Africa

globalcommunities.org - August 13, 2015

100% of 284 Open Defecation-Free Liberian communities reported they were Ebola-free

Research evidence points to a strong correlation between Community-Led Total Sanitation and Open Defecation-Free status and reduced risk of Ebola

Global Communities today released results of a study to examine whether communities in Liberia stood a better chance of resisting Ebola during the outbreak of the past 18 months if they participated in efforts to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status. The study confirmed that a representative sample drawn from 284 Liberian communities that achieved ODF status by participating in the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) process were Ebola-free despite their proximity to Ebola hotspots. Communities that began but did not complete the CLTS process also experienced significant protection and were 17 times less likely to experience Ebola Virus Disease infections.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

The deadly virus overwhelmed Sierra Leone's key agricultural district, leaving thousands of farms, and their farmers, abandoned. The impact of that lost harvest has shaken the economy — and its food supply.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR  by Ryan Lenora Brown                    Aug. 16, 2015

Kailahun, Sierra Leone —...Today, the Ebola virus appears to be in retreat. Massive tented treatment centers built by international donors stand vacant and ghostly across the countryside, unnecessary to cope with the single-digit numbers of new cases recorded in recent weeks. Schools, closed for nearly nine months, have reopened. On weekend mornings, Freetown’s Atlantic Ocean beaches are once again thronged with joggers, pick-up soccer games, and informal aerobics classes, as fears fade of passing Ebola through physical contact.

Lahai Momoh, a buying agent for cacao in the eastern Sierra Leonean town of Kenema, seen here talking on his cellphone in August 2015, says 2014 was the worst year of his career due to the country's Ebola outbreak.

Image: The dik-dik is a small antelope that is hunted as bush meat. This picture was taken in Voi, a town in southern Kenya. Courtesy of Marcus Bleasdale

npr.org - August 14th, 2015 - Emily Sohn

Note: This post contains a photo of a monkey carcass, on sale at a bush meat market, that may be disturbing to some readers.

What's for dinner?

Porcupines, giant squirrels, dwarf crocodiles and a variety of primates, including golden-bellied crowned monkeys and Bioko black colobus monkeys.

Those are some of the bush meat offerings at the outdoor covered market in Malabo on Bioko Island, part of Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

SCIENCE    by  Katie  M. Palmer                      Aug. 15, 2015

For the communities in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia where Ebola took the greatest toll last year, the worst is over. After claiming 11,000 lives, the fatal virus has finally begun to retreat. Numbers of new Ebola cases are dwindling. But for some of the survivors—the 50 percent or so of the infected who pull through—Ebola’s effects still linger.

                            Ebola survivor Fayiah, 11, sits with her relatives in Monrovia, Liberia. Jerome Delay/AP

For the communities in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia where Ebola took the greatest toll last year, the worst is over. After claiming 11,000 lives, the fatal virus has finally begun to retreat. Numbers of new Ebola cases are dwindling. But for some of the survivors—the 50 percent or so of the infected who pull through—Ebola’s effects still linger.