EBOLA [to 13 September 2014]

WHO: Ebola Response Roadmap Situation Report 3
12 September 2014
Excerpts
This is the third in a series of regular situation reports on the Ebola Response Roadmap1. The report contains a review of the epidemiological situation, and an assessment of the response measured against the core Roadmap indicators where available. Additional indicators will be reported as data are consolidated…
…Following the roadmap structure, country reports fall into three categories: those with widespread and intense transmission (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone); those with an initial case or cases, or with localized transmission (Nigeria, Senegal); and those countries that neighbour areas of active transmission (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal)…
…1. COUNTRIES WITH WIDESPREAD AND INTENSE TRANSMISSION
There has been no indication of any down-turn in the epidemic in the three countries that have widespread and intense transmission (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone), with a surge in new cases in Liberia a particular cause for concern(see table 1). Transmission is continuing in urban areas, with the surge in Liberia being driven primarily by a sharp increase in the number of cases reported in the capital, Monrovia…
…3. PREPAREDNESS OF COUNTRIES TO RAPIDLY DETECT AND RESPOND TO AN EBOLA EXPOSURE
Forty of 41 countries in the WHO African Region have now responded to a preparedness assessment (the six countries affected by Ebola were excluded from the survey; Mozambique has not yet responded). Putting in place fully functional protocols for contact tracing and monitoring, and for managing travellers arriving at major border crossings with febrile illness appear to be the priority areas that need to be addressed.
Twenty-three of the 40 (58%) countries surveyed have a surveillance system in place and functional at major land border crossings and key locations in the capital city (airport, seaport if any, and major hospitals). 16 (40%) countries have a system in place but it is not yet functional. 12 of the 40 (33%) countries have a protocol in place and functional for managing travellers who arrive at major land crossing points with unexplained febrile illnesses. 17 (43%) countries have a protocol in place but it is not yet functional.
Fourteen of 39 (35%; South Sudan has missing data for this question) countries have identified functional facilities that could operate as an isolation unit for Ebola case investigation and management if required. 21 (54%) countries have identified facilities, but they are not yet functional. 27 of 40 (68%) countries have access to WHO-recognized laboratories, and have procedures for specimen handling and shipment in place and functional. Eight (20%) countries have a diagnostic protocol in place, but it is not yet functional.
Fourteen of 40 (35%) countries have a fully functional protocol in place for identifying and monitoring the contacts of any suspected Ebola case. A protocol is in place but not yet functional in 11 (28%) countries.

Additional WHO Content
:: Remarks at a press conference: Cuban government announces substantial support to WHO Ebola response
Statement by WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan
12 September 2014
Excerpt
…”The Ebola outbreak that is ravaging parts of west Africa is the largest, most severe, and most complex in the nearly four-decade history of this disease.
This is Ebola Zaire, the most deadly in the Ebola family of viruses. This is a dreaded virus that is highly contagious, but under only two very specific settings.
First, during care of patients at home by family members or in hospital settings without proper protection against infection. Second, during certain traditional burial practices that involve close contact with a highly infectious corpse.
In the 3 hardest-hit countries, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, the number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them in Ebola-specific treatment centres.
In Liberia, for example, an Ebola treatment facility, set up jointly by WHO and the Ministry of Health, was recently established to manage 30 patients. It had more than 70 patients the day it opened.
Today, Liberia has not one single bed available for the treatment of an Ebola patient anywhere in the entire country.
Our response is running short on nearly everything, from personal protective equipment, to body bags, to mobile laboratories, to isolation wards.
But the thing we need most of all is people, health care workers. The right people. The right specialists. And specialists who are appropriately trained, and know how to keep themselves safe.
This is vitally important to stop transmission of the Ebola virus. Money and materials are important, but those two things alone cannot stop Ebola virus transmission.
Human resources are clearly our most important need. We need most especially compassionate doctors and nurses, who will know how to comfort patients despite the barriers of wearing PPE and working under very demanding conditions…
…I thank the many countries that have already been providing support to WHO and also to other UN agencies, such as UNICEF and the World Food Programme, especially for their support to the three hardest-hit countries.
But we need more of this kind of support. We need a surge of at least three to four times to catch up with the outbreaks that are moving very fast in these three countries.
I hope the announcement today by the Cuban government will stimulate more countries to surge their support…

:: WHO Director-General addresses the Regional Committee for South-East Asia
Dr Margaret Chan
Director-General of the World Health Organization
Address to the Regional Committee for South-East Asia, Sixty-seventh Session
Dhaka, Bangladesh
10 September 2014
Includes commentary on the Ebola outbreak and global implications, WHO response to date, and need for health systems strengthening.

:: WHO welcomes Cuban doctors for Ebola response in west Africa  Statement – 12 September 2014

:: Ebola Situation in Senegal remains stable  12 September 2014

:: Ebola virus disease – Democratic Republic of Congo   10 September 2014

:: Ebola situation in Liberia: non-conventional interventions needed  8 September 2014

IRIN
:: Liberian Ebola burial teams stressed, traumatized

UNICEF Watch [to 13 September 2014]
http://www.unicef.org/media/media_71724.html

Ebola crisis in Liberia hits child health and well-being
GENEVA/MONROVIA, Liberia, 12 September 2014 – As efforts to halt the spread of the Ebola virus intensify, UNICEF warns of its far-reaching impact on children. In Liberia, Ebola has severely disrupted health services for children, caused schools to close and left thousands of children without a parent. Children are dying from measles and other vaccine preventable diseases and pregnant women have few places to deliver their babies safely…

Gates Foundation Commits $50 Million to Support Emergency Response to Ebola
SEPTEMBER 10, 2014
SEATTLE (September 10, 2014) – The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced that it will commit $50 million to support the scale up of emergency efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and interrupt transmission of the virus.