Deutche Welle (German World), VOA, the NYT and others are reporting that 27 days after the last reported case of Ebola in Monrovia, Liberia, a new female patient has been found in Liberia.
This came as both a surprise and as devastating evidence that Ebola had not been eliminated in that country, just as it was nearing the middle of the critical 42-day Ebola Free status which is required to proclaim the end of the epidemic in the country.
Once again I am directing interested people to my Ebola ebook but for breaking news watch for updates here on NewsBlaze.
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has just released a critical report showing how the UN and others ignored early warnings from that group, a warning which, if heeded at the outset could have saved thousands of lives and ended the threat almost before it began.
“The report, Pushed to the Limit and Beyond, is based on interviews with dozens of MSF staff involved in the organization’s Ebola intervention. It describes MSF’s early warnings one year ago about cases of Ebola spreading in Guinea, the initial denial by governments of the affected countries, and the unprecedented steps MSF was forced to take in the face of global inaction as the outbreak engulfed neighboring states,” begins a press release from MSF’s Tim Shenk.
The number of new Ebola patients is increasing in Guinea and in Sierra Leone people who had not previously been on contact lists are showing signs of infection.
Liberia, which had been Ebola patient free for 23 days, has seen a new patient on March 20 in Monrovia.
“Today we [MSF] share our initial reflections and take a critical look at both MSF’s response and the wider global response to the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history,” said Dr. Joanne Liu, MSF international president. “The Ebola epidemic proved to be an exceptional event that exposed the reality of how inefficient and slow health and aid systems are in responding to emergencies.”
Over the past year, more than 1,300 MSF international staff and 4,000 local staff have been deployed in West Africa, where they have cared for nearly 5,000 confirmed Ebola patients. The report details the effects of the several months-long “global coalition of inaction,” during which the virus spread wildly, leading MSF to issue a rare call for the mobilization of international civilian and military medical assets with biohazard capacity.
MSF’s general director Christopher Stokes describes the outbreak as “a perfect storm.”
“For the Ebola outbreak to spiral this far out of control required many institutions to fail. And they did, with tragic and avoidable consequences.”
See the full report at: www.doctorswithoutborders.org
And my book at:
