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Obama: West Africa Not out of the Woods on Ebola

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS                                       Nov. 18, 2014
By Darlene Superville

WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama said Tuesday that West Africa is "nowhere near out of the woods" in its fight against Ebola despite some improvement in the three countries hardest hit by the virus.

Obama said the disease remains a threat to the world, including the U.S., and he urged Congress to quickly approve his request for billions of dollars in emergency spending to combat the spread of Ebola at home and abroad.

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Guarding The Ebola Border

Ivory Coast patrol guards against people crossing in from Ebola-stricken Liberia

Thieu Patrice, Tan Benjamin and village chief Gueu Denis of Gahapleu, Ivory Coast, stand on the path to Liberia.

NPR                                                                                                                            Nov. 18, 2014
By Gregory Warner
GAHAPLEU, Ivory Coast --The arrival of Ebola on the Liberian side of the border, Nimba County, with more than 100 cases, turned this border-straddling community into a security risk.

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/11/18/364144837/guarding-the-ebola-border

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International Football Stars Unite in the Fight against Ebola

THE WORLD BANK   PRESS RELEASE                                                                                           NOV. 17, 2014

WASHINGTON— The world’s top football players, including Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Barcelona’s Neymar Jr., Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Bayern Munich’s Philipp Lahm, are joining forces with global health experts to help raise global awareness in the fight against Ebola.

In a new campaign “11 Against Ebola”, players from some of Europe’s biggest clubs come together to promote preventative measures aimed at communities affected by the Ebola virus.

Using the slogan “Together, we can beat Ebola” and the hashtag #wecanbeatebola, players share 11 simple health messages selected with the help of doctors and health experts from Africa, the World Bank Group and the World Health Organization, among the organizations tackling the outbreak in West Africa.

Each message is amplified through animated films, radio content, banners, posters and photographs of the players.

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Fearing Ebola surge, Mali widens virus watch to 440 people

AFP                                                                                                         Nov.17,2014                                 

Fearful of a surge of Ebola cases, Mali has placed more than 440 people under surveillance..

Officials in Mali met to consider increasing security at its border following two confirmed cases of Ebola due to infection in neighboring Guinea.

 

Police officers stand in front of the quarantined Pasteur clinic in Bamako on November 12, 2014 ©Habibou Kouyate (AFP/File)

Mali has been scrambling to prevent a minor outbreak from turning into a major crisis after the deaths of a Guinean imam and the Malian nurse who treated him in the capital Bamako.

"The number of contacts followed by health services amounts to 442. They have all been placed under observation for health control," Samba Sow, of the Ebola emergency operations center, said in a statement late Sunday.

Teams of investigators have been tracking health workers and scouring Bamako and the imam's village of Kouremale, which straddles the Mali-Guinea border, for people who could have been exposed.

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Fear of Ebola Opens Wary Villages to Outsiders in Guinea

In-depth description of the Ebola situation in remote villages in Guinea

A man with symptoms of Ebola walked to the center of Dandano after the chief of the village ordered the removal of sick people from homes. “Bring out your sick!” the chief shouted at the crowd, shaking his fist and warning of illness and death for the whole village if they did not obey. Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

NEW YORK TIMES                                                                                                             Nov. 17, 2014
By Adam Nossiter

DANDANO, Guinea--

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In Ebola fight, private foundations provide critical financial aid

Description of the way the CDC Foundation, the Allen Foundation and large donors are playing an important role in countering Ebola.

THE WASHINGTON POST                                                                                                          Nov. 17, 2014
By Ariana Eunjung Cha

"...The unpredictable nature of the Ebola virus has made the government’s partnerships with private donors critically important in the crisis response. Working outside the politically charged federal appropriations process and the sometimes sluggish bureaucracy, foundations and private individuals have been able to offer much-needed relief for those on the front lines...."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/in-ebola-fight-private-foundations-provide-critical-financial-aid/2014/11/16/b57ec57e-6109-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html

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China, Russia Send Ebola Facilities To West Africa

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY                                                                      Nov. 16, 2014

(Two stories, scroll down)

Russia and China are providing facilities to treat people suffering from the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa.

The Chinese Embassy in Liberia said on November 16 that 160 Chinese health-care workers have arrived to staff a $41 million Ebola treatment unit in the country hardest-hit in an outbreak that has killed more than 5,100 people this year.

It said many of the doctors, epidemiologists and nurses who will work at the facility previously helped tackle the SARS epidemic in Asia.

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http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-china-ebola-aid-west-africa/26694812.html
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Russia airlifts field hospital

INTERFAX                                                                                            Nov. 16, 2014
http://rbth.com/news/2014/11/16/russia_airlifts_field_hospital_to_guinea_to_fight_ebola_41442.html

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No Time for a Learning Curve: Nigeria’s Crucial Success against Ebola


AFRICA CENTER FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES, Washington D.C.                        Nov. 12, 2014

Summary of lessons learned from Nigeria and Uganda in containing outbreaks of Ebola

“If a country like Nigeria, hampered by serious security problems, can do this – that is, make significant progress towards interrupting polio transmission, eradicate guinea-worm disease and contain Ebola, all at the same time,” said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, “any country in the world experiencing an imported case can hold onward transmission to just a handful of cases....”

"Numerous African states have identified and refined the best ways of containing the disease."

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http://africacenter.org/2014/11/no-time-for-a-learning-curve-nigerias-crucial-success-against-ebola/?utm_source=November+14++2014+EN&utm_campaign=11%2F14%2F2014&utm_medium=email

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Momentum to fund Ebola vacine research is growing in Congress

FOREIGN POLICY                                                                                                           Nov. 13, 2014

By David Francis

As the Ebola outbreak continues in West Africa, momentum to change FDA restrictions to allow Congress to allocate money toward research on drugs that treat tropical diseases, including Ebola, is growing.

A bill drafted by Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) that would allow the FDA to fund Ebola treatment research will be marked up next week by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee....

 The bill, which has 17 co-sponsors, is part of a flurry of congressional activity on Ebola and the Obama administration's $6.18 billion proposal to confront the disease domestically and abroad. The Senate Appropriations Committee debated Obama's plan on Wednesday, and House and Senate panels are expected to address the White House's spending request next week.

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Cepheid receives grant to develop Ebola diagnostic test

REUTERS                                                           Nov. 20,2014

Molecular diagnostics company Cepheid said it received a grant of up to $3.3 million, co-financed by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to develop a diagnostic test for the deadly Ebola virus.

The Xpert Ebola test, which is expected to use saliva or a drop of blood to identify the virus, is likely to be offered on an emergency use only basis, Cepheid said on Thursday.

Cepheid and the Gates Foundation are also evaluating deploying the company's RemoteXpert cloud-based monitoring software to help track the spread of the disease.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month granted emergency authorization to two new Ebola diagnostic tests made by BioFire, a subsidiary of medical diagnostics maker BioMerieux.

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