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With the Ebola outbreak over in Sierra Leone, Alpha Sesay has returned to school. The Red Cross volunteer is taking part in a joint project with UNDP to help reintegrate burial team members back into their communities.

Photo: Katherine Mueller - 1 April 2016

“Ebola, that was the name they gave us. Alpha Ebola,” says the 23-year-old. “Wherever you go, they will call you Ebola. Those Ebola boys are coming. That boy is part of a burial team. It was not really easy with us.

Recognizing the risk involved, members of the safe and dignified burial teams, all of them volunteers, received an additional financial incentive from the Red Cross. But that incentive, although appealing, came with its own set of challenges. “At first, I was saving some of the money,” explains Alpha. “Paying house rent. Feeding myself. I bought clothes. When my family realized that I had saved, they embraced me again.”

New data from ten late-breaking abstracts is released at ECCMID 2016 – the annual meeting of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Disease (ESCMID). At the congress, a dedicated session will examine recently released research across the full spectrum of infectious diseases both from a clinical and laboratory perspective.

Researchers presented recent data on a number of diagnostic tools to rapidly identify pathogens and therapies promising to treat challenging infections. The abstracts presented dealt with topics including meningitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, Zika and human papilloma virus.

A doctor checks on a pregnant woman at Buôn Mê Thuột General Hospital. Hospitals in HCM City have been providing counselling on the Zika virus.

VNA/VNS Photo Dương Ngọc - April, 13/2016

HCM CITY —  A pregnant woman visiting the Hùng Vương Obstetrics Hospital in HCM City picked up a leaflet about the Zika virus off a shelf in the examination room.

The woman, 41, was especially concerned about the virus after hearing that HCM City had recorded its first Zika case, that of a 33-year-old pregnant woman from District 2.