Clusters of social vulnerability in rural Liberia, by district. Social vulnerability of each cluster of districts can be loosely ranked from most to least vulnerable as: Cluster 1, food quality, displaced persons, disabled, dependent populations; Cluster 3, food quantity, food quality, lack of access to land/free medical care; Cluster 4, food quantity, disabled dependent populations and Cluster 5, water quality/proximity to medical care; and finally, Cluster 2, no strong vulnerability scores.

CLICK HERE - Social Vulnerability and Ebola Virus Disease in Rural Liberia

CLICK HERE - Social Vulnerability and Ebola Virus Disease in Rural Liberia (14 page .PDF file)

srs.fs.usda.gov - by Zoe Hoyle - September 15, 2015

A newly published research study by U.S. Forest Service researchers demonstrates that the social vulnerability indices used in climate change and natural hazards research can also be used in other contexts such as disease outbreaks.

REUTERS    Sept.14, 2015
FREETOWN — Health authorities quarantined hundreds of people in northern Sierra Leone on Monday after a 16-year-old girl died of Ebola in an apparent case of sexual transmission, the first confirmed death from the virus in the district for nearly six months.

Sierra Leone celebrated last month when it discharged the last remaining Ebola patient from its treatment centers. But since then a new spate of cases has erupted, leaving two dead and five people in treatment.

The teenage girl, Kadiatu Thullah, died on Sunday at the International Medical Corps Ebola treatment unit, authorities said.

Emmanuel Conteh, head of the Ebola Response Centre for the district of Bombali in northern Sierra Leone, said that some 690 people in the village of Robuya where Kadiatu lived would be isolated for three weeks....it.

Conteh said health workers were investigating how the teenager got infected, since she had not traveled outside the village in years. Initial suspicions are that she had sex with an Ebola survivor.

Read complete story.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nation-and-world/quarantines-return-ebola-makes-comeback-sierra-leone

This chart shows how Antarctic ice would be affected by different emissions scenarios. “GTC” stands for gigatons of carbon. Ken Caldeira and Ricarda Winkelmann

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet

newsweek.com - by Zoë Schlanger - September 11, 2015

“Combustion of available fossil fuel resources sufficient to eliminate the Antarctic Ice Sheet.”

Few peer-reviewed study titles sound quite so much like a line spoken by the bad-news-bearing scientist from a dystopian sci-fi movie. But there it is. A real-world—and apparently very possible—dystopia.

                                (CLICK ON THE MAP IMAGE BELOW - GO TO THE INTERACTIVE MAP)

UNHCR - Syria Regional Refugee Response - Inter-agency Information Sharing Portal
http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php

UNHCR - Stories from Syrian Refugees - Discovering the human faces of a tragedy
http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/syria.php

cdc.gov

Interim Guidance for U.S. Hospitals on the Care of a Neonate Born to a Mother who is Confirmed to have Ebola, is a Person under Investigation (PUI), or has been Exposed to Ebola

Who this is for: Healthcare professionals working with neonates in labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care units, newborn nurseries, and other settings in U.S. hospitals.

What this is for: Guidance on how to care for neonates born to mothers exposed to Ebola virus, PUIs, or with confirmed Ebola.

How to use this: This guidance is intended to help U.S. hospitals develop plans for treating neonates born to PUIs or to mothers with confirmed Ebola. Note: Ideally, these mothers and neonates will be cared for in Ebola assessment hospitals (if the mother is a PUI) or Ebola treatment centers (if the mother is confirmed to have Ebola.)1

CLICK HERE - Care of a Neonate Born to a Mother who is Confirmed to have Ebola, is a Person under Investigation, or has been Exposed to Ebola

THE LANCET by Richard Horton                         Sept. 12, 2015

LONDON-- Post-Ebola reverie has given birth to a plethora of expert panels to consider what went wrong. The latest parade of global health specialists appointed to learn lessons gathered at the Wellcome Trust in London last week.
 Under the auspices of the US Institute of Medicine (IOM), a Commission to “deliberate and evaluate options to strengthen global, regional, and local systems to better prepare, detect, and respond to epidemic diseases” spent 2 days amassing evidence.

 There was no shortage of experience brought to bear on these important matters. Here were Margaret Chan, Jeremy Farrar, Ilona Kickbusch, David Heymann, Larry Gostin, Joy Phumaphi, Joanne Liu, and Peter Piot all wrestling with a seemingly intractable challenge. The statements offered to the Commission were arresting. But  the purpose of the meeting was not to talk. It was to identify the best system for an epidemic response....
Read complete article

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2815%2900152-X/fulltext

KATHMANDU, NEPAL - AUGUST 13: A young boy plays in the mud in a flooded lane inside the Chuchepati displacement camp on August 13, 2015 in Kathmandu, Nepal. About 7,144 people, hailing from different affected districts by the earthquake that hit Nepal, currently live in Chuchepati camp, with access to only 35 toilets and the help of only a few NGOs. Approximately 60,000 people are still living in over 100 official displacement camps throughout the affected districts.  OMAR HAVANA VIA GETTY IMAGES

huffingtonpost.com - by Eleanor Goldberg - September 3, 2015

It’s been four months since Nepal’s deadliest earthquake hit. Yet, the country still has yet to dole out a cent of the $4.1 billion in donations it received, Reuters reported. . . .

