Africa Resilience Initiative

HUFFINGTON POST  by Mandeep Dhaliwal, Director of UNDP’s HIV, Health and Development Group, Bureau of Policy and Programme Support      Aug. 10, 2015                                                                 

While scientists still need to figure out how long the protective effect of the vaccine lasts, and how effective it will be among the general population and with different strains of the virus, without a doubt this is an important tool for the protection of health and community workers and possibly the wider community. This will certainly help in the on-going efforts to achieve the target of zero new Ebola cases and in overall recovery efforts.

submitted by George Hurlburt

Graves dug in Freetown, Sierra Leone, to cope with those dying from Ebola in late 2014.  Mads Nissen/Panos

The world is ill-prepared for the next epidemic or pandemic. But the horror of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa may drive change.

nature.com - by Declan Butler - August 5, 2015

If there was one point last year when public-health experts held their breath, it was when a Liberian man infected with Ebola virus flew to Lagos, Nigeria, in July. Ebola was already raging uncontrolled through impoverished countries in West Africa, killing half of those it infected. Now a vomiting man had carried it straight to the heart of Africa's largest megacity — with 21 million inhabitants, many of whom live in slums. Experts were horrified at the prospect that the virus might rip through the city — and then, because Lagos is an international travel hub, spread farther afield.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

From watching the video in the link below, the Arktek vaccine cold storage device is also known as the P6 . . .
http://www.intellectualventures.com/inventions-patents/our-inventions/vaccine-cold-chain-device/

The P6 is not just a container, but an innovative high-tech device.  It is designed to keep vaccines at the appropriate temperatures for a month or more with repeat vaccine retrievals and no need for electricity (using just one initial batch of ice).  The device also has built-in communications and monitoring capability.  The P6 units are able to send live updates, including the units’ GPS positions viewable on interactive maps, the number of days since fresh ice had been added, temperature, and more.  Here are the details . . .
http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/invent/a-story-of-invention-the-passive-vaccine-storage-device

ASSOCIATED PRESS by MARIA CHENG and RAPHAEL SATTER   July 31, 2015

LONDON — The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response is officially winding down Friday, handing its leadership role and senior staff to the Geneva-based World Health Organization as efforts to contain the deadly virus continue.

"We have reached an important milestone in the global Ebola response," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Friday, while noting that that crisis "is not yet over."

The Ebola mission, also called UNMEER, was established last year as WHO struggled to get a handle on an outbreak that has killed more than 11,000 people, mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. WHO had been strongly criticized for fumbling its response to the epidemic, and the creation of UNMEER was widely seen as a rebuke to its leadership.

Speaking to reporters Friday, UNMEER chief David Nabarro said he had seen signs that WHO had already absorbed some of the lessons of the Ebola disaster, recovering its coordination role in West Africa and deploying more 1,000 staffers to the field.

Read complete story.
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/medical/article/WHO-works-to-reform-itself-after-fumbling-Ebola-6416880.php