Africa

GENEVA-- The World Health Organization’s board agreed to create a special fund to respond to such outbreaks as Ebola and to set up a global health emergency workforce after the organization acknowledged mis-steps in its response to the epidemic.

 The WHO’s executive board agreed “in principle” at a meeting in Geneva Sunday to a contingency fund, and asked Director General Margaret Chan to develop by May options on its size and sources. Chan should also take immediate steps to establish a public-health reserve workforce that can be promptly deployed in response to health emergencies, according to the resolution adopted by senior health officials from 34 countries.

REUTERS    by  By Saliou Samb                           Jan. 23, 2015           

CONAKRY --Angry residents are blocking access for health workers to dozens of remote villages in Guinea, in a sign of persistent mistrust that could threaten President Alpha Conde's aim to eradicate Ebola from the country by early March....

Guinea has recorded a sharp fall in infections in recent weeks, fuelling hope that the tide has turned against the epidemic.

But with some people still denying the incurable disease exists, experts say it could prove difficult to trace those who had been in contact with the infected and to change traditional behavior such as burial rituals involving touching the dead. These steps are seen as vital to defeating the disease....

In a sign of the resistance and distrust, medical kits sent by the government to schoolchildren were destroyed by villagers in Ourekaba, southern Guinea. ... locals thought the kits had been sent to contaminate the children.

Two security officials who arrived to investigate reports of a secret Ebola burial were lynched last week by a crowd in Sinkine, in the Forecariah region about 100 km from the capital Conakry, a police source said.

THE GUARDIAN   by Lin Jenkins                                     Jan. 23, 2015

LONDON --The British nurse who almost died after contracting Ebola while volunteering in Sierra Leone has been discharged from hospital after making a full recovery.

Doctors had described her condition as “critical” during the three weeks she received treatment for the deadly virus and her family and friends were preparing for the worst. Cafferkey admited that then she had felt like “giving up”, but was now looking forward to returning to “normal life” and had no plans to go back to Africa.

The 39-year-old nurse was diagnosed with Ebola after returning to Glasgow last month and was admitted to the city’s Gartnavel hospital on December 29 before being transferred the next day to the Royal Free. She had been working with Save the Children at the Ebola treatment centre in Kerry Town before returning to the UK...

Save the Children has launched an investigation into how Cafferkey was infected, but admits it may never establish the exact circumstances.

REUTERS                                                                                                  Jan. 23, 2015

MONROVIA-- Liberia, once the epicenter of West Africa's deadly Ebola epidemic, has just five remaining confirmed cases of the disease, a senior health official said on Friday, highlighting the country's success in halting new infections.

...a massive international response -- including the deployment of hundreds of U.S. troops to build treatment centers -- plus a public awareness campaign, contributed to a steep decline in infection rates.