Liberia

For Ebola patients, a way to see the faces of those helping

Wed, 2015-04-08 16:33 — mike kraft

PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL by Andrea Crossan April 7, 2015

...for those in hospitals suffering, all they see are masks and robot-looking suits of doctors and nurses caring for them. The medics must wear those protective suits to stop them from coming in contact with a patient. But some humanity is stripped away with the intimidating get-up.

Until now.

Jianjay Potter and Grace Zardon in Monrovia, Liberia.Credit: Marc Campos

Los Angeles-based artist Mary Beth Heffernan saw the Ebola suits on news reports. She thought about how isolating it was for the patients. And she came up with the idea of taking photos of health workers that could be attached to their protective clothing.

In late February, Heffernan travelled to Monrovia, Liberia to do just that.

She brought cameras, six printers, ink cartridges and sticky labels to print the photos on.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Read more about For Ebola patients, a way to see the faces of those helping
Log in or register to post comments

UN envoy: Expect Ebola vaccine in coming months

Wed, 2015-04-08 15:52 — mike kraft

INQUIRER.NET by Kristine Angeli Sabillo APRIL 8, 2015

MANILA --As the Ebola outbreak in West Africa winds down, the United Nations is optimistic that a vaccine against the deadly virus will be made available in the next several months.

“Clinical trials have have now been undertaken of candidate vaccines, two of them. They are now at an advanced stage,” Dr. David Nabarro, UN secretary general special envoy on Ebola, told reporters in Manila on Wednesday.

“I believe that we will have a vaccine against Ebola that is available and can be used particularly for doctors and nurses who provide treatment for people with the disease in the coming months,” he added.

According to the World Health Organization, the two vaccine candidates undergoing efficacy trials are ChAd3-ZEBOV, developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and rVSV-ZEBOV, developed by NewLink Genetics and Merck Vaccines USA. The first is being developed in collaboration with the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the second with the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Read complete story.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/120463/un-envoy-expect-ebola-vaccine-in-coming-months/

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about UN envoy: Expect Ebola vaccine in coming months
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola: media ‘overlooked Africa's role in combating crisis’

Tue, 2015-04-07 19:18 — mike kraft

THE GUARDIAN by Sam Jones April 7, 2015

Africa’s efforts to tackle the Ebola crisis have been largely overlooked even though Africans have taken the lead in providing frontline staff and shown themselves “better placed to fight infectious diseases in their continent than outsiders”, according to the African Union (AU).

A Liberian health worker checks the temperature of students to curb the spread of Ebola in Caldwell, outside the capital Monrovia. Photograph: Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA

Dr Olawale Maiyegun, director of social affairs at the AU commission, said that despite the fact that Africans had proved both willing and able to deal with Ebola, the focus had been on the work of international agencies and those with the greatest media clout.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about Ebola: media ‘overlooked Africa's role in combating crisis’
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola: German ministers talks up economic recovery in West Africa

Tue, 2015-04-07 18:36 — mike kraft

Deutsche Welle April 7, 2015
BERLIN --Two German federal ministers are on their way to West Africa, to offer Berlin's support as the region recovers from the effects of Ebola. They've also flagged creating specialist teams to deal with future crises.

The lawmakers, Health Minister Hermann Gröhe and Development Minister Gerd Müller...will push for a redevelopment of the affected health systems, and ways to better respond to health disasters in Africa, with a 200-million euro aid package sponsored by Germany.

Müller told the Bild newspaper that a team of "white helmets" - groups of doctors, technicians and specialists - would be set up at Germany's development agency, GIZ, to be sent anywhere in the world in three to five days.

