Wednesday, November 12, 2014

An Ebola outbreak appeal

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been declared an international health emergency by the World Health Organization.
More than 4,922* children and adults have so far been killed by the disease - mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Many other countries are on high alert.
Ebola is one of the most virulent diseases known. There is no vaccine or cure.
Plan is on the ground fighting the outbreak in communities across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Our response includes:
  • Running public health information campaigns - including radio broadcasts
  • Providing medical kits
  • Distributing food aid
  • Training health workers in effective infection control procedures
  • Setting-up hand washing stations at schools, health posts and other public facilities to help keep families safe..
  • Ebola outbreak appeal

    • Put #HandsOnHearts on social media to show your support for children affected by Ebola.
      Put #HandsOnHearts on social media to show your support for children affected by Ebola.
    • Plan is fighting the spread of Ebola through public health campaigns - including radio broadcasts.
      Plan is fighting the spread of Ebola through public health campaigns - including radio broadcasts.
    • Washing hands can help kill the virus. Plan has set up hand washing stations in schools, health posts and other public facilities.
      Washing hands can help kill the virus. Plan has set up hand washing stations in schools, health posts and other public facilities.
    • A Plan staff member demonstrates how to use chlorine spray and hand washing points.
      A Plan staff member demonstrates how to use chlorine spray and hand washing points.
    • Plan-supported youths launching an awareness raising campaign in their village.
      Plan-supported youths launching an awareness raising campaign in their village.
    • In partnership with the World Food Programme, Plan is distributing thousands of food rations to families affected by Ebola in Guinea.
      In partnership with the World Food Programme, Plan is distributing thousands of food rations to families affected by Ebola in Guinea.
    • Each vital food ration contains rice, salt, sugar, oil and peas.
      Each vital food ration contains rice, salt, sugar, oil and peas.
    • Put #HandsOnHearts on social media to show your support for children affected by Ebola.
      Put #HandsOnHearts on social media to show your support for children affected by Ebola.
    • Plan is fighting the spread of Ebola through public health campaigns - including radio broadcasts.
      Plan is fighting the spread of Ebola through public health campaigns - including radio broadcasts.
    >< Start slideshow
    Help children, families and caregivers
    The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been declared an international health emergency by the World Health Organization.
    More than 4,922* children and adults have so far been killed by the disease - mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Many other countries are on high alert.
    Ebola is one of the most virulent diseases known. There is no vaccine or cure.
    • Running public health information campaigns - including radio broadcasts
    • Providing medical kits
    • Distributing food aid
    • Training health workers in effective infection control procedures
    • Setting-up hand washing stations at schools, health posts and other public facilities to help keep families safe.
    *According to World Health Organization, 25 October 2014.
Information by http://plan-international.org/

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Ebola updates in the worse affected countries

SIERRA LEONE: DOCTOR DIED ON SATURDAY
GodfreyGeorge, a medical superintendent at the Kambia Government Hospital in the north of the country, died after he tested positive for Ebola on Saturday, according to Sierra Leone’s Chief Medical Officer Brima Kargbo.
“He drove himself from Kambia on Friday after he started feeling unwell and checked himself into the Chinese hospital at Jui outside Freetown,” Kargbo said. He added that George did not treat Ebola patients and might have contracted the virus through a patient he treated for another illness.
Sierra Leone is one of the countries worst affected by the largest outbreak of Ebola on record. Some 120 health workers – including nurses and other medical staff – have tested positive for the disease in Sierra Leone, with about 100 dead. With its healthcare system still reeling from a 1991-2002 civil war, Sierra Leone had only just over 100 doctors for its six million people before the outbreak struck.
Many rural clinics lacked even basic medical supplies, such as plastic gloves, leaving medical staff vulnerable to infection by Ebola, whose early symptoms resemble cholera and malaria, common diseases in the region.
Monday's settlement, filed in nurse Hickok’s home town of Fort Kent, in Maine’s far north, where she returned after being briefly quarantined in New Jersey, keeps in effect through Nov. 10 the terms of an order issued by a Maine judge on Friday.
Hickoxreturned to the United States last month after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone and was quarantined in a tent outside a hospital in New Jersey for four days despite showing no symptoms. She sharply criticized the way both New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Maine Governor Paul LePage responded to her case. Christie and LePage have defended how they handled it.
“The Governor was outspoken in his views on the case. He was speaking for people in the state that had real fear about the risks,” said Eric Saunders, an attorney for Hickox. “It’s hard to deny the fear and the safety concerns. But at the same time, we have to bear in mind what the law and the science says.”
A spokeswoman for LePage’s office declined to comment on the case, as did the office of the Maine Attorney-General.
UNITED STATES: PATIENT BEING MONITORED AFTER RETURN FROM LIBERIA
Officials in North Carolina are monitoring and testing a patient who arrived in the United States last week from Liberia for Ebola, health authorities said on Sunday.
“The individual did not have any symptoms upon arrival,” the state’s Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement, adding the person had developed a fever on Nov. 2 after arriving in North Carolina.
The person does not have any additional symptoms and had no known exposure to Ebola in Liberia, the department said, stressing that the fever could indicate other illnesses. It said the patient would be evaluated for possible causes of fever, including testing for Ebola.