Guinea

REUTERS                                                        Feb. 12, 2015

CONAKRY- Red Cross teams in Ebola-hit Guinea have been attacked on average 10 times a month over the past year, the charity said on Thursday, warning that the violence was hampering efforts to contain the disease.
In the most recent incident last Sunday in the town of Forecariah about 60 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of Conakry, two Red Cross volunteers were beaten while trying to conduct a safe burial, the charity said.

Ending traditional burials is seen as crucial to stopping the spread of the latest outbreak... because rituals often involve extensive contact with highly contagious corpses.

"As long as people have misconceptions about how Ebola is spread, and continue to prevent volunteers from doing their work, we will not stop the disease," said Youssouf Traore, president of the Red Cross Society of Guinea.

Health workers stand at the entrance to a quarantine zone in a Red Cross facility in the town of Koidu

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http://news.yahoo.com/red-cross-ebola-teams-guinea-attacked-10-times-122126456.html

THE WHITE  HOUSE  PRESS OFFICE                                          FEB. 11, 2015

Fact sheet on the Ebola situation

"...Together with our international partners – and the people of the three nations themselves – we have bent the curve of the epidemic and placed it on a much improved trajectory. We have gone from over 1,000 new suspected, probable, and confirmed Ebola cases a week in October, to roughly 150 new confirmed weekly cases in the most recent reports.  Liberia has reported only a handful of new cases per week, a drop of well over 90 percent.  Significant declines also have been reported in Sierra Leone from the epidemic’s peak. Among the accomplishments in this response:..."

Read complete Statement
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/11/fact-sheet-progress-our-ebola-response-home-and-abroad

Also see:

Most U.S. Troops will be withdrawn, posted yesterday, Feb. 11, 2015

REUTERS   by  Katie Nguyen                                                                                       Feb. 11, 2015

LONDON - Britain's decision to stop direct flights to Ebola-hit countries had "no scientific justification", probably increased the cost of dealing with the outbreak and should be reversed, a parliamentary watchdog said on Wednesday.

Several airlines including British Airways and Emirates stopped flights last year to countries in West Africa affected by the worst outbreak of Ebola since the deadly virus was identified in 1976.

In September, independent health advisers to the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that there should be no general ban on travel or trade with Ebola-affected areas....

The committee also criticized the Department for International Development (DFID) for failing to respond to the crisis with enough urgency. It said DFID should focus on strengthening healthcare systems in the region so they could cope better with future public health emergencies.
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http://news.yahoo.com/uk-resume-flights-ebola-hit-nations-parliamentary-watchdog-132034795--finance.html;_ylt=AwrBEiHpi9tUnhAA7srQtDMD

UPDATE: Obama says US has ‘risen to the challenge’ of fighting Ebola

ASSOCIATED PRESS  BY Edith Lederer in New York and Josh Lederman in Washington               Feb. 11, 2015

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama heralded a “new phase in the fight” against Ebola on Wednesday and said progress against the outbreak in West Africa will allow the U.S. to withdraw nearly all American troops sent to Liberia last fall.

He cautioned the mission was not over, and he set an ambitious goal of eliminating the disease. “We have risen to the challenge,” he said at the White House. “Our focus now is getting to zero.”

Obama said only 100 of the 2,800 troops sent to Liberia will remain there after April 30. About 1,500 have returned home.

...Earlier in the day, he met with philanthropists and foundation leaders who had supported the fight against the outbreak, which had threatened to spiral out of control and fostered fears in the U.S. and elsewhere beyond West Africa.

At the height of the outbreak, Liberia was experiencing 119 confirmed Ebola cases per week. This week there were only three. But Guinea reported a sharp increase with 65 new confirmed cases compared with 39 the week before. Sierra Leone reported 76 new confirmed cases.