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Violent Protests in Ebola-Hit Guinea After Imam's Arrest

      

An imam gives information on Ebola during Friday prayers at a mosque in Conakry, Guinea, on April 11, 2014
(AFP Photo/Cellou Binani)

reliefweb.int - Conakry, Guinea - February 10, 2015

Around a dozen Guineans were wounded Monday in clashes with police after the arrest of an imam who led funeral prayers for a suspected victim of Ebola.

Demonstrators put up barricades, burned tyres and overturned rubbish bins in the capital Conakry, before using sticks and stones to attack officers who responded with tear gas and baton charges.

"They came for the third imam of our mosque because yesterday he led the funeral prayers in the mosque here for a relative who died a natural death," a protester told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"For the Guinean authorities no one can now die a natural death. All those who die have inevitably died of Ebola," he said.

A policeman told AFP that the officers wanted simply to question the imam on the cause of death and the conditions at the burial.

"It is especially important to know that he didn't have Ebola to ensure the safety of his family and neighbours, including potential contacts," he said.

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Mistrust and Machetes Thwart Efforts to Contain Ebola in Guinea

         

A Red Cross truck carrying the body a woman who died of the Ebola virus drives in the Aberdeen district of Freetown, Sierra Leone, in this file photo taken on October 14, 2014.  Credit: Reuters/Josephus Olu-Mammah

reuters.com - by Misha Hussain - February 10, 2015

LOLA, Guinea (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Red Cross pickups crawl through the streets of the Guinean town of Lola in search of Ebola victims, crowds of women gather to shoo the medical workers away, young boys throw stones and angry men reach for their machetes.

In the country where West Africa's Ebola outbreak began, hostility towards aid workers - fueled by ever more far-fetched rumors - is undermining efforts to contain the deadly virus. . .

. . . Concerns about violence directed at aid teams comes as the number of new cases of Ebola rose at the start of February in all three of West Africa's worst-hit countries - Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - ending previously encouraging declines.

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The Origins and Evolution of the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa

Investigations yield insights into Ebola outbreak's early months

cidrap.umn.edu - by Lisa Schnirring - December 30, 2014

With West Africa's Ebola epidemic passing the 1-year mark, two new reports yielded details about factors that fueled the event, including bats in a hollow tree that may have infected the index patient, a young Guinean child, and a silent chain of transmission that caused the disease to flare again in May after cases had sharply dropped off.

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See also:

Dec 30 EMBO Molecular Medicine study

Dec 29 New York Times story

Dec 30 WHO timeline

Dec 30 WHO situation summary

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Small Rise in New Cases Shows Ebola Hanging On

      

Eric Gweah, 25, grieves as he watches members of a burial team carry the body of his father, Ofori Gweah, 62 in Monrovia, Liberia.  Photo - Daniel Berehulak

nytimes - by Rick Gladstone - February 5, 2015

Officials from the United Nations and the World Health Organization expressed concern on Thursday over data showing the first weekly rise in new Ebola cases this year, countering the downward trend in the disease that has ravaged three West African nations.

The 124 new cases — 39 in Guinea, five in Liberia and 80 in Sierra Leone for the week ended Feb. 1 — amounted to a relatively small increase from the 99 new cases the week before, and paled in comparison with the hundreds of new cases per week that traumatized those countries and alarmed the world in the later months of 2014. . .

. . . However, the weekly increase in new cases, although small, was worrisome for a few reasons, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, the World Health Organization special representative on Ebola, and Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations special envoy on Ebola.

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Guinea Ebola Infections Double as Hidden Cases Discovered

      

A health worker checks the temperature of a man arriving at Bata Airport, January 14, 2015. 
Credit: Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

reuters.com - Reporting by Saliou Samb; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Angus MacSwan - February 6, 2015

(Reuters) - The number of people sick with Ebola fever has doubled in Guinea in the past week following the discovery of cases previously unknown to health authorities, a Guinea health official said on Friday.

About two dozen new suspected and confirmed Ebola cases were recorded in the past two weeks, taking the total number to 53 as of Friday, Fode Tass Sylla, a spokesman for Guinea's anti-Ebola task force, said.

