Showing posts with label Liberia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liberia. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Less fear and panic?

November 04, 2014 Ebola , Foreign Aid 0 Comments
As Ebola Declines In Liberia, Health Officials Reassess Response Plans

Lenny Bernstein, Nov. 3, 2014, Washington Post

The rate of new Ebola infections here has declined so sharply in recent weeks that even some of the busiest treatment facilities are now only half-full and officials are reassessing the scale of the response needed to quell the epidemic.

The turnaround has occurred without the provision of a single treatment bed by the U.S. military, which has promised to build 17 Ebola facilities containing 100 beds each across Liberia. Those treatment units will be constructed, said Bill Berger, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Disaster Assistance Response Team here. But the option of initially opening some with as few as 10 beds is “being discussed,” he said.

That would provide people in all parts of the country access to a nearby treatment unit should they become infected in the months to come. And each facility would be constructed so that it could be quickly expanded to as many as 100 beds if the need arises, he said. The United States has spent $360 million so far fighting Ebola in West Africa.

Read more: www.washingtonpost.com



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Sunday, November 2, 2014

USA policy unchanged

November 02, 2014 Canada , Ebola 0 Comments
Canada Won't Issue Visas To Resident Of Countries With Widespread Ebola

Helen Branswell, Oct. 31, 2014, The Canadian Press 

In a move that puts Canada at odds with the World Health Organization, the federal government said Friday it is suspending the issuance of visas for residents and nationals of countries with "widespread and persistent-intense transmission" of Ebola virus disease. As well, work on permanent residence applications for people from the affected countries is also being suspended.

The stress on countries with widespread transmission provides an out for the United States, which currently still has at least one active Ebola case within its borders. At present only three countries meet the definition of widespread and persistent Ebola transmission: Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Read more: www.cp24.com

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Tuesday, October 28, 2014

But not here?

October 28, 2014 Australia , Ebola 0 Comments
Australia Issues Blanket Visa Ban On Ebola-hit Countries

Matt Siegel, Oct. 28, 2014, Reuters.com
Australia came under fire on Tuesday from health experts and rights advocates after it issued a blanket ban on visas from West African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak, making it the first rich nation to shut its doors to the region.

Australia has not recorded a case of Ebola despite a number of scares, and conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott has so far resisted repeated requests to send medical personnel to help battle the outbreak on the ground.

The decision to refuse entry for anyone from Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, while touted by the government as a necessary safety precaution, was criticised by experts and advocates as politically motivated and shortsighted.

Read more: in.reuters.com 

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Thursday, October 16, 2014

100 per day apply

October 16, 2014 Dailysignal.com , Ebola 0 Comments
US Embassies In Ebola-Stricken Countries Are Still Processing Visas For Non-US Citizens

By Rob Bluey, Oct. 16, 2014, Dailysignal.com

Despite the outbreak of Ebola, it is still possible to get a visa from the three West African countries at the heart of the outbreak, and a key congressman is demanding to know why.

“Once these individuals are issued a visa by the embassy, they are free to travel to the United States,” says @RepEdRoyce.

Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, sent a sternly worded letter to Secretary of State John Kerry about the Obama administration’s handling of the Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Royce said he was “deeply concerned” U.S. embassies in those countries were continuing to process visas for non-U.S. nationals despite the outbreak of the deadly disease.Subscribe to updates and alerts

An estimated 100 people per day are applying for U.S. visas at the three embassies, according to Royce. “Of course,” he added, “once these individuals are issued a visa by the embassy, they are free to travel to the United States.”

In the letter, Royce urged Kerry to contain the Ebola virus “at its source” in Africa before any additional cases reach the United States.

“I was surprised that the Department of State has not already exercised its authority to suspend consular services, which is standard procedure in countries experiencing a major security disruption,” Royce wrote to Kerry. “This would be a prudent measure to mitigate the risk of Ebola exposure and contain its spread—a bedrock principal (sic) of health crisis management.”

Read the full story:  www.dailysignal.com

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Thursday, October 2, 2014

What if he pleads asylum?

