FINAL COMMUNIQUE: EXTRAORDINARY SESSION OF THE AUTHORITY OF ECOWAS HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT
ECOWAS – Economic Community of West African States
N°: 204/2014
6 NOVEMBER 2014 [Accra, Ghana]
[Excerpts; Editor’s text bolding]
5. The Summit was deeply concerned by the negative impact of the Ebola Virus Disease on the economies of the countries directly affected, human security as well as the social and humanitarian situation in the region. It equally expressed concern regarding the threat to the regional integration process as well as regional peace and security posed by this epidemic.
6. The Authority expressed strong feelings at the loss of thousands of lives since the outbreak of the epidemic and reiterated solidarity and sympathy with the people of the affected countries, in particular Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Mali.
7. The Heads of State and Government reaffirmed their firm commitment to continue their joint and coordinated efforts in the determined fight against the Ebola Virus Disease. To that end, they commended the appropriate actions undertaken by Nigeria and Senegal, which enabled these two Member States to contain the epidemic. While also encouraging the other affected countries in their efforts to contain the epidemic, they expressed their hope that these countries will achieve the same success.
8. In the same vein, with a view to ensuring the efficiency of all the efforts, the Authority appointed E. Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe President of the Togolese Republic to supervise the Ebola Virus Disease response and eradication process.
9. Furthermore, after endorsing the Regional Integrated Operational Plan for Response to the Ebola Virus Disease and welcoming the relevance of the areas of intervention contained therein, the Heads of State and Government made the following specific decisions:

To the Member States
10. The Heads of State and Government call on all the Member States to urgently develop and implement guidelines on Ebola treatment and management in line with WHO standards. They also urge them to join ICAO and seek assistance from the ICAO/WHO Cooperation Arrangement for the Prevention of the Spread of Communicable Diseases through Air Travel (CAPSCA).
11. In addition, Authority urges the Member States to contribute military personnel and logistics to enhance response capacities, support the medical staff on the field and participate in the construction of additional treatment and isolation centres as well as ensure their security. It also encourages Member States to provide additional medical and voluntary staff to the affected countries.
12. The Summit commends the Member States that made contributions to the Regional Solidarity Fund to fight Ebola mainly Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone and urges the other countries to fulfill their commitment to the Fund.
13. The Heads of State and Government reiterate their unwavering commitment to the principles of free movement within the ECOWAS region and invite all the Member States to adhere to them, in particular by removing restriction and ban on the movement of persons and goods to and from the affected countries, while observing the appropriate health control at the borders.
14. The Authority urges the Member States to conduct extensive public education, communication and awareness on the Ebola Virus Disease with a view to preventing the stigmatisation of affected persons and stopping the transmission of the disease.
15. To better address sanitary crisis in the future, the Heads of State and Government consider that it is essential to ensure the strengthening of national health systems by improving upon their effectiveness and also by increasing the resources allocated them in the national budgets in accordance with the Abuja Declaration, which requires the allocation of 15% of the total budget.

To the ECOWAS Commission
16. The Heads of State and Government reiterate the need to strengthen the regional multi-sectoral coordination in the fight against the epidemic and underpin the important role of ECOWAS in that regard.
17. To that end, the Authority requests the Commission to take the necessary measures, in collaboration with of all the stakeholders and persons involved in the field, to mobilise adequate resources for the coordinated implementation of the Regional Operational Plan for Response to the Ebola Virus Disease.
18. The Authority directs the Commission to actively participate in the various actions undertaken to support the efforts of the Member States particularly in the planning, implementation and coordination of all United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) and African Union activities in the region. The Authority also instructs the Commission to create a consultation framework with the Mission for a short, medium and long-term response.
19. The Summit directs the Commission to support Member States to better coordinate their medical and humanitarian efforts on the field.
20. The Authority instructs the Commission to take all the necessary actions to set up a regional center for disease prevention and control in West Africa and enhance health research in West Africa. It also encourages the Commission to be involved in the ongoing initiatives towards the development of vaccines.
21. Authority requests the Commission to deepen the socio-economic and cultural assessment of the epidemic and take all necessary steps to provide the appropriate medium and long term response through a resolute action against poverty and ignorance, for sustainable growth and development.

