Sierra Leone

Treating malaria makes Ebola care easier

TIME MAGAZINE   by Alexandra Sifferlin                                                                  Jan. 16, 2015
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is launching its second mass distribution of treatments for malaria in Ebola-stricken Sierra Leone, a move that may have the positive side effect of helping ease the burden of Ebola cases.

Malaria... causes many of the same symptoms as Ebola. It’s common for people to come to Ebola treatment centers believing they have Ebola, when in fact they have malaria—which crowds the clinics and causes enormous stress for patients and their families. Treating malaria and preventing infection are ways MSF can ensure that they reduce the number of patients at Ebola treatment centers in addition to saving lives, since more people fall ill and die from malaria than Ebola.

Read complete story.

http://time.com/3671597/doctors-without-borders-malaria-ebola/

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION MEDIA CENTRE                   Jan, 15, 2015

One year after the first Ebola cases started to surface in Guinea, WHO is publishing this series of 14 papers that take an in-depth look at West Africa’s first epidemic of Ebola virus disease.

The papers explore reasons why the disease evaded detection for several months and the factors, many specific to West Africa, that fuelled its subsequent spread.

The most extensive papers trace events in each of the 3 most severely affected countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone...

Key events are set out chronologically, starting with the child who is believed to be the index case of this epidemic through to the Director-General’s commitment to steadfastly support affected countries until they reach zero cases.

Read complete news release

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/2015/ebola-one-year-on/en/
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Read report:

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                             Jan. 15, 2015

BERLIN  — The international Red Cross says a local employee has died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, becoming the first Red Cross worker or volunteer to succumb to the disease there.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said the male nurse who worked at an Ebola treatment center in Kenema, whom it didn't identify, died Tuesday and was confirmed to have been suffering from the disease.

It said Thursday it is investigating how the man became infected and whether it happened at home or at work. The agency said 29 people who had contact with him are being monitored for symptoms.Linke

Link to complete story
http://news.yahoo.com/red-cross-nurse-dies-ebola-sierra-leone-125759456.html

NBC NEWS     by Maggie Fox                                                                             Jan. 14, 2005
The number of new Ebolacases is starting to drop off in the three worst-hit West African countries, and Liberia has only reported 48 cases in the past three weeks, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday.

Guinea and Liberia both reported the fewest new cases since August, WHO says in its latest daily look at Ebola statistics. Sierra Leone is still suffering badly, with 769 new cases over the past 21 days, but that's a decline in reported cases.

"Sierra Leone has now reported a decline in case incidence for the second week running, and recorded its lowest weekly total of new confirmed cases since the week ending 31 August 2014," WHO said.

Overall, 21,261 people have been infected in this ongoing epidemic of Ebola, and 8,414 have died, WHO says.

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/situation-reports/en/

Ebola Situation report

WHO                                                                                         Jan. 14, 2015