Local officials complain they were left in dark on New Jersey Ebola quarantine center

Local officials in central New Jersey are complaining they were left in the dark on plans to convert a shuttered military base into an Ebola quarantine center — and say they only found out about it when fire officials arrived for an inspection last week. 

“Nobody was happy about this situation,” Eatontown Mayor Dennis Connelly told FoxNews.com. 

Connelly says he had learned earlier that the military post, Fort Monmouth, could be used as a secondary quarantine site — the state already uses a psychiatric hospital in Hunterdon County — but only found out that the plan had moved forward last week. 

The Asbury Park Press reported that the state Department of Human Services had been in contact with a select number of local officials regarding the plan for this center. However, they asked that the plans not be made public. Local officials complain there was never an opportunity for the community to discuss the matter and be part of the planning. 

According to Connelly, the concern wasn’t just that patients potentially exposed to Ebola could be housed there. Officials also have been preparing the Fort Monmouth property to be put up for sale, and the Ebola center plans create problems for that effort. 

“Officials … are concerned that such actions have the potential to undermine the economic development of the Fort Monmouth property in the long run as it is necessary for the Board and the public and the State to work together openly and for the betterment of all residents,” Connelly said in a joint statement with Monmouth County Freeholder Lillian Burry, Oceanport Mayor Michael Mahon and Tinton Falls Mayor Gerry Turning. 

Fort Monmouth was closed as a military post in 2011. Shortly afterward, a committee — the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) — was created to assist in the economic transition of the surrounding towns. The committee assumed control of the base from the Army, with the power to lease and sell parts of the property. According to reports, FMERA recently leased a portion of Fort Monmouth for six months to the Department of Human Services to use as the Ebola quarantine center. 

The local officials said in their statement that the lease, though, was “imposed” on the committee by Gov. Chris Christie’s government and “was not vetted at a public meeting or voted on by the entire Board.” 

While the state is being accused of keeping the plans close to the vest, dozens of other treatment centers already are operational across the country to handle Ebola and other outbreaks. There are 48 treatment centers and 20 quarantine centers, overseen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fort Monmouth was not previously among them. 

Local and state officials have sent a letter to the Department of Human Services requesting answers for why Fort Monmouth was chosen as the site for this center. 

The quarantine center is still in the developing stages, and no Ebola patients have been treated there.   

The Asbury Park Press reported that the center will only treat patients who have been exposed to the virus but show no symptoms, suggesting the health risks would be minimal. If patients were to become symptomatic, according to the report, they would be transferred to another facility immediately. 

Representatives in the Christie administration have not yet commented on the local officials’ concerns. 

FoxNews.com’s Jean Lee contributed to this report.

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Local officials complain they were left in dark on New Jersey Ebola quarantine center

Soldier deployed to West Africa found dead at Fort Hood; tests negative for Ebola - CDC chief: Why I have hope about 2015 Ebola fight

Hazmat teams and several ambulances responded Tuesday after a soldier’s body was found in front of a home at Fort Hood in Texas.

The soldier, who was not identified, had just returned from deployment in West Africa, KWTX.com reported.

According to medical officials, the soldier was tested for Ebola and initial results came back as negative. 

The soldier had returned from Liberia with a larger group earlier this month and was in the 21-day controlled monitoring at Fort Hood, a senior defense official said. He was given permission for an emergency leave due to a family issue and was told to self-monitor twice a day, the official said.

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Soldier deployed to West Africa found dead at Fort Hood; tests negative for Ebola - CDC chief: Why I have hope about 2015 Ebola fight

Two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe, further tests starting

Sunday, January 11, 2015 | 1:58 AM    

LONDON, England (AP) — The World Health Organization says the two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe and will soon be tested in healthy volunteers in West Africa.

After an expert meeting this week, WHO said there is now enough information to conclude that the two most advanced Ebola vaccines — one made by GlaxoSmithKline and the other licensed by Merck and NewLink — have “an acceptable safety profile.”

In a press briefing on Friday, Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, who heads WHO’s Ebola vaccine efforts, said “the cupboard (for Ebola vaccines) is filling up rapidly.”

