THE INDEPENDENT                                                  OCT. 18, 2014

LONDON ---Ebola is poised to become the “definitive humanitarian disaster of our generation", Oxfam has warned, with more troops, funding and medical aid urgently needed to tackle the outbreak.

In an "extremely rare" move, the charity is calling for military intervention to provide logistical support across West Africa.

It says the world has less than two months to counter the spread of the deadly virus, which means addressing a "crippling shortfall" in military personnel.

Oxfam’s call for more troops comes after UN chief Ban Ki-Moon criticised countries he said were able to provide financial support to the crisis for not doing so.
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WASHINGTON POST

By Katie Zezima                               Oct. 18. 2014

WASHINGTON -Public health officials have been nearly unanimous in rejecting the idea of a travel ban between the United States and the West African countries at the epicenter of the Ebola outbreak.

But the drumbeat from politicians demanding Ebola-related restrictions on travel intensified Friday as a number of moderate Democrats joined the chorus, including Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, who is enmeshed in a tough reelection fight, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Michelle Nunn, who is running for Senate in Georgia....

The calls have alarmed public health experts, who said a travel ban could result in the opposite of its intention and spread the virus throughout West Africa and beyond.

“It’s an 18th-century view that you can somehow place a cellophane wrapper around a whole region of the world and expect to keep germs out. It doesn’t work that way because it’s never worked,” said Lawrence O. Gostin, faculty director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Public Health Law & Human Rights.

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NEW YORK TIMES                                

THE WASHINGTON POST                  Oct. 17, 2014
By Abby Ohlheiser

The World Health Organization said on Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Senegal is officially over.

Senegalese border police check papers after an aircraft carrying U.N. humanitarian personnel landed near Dakar on Sept. 27. (Seyl Lou/AFP/Getty Images)

Senegal's first and only confirmed Ebola patient traveled to the country by road from Guinea in August, bringing the virus with him. Officials confirmed his Ebola diagnosis on Aug. 29. But samples from this index patient tested negative for Ebola on Sept. 5, "indicating that he had recovered from Ebola virus disease," the WHO said in a news release.

By Sept. 18, the patient was fully recovered and returned to Guinea.

According to the WHO, Senegal officials kept track of 74 close contacts of the patient -- people who were at risk of contracting Ebola themselves. None of those contacts showed symptoms or tested positive for the disease.