EBOLA/EVD [to 11 October 2014]

WHO Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) – web site
:: Ebola response roadmap – Situation report – 10 October 2014
Excerpt
A total of 8399 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported in seven affected countries (Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, and the United States of America) up to the end of 8 October. There have been 4033 deaths. Following the WHO Ebola Response Roadmap structure1, country reports fall into two categories: 1) those with widespread and intense transmission (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone); and 2), those with an initial case or cases, or with localized transmission (Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, and the United States of America). An overview of the situation in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a separate, unrelated outbreak of EVD is occurring, is also provided (see Annex 1)….

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FAO
:: FAO launches new initiative to tackle growing food security threat (08 October 2014)
8 October 2014, Rome/Dakar – FAO today launched a new programme to urgently assist 90 000 vulnerable households in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone whose food supplies and livelihoods are threatened by the disruptive effect the Ebola epidemic is having on rural economies, agricultural activities and markets.
The Regional Response Programme for West Africa will scale-up the work FAO is currently doing with governments, United Nations partners and local networks of agriculture, veterinary and forestry workers, to help stop the spread of the disease, meet immediate and long-term food and nutrition security needs and build resilience.
FAO is urgently calling for $30 million to support activities linked to the programme over the next 12 months. Programme activities are organized around four key objectives:
– contribute to saving lives by stopping the spread of the disease through social mobilization,
training and awareness raising;
– boost incomes and agricultural production to safeguard livelihoods;
– build resilience of communities to disease threats; and
– strengthen coordination for improved response.

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UNMEER (UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response)
http://www.un.org/ebolaresponse/index.shtml
External Situation Reports
:: 10 October 2014
Media Releases
:: Secretary-General appoints Marcel Rudasingwa of Rwanda as Ebola Crisis Manager for Guinea, Peter Jan Graaff of the Netherlands as Ebola Crisis Manager for Liberia and Amadu Kamara of the United States as Ebola Crisis Manager for Sierra Leone (09 October 2014)

7 October 2014
GA/AB/4119
Budget Committee Approves $50 Million for United Nations Ebola Response Mission, Reviews Assessment Scale to Calculate Financial Contributions of Member States
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved by consensus a draft resolution to provide nearly $50 million for the United Nations operations to control the Ebola outbreak.

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CDC/MMWR Watch [to 11 October 2014]
http://www.cdc.gov/media/index.html
: Enhanced Ebola Screening to Start at Five U.S. Airports and New Tracking Program for all People Entering U.S. from Ebola-affected Countries – Press Release
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
New layers of screening at airports that receive more than 94% of West African Travelers.
:: Questions and Answers on Experimental Treatments and Vaccines for Ebola

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USAID [to 11 October 2014]
http://www.usaid.gov/
:: USAID Announces Grand Challenge to Fight Ebola
October 7, 2014
Call for ideas opens today; focus on solutions in protective gear and frontline tools
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah today launched the Fighting Ebola: A Grand Challenge for Development with a call to innovators around the world to submit ideas focused on improving the tools used by frontline healthcare workers in the fight against Ebola in West Africa. The initial focus of the Challenge, as announced by President Obama on Sept. 26, is to generate pioneering solutions to improve the personal protective equipment (PPE) and tools used by healthcare workers battling Ebola. Shah detailed the initiative today at the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting in Seattle, Wash.

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World Bank
:: Transcript of Remarks at the Event: Impact of the Ebola Crisis: A Perspective from the Countries
The World Bank convened a special event focused on the impact of the Ebola Crisis. This transcript captures comments by World Bank President Jim Kim as host, President CONDÉ of Guinea; President Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia; President Koroma of Sierra Leone, UNSG Ban Ki-moon, and many others including IMF, WHO, CDC, UNICEF, USAID, and leaders from a range of counties providing support.

:: World Bank Group President Calls for New Global Pandemic Emergency Facility
October 10, 2014
WASHINGTON, October 10, 2014—In the wake of a “late, inadequate and slow” global response to the Ebola outbreak, World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim today called for the creation of a new pandemic emergency facility that would rapidly respond to future outbreaks by delivering money to countries in crisis.
Speaking before the Annual Meetings plenary, a meeting of the governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group, Kim said he would like to develop the proposals for a financial instrument with the United Nations, the IMF and regional development banks.
He said even as the focus should now be intensely on doing everything possible to stop Ebola, planning must also begin for the next pandemic, which “could spread much more quickly, kill even more people and potentially devastate the global economy”.
“The world has an IMF to coordinate and work with central banks and ministries to respond to financial crises,” he said. “When it comes to health emergencies, however, our institutional toolbox is empty: There’s no such center of knowledge and skill for response and coordination.”
He said the Bank Group’s financial teams have proposed several solutions, including the pandemic emergency facility. “The device would pre-package a response, establishing contingent funding agreements with donors and receipt mechanisms for possible recipients. So when a global health emergency is declared, financial support would be readily available and flow quickly to support an immediate response”…

:: Ebola: New World Bank Group Study Forecasts Billions in Economic Loss if Epidemic Lasts Longer, Spreads in West Africa
WASHINGTON, October 8, 2014–With the latest death toll from Ebola now at 3,439 in the three worst-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, a new economic impact assessment from the World Bank Group says that if the epidemic was to significantly infect people in neighboring countries, some of which have much larger economies, the two-year regional financial impact could reach US$32.6 billion by the end of 2015.The new World Bank Group report notes, “as it is far from certain that the epidemic will be fully contained by December 2014 and in light of the considerable uncertainty about its future trajectory, two alternative scenarios are used to estimate the medium-term (2015) impact of the epidemic, extending to the end of calendar year 2015.” A “Low Ebola” scenario corresponds to rapid containment within the three most severely affected countries, while “High Ebola” corresponds to slower containment in the three countries, with broader regional contagion.
October 8, 2014