She said further trials in healthy people in West Africa, including health workers, are scheduled to start soon. Kieny added several other vaccines were being developed in the US, Russia and elsewhere.

Despite the temporary suspension of a trial of the vaccine made by NewLink and Merck in December, Kieny said there was no sign of significant side effects. That trial was put on hold while experts investigated reports of joint pain in a number of participants. It was an unexpected side effect but Kieny said it was not worrying enough to stop the vaccine’s development. No such side effects have been reported with the other vaccine.

The next phase of trials will likely take about six months and manufacturers will ramp up their production at the same time, meaning millions of doses could be available later this year. It’s unclear if that will be quick enough to help slow the epidemic, which appears to be on the decline. So far, Ebola is believed to have sickened more than 20,000 people and killed about 8,000, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Officials estimate the death rate to be about 71 per cent.

“We will have to take stock when we have the vaccines,” said Helen Rees of the University of Witwatersrand, who chaired the WHO meeting. She said experts would have to consider at that point whether it’s useful to vaccinate entire populations or focus only on high-risk groups.

Dr Peter Piot, the co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, said he was concerned there might be too few cases to prove the vaccines worked. Still, he said every option should be pursued to stop the world’s biggest-ever outbreak of Ebola.

“With Ebola, you need to find every last case and stop all transmission,” he said. “It may be that we won’t be able to do that without a vaccine,” Piot said.

GAVI, a private-public vaccine alliance, has pledged to spend US$300 million on WHO-recommended Ebola vaccines, which it estimates could translate into 12 million doses.

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Two leading Ebola vaccines appear safe, further tests starting

Latest Ebola test technology

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Latest Ebola test technology

Hospital parent"s CEO apologizes for lapses in Ebola treatment, training

The CEO of the parent company of the Dallas hospital where two nurses have contracted Ebola from a patient who died there earlier this month has apologized for some aspects of the hospital’s response to the deadly virus. 

Texas Health Resources CEO Barclay Berdan issued the apology in the form of a full-page letter published in Sunday’s editions of The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  

In the letter, Berdan thanks the staff at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital for their “dedication, compassion, and tireless work” before acknowledging that “as an institution, we made mistakes in handling this very difficult challenge.” Among those mistakes are hospital staff not communicating that Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan had recently traveled to Texas from African when he made his initial visit to the hospital’s emergency room on the night of Sept. 25-26. Berdan also says that the hospital’s Ebola training and education programs had not been fully deployed at the time of Duncan’s visit. 

“In short, despite our best intentions and skilled medical teams, we did not live up to the high standards that are the heart of our hospital’s history, mission and commitment,” Berdan said.

Berdan’s letter comes one day after it was revealed that the hospital did not initially keep a watch list of workers who may have had contact with Duncan, and had asked nurses to take their own temperature and self-report symptoms of Ebola.  

According to the Associated Press, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins only ordered the creation of a watch list on Oct. 12, the same day nurse Nina Pham tested positive for the disease, Hospital officials told potentially exposed hospital workers to stop seeing patients other than Pham.

But the next day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed another nurse who cared for Duncan, Amber Vinson, to get on a plane in Ohio and fly to Dallas with a mild fever. She was later diagnosed with Ebola, and CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden has conceded that she “should not have traveled on a commercial airline.”

The inconsistent response by health officials in monitoring and limiting the movement of health workers has been one of the critical blunders in the Ebola outbreak. Friends and family who had contact with Duncan before he was hospitalized were confined to homes under armed guard, but nurses who handled his contagious bodily fluids were allowed to treat other patients, take mass transit and get on airplanes.

“I don’t think the directions provided to people at first were as clear as they needed to be, and there have been changes in the instructions given to people over time,” said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, a doctor who did his residency in Dallas.

Local health authorities have said repeatedly throughout the response that their guidance and direction can change.

“Please keep in mind the contact list is fluid, meaning people may fall off the list or new people may be added to the list depending on new information that could arise at any time on any given day,” said Dallas County health department spokeswoman Erikka Neroes on Friday when asked how many people are even being monitored.

