Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak: 13 155 clinical cases including 3 940 deaths (WHO, July 8, 2015)

[Pathfinder]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola: 89 clinical cases including 7 deaths as of June 7, 2014 (WHO)

Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone

17 hours ago

Ebola Update for June 15th 2014

? The cumulative number of cases tested is 157 with 62 Laboratory confirmed for Ebola and 19 confirmed deaths
?The cumulative total number of cases that have survived and discharged from the Kenema Government Hospital is 9
? The contact tracing team is safely conducting investigations in the Koindu area for probable and suspected cases of Ebola

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ministry-of-Health-and-Sanitation-Sierra-Leone/281064805403702?hc_location=timeline

[Donners]

Ebola Update 16th June, 2014

?A total of 193 cases have been tested with 83 Laboratory confirmed cases and 20 confirmed deaths
?A cumulative number of 10 confirmed cases have recovered and discharged from the Government Hospital in Kenema
?Health workers have been trained and assigned to all the checkpoints setup to screen passengers entering and exiting Kailahun District
?All medical supplies and equipment for checkpoints have been sent to Kailahun and Kenema Districts from the Ministry?s Central Medical Stores, these supplies are now at checkpoints to be used by health workers
?Intensive case search and surveillance now taking place in the Kissy communities of the Kailahun District as community members in those areas have now allowed health workers to go in and handle cases of Ebola without coming under attack.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ministry-of-Health-and-Sanitation-Sierra-Leone/281064805403702?hc_location=timeline

[Pathfinder]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014

Page added on June 17, 2014

Journalist dies of Ebola in Sierra Leone

By: SEM Contributor on June 17, 2014.

Kailahun, June 16 (SLENA) - Sources close to the Ebola treatment centre in Daru, Jawei Chiefdom, Kailahun district have disclosed that so far there are 34 recorded cases of Ebola casualties in the district – 33 in Daru town and one in Koindu.

These included the wife of the paramount chief of Jawei Chiefdom, a nine year old school pupil, a school teacher and a journalist reporting for the Kenema based Eastern Radio, Mohamed Mualim Sheriff.

SLENA sources say the journalist who is also a Muslim cleric had visited the home of one of the ebola victims in Daru...

Since the outbreak of the disease in Sierra Leone a little over a month ago, only two chiefdoms in the Kailahun district have been affected so far – Jawei and Kissi Tongi Chiefdoms.

The highest casualty rate, according to chiefdom authorities, is in Jawei where four villages including Daru town, the chiefdom headquarter, have so far suffered from Ebola.

More...

http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/68322

[Ronan Kelly]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014

Ebola virus disease, West Africa (Situation as of 17 June 2014)
...
Sierra Leone

Between June 15 and 17, 2014 a total of 31 new cases and 4 new deaths were reported from Kailahun (29 cases and 4 deaths), Kono (1 case) and Western (1 case). This brings the cumulative number of cases and deaths reported from Sierra Leone to 97 (92 confirmed, 3 probable and 2 suspected) and 49 deaths.

The geographical distribution of these cases and deaths is as follows: Kailahun (92 cases and 46 deaths); Kambia (1 cases and 0 deaths); Port Loko (2 cases and 1 deaths); Kono, (1 case and 0 death) and Western (1 cases and 1 death. Thirty three (33) patients are currently in EVD Treatment Centre of Kenema.

The number of contacts currently being followed countrywide is 37 from Kailahun. Contact listing is continuing in Kailahun, Kambia and Port Loko.
...

http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-programmes/dpc/epidemic-a-pandemic-alert-and-response/outbreak-news/4166-ebola-virus-disease-west-africa-17-june-2014.html

[Donners]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014

The official death tally seems a bit inconsistent. I assume the WHO is including suspected and probable cases in that.

Ebola Update, June 18, 2014

• The cumulative number of cases tested is 198, the Laboratory confirmed cases are 96 whiles the cumulative confirmed death is 22. The surge in the suspected and confirmed cases is as a result of active contact tracing and surveillance now taking place in the Kissy region of Kailahun District, which was inaccessible by health workers before.
• Thirty-one(31) cases are currently admitted at the Kenema Government Hospital
• Cumulative number of 12 cases have been discharged
• Laboratory confirmed cases and suspected/probable severely ill patients are now been admitted at the Kenema Government Hospital while suspected cases with pending result are kept at the Observation Unit in Daru
• A confirmed Ebola Patient was identified at the Screening checkpoint at Manor Junction
• Government has transferred additional resources to Kailahun, Kenema, Port Loko, Kono, to strengthen case management and surveillance in the fight against Ebola
• 16 Bed Pre-referral Center now ready and operational in Koindu. Save the Children has donated beds for observation units
• 8 Expatriates from MSF are now in the Field in Kailahun District, 4 more are expected this week
• WHO consultant in the field has completed training of ambulances drivers on conveying and burial of Ebola confirmed deaths

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ministry-of-Health-and-Sanitation-Sierra-Leone/281064805403702?hc_location=timeline

[Vibrant62]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Doctors Aren't Sure How To Stop Africa's Deadliest Ebola Outbreak

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/06/18/323213138/doctors-aren-t-sure-how-to-stop-africa-s-deadliest-ebola-outbreak

When an Ebola outbreak lasts for months and continues to show up in new cities, health officials take notice.

