Africa Resilience Initiative

submitted by Mike Kraft

A burial team on Wednesday collected the body of a person who was thought to have died from Ebola in Monrovia, Liberia. Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

nytimes.com - By SOMINI SENGUPTA, RICK GLADSTONE and SHERI FINK - September 17, 2014

The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said on Wednesday that he planned to establish a new on-the-ground mission in West Africa to coordinate the struggle against Ebola, a move that signaled his concern with the response so far and the limitations of the World Health Organization’s abilities.

In an interview with the editorial board of The New York Times, Mr. Ban said that he intended to ask the General Assembly to support his plan in order to demonstrate the unanimous global concern about Ebola, the deadly virus that is spreading at exponential rates in three Western African countries.

By Lena H. Sun and Lenny Bernstein Sep 17 2014 - The Washington Post

If the Ebola epidemic continues to surge in the three worst-affected countries — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — its economic impact could grow eight fold next year, dealing a potentially catastrophic blow to the already fragile states, according to a World Bank analysis released Wednesday.

The largest economic effects of the crisis are from the “fear factor” — people’s concerns about contagion, officials said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/world-bank-warns-ebolas-economic-impact-could-be-catastrophic-if-virus-is-unchecked/2014/09/17/8c490a3c-3e79-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html

submitted by Mike Kraft

Phoenix Air, which has equipped two Gulfstream III planes to accommodate Ebola patients, has so far transported 5 such patients.  Photo - Phoenix Air Group

cidrap.umn.edu - by Robert Roos - September 16, 2014

With West Africa's burgeoning Ebola epidemic expected to last at least 6 to 9 more months, the demand for evacuations of visiting medical workers who get infected seems likely to grow. That demand might well collide with a shortage of aircraft that are equipped to safely transport Ebola patients.

The four Ebola patients who have been evacuated from West Africa to the United States have all been flown by Phoenix Air of Carterville, Ga., which has two Gulfstream III business jets that are specially equipped to carry such patients at minimal risk to others on the plane.

Other aircraft that are properly equipped to transport Ebola patients are very scarce, according to US mission organizations that have arranged evacuations for a few of their workers in West Africa.

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http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing/subcommittee-hearing-global-efforts-fight-ebola

House Committee on Foreign Affairs - Subcommittee Hearing: Global Efforts to Fight Ebola

2172 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 | Sep 17, 2014 10:00am to 1:00pm

Chairman Smith on the hearing: “This latest outbreak of the Ebola virus has far outpaced all previous outbreaks.  Because of various challenges heretofore unseen, such as urban infections, cross-border transmissions and increasing infections and deaths of health care workers, the current outbreak is expanding exponentially.  This hearing will examine the problems faced by the global coalition to fight Ebola. We will hear directly from the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and an American doctor who contracted and survived Ebola, and other witnesses.”

Witnesses

Panel I