On Thursday, Jenkins announced stricter restrictions that require hospital staffers who had been potentially exposed to stay away from the public for 21 days and check their temperature twice a day, once in person with a public health worker. It was the first written order anyone being monitored has been asked to sign.

“They can walk their dog, but they can’t go to church; they can’t go to schools; they can’t go to shopping centers,” said Mayor Mike Rawlings.

Public health epidemiologists were notifying the health care workers of the directions Friday, said Texas Department of State Health Services spokeswoman Carrie Williams.

But even those medical agreements allow some wiggle room. For example, they say public transit isn’t outright banned but “should be discussed with the public health authority.”

Officials say 125 friends, family, doctors, nurses, technicians, ambulance drivers and others may have been exposed in the days before Duncan died. Since then, the two nurses have tested positive and at least 18 other people in Texas and Ohio have been identified as secondary contacts who also merit watching.

At first, the monitoring sounded relatively simple: track down the contacts, monitor them with least twice daily temperature records and test people who develop symptoms for Ebola. State officials would be in charge, working with the CDC and Dallas County authorities.

But for a time after Pham was diagnosed with Ebola, different hospital workers had different levels of monitoring, based in part on their exposure risk. Some self-reported their temperatures. Some continued to care for patients. Hospital spokesman Wendell Watson on Saturday referred all questions about the facility’s monitoring practices to county officials.

The county moved Duncan’s girlfriend, Louise Troh, her 13-year-old son, Duncan’s nephew, and a family friend from their apartment to a guarded house in an undisclosed location, where a health official comes by twice a day and takes their temperatures. The unusual confinement order was imposed after the family failed to comply with a request not to leave their apartment, Jenkins said.

Pham and Vinson have been taken to medical centers with isolation units in Maryland and Atlanta. There are four such centers in the U.S.

At the National Institutes of Health medical center in Bethesda, Maryland, spokeswoman Amanda Fine says staff involved in caring for people with Ebola are given thermometers and instructions and must measure and submit body temperatures twice daily.

Taylor Wilson, a spokesman for the Nebraska isolation unit, which has also been treating Ebola patients, said that every time health care workers go into the unit, they must stop and take their temperature and other vital signs and log the results. They are also advised to keep an eye out for any symptoms.

He said that there are no restrictions on the staff’s movements outside of work.

In Washington, President Barack Obama presided at a rare Saturday evening meeting of Cabinet officials and advisers on health and security to receive an update on domestic Ebola cases and the status of tracing, contacting and monitoring people who may have come into contact with Ebola patients in Dallas. The meeting included a discussion of broader steps to increase the preparedness of the nation’s health sector, the White House said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Hospital parent"s CEO apologizes for lapses in Ebola treatment, training

VIDEO: Ebola: Cuba to send medics to Africa

As demands grow for more international help to fight Ebola, Cuba’s former president, Fidel Castro, has said his country will send almost 300 extra doctors and nurses to Africa.

He also said Cuba was ready to cooperate with the United States in the interest of global peace.

The announcement came as President Obama urged Americans to avoid hysteria over Ebola, as Donna Larsen reports.

Donna Larsen reports.

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VIDEO: Ebola: Cuba to send medics to Africa

VIDEO: The quest for an Ebola vaccine

Authorities in West Africa are struggling to deal with the Ebola outbreak which has already claimed thousands of lives in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Meanwhile, in labs around the world the race is on to try and develop a vaccine against the disease.

In San Diego scientists are using the blood of people who have survived the disease to try and understand more about Ebola.

Alastair Leithead reports from Texas.

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VIDEO: The quest for an Ebola vaccine

VIDEO: Doctor on sister"s Ebola death

Dr Albert Benjamin’s sister, Dr Olivet Buck, was treating Ebola patients in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Last month she died after contracting the deadly virus.

Dr Benjamin spoke to the BBC about the horrific conditions in which his sister and other primary care workers in Freetown have been forced to operate.

