submitted by Stephen Morse

icap.columbia.edu - January 15, 2015

An ICAP team conducted a three-week, rapid assessment of Ebola community care centers (CCCs), a new model of care that aims to break the cycle of household transmission of the Ebola virus.

With funding from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), ICAP team members visited 11 sites across six districts—Bo, Bombali, Kambia, Koinadugu, Port Loko, and Western Area—to assess the safety, effectiveness, acceptability, and operational feasibility of these centers, where patients with symptoms suggestive of Ebola receive care and support as they await diagnosis and transfer to Ebola treatment units or referral for other medical services. . .

. . . Using a 168-item site assessment survey, information was gathered on patient flow, laboratory services, on-site standard operating protocols, and other key operational areas of the community care centers.

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BBC         by Tulip Mazumdar                                       Jan. 14, 2015

FREETOWN --Sierre Leone-- The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres has opened its first Ebola treatment centre specialising in care for infected pregnant women.

MSF says the death rate for expectant mothers is extremely high, and health workers treating them, particularly during childbirth or miscarriage, are especially vulnerable to catching the virus.

Building work is still continuing at the maternity section of the latest MSF Ebola clinic on the outskirts of the capital. It is been erected at the site of one of the city's most prestigious secondary schools, Methodist Boys High School, in Kissy.

The classrooms are empty - schools have been closed for months. The playing area is now home to MSF's sixth treatment centre in Sierra Leone. When it is fully operational, it will have 80 beds, and a special focus on treating pregnant women suspected or confirmed to have Ebola.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30780176

CENTER FOR DISEASE POLICY AND RESEARCH by Lisa Schnirring                                   Jan. 13, 2015

An early September assessment of burial practices in some of Sierra Leone's Ebola hot spots revealed a host of problems that were probably helping fuel ongoing virus transmission in the country, experts from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Sierra Leone's health ministry reported today.

The team conducted its first assessment in three high-risk areas, focusing on burial practices, cemetery management, and adherence to recommended practices. Then they looked at the issues again the following month on a broader scale ahead of the Sierra Leone government's national rollout of standard procedures for safe and dignified burials. They published their findings in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

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http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2015/01/probe-ebola-burial-practices-pinpoints-risks-triggers-changes

TORONTO SUN      by Hal Roberts                              Jan. 13, 2015

OTTAWA — A third mobile lab and two more scientists from the Public Health Agency of Canada are on their way to help fight Ebola in West Africa.

Sean Freeman points out on a map of Africa where he was working at the Red Cross offices in downtown Calgary, Alta. where he has returned from working at the Red Cross Ebola Treatment Centre in Kenema, Sierra Leone. on Monday January 5, 2015. Stuart Dryden/QMI Agency

The doctors will spend a week in Amsterdam and Belgium to train with Doctors without Borders before heading to Sierra Leone on Jan. 18.

"It is our hope that the work of this third mobile laboratory — providing physicians with ongoing information about the health of their patients — will allow health-care workers to provide medical treatments tailored to their patients' needs and ultimately, save more lives," Health Minister Rona Ambrose said in a statement Tuesday.

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http://www.torontosun.com/2015/01/13/canada-sends-more-help-to-fight-ebola-in-west-africa