Fight Against Ebola: Grossly Unfunded!

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CNN (NewYork) 22:09:2014 -

The Ebola virus has already killed thousands in West Africa, an immeasurable loss for many families. As medical workers try to quell its spread, global organizations are calculating the economic impact of the disease.

"Their economies are basically being devastated," said Daniel Epstein, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. "Economic activity has halted in many areas there. The harvest isn't going on. People can't fly in and fly out."

WHO workers even had difficulty flying into the Ebola-stricken nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, Epstein said. 

The Ebola virus has already killed thousands in West Africa, an immeasurable loss for many families. As medical workers try to quell its spread, global organizations are calculating the economic impact of the disease.

"Their economies are basically being devastated," said Daniel Epstein, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization. "Economic activity has halted in many areas there. The harvest isn't going on. People can't fly in and fly out."

WHO workers even had difficulty flying into the Ebola-stricken nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, Epstein said.

Over 2,600 people have died, according to the latest WHO count. If Ebola is not contained this year, the cost could increase by eight times its current estimate, according to a report published Wednesday by the World Bank Group. Ebola's toll in Liberia alone could affect almost 5% of the country's GDP this year, the World Bank said.

"Our findings make clear that the sooner we get an adequate containment response and decrease the level of fear and uncertainty, the faster we can blunt Ebola's economic impact," said World Bank president Jim Yong Kim in a statement.

In need of aid: The United Nations said this week that $1 billion in aid is needed to contain the Ebola outbreak. But a UN database tally of donations shows that many wealthy Western nations that verbally pledged support have donated paltry sums to fight the disease.

Total donations, including non-binding pledges, to fight Ebola are about $388 million, well under half of the United Nation's estimate, according to data from Financial Tracking Service, a database that tracks humanitarian aid and is managed by the United Nations. The Obama administration announced this week that it hopes to send an additional $500 million in humanitarian aid to the West African nations this fiscal year.

Even with the U.S. government's significant aid proposal, the total number would still fall short of the United Nations' estimate of a billion.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went as far as saying "our best estimate is that we need a 20-fold increase in assistance" at a meeting this week.

Some private foundations have also stepped in. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has donated over $8 million so far to various organizations to fight Ebola. That is more than the combined donations of Canada, Germany and Spain, according to FTS data.

Overall, the Gates Foundation has pledged $38 million, which eclipses many more countries.

Epstein noted that countries such as Canada contribute to the aid effort in non-monetary ways by sending aid workers and conducting medical research.

"We're also at the stage where people are seeing what the landscape is and figuring out, what's the best way to donate funds?" Epstein said. "In a humanitarian crisis, there are often delays between what people realize what they have to do and what they actually do.

Ebola Fight: Sierra Leone Begins 3-Day Lockdown

Medic-ALL (19:09:2014)

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — One of the most stringent anti-Ebola measures to date began in Sierra Leone this morning as the country's government imposed a three-day national lockdown, ordering people off the streets and into their homes in an effort to stamp out the deadly disease.

Police officers patrolled the streets of the densely populated capital, telling stragglers to go home and stay indoors. Volunteers in bright jerseys prepared to go house-to-house throughout the country to warn people about Ebola’s dangers and to root out those who might be infected but were staying in hiding.

The normally busy streets of Freetown were empty Friday morning, stores were closed and pedestrians were rare on the main thoroughfares.

The country’s president, justifying the extraordinary move in a radio address Thursday night, suggested that Sierra Leone was engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the disease.

Some of the things we are asking you to do are difficult, but life is better than these difficulties,” President Ernest Bai Koroma said.

More than 200 new cases of Ebola have been reported in Sierra Leone in the past week, according to the World Health Organization, with transmission described as particularly high in the capital; nearly 40 percent of cases in the country were identified in the three weeks preceding Sept. 14; and more than 560 people have died in Sierra Leone, about one-fifth of the total from this outbreak.

The campaign that began here Friday morning reflected the desperation of West African governments — and in particular those of the three hardest-hit countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — as they struggle with an epidemic that the health authorities have warned is showing no signs of slowing down.

