Conakry

VOICE OF AMERICA                                      Dec. 3, 2014

New data shows the Ebola outbreak intensifying in Sierra Leone, even as it stabilizes or drops off in other West African countries.   (Scroll down for link to WHO roadmap.)

The World Health Organization says Sierra Leone reported 537 new confirmed cases in the week ending November 30, a jump of more than 150 over the week before.  

In its latest update Wednesday, the WHO says "transmission remains persistent and intense across the country with the exception of the south."  The worst affected area was the capital, Freetown, where more than 200 new cases were reported.  

According to the WHO, the number of Ebola cases worldwide is more than 17,000, with all but a few dozen in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.  The overall death toll is up to 6,070.

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INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES                                                                                Dec. 2, 2014

Morocco’s refusal to host the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) from 17 January to 8 February next year, due to fears of Ebola,has sparked a furore among soccer lovers across the continent.

The North African kingdom has since become the target of some of the most aggressive xenophobia from fellow Africans, notably on social media. ‘Morocco is scared of outsiders,’ ‘Morocco is not an African country,’ are some of the insults that have been directed at the country in the wake of its decision.

... The competition has now been moved to Equatorial Guinea, co-host of the 2012 Afcon with Gabon. This decision has huge financial and political implications. Morocco has also been barred from participating in the 2015 Afcon, and risks more sanctions for its national team and Moroccan clubs.

DISCOVER MAGAZINE    By Kari Lydersen                                                                              Dec. 2, 2014
.....redicting the trajectory of Ebola rather than playing catching-up could do much to help prevent and contain the disease. Some experts have called for prioritizing mobile treatment units that can be quickly relocated to the spots most needed. Figuring out where Ebola is likely to strike next or finding emerging hot spots early on would be key to the placement of these treatment centers.

But such modeling requires data, and lots of it.  And for stressed healthcare workers on the ground and government and non-profit agencies scrambling to combat a raging epidemic, collecting and disseminating data is often not a high priority.

CNN    BY Laura Smith-Spark                                                                                                   Dec. 2, 2014
Spain is officially clear of Ebola, the World Health Organization declared Tuesday, after no new cases were reported since a nurse's assistant who contracted the virus there tested negative for it.

Spanish nurse Teresa Romero after being discharged from hospital on November 5, 2014 in Madrid, Spain

Since then, 42 days have passed -- double the maximum known incubation period for the virus -- without another case, allowing Spain to be declared free of Ebola.

Spanish authorities had been monitoring 87 people who came into contact with healthcare worker Teresa Romero Ramos, 15 of whom were considered high-risk and were quarantined at a Madrid hospital, WHO said.

Another 145 hospital employees who helped care for Romero during her month-long stay at the Carlos III Hospital were also monitored.