22. To the International Community, the Heads of State and Government welcome the adoption of the United Nations Resolution 2177, which marks its unanimous determination to eradicate the Ebola Virus Disease.
23. In that regard, the Authority commends the show of international solidarity in support to the efforts of the affected countries. In particular, it welcomes the technical and financial support from all the ECOWAS bilateral and multilateral partners on the field.
24. In view of the continuing and increasing challenges of the Ebola Virus Disease, the Summit calls on all the partners to maintain the level of their commitment and support to the region, in particular by increasing their financial assistance to the affected Member States.
25. Similarly, the Summit invites private sector, civil society, regional and international humanitarian and development organizations to intensify efforts in technical, financial and institutional assistance to support treatment centers and other regular medical facilities in the affected countries, as well as public education, awareness and communication.
26. The Authority also invites all the relevant Partners to accelerate efforts for vaccines and adequate therapy against the virus as well as support the region in the development of research capacity. In addition, Authority calls on them to prioritise the provision of vaccines at subsidized prices to the affected countries, and to the region.
27. The Heads of State and Government call on all the airlines and maritime companies to continue flight schedules to the affected countries or resume operations notably to transport health and humanitarian goods, drugs and equipment. They also call on partner countries to lift the restrictions on visa issuance to nationals of affected countries.
28. The Authority decides to remain seized of the situation of the epidemic in West Africa and directs the President of the Commission to ensure the implementation of adopted decisions and regularly provide updates on the epidemic…

WHO: Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)
Situation report – 5 November 2014 ‘WHO Roadmap’
HIGHLIGHTS
:: There have been 13,042 reported cases of Ebola, with 4818 reported deaths, up to the end of 2 November.
:: All districts in Liberia and Sierra Leone have been affected.
:: All 83 contacts of the health-care worker infected in Spain have completed 21-day follow-up
[Excerpt from Summary]
…At the country level, the weekly incidence appears to be stable in Guinea. In Sierra Leone the weekly incidence continues to rise, while in Liberia it appears to be declining. In all three countries, EVD transmission remains persistent and widespread, particularly in the capital cities. All administrative districts in Liberia and Sierra Leone have reported at least 1 confirmed or probable case of EVD since the outbreak began. Cases and deaths continue to be under-reported in this outbreak.
Of the countries with localized transmission, Mali and the United States of America continue to monitor potential contacts. In Spain, all 83 contacts of the health-care worker infected in Madrid have completed the 21-day follow-up period.

WHO welcomes approval of a second Ebola vaccine trial in Switzerland
Statement
6 November 2014
WHO welcomes approval by Swissmedic, the Swiss regulatory authority for therapeutic products, of a second Swiss trial of an experimental Ebola vaccine. The trial will be led by the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG). If judged safe, larger scale trials will be taken to African countries as early as January 2015.
This trial approval means that the vaccine will be tested on approximately 115 volunteers in Geneva. The trial, which is receiving support from WHO, is the latest in a series of trials involving 2 different candidate Ebola vaccines that are ongoing in Switzerland, Mali, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
About the vaccine
The experimental VSV-ZEBOV vaccine has been developed by scientists at the Public Health Agency of Canada . It is based on the virus that causes vesicular stomatitis, a disease affecting animals. This virus has been weakened and genetically modified to express the glycoprotein of the Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV) so as to provoke an immune response against real Ebola viruses.
The experimental vaccine will be tested on healthy volunteers, some of whom will be deployed as health care staff in the fight against the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. The trial will test the safety of the vaccine and its ability to provoke an immune response. VSV-ZEBOV is also being tested on healthy volunteers in the USA (the first trial started 13 October) and trials are planned to start very soon in Germany, Gabon and Kenya.
Vaccine trials
The trial is the second one organised in Switzerland and coordinated by WHO. The first vaccine, “ChAd3″ – Chimpanzee-Adenovirus ChAd3-ZEBOV – started trials in Lausanne at the end of October….

