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 1 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.
31 October 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim announced in Ghana, Accra, an additional $100 million funding in its Ebola crisis response to speed up deployment of foreign health workers to the three worst-affected countries in West Africa. The announcement increases the World Bank Group’s funding for the Ebola fight over the last three months in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to more than $500 million. This additional financing will help set up a coordination hub in close cooperation with the three countries, the WHO, UNMEER, and other agencies to recruit, train and deploy qualified foreign health workers.
5. A UNDP socio-economic impact study on Guinea has shown that economic growth in the country slowed from 4.5 percent to 2.4 percent.
Human Rights
6. The WHO reports that survivors of EVD have not found life easy on the other side. Some in the community brand them as “witches” for surviving and a phenomenon called “post-Ebola syndrome” has been noted in survivors, including a range of symptoms such as visual problems, body aches, headaches and extreme fatigue. The latter is making it difficult to take up their former lives, especially if it involved manual work as farmers, laborers and household managers.
Medical
7. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urged caution over claims of a slowdown in EVD transmission in Liberia, saying the apparent drop could be due to poor management of the sick. The number of admissions in MSF’s 250-bed Monrovia Ebola centre dropped to around 80 yet mandatory cremation of dead bodies and a poor ambulance and referral system could also be the reason for this.
30 October 2014 |
Logistics
9. WFP plans to provide voice services and internet connectivity to approximately 20 ETUs per coun-try. In addition, Common Security Telecommunications services will be provided for the humanitarian community in 15 locations across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. ET Cluster also plans to deliver 500 mobile phones to support patients isolated from their families in ETUs.
Essential Services
15. New (partial) data on severe acute malnutrition admissions in Liberia for the month of September revealed that a total of 325 severely malnourished children under the age of five from seven counties were admitted to UNICEF-supported integrated management of acute malnutrition treatment sites.
Attachment and Resources
OCHA EVD fact sheets and 3Ws for Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone (recently updated): http://reliefweb.int/maps
29 October 2014 |
Human Rights
4. Stigmatisation and discrimination of EVD affected people persists. Burial teams in some parts of Liberia face discrimination as community members want landlords to evict them. There are also concerns that these workers cannot go about their daily activities easily which increases food insecurity threatens livelihoods.
Medical
5. The WHO reports that 82 people who had contact with a toddler who died of EVD in Mali are being monitored but no new cases of the disease have yet been reported.
7. Switzerland has approved the testing of an experimental EVD vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline on healthy volunteers, some of whom will be travelling to West Africa as medical staff. The trial will be conducted among 120 volunteer participants at the Lausanne University Hospital, with support from the World Health Organization. The volunteers, who include many medical students, will be monitored for six months to determine both the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. There is a small control group of volunteers among them who will be given a placebo. Volunteers going into the field will not receive the placebo, for ethical reasons.
9. The WHO has reported that many people in the most affected countries have been unable or too frightened to seek medical care. A shortage of labs capable of handling potentially infected blood samples has also made it difficult to track the outbreak.
Essential Services
16. UNICEF is re-activating essential immunization efforts to curb vaccine-preventable diseases and is in the process of procuring supplies to ensure infection prevention and control in addition to funding training, outreach and field monitoring.
28 October 2014 |
Highlights
:: The UN Secretary-General expressed his concern at the imposition of restrictions applying to
healthcare workers who have travelled to the most affected countries.
:: UNMEER ECM’s for Guinea and Sierra Leone met with the US Ambassador to the United
Nations to discuss the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak response and underscored the
criticality of concerted action to bring the crisis under control.
:: UNMEER, in cooperation with the Logistics Cluster, air-lifted 1,050 kg of personal protective
equipment (PPE) and body bags from Monrovia to Mali in response to the first confirmed case of EVD in that country.
:: UNMEER has commenced the first regular Conakry-Freetown-Monrovia-Accra flight.
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. The UN Secretary-General expressed his concern at the recent restrictions put in place in several countries and localities applying to people who have travelled to the most affected countries. These restrictions have put particular pressure on health care workers and those who are on the frontline of the EVD response. The Secretary-General stressed that returning health workers are exceptional people who are giving of themselves for humanity. They should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science. Those who develop infections should be supported, not stigmatized. The Secretary-General reiterated that the best way for any country to protect itself from EVD is to stop the outbreak at its source in West Africa. This requires considerable international health care worker support and in return for this support, we have an obligation to look after them.
Essential Services
18. The results of the WFP mobile vulnerability analysis mapping assessment show that in the most affected areas of Guinea, EVD appears to have compounded an already precarious situation of chronic food insecurity. With harvests well underway, Guinea is entering the time of year when rural households should be consuming more. The country is also approaching the market period for cash crops, which, during normal times, leads to increased incomes in rural areas.
19. International Rescue Committee’s president David Miliband says that people in the Ebola affected countries are scared to go to health centers because they think they might catch EVD. He said that the health systems in Liberia and neighboring Sierra Leone in particular have been almost shut down by EVD.
20. Efforts to contain malaria may be jeopardised by the strain on health services caused by the EVD crisis. Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, who heads the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, noted that in 2012.
27 October 2014 |
Key Political and Economic Developments
1. The UN Secretary-General hosted a global Town Hall to brief UN staff members on measures being taken to protect them from EVD. He stressed that the UN has an obligation to the affected countries to end the epidemic and, at the same time, an obligation to protect its personnel. He said that with EVD prominent in the media, it is important that our messages are based on facts and evidence, and that we must convey a sense of urgency without inciting panic. Strict protocols are in place in the affected countries to protect UN personnel and prevent further transmission, while UN clinics in the three affected countries are being upgraded.
