Situation Report

REUTERS                                                                                    Nov. 5, 2014
(WASHINGTON) - The World Bank's private sector arm pledged $450 million on Wednesday to support trade, investment and employment in the three West African countries affected the most by the deadly Ebola outbreak.

The announcement from the bank's International Finance Corporation (IFC) brings total World Bank commitments for Ebola to nearly $1 billion in the past three months, an unprecedented rapid response for a development institution that has been accused of dragging its feet on project approval in the past.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, a doctor and anthropologist, said 

"The fear swirling around Ebola has the potential to do long-term harm to businesses globally, and especially in the Ebola-affected countries," Kim said in a statement. "IFC .. will find ways to help boost trade and investment in West Africa, which will be essential to ensure that private companies continue to operate and sustain employment under difficult circumstances."

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Air Force personnel helped with the construction of the Monrovia Medical Unit (MMU) in Monrovia, Liberia. (Maj. Adrien Adams / AFRICOM)

MILITARY TIMES                                                                         Nov. 4, 2014 

By Patricia Kime

The Pentagon has no plans to scale back its response to the Ebola outbreak, Defense Department spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Tuesday.

The rate of new Ebola infections in Liberia has dropped sharply in the past several weeks, according to the World Health Organization, prompting questions as to whether the U.S. military needs to follow through on plans to build 17 medical treatment facilities in that country.

But despite the decline in cases, Kirby told reporters in a Pentagon news conference that DoD will proceed to build the 100-bed facilities unless told otherwise.

Kirby said the recent decline in the number of cases is “promising, but no one is taking that for granted. The history of the disease is the numbers fluctuate.”

                                                    (Chart by Joss Fong/Vox with data from the One Foundation)

Every day... it seems there is news of a new country or organization pledging money to the Ebola fight. But it's difficult to know whether these promises vanish into thin air or lead to real action on the ground.

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http://www.vox.com/2014/11/3/7150149/chart-how-much-countries-have-actually-given-to-the-ebola-virus-outbreak

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                                                              Nov. 4, 2014

by Sarah DiLorenzo

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Thousands of people in Sierra Leone are being forced to violate Ebola quarantines to find food because deliveries are not reaching them, aid agencies said....

Large swaths of the West African country have been sealed off to prevent the spread of Ebola, and within those areas many people have been ordered to stay in their homes.

The government, with help from the U.N.'s World Food Program, is tasked with delivering food and other services to those people. But there are many "nooks and crannies" in the country that are being missed, Jeanne Kamara, Christian Aid's Sierra Leone representative, said Tuesday....

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http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-break-ebola-quarantine-food-124818527.html