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VIDEO: Doctor on sister"s Ebola death

VIDEO: How to report Ebola crisis safely

More than 4,000 people have died of Ebola, nearly all of them in West Africa.

BBC Global Health correspondent Tulip Mazumdar has been reporting on the crisis in Sierra Leone.

Here she explains the measures journalists and medics are taking to prevent themselves becoming ill, and from and spreading the virus.

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VIDEO: How to report Ebola crisis safely

Brazil Ebola case tests negative

11 October 2014 Last updated at 14:27 Brazilian authorities sent an Air Force plane to pick Mr Bah up from Cascavel Brazil says a Guinean man who had been suspected of having Ebola has tested negative for the disease.

The man arrived in the country on Thursday and had been quarantined.

Souleymane Bah went to a public health centre in the town of Cascavel in the southern state of Parana after suffering a fever.

He was flown to the National Institute of Infectology in Rio de Janeiro but fears he was the country’s first case of Ebola infection proved unfounded.

Health Minister Arthur Chioro said “all health protocols and procedures were applied efficiently and with great success”.

Guinea is one of the three West African countries most affected by Ebola.

Mr Bah’s symptoms appeared on the 20th day after he left Guinea – within the 21-day incubation period. He no longer has the fever.

Mr Bah arrived in Brazil as a refugee and was granted leave to remain until 2015 by immigration police.

Sixty-four people who came into contact with Mr Bah, mostly in the health centre in Parana, were monitored for symptoms of Ebola.

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Brazil Ebola case tests negative

Canada to send experimental Ebola vaccine to WHO

Saturday, October 18, 2014 | 2:14 PM    

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — The Canadian government said it will start shipping its experimental Ebola vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday for possible use in the West African countries hardest hit by the outbreak.

The government said in a news release Saturday that the Public Health Agency of Canada is supplying the vaccine to the UN agency in Geneva. The WHO is the international coordinating body for battling the Ebola outbreak which has killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa.

The news release said Canada will send 800 vials of its experimental vaccine in three separate shipments.

The WHO will consult with its partners, including health authorities from the affected countries, to determine how best to distribute and use the vaccine, taking into consideration concerns about using an experimental vaccine on people.

Human testing of the Canadian-made vaccine began last week in the US Twenty vials of the vaccine were sent to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Maryland for testing on about 40 healthy volunteers, Canada’s Health Minister Rona Ambrose said last Monday.

The Phase 1 trial will determine if the vaccine known as VSV-EBOV is safe for human use. It will also determine the proper dosage level and test for possible side effects.

Studies have shown the vaccine works in primates both to prevent infection when given before exposure and to increase survival chances when given quickly after exposure.

Canadian health officials said results from the human trial are expected by December.

“This vaccine, the product of many years of scientific research and innovation, could be an important tool in curbing the outbreak,” said Dr Gregory Taylor of Canada’s Public Health Agency. “We will continue to work closely with the WHO to address some of the ethical and logistical issues around using this experimental vaccine in the fight against Ebola.”

Taylor said last week that the next step in testing the vaccine would be to test it in a larger human sample — most likely health-care workers handling Ebola cases on the ground in West Africa.

A small US company called NewLink Genetics, of Ames, Iowa, holds the license for the vaccine and is arranging the trials on human subjects. NewLink said in early October that it anticipated that clinical trial would soon be under way in the US, Germany, Switzerland and in an unnamed Africa country, which is not battling Ebola.

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Canada to send experimental Ebola vaccine to WHO

Health minister to lead Ebola delegation to Cuba

Saturday, October 18, 2014 | 10:53 AM    

Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson will be leading a delegation to Cuba to seek support in light of the threat of Ebola.

Ferguson made the announcement Friday at the official reopening of the Llandewey Health Centre in St Thomas.

“I have met with the Cuban ambassador and a broad delegation including the private sector will be visiting Cuba to seek support from the Government. As we are aware, Cuba sent a mission to West Africa in the response to the Ebola outbreak in that region and we would like some support from their medical doctors to help with our national response” Ferguson said.

