Europe

Ebola: Moving from emergency to recovery

Tue, 2015-03-17 12:02 — mike kraft

DEVEX by Richard Jones March 17, 2015

(scroll down for link to EU statement.)

As the death toll from Ebola now tops 10,000 in West Africa, donors and aid implementers are figuring out how to best transition from the emergency to the recovery phase of the crisis.

Top EU and U.N. officials, leaders of Ebola-affected nations and representatives from the African Union, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector and the scientific community met in Brussels, Belgium, earlier this month to make progress on this goal. They agreed to embark on the design of a road map to help the economies of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia get back on track, starting with the priority task of rebuilding health systems.

But that, of course, will be no easy feat.

“We are at a really crucial stage of the real fight against Ebola, because this is a turning point when the emergency stage or the emergency response or medical response to Ebola containment is now turning into coordinating and structuring the long-term recovery program,” European Commissioner for International Cooperation and Development Neven Mimica said in an exclusive interview with Devex at the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels.

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Europe Unlikely to Meet Climate Goal, Study Finds

Thu, 2015-03-05 18:31 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CLICK HERE - SOER 2015
— The European environment — state and outlook 2015

CLICK HERE - Synthesis Report
The European environment — state and outlook 2015

CLICK HERE - Assessment of Global Megatrends
The European environment — state and outlook 2015

nytimes.com - by Melissa Eddy - March 2, 2015

BERLIN — The European Union will fail to meet an ambitious goal of significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 unless it takes more aggressive measures to limit the use of fossil fuels and adopts new environmental policies, according to a report released on Tuesday.

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Ebola: UN tells Brussels meeting world must ‘stay on course’ to get to, remain at zero cases

Wed, 2015-03-04 11:09 — mike kraft

UNITED NATIONS NEWS CENTRE March 4, 2015

BRUSSELS --Representatives of United Nations organizations engaged in the response against Ebola pledged their support Ttuesday to the worst-affected West African countries in “each stage of this journey; the drive to zero, the early recovery, the medium and longer term development.”

UN and EU meet in Brussels, Belgium, to take stock of the Ebola situation and identify ways forward. Photo: UNMEER

The pledge was made at a high-level international conference on Ebola sponsored by the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, aimed at maintaining global attention on the crisis, taking stock of the fight against the epidemic and on coordinating next steps and discussing the recovery process.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Ebola, Dr. David Nabarro, said that current phase of the response “is the hardest part and a bumpy road” and urged the international community to remain fully engaged until the task is completed, especially as the virus is moving and as some communities are reticent about being engaged in the response.

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Davos: Western world ‘vulnerable’ to epidemics, warns Ebola expert

Wed, 2015-01-21 14:46 — mike kraft

BBC by Joe Miller Jan. 21, 2015
DAVOS Switzerland -- The Western world is "vulnerable" to epidemics such as Ebola, and must invest more in researching vaccines, a leading scientist has warned.

Prof Peter Piot told the BBC that developed nations would be in "deep trouble" if they failed to adequately prepare for another outbreak.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, he urged global leaders to take a "long-term view". Public health policies must "transcend politics and borders", he said.

The threat of Ebola, and other infectious diseases such as influenza and Sars, are set to be discussed in Switzerland this week, as politicians and business leaders from around the globe gather for the annual WEF.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30907630

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Italian Ebola patient released from hospital in Rome

Sun, 2015-01-04 10:05 — mike kraft

REUTERS by Steve Scherer Jan. 3, 2015

Italian Doctor Fabrizio waves as he leaves the Spallanzani hospital in Rome January 2, 2015. Fabrizio, Italy's only Ebola patient is fully recovered and was released from hospital on Friday more than a month after being flown to Rome from Sierra Leone where he worked as a doctor treating others stricken by the disease. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

The 50-year-old Sicilian man has been identified only by his first name, Fabrizio. He contracted the haemorrhagic virus while working for humanitarian group Emergency during the worst Ebola outbreak on record,,,.

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SES joins consortium to fight Ebola with mobile lab

Fri, 2014-12-26 16:38 — mike kraft

BIOPREPWATCH by Shaun Zinck Dec. 26, 2014

SES, a satellite communications company, announced on Monday that it was teaming up with a collaborative group that runs a mobile laboratory to improve response time in the fight against the Ebola virus.

B-LiFE, a mobile laboratory, is run through a consortium between the public, private and academic sectors in Belgium. The group is trying to increase identification of diseases for a quicker response to crisis situations such as the Ebola epidemic.

“B-LiFE demonstrates the relevance of satellite for medical purposes,” Gerhard Bethscheider, managing director of SES TechCom, said. ...It is anticipated that the lab, which left Belgium on Saturday, will be stationed at an Ebola treatment center in Guinea that was set up by ALIMA, a French non-government organization

http://bioprepwatch.com/news/ses-joins-consortium-to-fight-ebola-with-mobile-lab/340396/

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UK must act to guard against pandemics, says scientist who discovered Ebola virus

Fri, 2014-12-26 14:54 — mike kraft

THE INDEPENDENT by Charlie Cooper Dec. 26, 2014

The UK must create a new health security agency to guard against future pandemics, according to the scientist who discovered the Ebola virus. Professor Peter Piot said Britain and Europe lacked “an epidemic intelligence service” with global reach, leaving them “vulnerable” and less able to intervene in overseas health crises such as the Ebola outbreak, which has killed thousands of people in West Africa. Peter Piot discovered Ebola when he was sent to investigate an outbreak in Zaire, now the DRC, in 1976 (AFP/Getty)

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Ebola experts seek to expand testing

Wed, 2014-12-10 21:19 — mike kraft

A major problem is that relatively few laboratories in West Africa have the necessary equipment and personnel to test blood samples from people thought to have Ebola (see ‘Delayed diagnoses’). But that could soon change. Experts are gathering in Geneva, Switzerland, on 12 December to work out which diagnostic tools could be used wherever Ebola strikes.

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Italian Doctor With Ebola Returning for Treatment

Mon, 2014-11-24 09:54 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS Nov. 24, 2014

MILAN --An Italian doctor who has been working in Sierra Leone has tested positive for the Ebola virus and is being transferred to Rome for treatment, the health ministry said Monday. It is Italy's first confirmed case of Ebola.

The doctor, who was not identified and who works for the non-governmental organization Emergency, is scheduled to arrive overnight in Italy for treatment at the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome.

Emergency, which is operating a center for Ebola treatment in Lakka, Sierra Leone, said in statement that the doctor was in good condition, and that its staff in the country is following protocols aimed at avoiding contagion. "Nonetheless, no health intervention of such a serious epidemic can be considered completely without risks," Emergency said.

Complete story
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/italian-doctor-ebola-returning-treatment-27130191

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EU boosts anti-Ebola aid after Commissioners' mission to worst-hit countries

Tue, 2014-11-18 20:13 — mike kraft

EUROPEAN COMMISSION HUMANITARIAN AID DEPARTMENT Nov. 17, 2014

The European Union is continuing to scale up its response to the Ebola epidemic as its Coordinator for the emergency, Commissioner Christos Stylianides together with Vytenis Andriukaitis, Commissioner for Health, return from a four-day mission to the affected countries.

New funding of €29 million will be made available by the European Commissionfor transporting vital aid supplies and equipment to the affected countries, evacuation of infected international aid workers to hospitals in Europe and training and deploying health workers to the ground. Money will also reinforce local health facilities.

Of this total, €12 million is for assistance to the neighbours of the affected countries, to help them prepare for the risk of an Ebola outbreak through early detection and public awareness measures.

... The European Union's total contribution is close to €1.1 billion.

Sweden has announced that it will deploy, via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, 42 doctors, nurses and other health personnel who will run a treatment centre on the ground.

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