No country has attempted anything on the scale of what is being tried in Sierra Leone, where more than 20,000 volunteers enlisted to help identify households where the authorities suspect people infected with the Ebola virus are hiding.

Culled: New York Times

Ebola Fight: Gates Foundation donates $50million

CNN (11:09:2014) - 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced Wednesday it will donate $50 million to help fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

More than 2,200 people have died in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the outbreak has been concentrated. Cases have also been reported in nearby Nigeria and Senegal.

The foundation says the money will be used to enable international aid organizations and national governments "to purchase badly needed supplies and scale up emergency operations in affected countries."

It will also "work with public and private sector partners to accelerate the development of therapies, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be effective in treating patients and preventing further transmission of the disease."

The first human trial of an experimental Ebola vaccine began last week at the National Institutes of Health.

This is considered the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history. The World Health Organization said Monday the rapid spread of the virus in Liberia shows no sign of slowing.

"The number of new cases is increasing exponentially," WHO said, calling the situation a "dire emergency with ... unprecedented dimensions of human suffering."

Taxis packed with families who fear they've contracted the deadly virus criss-cross the Liberian capital, searching for a place where they can be treated, WHO said. But there are no available beds.

"As soon as a new Ebola treatment facility is opened, it immediately fills to overflowing with patients," the U.N. group said.

To help ease some of the burden on West Africa's already over-taxed medical system, the United States announced Tuesday it will send $10 million in additional funds. That's in addition to the $100 million Washington has already sent to help fight the outbreak. USAID also announced it will make $75 million in extra funds available.

Ebola Takes Toll on African Economy

Wall Street Journal (05:09:2014) by Matina Stevie, Nicholas Bariyo and Gbenga Akingbule:

Ebola's economic toll on Africa is starting to emerge.

The flow of goods across many African frontiers, from Congolese copper crossing the Botswana border to used cars driven into Nigeria, is seizing up on fears that traders could be carrying or catch the killer virus. The trade slowdown comes on top of a drop in tourismand the suspension of commercial flights to West African cities as well as Nairobi, a continental hub.

The upshot: An accelerating continental economy has hit a massive speed bump. The International Monetary Fund projected sub-Saharan Africa would grow by 5.4% this year, but it is now warning that Ebola is set to badly hit growth rates in the countries directly affected.

The Ebola outbreak began in Guinea eight months ago and has since spread to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria. A separate Ebola outbreak has surfaced in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The World Health Organization has warned that the epidemic is likely to accelerate and more than 20,000 people could be infected. Already, more than 1,900 people have died.

Ebola's economic impact has become so severe that the IMF is now warning that stricken countries could need emergency assistance. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have all been burning holes in their finances trying to curb the outbreak, and a dramatic downturn in trade—specifically timber and rubber—will compound those troubles.

"What is already clear at this stage is that growth is likely to slow sharply," said Gerry Rice, a fund spokesman. "Significant financing needs are likely to rise."

The World Bank and the IMF said recently that the epidemic would shave a full percentage point off Guinea's growth rate, slowing it to 3.5%.

Sierra Leone's economy was set to grow by a breakneck 13.9% rate in 2014, and Liberia's by 5.9%, the IMF predicted earlier this year. While the fund still hasn't specified how it believes the outbreak will affect those growth rates, the impact is expected to be significant, setting back fragile economies that were beginning to stage convincing economic expansions.

The Washington-based institution is already funding assistance programs to the three West African nations affected by Ebola. Sierra Leone benefits from a roughly $96 million IMF program, while Guinea is drawing on a $200 million loan, and Liberia on an $80 million one. IMF rules allow it to enhance or extend such loan facilities.

Agriculture accounts for some 40% of the economic output in Liberia and Sierra Leone and a quarter in Guinea, and the sector is taking a hit in the three countries as farmers are forced to leave the fields and can't trade across borders because many have closed, according to Manji Cheto, vice president at the New York-based Teneo Intelligence consultancy. What could be worse is the jobs and vital income lost in the sector: In Sierra Leone, for example, about 70% of the workforce is occupied in the broader agricultural sector.