October 02, 2014 Associated Press , Ebola 0 Comments
Liberia To Prosecute Man Who Brought Ebola To US

Thomas Eric Duncan, 

Liberian man infected with Ebola
By Jonathan Paye-Layeh, Oct. 2, 2014, Associated Press

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - The Liberian man infected with Ebola who brought the disease to the United States will be prosecuted when he returns home for lying on his airport screening questionnaire, Liberian authorities said Thursday.

With an Ebola epidemic raging in West Africa, passengers leaving Liberia are being screened for fever and are asked if they have had contact with anyone infected.

On the form obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by a government official, Thomas Eric Duncan answered "no" to questions about whether he had cared for an Ebola patient or touched the body of someone who had died in an area affected by Ebola.

Duncan left for the U.S. on Sept. 19 to visit family and became sick a few days after he arrived. He is currently in isolation at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, and is listed as being in serious but stable condition.

Days before he left Liberia, Duncan had helped carry to a taxi a pregnant woman who later died of Ebola, according to neighbors. Her illness at the time was believed to be pregnancy-related.

Read the full story:  www.nbc-2.com

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Tuesday, September 9, 2014

In Liberia...

September 09, 2014 Ebola , Liberia 0 Comments
NBC: Ebola Spreading Exponentially

By Maggie Fox, Sept. 9, 2014, Nbcnews.com

The Ebola virus is spreading exponentially across Liberia as patients fill taxis in a fruitless search for medical care, the World Health Organization said Monday.

In Sierra Leone, a doctor working for WHO tested positive and was preparing to be evacuated from the country. Meanwhile, the newest U.S. patient, a doctor infected in Liberia, was feeling a little better and could even eat a little, doctors treating him in Nebraska said.

The various reports illustrated in the clearest possible way the disparities driving the epidemic in West Africa, where there’s almost no medical system structure. The three patients evacuated to the United States have all begun to recover quickly once they get good supportive care, which includes around-the-clock nursing care and good nutrition.

“In Monrovia, taxis filled with entire families, of whom some members are thought to be infected with the Ebola virus, crisscross the city, searching for a treatment bed. There are none. As WHO staff in Liberia confirm, no free beds for Ebola treatment exist anywhere in the country.”

For example, in Montserrado county, 1,000 beds are urgently needed but only 240 beds are available. WHO has said more than 3,600 people have been infected with Ebola in this West African epidemic, and 2,000 have died, but the organization predicts as many as 20,000 will be sickened before it’s over. Half of those infected have been dying.

“According to a WHO staff member who has been in Liberia for the past several weeks, motorbike-taxis and regular taxis are a hot source of potential Ebola virus transmission, as these vehicles are not disinfected at all, much less before new passengers are taken on board,” WHO said.

Read the full story:  www.nbcnews.com

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Sunday, August 17, 2014

That's probably against protocol

August 17, 2014 Ebola , Liberia 0 Comments
Liberia: Ebola Fears Rise As Clinic Is Looted

By Jonathan Paye-Layleh, Aug. 17, 2014, M.apnews.com

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) - Liberian officials fear Ebola could soon spread through the capital's largest slum after residents raided a quarantine center for suspected patients and took items including bloody sheets and mattresses.

The violence in the West Point slum occurred late Saturday and was led by residents angry that patients were brought to the holding center from other parts of Monrovia, Tolbert Nyenswah, assistant health minister, said Sunday.

Up to 30 patients were staying at the center and many of them fled at the time of the raid, said Nyenswah. Once they are located they will be transferred to the Ebola center at Monrovia's largest hospital, he said.

West Point residents went on a "looting spree," stealing items from the clinic that were likely infected, said a senior police official, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press. The residents took medical equipment and mattresses and sheets that had bloodstains, he said. Ebola is spread through bodily fluids including blood, vomit, feces and sweat.

"All between the houses you could see people fleeing with items looted from the patients," the official said, adding that he now feared "the whole of West Point will be infected."

Some of the looted items were visibly stained with blood, vomit and excrement, said Richard Kieh, who lives in the area.

The incident creates a new challenge for Liberian health officials who were already struggling to contain the outbreak.

Read the full story:  www.m.apnews.com

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