Ebola deaths top 8,000; exposures trigger health worker evacuations

Ebola: Roundup of recent developments

(Two items. Scroll down for UNMEER report.)

CENTER FOR INFECTIOUSNESS DISEASE AND POLICY   by Lisa Schnirring                              Jan. 5, 2015

As deaths in West Africa's Ebola outbreak officially topped 8,000 over the weekend, leadership of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) changed hands, and Guinea launched a new effort to battle the disease amid continuing reports of community resistance....

In other developments, Guinea's government has announced the launch of a campaign called "zero Ebola in 60 days", UNMEER said today. Guinea's Ebola case counts have been oscillating over the past several months, and in its most recent update, the WHO said it's not clear what the trend is. The first part of Guinea's campaign will start Tuesday, with expert teams traveling to six regions to assess local response efforts and form an action plan for each prefecture that dovetails with Guinea's national action plan.

UNMEER said the campaign's working groups are targeting surveillance, case management, infection control, community engagement and social mobilization, and safe burials.

Response workers are still encountering resistance in some areas, including 25 subprefectures in Guinea, UNMEER said, citing WHO data. For example, on Jan 1 local people in the Guinea community of Kindia assaulted a Red Cross team and vandalized a vehicle. The Red Cross team had traveled to the area to conduct a safe burial and transport suspected Ebola patients. In its Jan 2 report, UNMEER said leaders held a community meeting in Sinoe County, Liberia, to dispel rumors that community health workers were being paid for every patient they refer to the county hospital.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/01/ebola-deaths-top-8000-exposures-trigger-health-worker-evacuations

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http://ebolaresponse.un.org/sites/default/files/150105_-_unmeer_external_situation_report.pdf