Cuban Docs Most Under-Appreciated in the Fight Against Ebola

Time magazine named the Ebola fighters as their person of the year, and while Americans came to know Dr. Jerry Brown, Dr. Kent Brantly and others by name … there is one group of those fighters who have gone largely unrecognized. Cuban doctors. They make less than $75 a month, but they are still Cuba‘s most valuable export. “I am proud of you all, this is my team,” Dr. Juan Carlos told his team as they gathered around a prep...

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Ebola’s Lasting Impact On The U.S. Health Care System

Huffington Post- One of the biggest humanitarian tragedies in 2014 has been the Ebola epidemic, which to date has infected 17,942 people and killed 6,388. The epidemic continues in West Africa, and there is no doubt it will impact the governments, economies and people of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea for years to come. But while Ebola has affected the U.S. in a much smaller way, the handful of cases that arrived here may also have an enduring...

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Ebola concern cancels Christmas and New Year’s gatherings in Sierra Leone

Christmas and New Year gatherings have been banned by the government throughout Sierra Leone for fear the Ebola virus will be spread to rural villages as people go home to celebrate. The edict, which will be enforced by the army, means those who live in the capital, Freetown, will be barred from travelling to join their extended families. The city’s residents account for a third of the country’s population. A “lock-down” is reported to also be...

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Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning photographer dies in Liberia

CBS News/AP – Photojournalist Michel du Cille, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner who recently captured compelling images of Ebola patients and their caretakers, died in Liberia while on assignment for The Washington Post. He was 58. Executive Editor Martin Baron sent a statement to the newspaper staff informing them of du Cille’s death. Baron called du Cille “a beloved colleague and one of the world’s most accomplished...

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Bodies of Ebola victims found piled up in Sierra Leone hospital

Health officials in Sierra Leone fear a major Ebola outbreak may have gone largely unreported until now in a remote district where the World Health Organization (WHO) said scores of bodies piled up in a hospital. The WHO said on Wednesday that it had sent a response team to the diamond-rich Kono district following a worrying spike in reported Ebola cases in the district, which lies along the country’s eastern border with Guinea. “They...

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Liberia: Ebola outbreak contained in Lofa County, MSF hands over activities

The Ebola situation has improved in Lofa County and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has decided to withdraw from the area. New actors have arrived to help and since 30 October there have been no more Ebola patients in the Ebola Management Centre (EMC) in Foya. The success of MSF’s intervention in northern Liberia can be considered a model of response, benefiting from a comprehensive approach and constant community involvement. When MSF took over...

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Ebola outbreak: Mali’s last known case recovered and released

The last Ebola patient being treated in Mali has survived the disease and been released, the Health Ministry said Friday, leaving no known Ebola outbreak cases in the West African country. Mali had recorded eight cases of Ebola, all of them linked to people who crossed from neighboring Guinea. The country now has no confirmed or suspected cases, according to the ministry, but authorities are still monitoring 26 people who had contact with the sick....

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Ebola: Facing Death Without Spreading Disease

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The most “intense” Ebola epidemic in the world, as the World Health Organization puts it, can now be found in Sierra Leone, which is witnessing more than 500 laboratory-confirmed new cases per week, and hundreds more suspected and uncounted infections. The virus is spreading all over the country, but about half of new cases are arising in the capital city of Freetown and neighboring districts. When I was in Freetown three...

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Ebola Outbreak Will Take Several More Months to Contain: U.N.

Helen Regan The U.N. goal of containing 100% of Ebola cases by Jan. 1 will not be met. The U.N.’s special envoy on Ebola said Thursday that it would be several months before the ebola outbreak in West Africa is under control. Dr. David Nabarro said international governments as well as local communities had taken a “massive shift” in responding to the crisis over the past four month, the Associated Press reports. However, he noted that more needed...

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Health partners unite to build stronger Ebola health systems

WHO – 12 DECEMEBR 2014 ¦ GENEVA – On 10-11 December 2014, Ministers of Health and Finance of Ebola-affected countries, international organizations and development partners assembled for a high-level meeting on how to strengthen systems of health in Ebola-affected countries and agreed on what needs to be done to rebuild and strengthen essential ebola health services in these countries.  “People in Ebola-affected countries are dying –...

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