. . . According to the news outlet, the government won’t start spending the relief funds until October. The delay is due to reluctance to start building work during monsoon season and the fact that plans still require approval.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)

submitted by George Hurlburt

Sleeplessness, along with abdominal and joint pain are common even months after recovery from the dreaded virus

scientificamerican.com - by Dina Fine Maron - September 9, 2015

The first snapshot of health complications facing Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone presents a dismal picture of their road to recovery. A new study has found that up to four months after blood tests indicated that they were Ebola-free, more than half of survivors continue to suffer from joint pain, headaches or muscle pain. And more than 40 percent of survivors complain of sleeplessness and visual problems. Perhaps most worryingly, almost all the survivors—96 percent—reported being rejected by their communities after they were released from the hospital. The majority said they were still too scared to return home.

apps.who.int

WHO Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Monitoring System
(Click on the country of interest - then click "OK")
http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/globalsummary

Country Summaries - WHO UNICEF Review of National Immunization Coverage, 1980-2014
(Click on the country of interest)
http://apps.who.int/immunization_monitoring/globalsummary/wucoveragecountrylist.html

submitted by Gavin Macgregor-Skinner

Ebola Outbreak update dated Sep 8 from the National Ebola Response Centre in Sierra Leone.

The four new Sierra Leone cases are in Sella Kaffta, a village in Kambia district in the northwest part of the country on Guinea's border. All the newly reported patients had contact with a 67-year-old woman whose death from Ebola was announced last week. After she died her body was washed before burial. There are 50 high-risk close contacts being monitored. Experimental ring vaccine campaign by WHO began Sep 4 and the newly diagnosed Ebola patients were not among the 116 people who received post-exposure VSV-EBOV vaccine.

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Update
http://health.gov.sl/?p=617

Ebola Virus Disease – Situation Report
http://health.gov.sl/?p=537

Ministry of Health and Sanitation - The Republic of Sierra Leone
http://health.gov.sl

National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) - Sierra Leone
http://www.nerc.sl

National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) - Sierra Leone - Evening Briefings
http://nerc.sl/?q=document-types/nerc-briefings

AFP   Sept. 9, 2015

Geneva -- Guinea has notched up a week without a new case of Ebola, a first since March 2014, the head of the UN's response to the epidemic, Bruce Aylward, said on Wednesday.

Health workers with a patient under quarantine at the Nongo Ebola treatment centre in Conakry, Guinea on August 21, 2015 (AFP Photo/Cellou Binani)

"As of today, they have gone seven days without a (new) case of Ebola," said Aylward, the World Health Organization's special envoy for the epidemic.

"That is the longest period since March of last year that Guinea has gone without an Ebola case," he added.

There are two people in the country who have Ebola, but they tested postive before September 2.

Read complete story.
http://news.yahoo.com/guinea-passes-one-week-no-ebola-case-142016881.html

VOICE OF AMERICAN by James Butty  Sept. 9, 2015
Three more people have tested positive for Ebola from the same village in Sierra Leone's northern Kambia district of the country where a 67-year-old woman died last week from the virus, Sierra Leone health officials said.

Chief medical officer Dr. Brima Kargbo told VOA Tuesday the three new patients came from among the 50 high-risk persons identified as close relatives of the deceased woman. 

Sierra Leone has had nearly 14,000 cases of Ebola and about 4,000 deaths since the outbreak began in 2014.  But Dr. Kargbo said the latest outbreak is containable because its origin is traceable....

Read complete story.
http://www.voanews.com/content/new-ebola-patients-found-in-sierra-leone/2953488.html

afro.who.int

Bamako, 7 September 2015 – A case of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) has been confirmed in Bamako, the capital and largest city of Mali. The country is on high alert after national authorities detected a paralysis case with onset 20 July 2015. The patient is a 19-month old child of Guinean nationality whose paralysis occurred 7 days prior to the child’s arrival in Bamako to seek health care. The last case of wild polio virus (WPV) in Mali dates back to June 2011 in Goundam, Timbuktu Region.

The current detected virus is genetically linked to a confirmed VDPV detected in Siguiri district, in the Kankan Region of Guinea in August 2014, and has been circulating across international borders for more than 2 years without detection. 

The risk of spread of this virus is deemed high and it has the capacity to cause paralytic disease in humans or kill. The emergence and circulation of VDPV2 reveals low population immunity against the virus due to low rates of vaccination coverage in Guinea. Consequently, oral polio vaccine (OPV) must be administered multiple times to stop the outbreak and protect children. 

Photographer - Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg

bloomberg.com - by Tara Patel - August 31, 2015

TECH TIMES by rina Maria Doctor     Sept. 3, 2015
The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to vaccinate about 200 people in Sierra Leone, who were believed to have been directly or indirectly exposed to a woman who succumbed to death due to the virus on Saturday, Aug. 29.

The 67-year-old woman, whose diagnostic test results came positive for Ebola, was a merchant from the Kambia District, which is close to the border of Guinea. She died five days after Sierra Leone has begun a countdown projected to last for 42 days before the country may be declared free from the deadly virus. Before her diagnosis, the last patient diagnosed with the disease was reported on Aug. 8....

WHO will immunize the people in the area of Tonko Limba who have had direct and indirect exposures to the deceased, says Margaret Harris, a spokesperson from WHO. This effort will also include people who have had close contacts with the said exposed individuals....