Sylla said the increase was expected because health authorities were only now gaining access to faraway villages where inhabitants had previously prevented them from entering.

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Ebola Case Uptick Underscores Response Challenges

Unsafe burials have spurred some of the newly reported cases, the WHO said.  UNMEER, Martine Perret / Flickr cc

CLICK HERE - WHO - Ebola Situation Report
4 February 2015

submitted by Stephen Morse

cidrap.umn.edu - by Lisa Schnirring - February 4, 2015

In a sign that West Africa's Ebola response still faces several challenges, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone all reported an uptick in cases last week, the first time this year that all three countries have seen an increase, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Some of the remaining problems include stubborn pockets of community resistance in some areas, the disease's increased reach in Guinea, and widespread transmission in Sierra Leone, the agency said. The WHO warned of an urgent need to curb the outbreak in as many areas as possible, with the approach of the wet season that will make remote areas difficult for responders to reach.

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MSF says lack of public health messages on Ebola "big mistake"

THOMPSON REUTERS By Misha Hussain                   Feb. 4, 2015

CONAKRY -- Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) made the "big mistake" of focusing too much on treatment early on in the Ebola epidemic rather than speaking to people about tackling the disease, a senior member of the medical charity said.

 ...With 20 years of experience of treating Ebola, MSF deployed hundreds to the Ebola "hot zones" and was quick to isolate patients and trace their contacts.

However, Claudia Evers, MSF's Ebola emergency coordinator in Guinea, said: "MSF made a big mistake. We advocated for an increase in beds for too long, and everyone listened to MSF."

"Instead of asking for more beds we should have asked for more sensitisation activities," Evers told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview. Evers said the next stage of the Ebola response required a new approach if the disease was to be brought under control, centred on the promotion of good hygiene practices.

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http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0L81SM20150204?sp=true

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Ebola infection 'linked to visor'

THE PRESS ASSOCIATION                               Feb. 4, 2015
LONDON --A British nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone possibly caught the virus by wearing a visor and not goggles, an investigation has suggested.
Press Association - Save the Children said Pauline Cafferkey, pictured on her return to health, may have contracted Ebola by wearing a visor rather than goggles when treating patients in Sierra Leone

The report by Save the Children said it cannot be completely certain how Pauline Cafferkey contracted Ebola but said both pieces of equipment are "equally safe".

The nurse, from Cambuslang in South Lanarkshire, had volunteered with the charity at the Ebola Treatment Centre (ETC) in Kerry Town before returning to the UK in December....

Save the Children published the findings of an independent review into the possible causes of how the 39-year-old caught the virus. The report said both visors and goggles are safe but there are slight differences in the type of clothing worn with each and in the protocols for putting them on and removing them....

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Only 40 percent of Ebola funds reached target countries: study

REUTERS    by Kate Kelland                                                                                 Feb. 3, 2014

LONDON  - Almost $2.9 billion was pledged by the end of 2014 in donations to fight West Africa's Ebola epidemic, yet only around 40 percent had actually reached affected countries, researchers said on Tuesday.

A study by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that tracked international donations showed barely $1.09 billion had reached the worst affected countries by the end of last year, they said.

"These delays ... may have contributed to spread of the virus and could have increased the financial needs," said Karen Grepin, a global health policy expert at New York University who led the study and published it in the BMJ British medical journal.

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http://news.yahoo.com/only-40-percent-ebola-funds-reached-target-countries-233343915.html

Link to full study.

International donations to the Ebola virus outbreak: too little, too late?

BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL   by  Karen A Grépin                                                      Feb. 3, 2015

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WHO names Ebola response chief

AFP                                                                      Feb. 3, 2015
GENEVA: The World Health Organization said Tuesday it had appointed its assistant director-general Bruce Aylward to head its overall response to the deadly Ebola outbreak.

It also said an independent commission was being created to assess WHO's widely criticised response to the epidemic, after the UN agency admitted last month it had been caught napping on Ebola and pledged reforms to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters that Alward, a Canadian, will be responsible for coordinating all the different aspects of the agency's response to the devastating outbreak, which has killed nearly 9,000 people, almost all of them in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

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