EBOLA/EVD [to 28 March 2015]
Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC); “Threat to international peace and security” (UN Security Council)

Ebola Situation Report – 25 March 2015
Incorporating the WHO Activity Report
[Excerpts]
SUMMARY
:: A total of 79 new confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were reported in the week to 22 March: the lowest weekly total in 2015. There were 45 new confirmed cases reported from Guinea. Having reported no cases for 3 consecutive weeks, a new confirmed case was reported from Liberia on 20 March. Sierra Leone reported 33 new confirmed cases in the week to 22 March…
:: In the context of falling case incidence and a receding zone of transmission, treatment capacity now far exceeds demand in both Liberia and Sierra Leone. Accordingly, and with technical guidance from WHO, national authorities in both countries have begun to implement plans for the phased safe decommissioning of surplus facilities. Each country will retain a core capacity of high-quality Ebola treatment centres, strategically located to ensure complete geographic coverage, with additional rapid-response capacity held in reserve…
:: There have been almost 25 000 reported confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of EVD in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone (table 1), with over 10 000 reported deaths (outcomes for many cases are unknown). A total of 45 new confirmed cases were reported in Guinea, 1 in Liberia, and 33 in Sierra Leone in the 7 days to 22 March…

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First Ebola vaccine to be tested in affected communities one year into outbreak
Guinea WHO Country Office
Ring vaccination starts in Coyah, Guinea
25 March 2015

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Ebola test vaccines appear safe in Phase 2 Liberian clinical trial
Liberia-U.S. partnership planning Phase 3 trial and study of Ebola survivors.
March 26, 2015

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MSF Report: Pushed to the Limit and Beyond — A year into the largest ever Ebola outbreak
March 2015 :: 22 pages
Pdf: http://www.msf.org.uk/sites/uk/files/ebola_-_pushed_to_the_limit_and_beyond.pdf

Press Release
Pushed to the Limit and Beyond: MSF on the global Ebola response one year into the deadliest outbreak in history
March 23, 2015
One year ago today, an outbreak of Ebola in the West African country of Guinea was announced. Since then, nearly 10,000 people have died of the disease, and it has not yet been defeated. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) today released a critical analysis of the Ebola epidemic over the past year, revealing the shortcomings of the global response to the crisis and warning that the outbreak, despite an overall decline in cases, is not yet over.

The report, Pushed to the Limit and Beyond, is based on interviews with dozens of MSF staff involved in the organization’s Ebola intervention. It describes MSF’s early warnings one year ago about cases of Ebola spreading in Guinea, the initial denial by governments of the affected countries, and the unprecedented steps that MSF was forced to take in the face of global inaction as the outbreak engulfed neighbouring states.

Exposing inefficiencies in aid and health systems
“Today we share our initial reflections and take a critical look at both MSF’s response and the wider global response to the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history,” says Dr. Joanne Liu, MSF international president. “The Ebola epidemic proved to be an exceptional event that exposed the reality of how inefficient and slow health and aid systems are to respond to emergencies.”

The report details the effects of the several months-long “global coalition of inaction,” during which the virus spread wildly, leading MSF to issue a rare call for the mobilization of international civilian and military medical assets with biohazard capacity. By the end of August, MSF’s ELWA3 centre in Monrovia was overwhelmed with patients. Staff were forced to turn away visibly ill people from the front gate, in the full knowledge that they would likely return to their communities and infect others.

“The Ebola outbreak has often been described as a perfect storm: a cross-border epidemic in countries with weak public health systems that had never seen Ebola before,” says Christopher Stokes, MSF’s general director. “Yet this is too convenient an explanation. For the Ebola outbreak to spiral this far out of control required many institutions to fail. And they did, with tragic and avoidable consequences.”…