By Lenny Bernstein - Sep 20 2014 - washingtonpost.com

MONROVIA, Liberia — While the terrifying spread of Ebola has captured the world’s attention, it also has produced a lesser-known crisis: the near-collapse of the already fragile health-care system here, a development that may be as dangerous — for now — as the virus for the average Liberian.

Western experts said that people here are dying of preventable or treatable conditions such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and the effects of high blood pressure and diabetes, such as strokes. Where services do exist, Ebola has complicated the effort to provide them by stoking fear among health-care workers, who sometimes turn away sick people or women in labor if they can’t determine whether the patient is infected. And some people, health-care workers said, will not seek care, fearful that they will become infected with Ebola at a clinic or hospital.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

economist.com - Sep 20th 2014

There is a scramble to control a runaway epidemic.

“WE ARE exhausted, we are angry, we are desperate,” said Sophie Delaunay, the American director of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) last week, frustrated at the tardy international response to the deadly Ebola virus in west Africa. Within days of these words, the outside world was at last waking up to the danger of Ebola haemorrhagic fever—a viral disease that threatens tens of thousands of lives, health systems, economic growth and even political stability in parts of west Africa.

http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21618909-there-scramble-control-runaway-epidemic-help-time-ebola

By Lena H. Sun & Juliet Eilperin - Sep 7 - The Washington Post

President Obama said Sunday that the U.S. military will begin aiding what has been a chaotic and ineffective response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, arguing that it represents a serious national security concern.

The move significantly ramps up the U.S. response and comes as the already strained military is likely to be called upon further to address militant threats in the Middle East. The decision to involve the military in providing equipment and other assistance for international health workers in Africa comes after mounting calls from some unlikely groups — most prominently the international medical organization Doctors Without Borders — demonstrating to the White House the urgency of the issue.

by Bill Chappell - Sep 06, 2014 8:57 AM ET - NPR

Sierra Leone will impose a three-day lockdown on all its citizens, as part of a plan to "deal with Ebola once and for all," the government says. The move is an effort to stop the disease that has killed over 2,000 people in five West African countries, according to World Health Organization data.

But the lockdown's effectiveness will depend on citizens buying in to the government's plan. From Nairobi, NPR's Gregory Warner reports:

By Danny Gold - Sep 19, 2014 - vice.com

Paul M. Goi waited outside of the Redemption Hospital, a treatment center serving as a holding area for Ebola patients in Monrovia, Liberia, with his sick sister-in-law in the backseat of his station wagon. She had been vomiting, and he assumed that she had caught the Ebola virus. Across the street, inside an ambulance were other members of his family, including his daughter and granddaughter. They, too, were believed to be sick with Ebola.

"I'm very frustrated," Goi told VICE News. "I had been calling the ambulances since Sunday to come pick them up, and none came." Now that he had finally managed to get his sick relatives picked up and taken to the hospital, there was simply no room. All he wanted was answers, he said.

https://news.vice.com/article/left-to-die-liberias-ebola-victims-have-nowhere-to-turn-as-treatment-centers-overflow

hhs.gov - September 16, 2014

A team of specialized officers from the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is being prepared to deploy to manage and staff a previously announced U.S. Department of Defense hospital in Liberia to care for health care workers who become ill from Ebola.

The U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Commissioned Corps is an elite uniformed service with more than 6,800 full-time, highly qualified public health professionals, serving the most underserved and vulnerable populations domestically and abroad.

Sixty-five Commissioned Corps officers, with diverse clinical and public health backgrounds, will travel to Liberia to provide direct patient care to health care workers. In addition to their professional expertise, these officers will undergo further intensive training in Ebola response and advanced infection control.

un.org

18 September 2014 – The Security Council, in its first emergency meeting on a public health crisis, today declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a threat to peace and security, as Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that the United Nations will deploy a new emergency health mission to combat one of most horrific diseases on the planet that has shattered the lives of millions.

“This international mission, to be known as the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, or UNMEER, will have five priorities: stopping the outbreak, treating the infected, ensuring essential services, preserving stability and preventing further outbreaks,” Mr. Ban told the Security Council.

“Under the leadership of a Special Representative of the Secretary-General, the Mission will bring together the full range of UN actors and expertise in support of national efforts,” he said, adding that details of the mission were sent in a letter to the Security Council and the UN General Assembly.

Nathan Bradley Bethea - 09.19.14 - thedailybeast.com

This week, the White House announced its intentions to deploy 3,000 troops and spend about $500 million to combat the worsening Ebola epidemic in Liberia. The news comes amid reports that the suspected infection rate and death toll in that country has nearly doubled in the past month, making it the worst Ebola outbreak in history, with more people killed by the disease than in all other previous cases combined. As American troops get ready to head over, I'd like to offer some insight into what the military’s operation might look like based on my experience deployed on a similar mission.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48746#.VBuEjxZupbE

September 18, 2014

Deadly Ebola Outbreak Matters to Everyone, Secretary-General Tells Security Council, Urging Financial Support for Special Emergency Response Mission

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Security Council meeting on Ebola, in New York today:

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2014/sgsm16154.doc.htm

http://webtv.un.org/#

The flutrackers forum has been an excellent source of Ebola-related information.  Here is a summary of their updates on the attacks on WHO healthcare workers in the Nzerekore region of Guinea (see actual flutrackers posts in the link below).

Last month (in August 2014) the general market area of Nzerekore was sprayed (to disinfect) by healthcare workers during the night, without the people being informed that the spraying would be taking place.

The people of Nzerekore were angered by this action, so a riot broke out the following morning.  Since then, the people of Nzerekore have had an aversion to healthcare workers.

When the WHO healthcare workers arrived (this week) to educate the people on Ebola, they were quickly surrounded and their bodyguards were overcome by large numbers of youth from the village.  The WHO healthcare workers and the bodyguards were assaulted, and had to flee for their lives.  The number of injured and deaths from this attack has not yet been determined. Some may still be in hiding, or being held hostage.

Healthcare workers should not enter this epicenter region until an understanding with the people of the village is reached.