spread so far and been so deadly.

The outbreak began with the death of a young boy in Guinea in December last year, but as it spread, the virus was misdiagnosed twice as cholera and later thought to be Lassa fever, Chan told the meeting.

By the time it was finally identified as Ebola on March 21 this year, "the virus was firmly entrenched".

"This is what can happen in the absence of a well-functioning health system," the WHO chief said.



A man is carried away to be tested for Ebola after collapsing on a street in Monrovia December 9, 2014. The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has risen to 6,331 in the three worst hit countries, with Sierra Leone overtaking Liberia as the country with the highest number of cases, the World Health Organization says. (REUTERS/James Giahyue)


The two-day talks, which gather finance and health ministers from the three countries and a wide range of donors and NGOs, aims to find "practical actions" to strengthen their dilapidated health systems.

Chan stressed the urgency of the task, pointing out that the virus has pushed healthcare systems in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to the brink of collapse.

Before the epidemic, the three countries counted only between one and two doctors per 100,000 inhabitants, and "that number has been diminished as more than 600 healthcare staff have been infected", Chan said.

Other health care services, including for malaria treatment, vaccinations and safe childbirth, have ground to a halt in many places.

Chan urged delegates to come up with ways to boost the number of doctors and medical supplies as well as ensure the uninterrupted supply of electricity and running water.

Noting the widespread distrust for western medicine and foreign medical teams, she also urged broader respect for the traditional healers, who should be given "a clearly defined role in the formal health system".


http://news.yahoo.com/were-slow-admits-mistakes-ebola-response-135046558.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola toll climbs, fueled by spread in Sierra Leone: WHO
Reuters  4 hours ago



Health workers carry the body of an Ebola virus victim in the Waterloo district of Freetown, October 21, 2014. REUTERS/Josephus Olu-Mamma

 

GENEVA (Reuters) - The toll in the Ebola epidemic has risen to 6,388 deaths out of 17,942 cases as of Dec. 7, its spread fueled principally by new infections in Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

Sierra Leone, a former British colony, reported 397 new confirmed cases in the week to Dec. 7, three times the combined total in the other two centers of the disease, Guinea and Liberia, the U.N. health agency said in its latest update.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone continue to account for all but 15 deaths in the world's worst Ebola outbreak.

While Sierra Leone has overtaken Liberia in terms of numbers of cases - 7,897 against 7,719 - it has reported only 1,768 deaths against 3,177, according to WHO figures.

Dr. Abu Bakarr Fofanah, Sierra Leone's Minister of Health and Sanitation, attended a WHO meeting on Ebola in Geneva on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles; Editing by Kevin Liffey)


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-toll-climbs-fueled-spread-sierra-leone-175806555.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Malaria death rates fall, Ebola threatens West Africa progress
Reuters
By Kate Kelland  December 9, 2014 6:06 AM



LONDON (Reuters) - Malaria deaths have dropped dramatically since 2000 and cases are falling steadily as more people are properly diagnosed and treated and more get mosquito nets, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

Yet progress against the mosquito-borne infection remains fragile and West African countries suffering an unprecedented epidemic of Ebola are particularly at risk of seeing a resurgence of malaria, the United Nations health agency said.

In its annual report on the disease, the WHO said the malaria death rate fell by 47 percent worldwide between 2000 and 2013 and by 54 percent in Africa, where about 90 percent of all malaria deaths occur.

In an analysis of malaria's impact across sub-Saharan Africa, it also found that despite a 43 percent increase in population, fewer people in the region are infected every year.

Some 44 percent of people at risk from malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa used mosquito nets in 2013, compared to just 2 percent in 2004. And an expected 214 million nets will be delivered there by the end of 2014.

"The massive scale-up of mosquito control measures, diagnostic testing and quality-assured treatment has helped to dramatically reduce the global disease burden," said Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO's global malaria program.

"With sustained political commitment, increased financing, and with the help of innovative new tools, we should be able to accelerate efforts even further.”


EBOLA THREAT

In West Africa, however, the deadly Ebola outbreak has had a "devastating impact" on malaria treatment and the roll-out of malaria control programs, the report found.

In Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia -- all severely hit by the Ebola epidemic -- many inpatient clinics are closed and attendance at outpatient facilities is a fraction of rates seen before the outbreak, it said.

With a major malaria threat in these countries, which together saw some 6.6 million cases and 20,000 malaria deaths in 2013, the WHO called for temporary control measures, including giving malaria drugs to all patients with fever and carrying out mass treatment in areas hard hit by both Ebola and malaria.

"International donor financing is being stepped up to meet the further recommendation that bed nets be distributed to all (Ebola) affected areas," the report said.

Worldwide, malaria killed some 584,000 people in 2013, including some 453,000 children under five years old. Although funding to fight malaria has increased threefold since 2005, it is still only around half the $5.1 billion needed.

(Editing by Gareth Jones and Catherine Evans)


http://news.yahoo.com/malaria-death-rates-fall-ebola-threatens-w-africa-000236246.html