Meanwhile, the minister also called for unity in the coordinated response to Eloba.

“While we are going through the chikungunya outbreak, we know that the mortality rate for this disease is less than 1 per cent but Ebola is no joke. The Ebola virus is a severe, often fatal illness with a death rate of up to 90 per cent. The prime minister has elevated the country’s response to a national health Response. We are calling on every citizens of this country to unite around this response,” he stated.

The reopening of the Llandewey Health Centre forms part of the ministry’s strategy to build and restore more health facilities to allow citizens to access care easily. Over one hundred health centres have been repaired as a demonstration of the ministry’s commitment to develop the primary healthcare infrastructure across the island.

Renovation of the Llandewey Health Centre was at a cost of approximately $11 million.

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Health minister to lead Ebola delegation to Cuba

US disappointed at Belize decision regarding possible Ebola victim

Saturday, October 18, 2014 | 1:53 PM    

BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC) — The United States says it is disappointed that Belize had refused a couple, including a woman suspected of having the Ebola virus, from disembarking from a cruise ship and using the Phillip Goldson International Airport (PGIA) to be flown back to the United States.

“…we’re disappointed by this. We think it could have been handled differently. Decisions like these need to be made based on information and science and not fear, even though we know this is a very serious disease, serious threat,” said Marie Harf, US State Department deputy spokesperson.

“The ship is on its way back to Galveston, Texas right now. It is expected to dock on Sunday and obviously we’ll be giving any care to this individual that is needed and we’ll keep having the conversations with countries if something like this arises again,” she added.

But Prime Minister Dean Barrow held on to his administration’s position that he would not be putting the lives of Belizeans at risk.

“I stuck to my line which was that in the circumstances we couldn’t take any chances,” he said, noting that US Secretary of State John Kerry had also urged his administration to rethink its position.

“He did ask whether I would consider, whether I would explore the possibility of their sending a helicopter that would land on the deck of the cruise ship and then take the two passengers straight across to the PGIA.

“In other words he thought that an option could be explored that would mean that no Belizean would come into any kind of contact with these passengers. I said well have your people tell us what would be the logistics of that.”

Barrow said that the option was not feasible because Belizean nationals would still be engaged and adding that in the circumstances he was convinced that his original position would remain “because I could not let the circumstances be possible to do what the Americans were asking without exposing some Belizeans to some degree of risk”.

The unidentified woman is a known lab technician who may have had contact with fluids from Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan, who died earlier this month after contracting the virus for which there is no known cure. She had been exposed to his body for at least 18 days.

The woman and her companion were on the cruise ship, Carnival Magic that sailed into Belize Thursday night. They had allowed themselves to be isolated while on the cruise.

A number of Caribbean countries have since banned nationals from Libera, Sierra Leone and Guinea from visiting their shores.?

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US disappointed at Belize decision regarding possible Ebola victim

Cuba would cooperate with US against Ebola – Castro

Saturday, October 18, 2014 | 12:43 PM    

HAVANA, Cuba (AP) — Cuba stands ready to cooperate with the United States (US) in the battle against Ebola, former leader Fidel Castro said in an article published Saturday.

Cuba is sending about 460 doctors and nurses to West Africa to help fight Ebola, an effort that was praised on Friday by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

The US is sending hundreds of soldiers to set up clinics and train health care workers and it also has sent officials from the Centers for Disease Control to help in training.

“With pleasure we will cooperate with US personnel in that task,” the 88-year-old ex-leader wrote in the Communist Party daily Granma. He said it would not be to seek peace between two countries long at odds, but “for the peace of the world.”

Castro did not say what form cooperation might take.

He also noted that Havana plays host on Monday to a meeting of leaders from the ALBA alliance of leftist Latin American nations that is meant to raise more support for the fight against Ebola.

He said such medical cooperation is “the greatest example of solidarity that a human being can offer.”

Jorge Perez, the head of Cuba’s top tropical medicine institute, told The Associated Press on Friday that Cuba is ready to send still more doctors if there is enough funding and infrastructure to support them.

