Ebola News 12/13

[Buster's Uncle]

Ebola Survivors Face Hardships, But New Programs Help
LiveScience.com
By Rachael Rettner  1 hour ago



Ebola survivors in West Africa are often shunned by their communities, and they have few possessions because many of their personal belongings are destroyed to prevent the disease from spreading.

But several organizations are working to help Ebola survivors make the transition back into their communities — for example, by providing them with bedding and other basic items, and speaking with community members to reduce the stigma, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Survivors are thought to be immune to the strain of Ebola causing the current outbreak, and many now work as caregivers for those with Ebola, the report said.

"Nothing says more about the resilience of the human spirit than Ebola survivors who become role models for their communities," Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, said in a statement. "They show others that Ebola can be defeated, and provide care, support and inspiration for others stricken by this terrible disease."

About 30 to 40 percent of people in West Africa who are infected with Ebola survive the disease, and there are now thousands of Ebola survivors in the region, the CDC said.

In Sierra Leone, more than 1,100 people have survived Ebola as of Dec. 6, according to a new CDC report. However, a recent survey in the country found that 96 percent of the general population reported a discriminatory attitude toward people with Ebola or those who'd had the disease in the past.

Now, the Sierra Leone government, along with the CDC and other organizations, have formed a consortium to support Ebola survivors. Survivors receive a packet that includes cash, bedding, clothing and other essential items.

They also receive help from counselors, who accompany survivors back to their communities, and speak with town members about the importance of survivor acceptance, the CDC said.

In Liberia, a rubber tree plantation company called Firestone Liberia Inc. has developed a program to help Ebola survivors in the area. Ebola survivors are counseled, and before they go back to their communities, a team of people speaks with the survivors' neighbors and emphasizes that the survivors are no longer sick with Ebola.

Members of a reintegration team also check up on survivors every week for three months to provide social and psychological support.

"Well-coordinated survivor reintegration programs help stop the spread of Ebola and heal communities," Frieden said.

Two reports about the efforts to provide support to Ebola survivors are published today (Dec. 12) in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.


http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-survivors-face-hardships-programs-help-175423541.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Liberia court rejects petition to halt Senate vote over Ebola
Reuters  22 minutes ago



A man walks by a sign that reads "Ebola is real" in Monrovia, Liberia, October 21, 2014. REUTERS/James Giahyue



MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberia's Supreme Court on Saturday ruled that Senate elections in the West African nation should go ahead, rejecting a petition to suspend the vote until an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus is brought under control.

The country's highest court suspended campaigning for the planned Dec. 16 vote last month while it considered the petition from a group that included some former government officials and political party representatives.

The group had warned that electioneering risks spreading the highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever.

"The government did not violate the constitution. The two branches of government; the legislature and the executive approved the holding of election and therefore it became law," the court said in its ruling.

Liberia is one of the nations hardest hit by the worst outbreak of Ebola on record. Some 3,222 of its citizens have been killed by the disease as of Dec. 7, according to the World Health Organisation.

However, infections in the country have slowed in recent weeks, raising hopes that the outbreak may be nearing an end.

A total of 6,583 people have died from the disease in three states in West Africa -- Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia -- of 18,188 cases.

The Supreme Court did not confirm whether the election will take place on Dec. 16 as planned, leaving it to the country's electoral commission to decide if it would set a new date for the vote.

The Liberia Election Commission was not immediately available to comment.

(Reporting by Alphonso Toweh and James Harding Giahyue; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Stephen Powell)


http://news.yahoo.com/liberia-court-rejects-petition-halt-senate-vote-over-191315435.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Sierra Leone Cancels Christmas As Ebola Crisis Deepens
AFP
By Rod Mac Johnson, December 12, 2014



(The Washington Post/Getty Images)



Freetown (AFP) - Sierra Leone said Friday it was banning any public Christmas celebrations as the spiralling caseload of Ebola infections continues to spread alarm.

Soldiers are to be deployed throughout the festive period to force people venturing onto the streets back indoors, the government’s Ebola response unit said.

