This case study looks at the approaches and innovations of private sector waste management companies, including in relation to their access to finance. The focus is on Freetown Waste Transformers (FWT), chosen for its pioneering role as a waste-to-energy company in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and its successful experiences leveraging both …
West Africa is currently witnessing the most extensive Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreak so far recorded. Until now, there have been 27,013 reported cases and 11,134 deaths. The origin of the virus is thought to have been a zoonotic transmission from a bat to a twoyear-old boy in December 2013. From …
FREETOWN - Sierra Leone is introducing new curfews for two northern districts after a spike in new Ebola cases to the highest level in months, President Ernest Bai Koroma said on Friday. The 18-month-long Ebola epidemic has killed more than 11,100 people in West Africa, although weekly numbers of new …
Programme Manager at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Dennis Marke, says Sierra Leone risk a polio importation, and that many children could be affected if nothing was done about the risk. He was speaking at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation conference hall at Youyi building in Freetown …
As a devastating Ebola outbreak in West Africa continues, non-pharmaceutical control measures including contact tracing, quarantine, and case isolation are being implemented. In addition, public health agencies are scaling up efforts to test and deploy candidate vaccines. Given the experimental nature and limited initial supplies of vaccines, a mass vaccination …
Guinea and Sierra Leone have reported 35 new Ebola cases in the past week, four times as many as the week before, providing a reminder that the virus "will not go quietly", a top World Health Organization official said. "It will take an extraordinary effort to finish the job," the …
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 …
Ministry of health and sanitation says a nine-year-old was tested positive for the disease after his death in the eastern Kailahun district of the country Ebola has struck again in the district where the epidemic originated in Sierra Leone, dashing hopes of a recovery after more than three months during …
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 …
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 …
A rapid Ebola diagnostic kit similar to a pregnancy kit has been developed by British military scientists and NHS medics in Sierra Leone. It can be administered at the bedside and return its first results within 20 minutes, slashing dramatically the normal 24-hour turnaround for lab results. Early bedside tests …
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) Sierra Leone's 6 million people were told to stay home for three days beginning Friday, except for religious services, as the West African nation attempted a final push to rid itself of Ebola. Thousands of teams were out reminding people how Ebola is spread and how …
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 …
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 …
Sierra Leone said on Thursday it will confine around 2.5 million people to their homes across the capital and in the north in a three-day shutdown aimed at stemming the Ebola epidemic. The worst-ever outbreak of the virus has claimed almost 3,700 lives in the impoverished west African nation, one …
The death toll from West Africa's Ebola outbreak has passed 10,000, according to the latest tally released by the World Health Organization on Thursday. Liberia has recorded the most deaths with 4,162. Sierra Leone is the second worst-hit nation with 3,655, and Guinea has recorded 2,187 dead, according to the …
