Liberia

WHO                                                                                                          April 14, 2015
The story of how Liberia’s most populous county, Montserrado, turned around an exponentially-growing Ebola outbreak is intriguing. WHO’s team and national officials, aided by veterans from WHO’s polio eradication group in India, decentralized the response, using quality management principles that empowered local teams and held them accountable for results.

                                                                                                           WHO /Aphaluck Bhatiasevi

These local sector teams involved more than 4,000 community members, using business best practices and an incident management system to vastly improve surveillance, case finding, contact tracing, and overall management of key response activities.
Read full account.
http://www.who.int/features/2015/ebola-sector-approach/en/

PLOS   by Saron Alane Abramowitz, Kristen E. McLean and others,                                          April 9, 2015

The West African Ebola epidemic has demonstrated that the existing range of medical and epidemiological responses to emerging disease outbreaks is insufficient, especially in post-conflict contexts with exceedingly poor healthcare infrastructures.

 In this context, community-based responses have proven vital for containing Ebola virus disease (EVD) and shifting the epidemic curve. Despite a surge in interest in local innovations that effectively contained the epidemic, the mechanisms for community-based response remain unclear.

This study provides baseline information on community-based epidemic control priorities and identifies innovative local strategies for containing EVD in Liberia.
Read complete study.

http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0003706

BBC by Smitha Mundasad                          April 10, 2015
Many Ebola survivors are likely to face further health issues including eye and joint problems, the World Health Organization has warned....

Officials announced they are attempting to set up clinics in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to monitor the health consequences Ebola survivors face.

Patients have reported problems with their vision, joints and on-going fatigue.

But Dr Bruce Aylward, assistant director general of the WHO, admitted not much was known about the long-term implications of the virus.

He said the information gathered at these clinics would help the mental and physical health needs of people recovering from the disease.

Read complete story.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-32250515

REUTERS  by Stephanie Nebehay                   April 10, 2015

GENEVA  West Africa's Ebola epidemic still poses a threat to other countries, but the risk of it spreading internationally appears to be diminishing, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The U.N. agency declared in August 2014 that the world's worst Ebola outbreak -- which began in December 2013 -- represented a "public health emergency of international concern" that forced all health officials to shore up defenses.

The WHO's Emergency Committee, comprising independent experts who held talks on Thursday, was "absolutely firm" in maintaining that view, said Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO Special Representative for the Ebola Response.

"They did note, however, that they believe the risk of international spread appeared to be reducing, this was a result of the work being done in the countries," Aylward told a news briefing at WHO headquarters. He cited control measures and exit screening of travelers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.