Palo Conteh, head of the department, told reporters in the capital Freetown there would be “no Christmas and New Year celebrations this year.”

"We will ensure that everybody remains at home to reflect on Ebola," he said.

"Military personnel will be on the streets at Christmas and the New Year to stop any street celebrations," he said, without saying which areas would be targeted.

While Islam is the dominant religion in Sierra Leone, more than a quarter of the population is Christian and public gatherings and entertainment are common during the holiday period.

Conteh did not give the exact dates of the crackdown or list any exceptions. During previous local and nationwide anti-Ebola curfews, people were allowed out to worship and for “essential business”.

Under current emergency regulations, bars and nightspots have already been shut down and public gatherings outlawed but there is no general ban on going outdoors or working.

Sierra Leone, which has overtaken Liberia to become the country worst affected by Ebola, has recorded 1,319 new infections in the last three weeks.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday there were 17,942 cases of the tropical fever across eight countries as of December 7, resulting in 6,388 deaths — almost all in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone reported 397 new cases during the week ending December 7 — three times as many as Liberia and Guinea combined, WHO said.


'At their wits' end'

Sources with knowledge of government policy told AFP detailed instructions on the workings of the Christmas curfew would be announced shortly.

The country now counts a total of 7,897 Ebola cases, including 1,768 deaths, according to Wednesday’s tally.

A full third of the new cases, or 133 of them, were reported in Freetown, at the heart of the ongoing surge in cases seen in the west of the country.

Sierra Leone has already quarantined around half its population of six million, sealing off districts across the country in a bid to combat the Ebola outbreak.

The government imposed a two-week lockdown on the eastern diamond mining district of Kono on Wednesday after eight cases of Ebola were confirmed in one day.

The WHO’s national Ebola coordinator Olu Olushayo said doctors and nurses were “at their wits’ end.”

In the space of 11 days, two WHO teams buried 87 victims, including a nurse and an ambulance driver enlisted to help dispose of corpses piling up in the local hospital, the agency said.

The government reacted with surprise to the WHO’s claims, however, saying Friday they did not tally with reports from the ground and announcing that investigators had been sent to assess the situation in Kono.

Local media said officials at the district’s main public hospital in Koidu had also been taken aback by the reports.

Aiah Beyonquee, the leader of the local burial team, told the state-run Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation no bodies had been stacked at the hospital.

"On Wednesday we had about 10 alert calls for death cases in the community which we reacted to," he told the broadcaster.

"There were also five deaths in the hospital and all these were buried the same day."


https://www.yahoo.com/health/sierra-leone-cancels-christmas-as-ebola-crisis-105022262642.html

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Last known Ebola patient in Mali cured
AFP  December 11, 2014 5:48 PM



Two tents to treat potential Ebola virus patients are set up on November 17, 2014 in the village of Kouremale, Mali, near the border with Guinea (AFP Photo/Habibou Kouyate)



Bamako (AFP) - The last patient to be treated for Ebola in Mali has made a full recovery, a senior health ministry official told AFP Thursday.

"The recovery of a second Malian patient infected with the Ebola virus was officially recorded in Bamako Thursday," the official, who did not wish to be identified, said.

The patient had already tested negative for Ebola on December 5 but was kept in hospital for several more days to be treated for another, unspecified illness, the official added.

As of Thursday, he was "completely cured."

The source said the patient was the only person being treated for Ebola in Mali after another person treated for the deadly virus was discharged from hospital 12 days ago after being declared Ebola-free.

No new cases of infection have been reported in Mali for several days.

Twenty-six people who could have had contact with Ebola patients were still under medical observation Thursday, but around half of the group was to be freed from the restrictions Thursday night, the health ministry said.

Seven people have died of Ebola in the west African nation, with the first fatality a two-year-old girl brought from neighbouring Guinea to stay with relatives.

Shortly afterwards, a Muslim cleric, also from Guinea, died in the capital Bamako. He transmitted the virus, directly or indirectly, to seven other people, five of whom died.

Worldwide, the epidemic has killed nearly 6,400 people in under a year, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.


http://news.yahoo.com/last-known-ebola-patient-mali-cured-224835014.html