Nigeria, which this year surpassed South Africa as the continent's largest economy, is better positioned to absorb the impact of the Ebola epidemic, which at this point appears confined to two cities, Lagos and Port Harcourt.

Still, Ebola is deterring those who help drive trade with Nigeria. A Nigerian customs official said revenue from import duties of used vehicles has declined drastically. Part of the reason is that increased surveillance for the disease at land borders—including quarantines for those with high fevers—has slowed trade and potential customers to a trickle, the official, who declined to be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media said.

And It isn't just cars. "Many of my customers from neighboring countries have stopped coming," said Yusuf Adamu, an electronics dealer in Nigeria. "When I try to reach out to them on the phone they complain of stringent Ebola screening measures."

Zambia's health ministry said Friday that it was reviewing travel regulations for people entering its borders from Congo, the latest country to be hit by Ebola. Since Aug. 25, Botswana's authorities have blocked the entry of more than 100 trucks carrying copper from Congo.

Traffic along the Rwanda-Congo border has dropped drastically, as travelers stay away due to long screening queues. According toFrançois Kahwerikula, a Congolese customs official at the Goma border crossing, known asGrande Barriere, daily collections have declined by 30% to 40% since Congo announced that it had confirmed the Ebola outbreak.

More than 10,000 people cross the Rwanda-Congo border every day for business, but a Congolese mineral dealer, Siraje Bigirimana, said he is booking a hotel room in Rwanda until the situation is safe. "It's very expensive to operate in such a situation," Mr. Bigirimana said.

Rwandan Health Minister Agness Binagahwo said that Kigali had deployed troops and civilian health workers to ensure that all people going through the borders are screened. All people with a fever of 37.5 degrees Celsius (99.5 degrees Fahrenheit) and above are being turned away at the busy cross points.

"No one passes without being screened," said Ms. Binagwaho said. "There is good coordination and everything is going in fine."

Ebola: Health Workers , the Biggest Losers

Medic-ALL (26:08:2014)

The World Health Organization(WHO) on Tuesday said that the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been unprecedented in many ways. A high proportion of healthcare workers are among those infected with the virus. 

So far, over 240 healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, have contacted the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone and over 120 have died.

According to the WHO, the virus has taken the lives of doctors in Sierra Leone and Liberia, depriving these hard-hit countries not only of experienced medical care but also of inspiring national heroes.

The UN health agency noted that shortage of personal protective equipment or its improper use, too few medical staff to cope with such a large outbreak and working beyond the number of hours recommended as safe contributed to the high proportion of infected medical staff. 

"In many cases, medical staff are at risk because no protective equipment is available, not even gloves and face masks. Even in dedicated Ebola wards, personal protective equipment is often scarce or not being properly used," it said. 

In the past, some Ebola outbreaks became visible only after transmission was amplified in a health care setting and doctors and nurses fell ill. However, once the Ebola virus was identified and proper protective measures were put in place, cases among medical staff dropped dramatically.

Moreover, many of the most recent Ebola outbreaks have occurred in remote areas, in a part of Africa that is more familiar with this disease, and with chains of transmission that were easier to track and break.

The current outbreak is different. Capital cities as well as remote rural areas are affected, vastly increasing opportunities for undiagnosed cases to have contact with hospital staff. Neither doctors nor the public are familiar with the disease. Intense fear rules entire villages and cities.

Several infectious diseases endemic in the region, like malaria, typhoid fever, and Lassa fever, mimic the initial symptoms of Ebola virus disease. Patients infected with these diseases will often need emergency care. Their doctors and nurses may see no reason to suspect Ebola and see no need to take protective measures.

Some documented infections have occurred when unprotected doctors rushed to aid a waiting patient who was visibly very ill. This is the first instinct of most doctors and nurses: aid the ailing.

The heavy toll on health care workers in this outbreak has a number of consequences that further impede control efforts.

It depletes one of the most vital assets during the control of any outbreak. WHO estimates that, in the three hardest-hit countries, only one to two doctors are available to treat 100,000 people, and these doctors are heavily concentrated in urban areas.

