Sierra Leone

Set of graphs on the Ebola Outbreak

THE ECONOMIST   by the Graphics Team                                                                   May 5, 2015 

The outbreak continues to claim lives, but Liberia could be confirmed Ebola free on May 9th. The situation in Guinea and Sierra Leone is also improving with fewer provinces reporting cases than in previous weeks. The World Health Organisation reports that each country now has enough treatment beds to be able to isolate and treat patients with Ebola, and to bury everyone known to have died of the disease.

The chart above shows numbers from both the WHO's regular situation reports and from patient databases, which tend to be more accurate but are less complete for recent weeks.
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http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/05/ebola-graphics

AWOKO.ORG   by  Berry Milton                             May 4, 2015

Getting ebola  to zero and staying zero is very crucial at this time, it is because of this that the women of Sierra Leone have taken the lead in the Yellow Ribbon Campaign, an initiative by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) now led by Women in the Media Sierra Leone (WIMSAL).

Given a background to the campaign which was launched about three months ago, SLAJ President Kelvin Lewis said the aim was to inject new energy into the drive to get zero ebola cases as people are tired and frustrated not seeing the ending of the virus, “even though the figures were going down ebola was fighting back.”

He said the campaign is a personal commitment to be made by people which is very important as it means safe and dignified burial, to keep all sick people away from others and to speak out by calling 117 if they know of any sick person and contacts must stay in one area with food and water.
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http://awoko.org/2015/05/04/sierra-leone-news-more-work-and-engagement-for-women-to-end-ebola/

WALL STREET JOURNAL BY Betsy McKay                     May 1, 2015

MONROVIA, Liberia—Dorbor Sirleaf thought his ordeal with Ebola was over in October, when he walked out of a treatment unit, having overcome the ruinous disease.

Instead, the 29-year-old father of four is suffering from symptoms he says he never had before he had Ebola. His legs and other parts of his body ache. Worse, he has trouble seeing, particularly distances. His eyes itch, hurt and often water up. “Sometimes my tears can be rolling,” he said.

More than 15,000 people have survived Ebola in West Africa, and more than 10,800 died, in the largest epidemic of the disease by far in history—one that has yet to be extinguished. But many have emerged with an assortment of mysterious physical ailments, including joint pain, fatigue and a particularly worrisome and common complaint: vision loss. Some, like Mr. Sirleaf, say their eyes hurt. Others report blurred vision or say they can’t see at all.

STARAFRICA.COM                                                                                 April 30, 2015

ABUJA, Nigeria  --Governments in West Africa should improve health governance by scaling up investments in health infrastructure and human capital to ensure proactive responses against pandemics such as Ebola, a panel of discussants on Ebola has recommended.

A statement by the ECOWAS Commission on Thursday in Abuja said that the panelists at the debate on “Ebola; one year after,” organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in Abuja on Tuesday, explained that such investments would engender effective preventive and preparedness initiatives and also address the weak health systems of countries in the region, which suffered the heaviest burden of the latest Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak...

In particular, they recommended that public education and sensitization as well as community mobilization, participation and vigilance must be sustained until the disease is totally eliminated. There should also be effective psycho-social support and reintegration programmes for survivors and children orphaned by the disease....

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