Africa Resilience Initiative

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Sat, 2009-03-21 11:57 — mdmcdonald

The mission of this working group is to articulate and shape issues of resilience and sustainability on the continent of Africa as they may be implemented as reforms of current policies, as well as contemplate and make recommendations for more extensive critiques and proposals for national, provincial, and local systems transformation, as may be necessary or desirable beyond the scope of traditional reforms being undertaken by the current African national governments and local government proposals in Africa.

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This working group is focused on developing an Africa Resilience Initiative to ensure resilience and sustainability for all Africans.

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Aboubacar Conte	admin	Anthony	bnorton	Carrielaj	Chisina Kapungu
ChrisAllen	craig.sevcik	Dr Ojia Adamolekun	efrost	Elhadj Drame	Grace Kim
Hadiatou Balde	jranck	Kathy Gilbeaux	mdmcdonald	MDMcDonald_me_com	mike kraft
njchapman	Norea	SmShako	TacarraB	Tjivekumba Kandjii

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Grim Snapshot Reveals Complex Health Issues for Ebola Survivors [Infographic]

Thu, 2015-09-10 10:52 — Kathy Gilbeaux

(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.

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WHO Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Monitoring System - Country Summaries

Wed, 2015-09-09 21:56 — Kathy Gilbeaux

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

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Ebola Outbreak Update - Sept. 8, 2015 - National Ebola Response Centre - Sierra Leone

Wed, 2015-09-09 18:34 — Kathy Gilbeaux

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

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WHO - Polio Outbreak Confirmed in Mali

Wed, 2015-09-09 09:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

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.

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Survey Finds Many Physicians Overestimate Their Ability to Assess Patients’ Risk of Ebola

Sat, 2015-09-05 10:21 — Kathy Gilbeaux

massgeneral.org - August 27, 2015

While most primary care physicians responding to a survey taken in late 2014 and early 2015 expressed confidence in their ability to identify potential cases of Ebola and communicate Ebola risks to their patients, only 50 to 70 percent of them gave answers that fit with CDC guidelines when asked how they would care for hypothetical patients who might have been exposed to Ebola. In addition, those who were least likely to encounter an Ebola patient – based on their location and characteristics of their patients – were most likely to choose overly intense management of patients actually at low risk. The results of the survey, conducted by a team of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, have been published online in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

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CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Ebola Risk and Preparedness: A National Survey of Internists

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CDC - HHS - Ebola Concept of Operations (ConOps) Planning Template

Fri, 2015-09-04 09:32 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Source:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - Date Published:08/20/2015

Annotation:This 38-page document provides a standard format for creating an Ebola Concept of Operations (ConOps) plan at the state, territorial, or major metropolitan area government level. It provides information on measures local governments, agencies, and organizations can take to support the plan. The ConOps in the template describes strategic, high-level considerations for establishing a regional tiered system to safely and effectively manage persons under investigation (PUIs) or patients confirmed with Ebola.

(38 page .PDF document)
URL: http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/documents/ebola-concept-of-operations-planning-template-8-20-2015.pdf

Authors:Dugas, Robert; Lamoureux, Joe; Mangieri, William; et al.
Type:Guideline/Assessment Tool
ID:11129. From Disaster LitTM, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

http://disasterlit.nlm.nih.gov/record/11129

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Assessing the Potential Role of Pigs in the Epidemiology of Ebola Virus in Uganda

Wed, 2015-09-02 13:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Ebolavirus, animal - Uganda: porcine, epidemiological assessment

CLICK HERE - Assessing the Potential Role of Pigs in the Epidemiology of Ebola Virus in Uganda

promedmail.org - September 2, 2015

Summary

Uganda has experienced 4 Ebola outbreaks since the discovery of the virus. Recent epidemiological work has shown pigs are hosts for ebolaviruses. Due to their high reproduction rates, rapid weight gain, potential to provide quick financial returns, and rising demand for pork, pig production in Uganda has undergone massive expansion. The combination of pork sector growth supported by development programmes and Ebola virus risk prompted a foresight exercise using desk, interview, and spatial methods. The study found that the lack of serological evidence for specific reservoir species, the number of human index cases unable to account for their source of infection, domestic pig habitat overlap with potential Ebola virus zoonotic host environments, reported interactions at the human-pig-wildlife interface that could support transmission, fever in pigs as a commonly reported problem by pig farmers, and temporal correlation of outbreaks with peak pork consumption periods, warrants further research into potential zoonotic transmission in Uganda from pigs.

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Mano River Union (MRU) Countries Recommend Information Sharing

Tue, 2015-09-01 16:52 — Kathy Gilbeaux

thenewdawnliberia.com - by Ben P. Wesee - Editing by Jonathan Browne -September 1, 2015

The four Mano River Union or MRU countries – Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Ivory Coast have issued a joint communiqué in Monrovia, calling for information sharing, experiences and good practices during and after health emergencies in order to collaborate and network with local and international partners in the sub-region.

In a just ended conference here on the Ebola Virus Disease or EVD, the MRU countries also advanced several recommendations. Delegates from the four countries recommended in the communiqué a need to develop a harmonized framework for adherence to ethical standards during health disasters with appropriate and approved mechanisms for vaccines, therapeutic agents and testing methods.

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(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE)

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Interagency Collaboration on Ebola - Situation Report - 1 September 2015

Tue, 2015-09-01 15:58 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Ebola Situation Reports:

CLICK HERE - Interagency Collaboration on Ebola - Situation Report - 1 September 2015 (7 page .PDF report)

CLICK HERE - Report Archives - Interagency Collaboration on Ebola

Note:

The numbers of suspected Ebola cases have increased by 2 in Guinea, and by 6 in Sierra Leone per the Aug. 30 data as compared to the August 29 data.

August 30 data (Published September 1)
http://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.ebola-sitrep.ebola-summary-20150901?lang=en

August 29 data (Published August 31)
http://apps.who.int/gho/data/view.ebola-sitrep.ebola-summary-20150831?lang=en

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Scientists Discover New Use for an Old Therapy Inhibiting Deadly Pathogens Including Ebola and Anthrax

Tue, 2015-09-01 15:23 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - Identification of agents effective against multiple toxins and viruses by host-oriented cell targeting

prweb.com - by Cynthia Lujan - September 1, 2015

A new host-based therapy for Ebola, anthrax and other deadly infectious diseases has been discovered by researchers at the Keck Graduate Institute and its collaborators. The discovery has the potential to speed to market treatments for previously untreatable diseases.

The findings were published online on August 27 by Scientific Reports, an open access research journal from the publishers of Nature.

The lead authors of the story were Leoor Zilberminitz and William Leonardi, doctoral students in KGI laboratory of assistant professor Mikhail Martchenko. The researchers screened a library of 1,581 drugs previously approved by the FDA for in vitro protection of mammalian cells against Bacillus anthracis lethal toxin and diphtheria toxin, which normally kill 50-70% of unprotected cells. They then investigated the 1% most promising compounds that both provided the best protection against the two toxins and were not toxic to uninfected cells.

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