“There are countries that have resources and can send money, but there are also those who can send human resources. It’s not just doctors. We also need nurses, technicians,” he said.

In Washington on Friday, Kerry mentioned Cuba as one of the “nations large and small stepping up in impressive ways to make a contribution on the front lines.”

Perez said that despite the United States’ chilly 55-year relationship with Cuba’s communist government, Kerry’s words were “an important gesture.”

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Cuba would cooperate with US against Ebola – Castro

Texas deputy tests negative for Ebola - ABLOW: Why Obama is letting Ebolaphobia spread - UN medic arrives in Germany for treatment - Plane cleaners strike - CDC chief: Why I don"t support a travel ban - OPINION: Time for Congress to address crisis

Texas deputy tests negative for Ebola - ABLOW: Why Obama is letting Ebolaphobia spread - UN medic arrives in Germany for treatment - Plane cleaners strike - CDC chief: Why I don"t support a travel ban - OPINION: Time for Congress to address crisis

US reports first Ebola case

Diandra Grandison, Staff Reporter

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention yesterday confirmed the United States’ first case of the deadly Ebola Virus.

The virus is currently wreaking havoc in sections of West Africa.

According to reports, the male Ebola patient is currently in isolation at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas.

It was revealed that the man entered the U.S. on September 19 to visit family after travelling from Liberia, he reportedly took sick a few days later and has been in isolation at the hospital since Sunday.

Deadly virus

The Ebola epidemic was discovered earlier this year and allegedly started in the West African country of Guinea. The deadly virus has since spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal.

According to the World Health Organisation, (WHO) Ebola symptoms can include fever, muscle pains, vomiting, internal and external bleeding and can appear as long as 21 days after exposure to the virus.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, also stated that the virus is spread through direct contact with an infected person, through either bodily fluids, objects such as needles that have been contaminated with the disease and infected animals.

The epidemic has so far killed over 3000 people in West Africa.

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US reports first Ebola case

Ebola vaccines next year, says WHO

Saturday, September 27, 2014 | 9:40 AM    

MONROVIA, Liberia (AFP) – The World Health Organization said urgently awaited vaccines for the deadly Ebola disease could be ready early next year.

“If everything goes well, we may be able to begin using some of these vaccines in some of the affected countries at the very beginning of next year,” WHO assistant director general Marie-Paule Kieny said.

Currently, there is no licenced treatment or vaccine against the virus, and the UN health agency has endorsed rushing experimental prototypes through testing.

WHO is focusing on two vaccines: one made by British company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and the other by US group NewLink Genetics. It is working with both companies to accelerate clinical trials, Kieny told reporters in Geneva.

Another experimental vaccine by US company Johnson & Johnson had not been ruled out, but “they are clearly behind by a few months,” she said.

Some clinical trials of the GSK vaccine have begun in the United States and Britain, and other trials are expected to begin in Mali next week.

Trials of the NewLink vaccine are also set to start “imminently” in the United States.

If shown to be safe, thousands of doses of both experimental vaccines should be available by January.

WHO is also trying to accelerate the development of around half a dozen treatments for Ebola, including the prototype ZMapp drug already given to US and Spanish aid workers with promising results.

Supplies of the drug have been exhausted.

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Ebola vaccines next year, says WHO

Antonio Vigilante: Ebola crisis reversing development gains in Liberia

An Ebola victim is carried by health workers for burial on May 13, 2014. (Credit: ©EC/ECHO/Jean-Louis Mosser)

Antonio Vigilante

MONROVIA, Liberia, Tuesday September 16, 2014, IPS - As the Ebola crisis continues to take a toll on people’s lives and livelihoods in West Africa, the focus is increasingly not just on the health aspects of the crisis, but also on its social and economic consequences.

Sure, the human and medical aspects of the crisis are still on the front burner, as they should be. Losing a spouse, a child or another close relative is devastating. The health sector is under tremendous pressure to cope with the sick, and even to protect its own workers from contagion.

There are also health ramifications for those not affected by Ebola: access to regular health care is reduced due to closures of hospitals and clinics, loss of nurses and doctors and increased fees by private health care providers.