It can lead to the closing of health facilities, especially when staff refuse to come to work, fearing for their lives. When hospitals close, other common and urgent medical needs, such as safe childbirth and treatment for malaria, are neglected.

The fact that so many medical staff have developed the disease increases the level of anxiety: if doctors and nurses are getting infected, what chance does the general public have? In some areas, hospitals are regarded as incubators of infection and are shunned by patients with any kind of ailment, again reducing access to general health care.

The loss of so many doctors and nurses has made it difficult for WHO to secure support from sufficient numbers of foreign medical staff.

Nigeria, last week lost a Consultant Endocrinologist who was one of the senior health workers who attended to the country's patient zero while he was on admission. She was said to have forced the patient back to his bed when he once attempted to escape from the hospital.

On Monday, Liberia's deputy chief medical doctor Abraham Borbor died of Ebola. 

Since the beginning of the international response to the outbreak in March, the WHO has deployed nearly 400 people from across the organisation and from partners in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network to help respond to the disease in four West African countries. 

The toll in Guinea, where the epidemic started, is 406, while in Sierra Leone, 392 have succumbed to the haemorrhagic fever. Nigeria has witnessed five deaths so far. 

The outbreak of Ebola began in Guinea in December 2013, leading to an epidemic in west Africa after it spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Ref: WHO media centre

Medic-ALL.Inc 2014

Ebola Contaimment: A Rare piece of Good News from Nigeria

BusinessDay (19:08:2014):

In the midst of the gloomy news that Nigeria is often associated with comes a ray of hope that the country can indeed get things right when its officials and people put their hearts to work.This is the story emerging from the handling of Ebola outbreak in West Africa, where Nigeria’s officials have been able to contain its spread in Africa’s most populous country with over 168 million people.

This response has received huge commendations from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the international community.

Following fear and anxiety the lethality of the Ebola outbreak has generated since it came into the country through late Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American, on July 20, 2014, Nigeria is racing to halt Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) from spreading, including tracing individuals known to have had contact with confirmed cases, training health care professionals to identify EVD, and raising public awareness of symptoms.

This cheery news comes as contact tracing in Nigeria has resulted in a range of between 94 percent and 98 percent of contacts of EVD cases being identified and followed up, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

With Nigeria recording 12 confirmed EVD cases, this development comes as a relief and provides a window to wipe out the disease before it gets out of control, as it has in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, claiming 1,066 lives, with 1,963 EVD cases confirmed since the outbreak began in December 2013. Onyebuchi Chukwu, minister of health, had announced yesterday that four additional confirmed cases of EVD who had been managed successfully and were now disease-free had been discharged.

“The four persons include two male medical doctors and one female nurse. The three participated in the treatment of the index case, while the fourth person was a female patient at the time the index case was on admission,” a statement from the ministry said.

This brings to five the total number of patients diagnosed with EVD who have now been discharged from hospital.

On the Federal Government’s containment efforts, Chukwu told BusinessDay that state governments were urged to institute a communication strategy to ensure mass awareness creation and sensitisation for individuals and communities on EVD in a bid to halt the spread of the disease. Federal and state ministries of health and the human services secretariat of the FCT administration were also directed to provide adequate incentives to health workers participating in the management of EVD patients, he said.

Chukwu said Nigeria’s partnership with WHO, UNICEF, the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local authorities and international partners in the area of technical capacity, health facilities for isolation of EVD patients and other containment efforts was aimed at halting EVD spread.

“The Ministry of Health is procuring isolation tents to quicken the pace of providing isolation wards in all states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. We are also setting up a special team to provide counselling and psychosocial support to patients, identified contacts and their families,” Chukwu explained.

“189 persons are under surveillance in Lagos and six persons under surveillance in Enugu. All the persons under surveillance were secondary contacts. All the patients under treatment have now moved to the new 40-bed capacity isolating ward provided by the Lagos State government. Additional equipment has also been made available to the new isolating ward by the Federal Government,” he said.

Chika Mordi, CEO, National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria, said Nigeria has done creditably well in containing the spread of EVD in the country. While Nigeria is perceived in the international community not to have functional institutions, Mordi said the case management of EVD in Nigeria has proven that the nation has functional institutions.

