Ebola cases plummet in Liberian hot spot as aid groups gain community trust

WASHINGTON POST                                               Nov. 14, 2004
By Lena H. Sun

WASHINGTON --The number of new Ebola patients has fallen to practically zero in one of Liberia’s hardest-hit areas because aid workers gained the trust of the community so the sick were able to be treated quickly and the dead were buried safely, according to a report released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

                            Number of newly reported Ebola cases in Lofa County, Liberia. (CDC)

That strategy put in place in Lofa County by Doctors Without Borders has been so effective that it could serve “as a model to implement in other affected areas to accelerate control of Ebola,” the report said.

The measures are aimed at reducing fear of everything associated with the disease, from the health-care workers, who looked like astronauts in their protective gear, to the way treatment facilities are designed.

At the Ebola treatment unit in the town of Foya, for example, the facility’s high walls were replaced with transparent fences so people could see what was happening at the center....

Read complete article and see link to CDC reports

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/ebola-cases-plummet-in-liberian-hot-spot-as-aid-groups-gain-community-trust/2014/11/14/5b2efc18-6b88-11e4-a31c-77759fc1eacc_story.html

Read CDC Reports
http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p1114-ebola-liberia.html