Human Rights
4. LGBT campaigners in Liberia have reported that homosexual people in the capital Monrovia have been harassed, and physically attacked by others blaming them for the EVD outbreak after some religious leaders in Liberia said EVD was a punishment from God for homosexuality.
Medical
8. The Democratic Republic of Congo could be declared Ebola-free in late November, as its two-month EVD outbreak appears to have come to an end. The WHO reported that all contacts have been traced and monitored, and the last one has now tested negative for EVD. There had been 67 cases and 49 deaths.
9. WHO has set out plans for speeding up development and deployment of experimental EVD
vaccines, saying up to 1 million doses could be ready for use in West Africa by the middle of 2015.
11. Mauretania has now closed its border with Mali in response to concerns over the spread of EVD.
Essential Services
18. WFP reported that should the EVD epidemic last another 4-5 months, when farmers begin to prepare their land, planting for the 2015 harvest could be affected.
26 October 2014 | Weekly Situational Analysis
2. The health consequences of EVD are severe. Yet the longer the outbreak continues, the greater also will be the economic, social and political cost. Concerns grow as to political and social stability, food security and economic livelihoods across all three of the most affected countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Isolated riots and demonstrations have occurred, restrictions of movement have increased tensions, farm production is anaemic, and reduced trade and economic activity is leading to job losses, including in the international mining sector and service industries.
3. In response to the worsening situation, countries within the region or linked by major air routes, continue to tighten restrictions on travel to and from the affected countries. This is despite clear statements from the WHO, World Bank and others, that such strategies will not contain the spread of EVD, will hinder the humanitarian response to the crisis, and worsen the economic strain on these now increasingly isolated economies.
7. The WHO has now released estimates of the volunteers and health infrastructure required to meet the goal of 70-70-60. It is acknowledged these needs may shift, and require adjustment overtime, as the crisis evolves. Yet projections are a useful way to characterise the potential scale of the EVD response. Up to 4388 beds may be required in 50 Ebola treatment units (ETUs) across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. There are currently 1126 (25 per cent) beds already in place. An estimated 28 laboratories (12 are operational) are also required for case confirmation supported by up to 20,000 contact tracing workers. A further 230 teams to ensure safe burials may be required.
8. Perhaps the key gap remains the availability of foreign medical teams to manage and staff ETUs. There are currently firm commitments from teams for only 30 of the 50 ETUs required. Safety is the primary obstacle to filling this gap – EVD has so far claimed the lives of 244 health workers. Steps are urgently being taken to try and make operating in EVD affected countries safer for health workers (and other international volunteers). The European Union has announced a medevac operation for international health workers to be put into action on a case-by-case basis. Appropriate in-country treatment facilities for medical staff are also in development, and well advanced in both Liberia (US military) and Sierra Leone (UK military).
UNMEER site: Statements
:: Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on restrictions applied to travellers from Ebola-affected countries (27 October 2014)
UNMEER site: Press Releases
:: World Bank Group Pledges Additional $100 million to Speed New Health Workers to Ebola-stricken Countries (30 October 2014)
:: WFP Engineering and Logistics (29 October 2014)
:: Higher Levels of Food-Related Coping Strategies in Guinea (29 October 2014)
:: UN Secretary-General’s remarks to the press with the African Union Commission Chairperson and President of the World Bank (28 October 2014)
:: UN Secretary-General’s remarks to the press (27 October 2014)
:: UNMEER presents robust plan to aid swift recovery in Ebola-affected countries (26 October 2014)
[The “operational framework” was described in general terms. No document link was provided in the announcement.]
:: UN Aircraft Flies Medical Supplies For The World Health Organization To Mali (25 October 2014)
UNMEER site: Developments
:: Mali confirms its first case of Ebola
24 October 2014 – Mali’s Ministry of Health has confirmed the country’s first case of Ebola virus disease. The Ministry received positive laboratory results, from PCR testing, on Thursday and
UNMEER site: News
Nabarro urges vigilance as Ebola outbreak shows signs of easing in Liberia
31 October 2014 – New York Encouraging signs that the Ebola epidemic in Liberia is easing must not lead to an easing of the international effort to fight the disease, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Ebola told reporters Friday.
World Bank Group adds $100 million to fill a ‘critical gap’ in the anti-Ebola effort
30 October 2014 – The World Bank Group announced on Thursday that it will allocate an additional $100 million to the international response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, bringing its total in pledges over the past three months to more than $500 million.
Sierra Leone: for Ebola survivors the pain goes on
29 October 2014 – As the Ebola outbreak grows and spreads, a small but significant group of people is also growing: the Ebola survivors. Emerging shell-shocked from what one described as a “glimpse of hell”, the survivors have not found life easy on the other side of the Ebola ward.
In the battle against Ebola, resources are mounting
28 October 2014 – As resources mount, progress is being made against the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, but the effort requires more work and even more resources, the UN’s man in charge of coordinating the effort to halt the disease said Tuesday.
Ebola fighter: ‘We are on the right track’
27 October 2014 – Monrovia, Liberia The man overseeing international efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in West Africa said Friday that more resources are needed, but he was confident that the virus would be defeated.