WHO: African regulators’ meeting looking to expedite approval of vaccines and therapies for Ebola
November 2014
Aiming to make potential Ebola therapies and vaccines available as quickly as possible, the ninth African Vaccine Regulatory Forum (AVAREF), taking place in Pretoria, South Africa, from 3-7 November, will devote the first two days to agree on a collaborative mechanism for fast tracking approvals for clinical trials and registration of these products in the affected countries.
“As the President of Liberia has aptly put, the best cure for Ebola is stronger health systems,”
said Kees De Joncheere, WHO Director for Essential Medicines and Health products.
“It is crucial that we match the speed with which Ebola vaccines are being developed and tested with equal haste in making them available to populations once they are judged safe and effective,” said Sarah Barber, WHO Representative in South Africa. “To do that, we need to agree on the design of clinical trials, and we need to collaborate across borders to fast-track scientific assessment, regulatory approval and roll-out.”
The mechanism would cover:
:: Clear pathways and timelines for expedited ethical and regulatory review of clinical trial applications and approval of products;
:: Agreement on timelines and joint safety and efficacy assessments of the new products to fast-track national registration;
:: Endorsement of a panel of safety experts for expedited review of safety data of new products with relevant communication to National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs);
:: Technical assistance from the World Health Organization (WHO) to facilitate these processes.
Ebola, which has killed close to 5 000 people so far and crushed the already weakened health systems of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, had until recently received little attention from the pharmaceutical sector. The current outbreak, unprecedented in geographical scope and severity, has mobilised numerous private and public stakeholders to accelerate the development of vaccines to contain the outbreak and prevent other such crises in the future.
Three vaccines are currently undergoing human safety trials outside Africa. Once they are judged safe, further trials will take place in the countries affected by Ebola. The vaccines are being developed respectively by Glaxo-Smith-Kline with the US Government, Johnson & Johnson, and the Canadian Public Health Agency.
At the same time, partnerships between WHO and some member states are looking to the plasma of Ebola survivors, who have built antibodies to the virus, as a possible therapeutic option for people who are already infected. The plasma clinical trials will also need expedited review by ethics committees and regulators. If judged safe and effective, this therapy can be rolled out rapidly.
The Pretoria meeting will bring together public health officials, regulatory and industry experts from 25 African countries and international health stakeholders. The meeting has awakened broad interest among African governments because the accelerated mechanism fast track process it will put in place could be used as a model for other countries to accelerate access to potentially useful therapies in emergency situations.
“As the President of Liberia has aptly put, the best cure for Ebola is stronger health systems,” said Kees De Joncheere, WHO Director for Essential Medicines and Health products. “That wake-up call could turn things around for Africa and represent another step towards increasing access to and better regulation of health products,
AVAREF
AVAREF was founded in 2006 by WHO to support NRAs in making informed decisions concerning authorization of clinical trials, evaluation of product registration dossiers, and any other challenging issues related to vaccines evaluation. AVAREF provides African regulatory authorities charged with ensuring the safety of medical products and related research with expertise and opportunities for information sharing and capacity building. It also offers product developers the opportunity for joint review by regulatory authorities from multiple countries of clinical trial and marketing authorization applications for high priority vaccines to be used in African countries. While initially focused on vaccines, AVAREF is beginning to expand to cover medicines and diagnostics as well.

WHO Guidance: How to conduct safe and dignified burial of a patient who has died from suspected or confirmed Ebola virus disease
October 2014 :: 17 pages
WHO/EVD/Guidance/Burials/14.2
Download the full version in English
Overview
This protocol provides information on the safe management of dead bodies and burial of patients who died from suspected or confirmed Ebola virus disease.
These measures should be applied not only by medical personnel but by anyone involved in the management of dead bodies and burial of suspected or confirmed Ebola patients.
Twelve steps have been identified describing the different phases Burial Teams have to follow to ensure safe burials, starting from the moment the teams arrive in the village up to their
:: Read the note for media

WHO: Ebola situation assessments
:: New study sheds light on the importance of supportive care for Ebola patients 6 November 2014

WHO IN ACTION
:: Government of Senegal boosts Ebola awareness through SMS campaign
3 November 2014

Related News on Ebola
:: Statement from the Travel and Transport Task Force on Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa 7 November 2014
WHO does not recommend general bans on travel or trade
Leading international organizations and associations from the transport, trade and tourism sector stand firmly with WHO against general bans on travel and trade, as well as restrictions that include general quarantine of travellers from Ebola-affected countries.
The Travel and Transport Task Force, established in August 2014, calls for international cooperation of governments and the transport sector in following the recommendations of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on Ebola, convened by WHO.
WHO does not recommend general bans on travel or trade, or general quarantine of travellers arriving from Ebola-affected countries, as measures to contain the outbreak.
Such measures can create a false impression of control and may have a detrimental impact on the number of health care workers volunteering to assist Ebola control or prevention efforts in the affected countries. Such measures may also adversely reduce essential trade, including supplies of food, fuel and medical equipment to the affected countries, contributing to their humanitarian and economic hardship….
…About the Travel and Transport Task Force
Members of the Travel and Transport Task Force include the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), Airports Council International (ACI), International Air Transport Association (IATA), World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA).
:: WHO welcomes strong commitment from Australia to beating Ebola
6 November 2014

WHO – African Region  [to 8 November 2014]
:: Dr Matshidiso Moeti of Botswana nominated new World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa
Cotonou, Benin, 5 November 2014 – Dr Matshidiso Moeti of the Republic of Botswana was today nominated to be the next World Health Organization’s Regional Director for Africa.
Health Ministers from the 47 Countries that constitute the WHO African Region nominated her at their annual meeting, which is taking place in Cotonou. Dr Moeti is scheduled to take up her new post on 1 February 2015, succeeding Dr Luis Sambo, whose mandate ends on 31 January 2015 after having served as the Regional Director for the past 10 years.
Speaking after her nomination, she pledged to work for and with every member state to address the health challenges facing the African Region. The Regional Director-elect noted that the Millennium Development Goals propelled the Region to a certain level of health. Dr Moeti also underscored the need to further work to enhance equity and human rights towards universal health care. “I commit myself and colleagues to build on what we have created so far and I am confident that we will ride on the positive things happening in the Region.”
Dr Moeti’s nomination is subject to confirmation by WHO’s Executive Board in January 2015.

More News
:: Dr Sambo urges countries to accelerate the progress of implementation of the African Public Health Emergency Fund – 06 November 2014

:: African countries resolve to step up efforts to tackle vaccine preventable diseases – 05 November 2014

:: Dr Sambo proposes key actions to tackle Ebola – 05 November 2014

:: President Boni Yayi urges African leaders to strengthen health systems to contain epidemics – 03 November 2014

WHO Director-General addresses the Regional Committee for Africa
http://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2014/regional-committee-africa/en/
Dr Margaret Chan
Director-General of the World Health Organization
Address to the Regional Committee for Africa, Sixty-fourth Session
Cotonou, Republic of Benin
3 November 2014
[Full text]
Excellencies, honourable ministers, distinguished delegates, representatives of the African Union, Dr Sambo, ladies and gentlemen,

Many external experts and analysts believe that Africa is at a crossroads. As I speak to you, Africa shows the world two prominent public faces that are strikingly different.
One face shows Africa rising, undergoing an economic and social transformation that is unparalleled in any other region of the world, at any time in recent history.

This is the face that showcases Africa’s abundant natural resources, its increasingly educated, peaceful, and healthy populations, and the region’s resilience, creativity, and boundless energy.

This is the face of beginnings: of prosperity, wellbeing, and a healthy future. But this bright future depends on whether governments make equity in the distribution of benefits an explicit policy goal.

As the latest Progress Panel and Report on Africa, headed by Kofi Annan, notes: “The ultimate measure of progress in Africa is not to be found in GDP numbers and growth rates, but in the wellbeing of people, and in prospects for enabling people to improve their lives.”

As you all know, much of Africa’s growth has been concentrated in sectors, such as mining and petroleum, that favour the elite but do little to improve living conditions and health status in the rural areas where most of the poor and sick reside.

All nations benefit from an Africa that is prosperous, stable, and fair. This view was underscored in September during an emergency session of the UN Security Council, which considered the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa as a threat to international security.

In Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Ebola has set back hard-won political stability and economic recovery, and is reversing some striking recent gains in health outcomes.
Let me give you just one statistic to think about. In 2012, WHO estimated that 21 000 people, 95% of them children, died of malaria in the three West African countries combined.

This figure was a marked improvement over the 34 000 malaria deaths estimated for 2000. This is just one of many positive trends that is now under threat.

Ladies and gentlemen,
The Ebola outbreak that is ravaging parts of West Africa is the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times. It has many unprecedented dimensions, including its heavy toll on frontline domestic medical staff.

I extend my deepest sympathy to the people of West Africa who have seen so many of their fellow countrymen fall ill and die. I extend my deepest sympathy to the families, the loved ones, the neighbours, and entire villages and communities.

I can tell you one thing: every one of these West Africans who died from Ebola was beloved.

All of us must respect the compassion and courage of so many health workers who unselfishly risked their lives, and lost them. The three countries have lost some of their greatest humanitarian heroes.

In the midst of these alarming trends, two WHO arguments that have fallen on deaf ears for decades are now out there with consequences that all the world can see, every day, on prime-time TV news.

The first argument concerns the urgent need to strengthen long-neglected health systems, an argument long-championed by your RD [Regional Director].

When heads of state in non-affected countries talk about Ebola, they rightly attribute the outbreak’s unprecedented severity to the “failure to put basic public health infrastructures in place.”

Without fundamental public health infrastructures in place, no country is stable. No society is secure. No resilience exists to withstand the shocks that our 21st century societies are delivering with ever-greater frequency and force, whether from a changing climate or a runaway killer virus.

The second argument is this. Ebola emerged nearly four decades ago. Why are clinicians still empty-handed, with no vaccines and no cure?

Because Ebola has historically been confined to poor African nations. The R&D incentive is virtually non-existent. A profit-driven industry does not invest in products for markets that cannot pay. WHO has been trying to make this issue visible for ages. Now people can see for themselves.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I will leave it to an African medical correspondent to comment on the two faces of today’s Africa.

He has written eloquently about how outbreaks of diseases, like Ebola, make Africa’s neglected health systems and impoverished populations highly visible.

He cites the importance of the recent economic transformation to Africa’s international reputation as a continent of hope. But he is quick to ask the related question. “What good does it do,” he asks, “to cover the ceiling of your house with golden paint when the walls and foundation have cracks?”
I will end my Ebola comments here.

You have a heavy agenda to get through. You need to approve a regional strategic plan for immunization, with highly ambitious targets. Like the rest of the world, you will be transitioning from the Millennium Development Goals to a post-2015 development agenda.

Africa needs to seize this new agenda on its own terms. Frankly, this region has, in the past, suffered from some bad development advice.

Future solutions to Africa’s problems must be uniquely African solutions. In the past, Africa has followed in line with the priorities and strategies defined by global health initiatives, and not always as defined by your own governments and perceived health needs. Now Africa needs to lead.

In April, African ministers of health, at their gathering in Luanda, endorsed universal health coverage as a means to achieve and sustain the health MDGs and recognized it as an essential part of the post-2015 development agenda. This is what I mean by leadership.

Among the items on your agenda is the nomination of your next regional director.

I thank Dr Luis Sambo for his years of dedication to WHO and to the health of the African people. I wish him every success as he opens a new chapter in his long career.
For this Regional Office, the next big challenge is to ensure that WHO reform is credible and efficient.

Thank you.

UNMEER [UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response] @UNMEER #EbolaResponse
UNMEER’s website is aggregating and presenting content from various sources including its own External Situation Reports, press releases, statements and what it titles “developments.” We present a composite below from the week ending 8 November 2014.

UNMEER External Situation Reports
UNMEER External Situation Reports are issued daily (excepting Saturday) with content organized under these headings:
– Highlights
– Key Political and Economic Developments
– Human Rights
– Medical
– Logistics
– Outreach and Education
– Resource Mobilisation
– Essential Services
– Upcoming Events
The “Week in Review” will present highly-selected elements of interest from these reports. The full daily report is available as a pdf using the link provided by the report date.