Read complete story.

http://www.dw.de/ebola-german-ministers-talks-up-economic-recovery-in-west-africa/a-18364560

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Situation Report

Read more about Ebola: German ministers talks up economic recovery in West Africa
Log in or register to post comments

Yes, We Were Warned About Ebola

Tue, 2015-04-07 18:09 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED By BERNICE DAHN, VERA MUSSAH and CAMERON NUTT April 7, 2015
MONROVIA, Liberia — The conventional wisdom among public health authorities is that the Ebola virus, which killed at least 10,000 people in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, was a new phenomenon, not seen in West Africa before 2013. (The one exception was an anomalous case in Ivory Coast in 1994, when a Swiss primatologist was infected after performing an autopsy on a chimpanzee.)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about Yes, We Were Warned About Ebola
3 comments
Log in or register to post comments

A Community-Engaged Infection Prevention and Control Approach to Ebola

Tue, 2015-04-07 01:35 — Kathy Gilbeaux

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

CLICK HERE - A Community-Engaged Infection Prevention and Control Approach to Ebola

CLICK HERE - FULL TEXT LINKS - A Community-Engaged Infection Prevention and Control Approach to Ebola

Abstract

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about A Community-Engaged Infection Prevention and Control Approach to Ebola
Log in or register to post comments

Rhode Island Hospital Physician Comes Up With New Diagnostic Tool for Ebola Virus

Mon, 2015-04-06 21:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

news-medical.net - April 6, 2015

Adam C. Levine, M.D., an emergency medicine physician at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital who treated Ebola-infected patients in Liberia last year, used his field experience to create a tool to determine the likelihood that patients presenting with Ebola symptoms will actually carry the virus. His research was published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine today.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Derivation and Internal Validation of the Ebola Prediction Score for Risk Stratification of Patients With Suspected Ebola Virus Disease

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Solutions

Situation Report

Read more about Rhode Island Hospital Physician Comes Up With New Diagnostic Tool for Ebola Virus
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola’s Newest Casualty: Health Care

Sun, 2015-04-05 02:40 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Baz Ratner/Reuters

thedailybeast.com - by Sheldon Yett - April 3, 2015

The worst of the Ebola epidemic may be over in Liberia, but the damage it inflicted on an already weak health care system could have catastrophic consequences.

Here in Liberia, the goal of zero Ebola cases is tantalizingly close. Only one new case has been recorded since 19 February, and 13 of the country’s 15 counties have not reported any new cases for over 42 days. But Ebola’s impact will be felt long after the last case has been treated.

As the battle against Ebola continues, the threat of outbreaks of measles, whooping cough and other vaccine-preventable diseases remains high. Given the mobility of Liberia’s population, the danger is that these diseases could spread with the same devastating rapidity that Ebola did.

Malnutrition rates have also increased, and a large proportion of the population is still not using health facilities for fear of contracting Ebola.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?:

Problem

Situation Report

Read more about Ebola’s Newest Casualty: Health Care
Log in or register to post comments

Ebola Upsurge Could Undo Progress in Blink of an Eye, Warns Expert

Sun, 2015-04-05 02:09 — Kathy Gilbeaux

‘Flare-ups occur and, frankly, before you can blink, we could be back to a situation where Ebola starts climbing up again,’ says the UN special envoy for Ebola, David Nabarro. Photograph: Salvatore Di Nolfi/EPA

UN special envoy for Ebola sounds cautionary note amid fears that individuals who ignore official advice could cause spike in infection rate

theguardian.com - by Sam Jones - March 26, 2015

Despite the massive push to bring the number of new Ebola cases down to zero as quickly as possible, there will inevitably be “flare-ups” that could reverse the overall downward trend and prove difficult to contain, the UN’s response co-ordinator has warned.

Dr David Nabarro, the UN’s special envoy for Ebola, said the huge medical, administrative and logistical operation to fight the disease could still be set back by individuals ignoring official advice. . . .

. . . “It’s [about] getting the full geographical coverage and linking everyone together with the most excellent data systems so the databases are comparable and we don’t end up with a mess because different people can’t talk to each other,” he explained.

Country / Region Tags:

General Topic Tags:

Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: