Ebola/EVD: Additional Coverage

UNMEER [UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response] @UNMEER #EbolaResponse

Editor’s Note: UNMEER’s website is aggregating and presenting content from various sources including its own External Situation Reports, press releases, statements and other format.

We present a composite below from the week ending 10 January 2015. We also note that 1) a regular information category in these reports – human rights – has apparently eliminated as it no longer appears in any of these week’s updates, and 2) the content level of these reports has, in our view, become less informative and less coherent over the last several week cycles.

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UNMEER External Situation Reports
UNMEER External Situation Reports are issued daily (excepting Saturday) with content organized under these headings:
– Highlights
– Key Political and Economic Developments
– Human Rights
– Response Efforts and Health
– Logistics
– Outreach and Education
– Resource Mobilisation
– Essential Services
– Upcoming Events
The “Week in Review” will present highly-selected elements of interest from these reports. The full daily report is available as a pdf using the link provided by the report date.

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:: 09 Jan 2015 UNMEER External Situation Report
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. Guinea is facing a fuel shortage which is impacting the Ebola response. The UNMEER Field Crisis Manager for Macenta reported that on 8 January the Guinea Red Cross was unable to transport a suspected case to the Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) due to the fuel shortage. Reports indicate that local authorities have been working on to support the French Red Cross at the ETC. In addition the UNMEER Field Crisis Manager for N’zérékoré, Lola and Yomou has reported that fuel supplies are down to 5,000 liters (10 days of supply) at the Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) and that radio stations which broadcast sensitization messages have not been working for 4 days.
Response Efforts and Health
5. The planned launch of the campaign “Zero Ebola in 60 days” (refer to Sitrep of 5 January) which was to be held in Forécariah prefecture, Guinea on 10 January has been put on hold due to the continuing resistance of the communities to EVD response in that area. According to WHO, on 6 January, there were 31 sub-prefectures in the country where EVD response efforts were facing community resistance.
Resource Mobilisation
9. The OCHA Ebola Virus Outbreak Overview of Needs and Requirements, now totaling USD 1.5 billion, has been funded for USD 1.16 billion, which is around 77% of the total ask.
10. The Ebola Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund currently has USD 134.9 million in commitments. In total USD 140 million has been pledged.
Essential Services
13. In addition to the procurement of 15,000 thermo-guns (refer to Sitrep of 6 January), UNICEF initiated procurement of sanitation and hygiene supplies (hand-washing buckets, sprayers, protective equipment for cleaning) to ensure that all 5,181 Liberian schools have the essential hygiene and hand-washing materials to promote safe learning environments and to be in compliance with the endorsed protocols upon reopening.

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:: 8 Jan 2015 UNMEER External Situation Report
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. SRSG Ould Cheikh Ahmed continued his familiarization visit to Liberia on 7 January, and conducted a field mission to Robertsport and Sinje in Grand Cape Mount county, accompanied by Special Envoy David Nabarro, WHO Assistant Director-General Bruce Aylward and UNMEER Liberia’s ECM Peter Graaff. The delegation also included the Presidential Advisor on EVD and the Deputy Minister for Health in charge of the Incident Management System (IMS). In light of the recent flare-ups in EVD transmission in the county, and the risk of cross-border transmission along the frontier with Sierra Leone, the UNMEER leadership invited the county’s traditional and religious leaders, along with county health and security officials, for a series of meetings. The SRSG underlined the importance of national ownership to defeat the epidemic. He also emphasized the need to respect local communities and their values when implementing internationally-sponsored support activities, especially with regard to safe and dignified burials. He reiterated that coordinating activities at the district levels was essential. During the County Health Team meeting, the participants discussed the evolution of the epidemic in the county, as well as the emergency measures taken in response to the recent flare-up. Participants highlighted key challenges, including inadequate monitoring of cross-border traffic along the Sierra Leone frontier, ongoing traditional practices, secret burials, community pockets of denial and resistance, as well as lack of motivation among the response teams. The delegation also visited the recently opened Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU) in Sinje, before the SRSG is today in Sierra Leone.
2. On 7 January, the national trade unions in Guinea called off the general strike throughout the country, which had started on 6 January (refer to UNMEER Sitrep of 6 January), after reaching an agreement on salary increases with the Government.
Response Efforts and Health
3. To date, the UNICEF-led Family Tracing and Reunification (FTR) network in Sierra Leone has identified 14,766 children as being directly affected by the Ebola crisis (7,410 girls and 7,356 boys), with 7,938 children having lost one or both parents to EVD and 1,578 being unaccompanied or separated from their caregiver. The Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs’ (MSWGCA) figures have jumped markedly from 24 – 31 December as child protection networks strengthened across the country.
Outreach and Education
13. Due to the persistent community resistance in 31 sub-prefectures in Guinea to EVD response efforts, WHO commissioned a number studies on this topic that will be collated as soon as possible.
Essential Services
14. Following reported cases of measles in Lofa county, Liberia, UNICEF supported periodic intensification of routine immunization against measles throughout the country. So far, the routine immunization has been completed in 8 counties, is underway in 4 and is about to begin in the last 3 counties (namely Maryland, Bong and River Gee). This is activity is being implemented in lieu of an immunization campaign, which is not recommended in the Ebola context and aims at rapidly reducing the number of unimmunized children against measles.