He said “If you compare the way Nigeria have handled the case of EVD outbreak when compared to other Ebola affected countries within the West-African sub-region, you will agree that we have done an excellent job. We can also improved upon the success.

“You may remember that the outbreak started in Guinea and then spread to neighbouring Sierra Leone and Liberia. Remember that the index case who brought EVD into Nigeria was visibly ill when he stopped over in Togo and yet Togo said they dont have any case of EVD. Ivory Coast which borders Guinea say they dont have EVD cases.

Don’t forget that in the last few months, Nigeria has been on the front burner on CNN and other news channels in the area of insecurity, suggesting that we don’t have functional institutions. The way we have effectively managed EVD in Nigeria suggests that the country has functional systems in place which could be improved upon.”

Another impressed observer of Nigeria’s handling of the Ebola outbreak narrated his experience at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos yesterday. He said, “I was at the airport this morning (yesterday) to see off a relation and as she went in to board, she and other passengers were screened by health officials who not only checked their temperature but asked questions like how they felt, where they had been and it was damn effective. A rare case of us doing the right thing. I was so impressed and it shows how far we can go if we do the right things.

Babatunde Fashola, Lagos State governor, said the government was not shying away from its primary purpose of protecting and saving lives, as the state House of Assembly had approved additional expenditure to fund efforts at containing the spread of the disease. “My view of the fact that we are gaining control is informed by verifiable facts that I receive daily from our health workers that all the cases of those who have either unfortunately died, or those who are sick, and those who are contacts under surveillance are directly traceable to the imported case. This is encouraging news from which our containment strategy can profit greatly; because it means that we do not have any case of unknown origin, which will raise the risk of an epidemic,” Fashola said.

Adebayo Onajole, director of communication and community mobilisation for Ebola in Nigeria, said the country had been able to contain the spread through increased surveillance at the country’s borders (air, land and sea), increased awareness and less of disinformation of the disease in the country.

Onajole, who is also a consultant public health physician, noted that universal health precautions and personal hygiene were currently being encouraged, a situation  that would halt the spread of the disease.

“Efforts are currently ongoing to scale up and strengthen all aspects of response, including contact tracking, public information and community mobilisation, case management and infection prevention and control, and coordination,” he said.

“There is now increased disease surveillance system in a bid to monitor, control, and prevent any occurrence of the disease,” he added.

Five committees have been put in place in the country to halt the spread of the disease, BusinessDay investigation reveals. These committees include contact tracing (responsible for tracing contacts of infected person), case management unit (responsible for managing established cases), and point of entry unit, which is charged with the responsibility of examining persons entering Nigeria from various borders.

Besides the Federal Government’s N1.9 billion Ebola Intervention Plan announced by President Goodluck Jonathan, Aliko Dangote, chairman, Dangote Group, announced the donation of over N150 million from Dangote Foundation for the establishment of a National Ebola Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at Yaba, Lagos.

The EOC is a key part of Nigeria’s response to the outbreak of Ebola on its shores. Headed by Faisal Shuaib, a US-trained public health expert with extensive international experience, the centre serves as the engine room of national response, providing a coordinating mechanism for prevention, surveillance, patient care, tracking, data analysis and containment of the spread of the virus.

It also facilitates coordination of partners, serves as a platform to link to the medical community across the country and also internationally, especially with countries also battling the virus in West Africa.

Public health experts believe EVD can be stopped through maintaining high effective control mechanism and communication within communities on proper hygiene practice.

“We do know how to stop Ebola. Its old-fashioned plain and simple public health: find the patients, make sure they get treated, find their contacts, track them, educate people and do infection control in hospitals,” said Thomas Frieden, director, United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

By Alexander chiejina

Ebola Outbreak: Vastly Underestimated

WHO (15:08:2014)
Though more than 1,000 people have died in the world's worst ever outbreak, the UN now says that number may be higher.

Staff with the World Health Organisation battling an Ebola outbreak in West Africa see evidence the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimates the scale of the outbreak, the UN agency has said on its website.

