Just over six months since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, civic freedoms remain under threat across the world. A new brief released by the CIVICUS Monitor documents ongoing and unjustifiable restrictions on the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression. The brief also finds …
The World Health Organisation (WHO), confirmed on Tuesday that Ebola has spread further in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Bruce Aylward, WHO Special Representative for Ebola in Geneva, told a technical briefing attended by health ministers that there were 36 new cases in the past week. He said the situation was …
The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) has reported a decline in the number of confirmed Ebola cases in the three most affected Ebola hit countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. According to its Weekly Situational Analysis released Friday, as of 10 April 2015, a total of …
A total of 37 confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) was reported in the week to 12 April, compared with 30 the previous week. Case incidence in Guinea increased to 28, compared with 21 confirmed cases the previous week. Sierra Leone reported 9 confirmed cases, the same total as …
One year into the Ebola epidemic, the international community must take stock of the lessons learned and emerge stronger than before. The crisis in Liberia, Guinea and my own country, Sierra Leone, has shown us that without strong and resilient health systems, countries are left powerless in the face of …
In a bid to curb the spread of Ebola, Guinea's President Alpha Conde has declared a 45-day "health emergency" in five regions of the epidemic-hit nation. The chances of an Ebola-free West Africa remain uncertain. In a statement published in Guinea's national media on Saturday, Conde said the virus "has …
CONAKRY – The West African countries hit hardest by Ebola are ramping up efforts to eradicate the deadly disease using lockdowns, restrictions on burials and a warning to survivors about the potential dangers of unprotected sex. The region’s Ebola outbreak has killed more than 10,000 people since cases were first …
Fears that the current Ebola epidemic, the deadliest in history, was caused by a more lethal, fast-moving or easily transmissible virus than in previous outbreaks appear to be unfounded, according to a new study. The study, a genetic analysis published in the journal Science on Thursday, is based on data …
Ebola is more deadly for young children than adults, an analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests. Scientists found 90% of babies under one suspected to have the virus died - compared to some 65% of adults across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Children are overall much less …
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa will be over by August, the head of the UN Ebola mission has told the BBC. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed admitted the UN had made mistakes in handling the crisis early on, sometimes acting "arrogantly". A year after the outbreak was officially declared, the …
Farms, roads and towns are fast slicing up the world's wilderness, leaving 70 per cent of the world's remaining forested land less than one km from a forest edge, a US-led study showed. The report, by two dozen researchers on five continents and using data the covers the past 35 …
DAKAR, Mar 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The slow international response to the West Africa Ebola outbreak created an avoidable tragedy that cost thousands of lives, a leading medical charity said on the one year anniversary of the first confirmed case. The world's worst Ebola epidemic has killed over 10,200 …
Guinea has suffered a setback in its fight against Ebola with a rash of new cases, including three doctors infected by the virus, with officials blaming weak surveillance and a failure to follow safety procedures. The outbreak, which began in eastern Guinea more than a year ago and has killed …
IT is ultimately transport infrastructure that has put West Africa en route to a brighter infrastructure future, says a Deloitte report. The Deloitte African Construction Trends Report 2014 revealed that the total value of projects under construction in West Africa increased from 50 billion US dollars to 75 billion US …
The transmission of Ebola in West Africa is on the decline, the World Health Organization has announced. Sierra Leone, however, warns that unsafe burial practices threaten to turn that trend around again. The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that the number of new Ebola cases in West Africa …
Scientists are warning of a real risk that the Ebola virus disease could become endemic in west Africa if efforts to end the epidemic slacken as the number of cases falls. All previous outbreaks of Ebola were stamped out within months and the virus disappeared from the human population each …
Initial results of a clinical trial of the experimental drug favipiravir suggest that it can reduce mortality among patients with low levels of the Ebola virus in their blood, but is ineffective for patients with high viral loads who are very sick with the disease The ongoing clinical trial, led …
DAKAR – A Japanese anti-Ebola drug being tested in Guinea should be made available across West Africa after initial trials showed it halved mortality rates in some patients, the medical charity administering it has said. Favipiravir, developed by a subsidiary of Japan’s Fujifilm to treat flu, has been used on …
During the seven days leading up to February 1, 124 new cases were confirmed across three west African countries The weekly number of new Ebola cases registered across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone rose in the last week of January, marking the first hike in 2015, the World Health Organisation …
