Conakry

BBC    By   Mark Doyle                                                                                                        Dec. 1, 2014

Tony Banbury declined to say if targets he had set in the fight against Ebola, to be achieved by Monday, had been met.

The targets were for the proportion of people being treated and for the safe burial of highly infectious bodies.

In October, Mr Banbury told the UN Security Council that by 1 December, "70% of all those infected by the disease must be under treatment and 70% of the victims safely buried if the outbreak is to be successfully arrested".

Mr Banbury said the 70% targets were being met in "the vast majority" of areas in the three worst-affected countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

"But in some areas", he said, "including here in Sierra Leone - especially in the capital Freetown and in the town of Port Loko - we are falling short. And it is in those areas where we really need to focus our assets and our capabilities".

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NEW YORK TIMES -- BY Adam Nossiter                                                                    Dec. 1, 2014                          
Description of the way that President Alpha Conde, after intially minmizing the Ebola threat, "is mustering a late-career tenacity to confront the deadly epidemic that still infects hundreds in this battered West African nation."

                            “While shaving I think of Ebola, while eating I think of Ebola,” said President Alpha Condé of Guinea. The response of nearby nations helped galvanize Mr. Condé. Credit Samuel Aranda for The New York Times

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/world/africa/ebola-now-preoccupies-once-skeptical-leader-in-guinea.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

REUTERS                                                                                                                      NOV. 28, 2014

LONDON --Men who recover from Ebola should abstain from sex for three months to minimize the risk of passing the virus on in their semen, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

Ebola, a disease that has infected and killing thousands in a vast epidemic in West Africa, normally spreads via bodily fluids such as blood, saliva and faeces. Although sexual transmission of Ebola virus disease has never been documented, the virus has been detected in the survivors' semen.

"Men who have recovered from Ebola virus disease should be aware that seminal fluid may be infectious for as long as three months after onset of symptoms," the WHO said in a statement....

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/28/us-health-ebola-sex-idUSKCN0JC0UP20141128

French President Francois Hollande is to arrive in Guinea, becoming the first Western leader to visit a nation hit hard by the deadly Ebola virus.

He will deliver "a message of solidarity" to Guinea, where more than 1,200 have died of Ebola.

Meanwhile Guinea is to trial a new Ebola test that will deliver results six times faster than current methods.

The outbreak was now "stable" in the West African country, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week.

France has pledged 100m euros (£79m; $125m) to help tackle the disease by opening several care centres in Guinea, a former French colony.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30241374