That's exactly what's happening in West Africa. An outbreak that started in Guinea last February has surged in the past few weeks. It's now the deadliest outbreak since the virus was first detected in 1976.
Rose Komano, 18 and the mother of three, was the first Ebola patient to overcome the virus in southeastern Guinea, the epicenter of the outbreak. On April 3, she posed at a health clinic in the Gueckedou region.

More than 500 cases have been reported in three West African countries, and the death toll has risen to 337, the World Health Organization Wednesday. That's up from 208 cases reported two weeks ago, a 60 percent spike.

"There are many villages in the eastern part of Sierra Leone that are basically devastated," virologist of Tulane University NPR's Jason Beaubien. "We walked into one village ... and we found 25 corpses. One house with seven people, all in one family, were dead.

"It's a very serious situation there," adds Garry, who just returned to the U.S. from West Africa. "This is about as bad as it [an Ebola outbreak] gets."

More at link.

[sharon sanders]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Thanks Donners, I think you are correct about the discrepancy.

[Donners]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Australian doctor on ebola frontline

An Australian doctor is at the frontline of efforts to curb the first outbreak of ebola since 2012, as the deadly virus poses a new threat in western Africa.

Sydney-based public health expert Dr Richard Broome has flown to Sierra Leone where he is working as part an emergency response team organised by the international Red Cross.

...

"There are now more than 80 confirmed cases and there have been about 40 deaths likely attributed to ebola," Dr Broome said.

"But there is also a piece of good news in that ten people have survived and been discharged from the hospital here, including one lady who was pregnant.

"That was a particularly miraculous event because, as far as I'm aware, no pregnant person has been able to survive ebola before.

"So there is some good news coming out, although the situation is extremely serious."

...

https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/national/a/24271417/?

[Pathfinder]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Ebola in Sierra Leone
Which doctor?

Jun 19th 2014, 16:02by T.T. | FREETOWN

MANY people in Sierra Leone, where an ebola epidemic has gripped the country for the first time, refuse to accept that the disease can be tackled by Western medicine. They prefer to use traditional healers instead. This may make it spread faster. At least 22 people have died so far; another 96 have been infected.
...
“We’re only looking at the ears of the hippo,” says Amara Jambai, Sierra Leone’s director of disease prevention and control. “Many cases stay in the communities because people still like to use alternative sources of treatment. So we miss a lot of cases and only capture a few.”
...
Full text:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2014/06/ebola-sierra-leone

[Pathfinder]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Sierra Leone News: Kenema Matron calls for support to tackle Ebola

The deputy matron at the government hospital in Kenema Josephine Finda Sellu has called on the government and Non Governmental Organizations to immediately come to the aid of the District Health Management Team (DHMT) in Kenema to deal with the Ebola virus in the country. She made this appeal while speaking to the press at her office at the government hospital compound.
...
She further revealed that four (4) health workers have lost their lives as a result of the Ebola virus.

The Matron disclosed that the Ebola management centre that has been under construction is completed and commissioned, and can now host up to thirty (30) beds. She said the center is going to be managed by health workers whom she said have little ideas about Ebola virus management, explaining that the nurses lack knowledge on handling the Ebola infection, how to suspect and how to manage the cases. She described the condition as unfortunate as the health workers at the case management side are at high risk.

She thanked Tulane University for slightly throwing in some assistance by training some health workers like the doctors, matron and lab superintendent in the management of Ebola cases, and later gave similar training to 17 nurses, but she says the number is too small as compared to the influx of patients to the hospital. Thirty beds for 17 nurses are not enough for the pressure of work available at the management centre she complained.

She says most of the confirmed cases in Kenema were picked up from the wards and she is therefore calling for the immediate training of the entire health workers in the region and the nation as a whole as Kenema is the centre of excellence for Ebola in the sub region.
...

By Saffa B. Moriba
Thursday June 19, 2014

Full text:

http://awoko.org/2014/06/19/sierra-leone-news-kenema-matron-calls-for-support-to-tackle-ebola/

[Donners]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Ebola Update 21 June, 2014

• 271 Cases have been tested, with 139 confirmed for Ebola and 33 confirmed Ebola deaths
• 44 Confirmed cases are currently admitted at the Ebola treatment center in Kenema Government Hospital
• 13 cases have so far survived the disease since the outbreak and have all been discharged from the Ebola Treatment Center in Kenema
• The Health Ministers of the Mano River Union (MRU) countries (Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cote D’Ivoire) met in Conakry, Guinea yesterday 20th June, 2014 and signed a Communique to increase the collaboration and coordination among member countries in the fight against the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD)
• The Health Ministry of Guinea donated some Personal Protective Equipment, Hand Sanitizers and Chlorine the Sierra Leone as a sign of commitment to work collaboratively with Sierra Leone in the fight against the outbreak in the two countries.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ministry-of-Health-and-Sanitation-Sierra-Leone/281064805403702?ref=stream&fref=nf

This represents an increase of 43 confirmed cases and 11 confirmed Ebola deaths since the previous update on 18 June.