7 November 2014
Highlights
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. UN Special Envoy on Ebola Dr. David Nabarro said the extraordinary global response over the past month has made him hopeful the outbreak could end in 2015, though he cautioned that the fight to contain the disease is not even a quarter done. In the past four weeks, the rate of EVD infections seems to be slowing in some parts of West Africa, he said. In other hotspots it appears to be expanding the way it was a month ago. Nabarro said there are five times more beds for treatment in the three most affected countries than there were two months ago, which is helping to reduce the number of cases, along with improving efforts to find infected people and trace their contacts. Nabarro pointed to two other positive signs: the extraordinary global response in the last month and the mobilization of local communities in the three countries as a result of massive media campaigns and house-to-house “sensitization efforts” involving traditional leaders.
Response Efforts and Health
5. The EVD outbreak has likely killed far more people than the 4,828 deaths reported by the World Health Organization, WHO’s strategy chief Christopher Dye said Thursday, warning that thousands of fatalities were likely not accounted for. The likely explanation is that many people are burying the dead in secret, possibly to avoid having authorities interfere with burial customs like washing and touching the deceased, which is widely blamed for much of the transmission. The fact that WHO-reported numbers of cases and deaths are lower now than they were last week is due a different, more consistent manner of counting, Mr. Dye said. It does not imply a slowing down of the disease.
8. As part of the Rapid Response Team, UNICEF recently conducted rapid assessments of “hot spots” in Liberia – namely Grand Kru, Grand Bassa, Sinoe and Grand Cape Mount counties – focused on how to rapidly isolate and treat patients with symptoms of Ebola following clear infection control standards. The process involves working with County Health Teams, communities and partners to design local solutions including the setup of Community Care Centers, providing technical assistance on water, sanitation and hygiene management, and advising on how to engage communities. Additional assessments in Gbarpolu and Bomi are underway.
Essential Services
16. Sierra Leone’s Deputy Health Minister Madina Radman said the country’s failure to clearly separate its EVD treatment units from regular health facilities had destroyed confidence in hospitals and clinics. “We are struggling to regain confidence in our health facilities because of this mistake”, she said. “About 50 per cent of the deaths in the country are not Ebola but, because people fear to come to some of our healthcare facilities, they die needlessly due to other treatable diseases.”
17. According to analysis by the ngo Action Contre la Faim and the University of Naples Federico II, in 2015 the EVD crisis will lead to an increase of people suffering from undernourishment in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. 5,3 to 5,7 million people are expected be undernourished in 2015 in the 3 most affected countries, compared to 5 million before the start of the epidemic.

6 November 2014
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, announced a package of at least 450 million USD in commercial financing that will enable trade, investment, and employment in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The private sector initiative will include 250 million USD in rapid response projects, and at least 200 million USD in investment projects to support post-epidemic economic recovery. It is part of the World Bank Group’s effort to support the most affected countries during the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic and prepare them for economic recovery.
3. The Obama administration will ask the US Congress for about 6.2 billion USD in emergency funding to combat the spread of EVD in West Africa and reduce risks for U.S. citizens. According to a statement from the US Office of Management and Budget, the money would be used to strengthen domestic public health systems, contain and mitigate the outbreak in West Africa, and speed up efforts to obtain vaccines. The request seeks 2.4 billion USD for domestic public health services. Another 2.1 billion USD is for the US State Department and its Agency for International Development, 112 million USD for the Pentagon and 1.5 billion USD to be put in a contingency fund.
Human Rights
7. Sierra Leone said Wednesday it was holding a journalist in a maximum security prison after a guest on his radio show criticised President Ernest Bai Koroma’s handling of the Ebola outbreak. David Tam Baryoh, host of the weekly “Monologue” programme on the private radio station Citizen FM, was arrested on Tuesday and sent to Freetown’s Pademba Road jail. Baryoh had interviewed an opposition party spokesman who criticised Koroma and his government’s handling of the Ebola outbreak.
Response Efforts and Health
9. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the lead agency managing burials and cremations, estimates that of all EVD deaths, 87% (4,404 of 5,060 cumulative deaths) have been managed by a trained burial or cremation team. A limitation of this estimation is that a significant number of deaths and burials are not reported, and that is does not yet include burials managed by other organizations. WHO estimates there is a need for 528 trained burial teams in the three affected countries. Currently 140 trained teams are on the ground.

5 November 2014
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Tuesday urged Asian countries to send trained health workers to the West African countries hit by Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), warning the focus on stricter border control was not the solution. He welcomed efforts by South Korea, China and Japan to send medical personnel or equipment to combat the outbreak. Asia must send more medical teams to the three affected countries, he said, adding that just 30 medical teams from around the world have gone to assist in the countries so far.
4. Residents in Wonkifong, Guinea, approximately 90 km from Conakry demonstrated yesterday against the establishment of a new EVD treatment unit in their locality; security forces intervened to restore calm. Negotiations are underway to resolve the situation.
Response Efforts and Health
7. Australia is contracting a private company to staff and operate an EVD treatment unit in Sierra Leone, Prime Minister Tony Abbot has said. He said Australia would commit 17m USD to a 100-bed treatment unit being built by the UK. But he ruled out sending government health workers – most workers would be hired locally with international staff likely to include some Australians.
10. As of last week, 110 UNICEF-supported social and mental health workers had provided psychosocial, family tracing, reunification and reintegration support to 817 children affected by EVD in Liberia’s ten most affected counties. In addition, UNICEF is working with the Liberian government to train EVD survivors to care for these children and be engaged in community mobilization activities.
Essential Services
18. FAO, WFP, governments and other partners are currently carrying out a Crops and Food security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) based on rapid joint assessments in the field in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The mission will provide an analysis of the agricultural production, prices, markets, trades and stocks situation. The first outcomes should be available before 18 November 2014.

4 November 2014
Key Political and Economic Developments
4. Dr. Peter Salama, Global Ebola Emergency Coordinator for UNICEF, told reporters at UN Headquarters that the agency will be doubling its staff from 300 to 600 in the three most-affected countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – where children account for one-fifth of all Ebola cases. Dr. Salama also said an estimated 5 million children are affected and some 4,000 children have become orphaned from the current epidemic. UNICEF is reaching out to EVD survivors who are often willing to work on the frontlines of the disease response at the community level in local care centers with community health workers.
Human Rights
6. In Dandayah, in the Forécariah prefecture of Guinea, a group of contact tracers was chased away by residents under threat of death, despite appeals for calm by several officials including the mayor.
Resource Mobilisation
1. The African Union (AU) is seeking funding from some of the continent’s richest people, including several billionaires, to pay the costs for volunteer doctors and nurses fighting EVD in West Africa, it said yesterday. The bloc is seeking to raise $35 million in the first round and eventually as much as $100m for the Business-to-Rescue Fund. A separate campaign to ask for contributions from citizens will follow.
Essential Services
11. The peak season for Lassa fever in West Africa is about to begin. The virus has been largely forgotten in the EVD crisis, and health workers are warning that they may not have the resources to deal with the disease if cases increase. The symptoms of Lassa are largely identical to EVD, posing an extra problem. All of the countries worst hit by EVD are home to Lassa fever.

3 November 2014
Human Rights
6. According to a survey by UNICEF, 96 percent of Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone have experienced some sort of discrimination. More than three-quarters of respondents told UNICEF they would not welcome back an Ebola survivor into their community.
Essential Services
20. Women are no longer giving birth in health facilities due to EVD. Contraception distributions have also dropped by 70 per cent leading to fears of a high rate of new teenage pregnancies and a doubling of severe acute malnutrition of children under five with mothers struggling to earn money for food. Indeed, new data on severe acute malnutrition admissions in Liberia for the month of September 2014 revealed that a total of 325 severely malnourished children under the age of five were admitted to UNICEF-supported integrated management of acute malnutrition treatment sites.
21. MSF has begun distributing antimalarial medicines in Monrovia, Liberia, a crucial medical
intervention in a city where the basic health care system has collapsed in recent months. Malaria is endemic in Liberia but due to the incredible demand of the EVD outbreak on the medical system, basic health care such as malaria treatment is now very difficult to find in Monrovia. MSF’s program will prevent new malaria cases and minimize the number of people with malaria at EVD treatment units. US philanthropist Bill Gates on Sunday announced he will donate over USD 500 million to fight malaria.

2 November 2014 | Weekly Situational Analysis
6. EVD survivors and health workers in the affected countries regularly report being shunned by their communities. While some EVD survivors have been branded as witches for surviving the disease, members of burial teams have faced calls for eviction from their homes. The latter is all the more worrying as a study by the Yale School of Public Health this week found that the greatest impact in terms of the EVD response would come from ensuring safe burials: if transmission via burial practices were eliminated, it is assessed that the secondary infection rate would drop below one per EVD case.

UNMEER site: Press Releases
:: WFP Continues Scaling Up Ebola Response With Partners:“Together We Must Do More” (6 November 2014)