The death toll from the world's worst outbreak of Ebola stood on Wednesday at 1,069 from 1,975 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, the agency said. The majority were in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, while four people have died in Nigeria.

The agency's apparent acknowledgement the situation is worse than previously thought could spur governments and aid organisations to take stronger measures against the virus.

"Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak," the organisation said.

"WHO is coordinating a massive scaling up of the international response, marshalling support from individual countries, disease control agencies, agencies within the United Nations system, and others."

International agencies are looking into emergency food drops and truck convoys to reach hungry people in Liberia and Sierra Leone cordoned off from the outside world to halt the spread of the virus, a top World Bank official said.

In the latest sign of action by West African governments, Guinea has declared a public health emergency and is sending health workers to all affected border points, an official said.

An estimated 377 people have died in Guinea since the outbreak began in March in remote parts of a border region near Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Guinea says its outbreak is under control with the numbers of new cases falling, but the measures are needed to prevent new infections from neighbouring countries.

"Trucks full of health materials and carrying health personnel are going to all the border points with Liberia and Sierra Leone," Aboubacar Sidiki Diakit president of Guinea's Ebola commission, said late on Wednesday.

As many as 3,000 people are waiting at 17 border points for a green light to enter the country, he said.

"Any people who are sick will be immediately isolated. People will be followed up on. We can't take the risk of letting everyone through without checks."

Experimental drugs

Sierra Leone has declared Ebola a national emergency as has Liberia, which is hoping that two of its doctors diagnosed with Ebola can start treatment with some of the limited supply of experimental drug ZMapp.

Canada's Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp is also exploring making more of its experimental Ebola treatment, Chief Executive Officer Mark Murray said.

Nigeria also has declared a national emergency, although it has so far escaped the levels of infection seen in the three other countries.

Ebola is one of the world's most deadly diseases and kills the majority of those infected. Its symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting.

The US State Department ordered family members at its embassy in Freetown to depart Sierra Leone because of limitations on regular medical care as a result of the outbreak.

Source: World Health Organization(WHO)                  AlJazeera

Medic-ALL.Inc 2014

Patient Zero: How the Ebola Outbreak Began

CNN: The worst outbreak of Ebola, which has killed 961 people and triggered an international public health emergency, may have started with a 2-year-old patient in a village in Guinea.

About eight months ago, the toddler, whom researchers believe may have been Patient Zero, suffered fever, black stool and vomiting. Just four days after showing the painful symptoms, the child died on December 6, 2013, according to a report published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Scientists don't know exactly how the toddler contracted the virus. Ebola is spread from animals to humans through infected fluids or tissue, according to the World Health Organization.

"In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines," WHO says, though researchers think fruit bats are what they call the virus's "natural host."

Researchers who published the paper this year found a chain of illnesses in the toddler's family.

After the child's death, the mother suffered bleeding symptoms and died on December 13, according to the report. Then, the toddler's 3-year-old sister died on December 29, with symptoms including fever, vomiting and black diarrhea. The illness subsequently affected the toddler's grandmother, who died on January 1, in the family's village of Meliandou in Guéckédou.

Two of the funeral attendees appeared to bring back the virus to their village, and it spread to health care workers and other family members who took care of infected patients.

"A health care worker from Guéckédou with suspected disease, seems to have triggered the spread of the virus to Macenta, Nzérékoré, and Kissidougou in February 2014," stated the report, noting that more Guinea towns were affected.

Clusters of the disease popped up in early 2014 in these areas, with the initial patients suffering fever, vomiting and severe diarrhea, according to the report. Hemorrhaging was less frequent, the report noted.

In early March, the Ministry of Health in Guinea and Doctors Without Borders in Guinea were notified about the disease clusters.

Health investigators arrived that month and began tracing the disease by examining hospital documents and conducting interviews with affected families and villagers.

Ebola has now spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, prompting global concerns.

The report about the emergence of Ebola in Guinea was authored by dozens of international doctors and researchers from institutions in France, Germany, Guinea, WHO and Doctors Without Borders. 

Medic-ALL.Inc 2014

The Economics of Ebola

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. investment and trade will spur employment—and that's essential to ending the poverty that helps spread the disease.

