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Editor’s Note:
We continue to lead this weekly digest with extensive coverage of polio and EVD – both designated as Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC). We note that an International Health Regulations (IHR) Emergency Committee of Experts recommended last week, and the WHO DG affirmed, an extension of this status for polio as detailed below. On EVD, there is an apparent shifting – and softening – of key, stated milestones. The new stated target is control of EVD by the “middle of 2015.” Of course, these emergencies are playing out in a larger content of emergences which we summarize here [some countries listed are involved in the EVD emergency]:

 

Emergencies Scorecard
UN OCHA: L3 Emergencies [at 22 November 2014]
The UN and its humanitarian partners are currently responding to four ‘L3’ emergencies. This is the UN classification for the most severe, large-scale humanitarian crises.
:: Iraq: – The surge in violence between armed groups and government forces has displaced an estimated 1.8 million people across Iraq and left hundreds of thousands of people in need of assistance.
:: Syria – 10.8 million people, nearly half the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance. An estimated 6.45 million people have been displaced inside the country.
:: CAR Central African Repubic – The violence that erupted in December 2013 has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and left 2.5 million in urgent need of assistance.
:: South Sudan – About 1.4 million people are internally displaced as the result of fighting that began in December 2013. 3.8 million people need humanitarian assistance.

WHO: Public Health Emergencies of International Concern (PHEIC) [at 22 November 2014]
:: Ebola/EVD
:: Polio

WHO: Grade 3 and Grade 2 emergencies [at 22 November 2014]
:: WHO Grade 3 emergencies
– Central African Republic
– Guinea
– Iraq
– Liberia
– Nigeria
– Sierra Leone
– South Sudan
– The Syrian Arab Republic
:: WHO Grade 2 emergencies
– Democratic Republic of the Congo
– Guinea
– Mali
– occupied Palestinian territories
– Philippines
– Ukraine