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:: 07 Jan 2015 UNMEER External Situation Report
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. As part of a visit to the three most affected countries, President Ould Abdel Aziz of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and current Chair of the African Union (AU), arrived in Guinea yesterday and met with President Condé. The President pledged USD 400,000 to help Guinea in its fight against EVD, and also announced that Air Mauritania would operate flights to Guinea. The Chair of the AU travelled to Liberia today.
2. Today, President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger and President Boni Yayi of Benin are jointly visiting Guinea to demonstrate their support in the fight against EVD.
Response Efforts and Health
4. A Community Transit Centre (CTCom) was burnt down yesterday in Bossou, Lola prefecture, Guinea. The centre, which was still under construction, would have been one of the first functional CTCom in Guinea. This act of arson is likely to be due to the continuing resistance of the local community to EVD response efforts.
5. The Ministry of Education (MoE), UNICEF and education partners have been working together in preparation of the reopening of schools in Guinea. In this regard, UNICEF plans to reach 7,055 schools (56% of schools at all levels) and 1.4 million children (53% of all school children) with 16,000 school hygiene kits (containing buckets and soap). In addition, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) confirmed its commitment to support the provision of Thermoflashes for schools in Guinea. An IDB consultant is scheduled to arrive in Conakry on 9 January to help implement this project.
Outreach and Education
18. UNICEF signed a partnership agreement with Search for Common Ground to support the Liberian Ministry of Education’s (MoE) Emergency Radio Education program in light of closed schools across the country. In collaboration with MoE’s radio content development team, Search for Common Ground will expand broadcast coverage across all 15 counties in Liberia, integrating targeted programs on peacebuilding and education to build resilience amongst listeners during times of crisis.

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:: 06 Jan 2015 UNMEER External Situation Report
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. Following an impasse in the negotiations between the Government of Guinea and six national trade unions, including the public health workers union, on salary increases and other demands, the unions called for a general strike throughout the country as of today. Limited demonstrations and road closures have been observed in Conakry.
2. Following the announcement by the President of Sierra Leone on New Year’s day of his intention to reopen schools soon, the Governments of Liberia and Guinea similarly announced that schools would reopen. While Guinea did not provide a specific date, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf provided 2 February as the target date.
9. In support of the Minister of Education’s school reopening plan in Liberia, UNICEF initiated procurement of infrared thermometers for every Liberian school (15,000 thermometers) to ensure effective health screening of all individuals upon entry to school campuses.
10. In Sierra Leone, UNICEF, in partnership with the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC), the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), continues the national scale up of trainings at all 1,188 Public Health Units (PHUs) in the country on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and the screening of suspected Ebola patients. As of 27 December, a total of 4,368 health personnel and 2,698 support staff including cleaners and security personnel have benefitted from IPC trainings.
11. Following the registration of 13,608 households in 9 chiefdoms within 29 Ebola affected communities in Kono District, Sierra Leone, which were identified as major EVD hotspots, WFP has begun the delivery of over 1,000 metric tons of assorted food commodities to quarantined communities. Food distributions will be undertaken by World Vision. In Waterloo, Western Area Rural, Sierra Leone, WFP and its cooperating partner CIDO are also continuing general food distributions to meet the needs of over 47,000 households where high EVD rates have been identified. Since mid-December over 25,000 households have received one month rations.

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:: 05 Jan 2015 UNMEER External Situation Report
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. The New Head of UNMEER, SRSG Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, assumed his functions on 3 January. In a joint townhall meeting with outgoing SRSG Banbury, SRSG Ould Cheikh Ahmed praised the achievements of all Ebola response partners, but also noted challenges ahead. He stressed that “this is a global crisis. We definitely have a difficult time ahead of us, but we can achieve our goal of zero cases,” said Ould Cheikh Ahmed. “This is within our reach, but we should not be complacent. We need to keep going until we don’t have even one case, because even one case is too many”. Together with the Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro, SRSG Ould Cheikh Ahmed will be visiting Liberia, Sierra Leone this week and Guinea shortly after.
Response Efforts and Health
1. In Guinea, the National Coordinator briefed key response partners on 2 January on the launch of the campaign “Zero Ebola in 60 days”. Working groups have in recent days developed action plans for the campaign across the main lines of intervention: surveillance, case management, infection prevention and control, community engagement and social mobilization, safe burials and coordination. The first step of the campaign will involve the fielding of teams including experts from each line of action in six regions of the country for one or two weeks starting 6 January. The purpose of the missions will be for each team to assess the response efforts at the local level and develop with each prefecture the coordination of a local plan of action mirroring the national plan of action.
2. The total number of children registered as orphaned by EVD in Liberia is 4,128. All registered orphans are currently receiving follow-up and psychosocial support. More than 250 volunteer contact tracers trained and engaged by UNICEF are reporting cases of children orphaned or otherwise affected by EVD. UNICEF is working to ensure that children who have lost their parents due to EVD continue to receive care through a kinship arrangement, to prevent them from becoming institutionalized in an orphanage. To strengthen this, UNICEF provides onetime cash transfers to families that take the responsibility to care for orphaned children of relatives.
Outreach and Education
13. According to WHO, on 31 December, there were 25 sub-prefectures in Guinea where EVD response efforts were facing community resistance. These sub-prefectures are located in the prefectures adjacent to Conakry (Dubreka, Forécariah, Coyah and Kindia), in the Forest Region (Kissidougou, Guéckédou, Nzérékoré), in Upper Guinea (Dabola) and in Western Guinea (Télimélé and Labé).
14. On 1 January, a team of the Guinean Red Cross was assaulted by the local community in Kindia, Guinea resulting in one injured Red Cross volunteer and one vandalized vehicle. According to the IFRC, the team had travelled to Kindia to conduct a safe burial and to transfer suspected cases. The prefectural coordination solicited the support of the military which proceeded to arrest two persons suspected of taking part in the assault.