By AMARA KONNEH

The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington last week may have been overshadowed by the Ebola crisis facing West Africa, but decisions that flow from that historic gathering could determine how swiftly countries such as mine, Liberia, recover from the emergency.

While the virus has killed almost a thousand people, most West Africans will never contract the disease or know anyone who does. But Ebola's economic impact will affect millions. When this crisis ends, Liberia and her neighbors will need international assistance to rebuild their battered economies—help that America is uniquely placed to provide.

A Liberian soldiers stops people at a security checkpoint as they clamp down on people traveling due to the deadly Ebola virus, on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2014. Photo: Associated Press

The reason this economic threat is so great is because of the controls needed to fight the disease. Save for the two airports remaining open in Liberia, our borders have been closed, schools and markets shut, the movement of people restricted, affected areas quarantined, and troops stationed on the streets. All of this means a virtual economic standstill.

We are now starting to receive international support. The World Bank and World Health Organization have established a special Ebola Fund to provide the three affected West African states, Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, with $200 million in support. Initially these monies will be used to pay medics and essential security personnel and to redouble public-information efforts aimed at making citizens aware of how they can help prevent the spread of the disease.

In the medium term these funds will support basic economic-recovery measures. Yet once the immediate outbreak is contained and the threat to public health has ended, we will struggle to recover from Ebola's wider impact without significant assistance. What we need—and what the U.S. can offer—is economic growth that creates stable jobs and decreases the number of itinerant, semi-employed citizens who wander from village to village seeking work and—through no fault of their own—may well have increased the spread of the disease.

When Liberia's second civil war ended in 2003, we had lost 90% of our gross domestic product, virtually every major piece of infrastructure was destroyed, and most of our trained professionals—including doctors—had fled the conflict. In the past 10 years, we have started rebuilding the country, growing on average over 8% annually and attracting more than $16 billion in foreign investment. Yet our recovery is fragile and too dependent on sectors, such as timber and mining, that create few jobs. This leaves large numbers of Liberia's adult population, particularly those living in the vicinity of the capital, Monrovia, making ends meet as tinkers or hustlers.

Ultimately, stable and long-term employment delivered through foreign investment will be the only way to effect a significant economic change. More employment—full-time and permanent in location—would significantly limit the spread of a disease such as Ebola, which is spread through direct bodily contact.

That is why we are so hopeful about the unprecedented gathering of business and political leaders of the U.S. and Africa in Washington. Liberians needs an economic kick-start, but one impediment is a ban on the country's borrowing for day-to-day spending, imposed in 2010 after most of our foreign debt with the International Monetary Fund was written off. We will likely need America's support to relax those rules over the next few months.

For our economy to fully recover, we will continue to need access to foreign markets for our goods. New tariffs being imposed on African goods by the U.S. and Europe because of stalled trade talks would be bleak news for an economy left reeling by Ebola. So would U.S. failure to renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which expires in September 2015, when customs and duty-free tariffs for 39 African countries, including Liberia, would lapse.

While it is crucial for Africa's development that political disagreements in Washington are overcome, the leadership summit in Washington last week raises the prospect of the U.S. more broadly cementing its role in Africa not just a generous donor in times of emergency but as a trading partner creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

It is a regular criticism of other major investors, such as China and Europe, that they do not create jobs in Africa apart from those for their own workers. While this is an exaggeration, it is not a charge that can be leveled at America, as the U.S.-Africa Summit demonstrated. The Coca-Cola Co. announced that it would invest an additional $5 billion over six years in manufacturing lines and production, as well as sourcing more agricultural ingredients from Africa. General Electric pledged to invest $2 billion by 2018 and double the number of its workforce on the continent. The Ford Motor Co. announced plans to expand manufacturing into Africa, with sales forecast to grow by 40% by 2020.

The commitment by corporate America to job creation and investment will help African nations to finally address the source of many challenges facing the entire continent: In the end, from Ebola to low life expectancy, the origin remains poverty.

Mr. Konneh is the finance minister of the Republic of Liberia. 

Medic-ALL Inc. 2014