Global

NEW YORK TIMES                                                                     Oct. 11, 2014
By Adam Nossiter

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Acknowledging a major “defeat” in the fight against Ebola, international health officials battling the epidemic in Sierra Leone approved plans on Friday to help families tend to patients at home, recognizing that they are overwhelmed and have little chance of getting enough treatment beds in place quickly to meet the surging need.

NEW YORK TIMES                     Oct. 10, 2014

By Sheri Fink, MD

 The human tragedy of Ebola;, illumnated by the plight of a newly born infant whose mother just died of the virus.

A relative held Diana Dormeyan, the granddaughter of Annie Yarkpawolo, left, on Sunday after the death of the bay's mother.   Daniel Berehulsk for the New York Times.  

SUAKOKO, Liberia--

.... for the child, "there were no clear protocols. No one touched the tiny girl, aside from the grandparents holding her. No one at the center had any experience in dealing with babies in the Ebola crisis, nor could they fully evaluate the dangers. They were caregivers, after all, at a place of last resort. In a country devastated by a terrible disease, where the fear of it is pervasive, what do you do with a vulnerable infant?"

Read full story

 It took 18,500 interviews, but Nigeria managed to contain the outbreak.

  MOTHER JONES                       Oct. 10, 2014

—By Alex Park

LAGOS -- Nigeria's success in stopping the outbreak could have implications for other countries, including the United States. That's why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) dispatched a team to the country this week to learn what went right.

So how did local and international health authorities curb Ebola in Nigeria while infections have continued to rise dramatically in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea?

Read full article, with charts and posters

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/nigeria-ebola-cdc

An Ebola warning at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos Sunday Alamba/AP

THE WASHINGTON POST                               OCT. 10, 2014

By Todd C. Franke

... The last region in Sierra Leone untouched by Ebola sits in the rugged, mountainous north, in a place called the Koinadugu district. It is a poor place, dependent on small farms and gold mines, the largest of the country’s 14 districts by land size and home to 265,000 residents. The district borders Guinea, where the current Ebola outbreak began and first spilled over into Sierra Leone. Koinadugu is surrounded by districts dealing with hundreds of Ebola cases.

But Koinadugu has kept the virus at bay.

Momoh Konte, shown at his office in Freetown,  returned to Sierra Leone from Washington to help his home district fight against Ebola. (Photo by Tanya Bindra for The Washington Post)

It is a remarkable feat, a source of pride for district residents, a source of hope for the entire struggling nation, and a curiosity to epidemiologists tracking the worst Ebola outbreak in history...