There is a discrepancy between the current, recovered and deceased tally (44+13+33 = 90) and total (139) - perhaps the other 49 include people at other facilities, since only the Kenema Government Hospital is referred to.

[Pathfinder]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

<IFRAME height=360 src="//www.youtube.com/embed/4JWdc6N2egQ?rel=0" frameBorder=0 width=640 allowfullscreen></IFRAME>

Ebola Viral Disease (EVD) Documentary

Published on Jun 21, 2014

A Short Ebola Documentary by Red Cross, UNFPA and the Government of Sierra Leone (Ministry of Health and Sanitation) for public sensitization and education on the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JWdc6N2egQ&feature=youtu.be

[Pathfinder]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Ebola Outbreak 'Tip of the Iceberg,' Experts Say

By Maggie Fox

...
?This is the tip of the iceberg,? said Robert Garry, a microbiology professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine who?s been leading relief and investigation efforts in Sierra Leone for the Viral Hemorraghic Fever Consortium.

Dr. Mwayabo Kazadi, from the health unit for Catholic Relief Services, agreed that many cases could go uncounted and undiagnosed in the region, where Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia come together.
...
Garry says team members arrived in at least one village to find it deserted, and the body of an Ebola victim left unattended in a house. It?s not hard to imagine what happened, but it makes it impossible to track down people who might have been infected and get them to hospitals for what care can be provided, and to prevent them from infecting others.
...
?This is the biggest outbreak we have ever actually seen of Ebola,? Kazadi said. ?It?s the biggest both in numbers and in terms of geography,? Garry agreed.
...
At least a dozen women were infected by a healer, probably as they washed and kissed her body when she died of Ebola and they were preparing her for her funeral. The case illustrates just why this outbreak is so difficult to fight.

The healer, who used snakes as part of her practice, made some frightening and dire predictions from her death bed. ?She said she was going to release the snakes and said anybody who saw the snakes would die the way she did,? Garry said.

This frightened some of the people in her village, and they attacked some volunteers from Garry?s team, throwing rocks at their vehicle.
...
One suspicion was that people initially got Ebola by eating bush meat ? apes, monkeys, bats, and rodents slaughtered for food....

But now it?s spread mostly person-to-person, Garry said. ?The only thing that people hear is ?Don?t eat bushmeat.? It just gets people riled up. It?s not a useful message.?
...
<TIME class=stack-firstpub title="2014-06-22 16:03:39 Z">First published June 22nd 2014, 11:03 am </TIME>

Full text:

http://www.nbcnews.com/#/health/health-news/ebola-outbreak-tip-iceberg-experts-say-n137081

[Donners]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Ebola Update 22 June, 2014

• Cumulative number of 284 cases have been tested, the cumulative number of Laboratory confirmed cases are 147 with cumulative confirmed death of 34
• Fifty-three(53) cases are currently admitted at the Kenema Government Hospital
•The cumulative number of discharged cases is thirteen(13)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ministry-of-Health-and-Sanitation-Sierra-Leone/281064805403702?ref=stream&fref=nf

Eight more cases and a death since yesterday.

[Pathfinder]

Re: Sierra Leone - Ebola outbreak 2014 - 97 cases, 49 deaths to June 17th

Ebola virus disease, West Africa ? update 23 June 2014
...

Sierra Leone

Between 18 and 20 June 2014, there were no new cases in Sierra Leone, but 4 new deaths were reported from Kailahun (0 cases and 3 deaths) and Kenema (0 new cases and 1 death). This brings the cumulative number of cases and deaths reported from Sierra Leone to 158 (147 confirmed, 8 probable, and 3 suspected) and 34 deaths from confirmed cases.

The geographical distribution of these cases and deaths is as follows: Kailahun, 135 cases and 32 deaths; Kambia, 1 case and 0 deaths; Port Loko, 2 cases and 0 deaths; Kenema, 19 cases and 2 deaths; and Western, 1 case and 0 deaths. Currently, 52 patients are in EVD Treatment Centres in Kenema (12) and Kailahun (40).

The number of contacts currently being followed-up countrywide is 37 from Kailahun. Community health workers are being trained to do follow-up and contact listing is continuing in Kenema, Kailahun, Kambia, and Port Loko.
...

http://www.afro.who.int/en/clusters-a-programmes/dpc/epidemic-a-pandemic-alert-and-response/outbreak-news/4172-ebola-virus-disease-west-africa-23-june-2014.html