Vaccination coverage, for instance, had already declined by 50 percent by July. Women in labour struggle to obtain skilled maternity care — in some cases they are turned away from the few institutions still in operation.

People with HIV who are on antiretroviral drugs and people with chronic diseases on prolonged care have had their treatment interrupted as a result of the closure of health facilities. The public health care system has all but collapsed in parts of the areas hardest hit by Ebola.

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Before the current crisis, Liberia’s economy experienced impressive growth rates of up to 8.7 per cent (2013). GDP growth was already projected to decline to 5.9 per cent this year, as mining production levelled off temporarily, coupled with the fall in international prices for rubber and iron ore, before rising to 6.8 per cent in 2015 and 7.2 per cent in 2016. Future growth figures will now have to be revised, as economic activities have slowed down dramatically in most sectors.

But there is also an underlying issue at hand: The impressive recent growth in Liberia has not been equitable or inclusive. About 57 per cent of the country’s approximately four million inhabitants live below the poverty line and 48 per cent live in conditions of extreme poverty.

The lack of equitable, inclusive development means that more than half of the country’s population—especially women and children–is particularly vulnerable to shocks and crises, ultimately making the whole country less robust and less able to handle a crisis of any magnitude.

Part of the challenge in restoring livelihoods is psychological in nature. Fear and isolation can in the end take more lives than the Ebola virus itself if businesses are not operating, livelihoods disappear and public services are not delivered.

Reduced tax revenues go hand in hand with a decrease in the government’s ability to respond to the crisis. A decline in revenues is expected as Ebola continues to claim the lives of Liberians and the government continues to enforce travel restrictions as part of the state of emergency.

Soon, this is likely to impact salary payments for public employees and could paralyze the country further. Trust in the government is also on the line as it becomes increasingly unable to protect its citizens and deliver the services they desperately need.

At the same time, prices of locally grown and imported foods are increasing as the state of emergency, military road blocks and restricted travel slow down trade. The trend is amplified by a vicious cycle of falling consumer demand and shrinking levels of income.

In this scenario, it is crucial to put in place adequate social protection mechanisms, as the fall in disposable income make families unable to afford food and health services. This would not only contribute to improving social stability and security, but would also make Liberian society as a whole more robust and resilient.

Indeed, a large portion of the population is in need of public assistance. The latest data indicate that about 78 percent of the labour force is in a situation of vulnerable employment. By contrast, formally paid employees (about 195,000 people) make up only about 5 per cent of the population.

About 13 percent of households do not have access to sufficient food and 28 per cent are vulnerable to food insecurity. If the poorest segments of the population get access to some form of social protection mechanism, it will enable them to better withstand the current crisis, as well as future ones.

In the remote parts of the country, far from the hustle and bustle of its capital, Monrovia, it is also necessary to strengthen local authorities’ ability to handle the crisis, for instance by improving monitoring mechanisms and making protection equipment available for those who are in direct contact with Ebola patients and corpses.

The resurgence of the Ebola crisis since July and its gradual escalation into a national emergency in Liberia has diverted the focus and resources available to the authorities to the containment of the virus. In this phase of the crisis, it is necessary to act on all fronts to meet the devastating health, social and economic challenges before Liberia and other affected countries see all their hard-won development gains dwindle to nothing.

Antonio Vigilante is Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Representative in Liberia. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, Caribbean360.

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Antonio Vigilante: Ebola crisis reversing development gains in Liberia

Cuba joins Ebola battle as virus spreads faster than capacity to manage it

GENEVA, Switzerland, Monday September 15, 2014 – As the deadly Ebola virus continues its relentless rampage in West Africa, Cuba is sending 165 medical professionals to help battle the outbreak that has now claimed more lives than all previous outbreaks of the disease combined.

Next month, a team of Cuban doctors, nurses and infection control specialists will travel to Sierra Leone to begin a six-month assignment.

The move by the communist Caribbean country comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) says new cases in West Africa are increasing faster than the capacity to manage them.

Director of the WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, said: “If we are going to go to war with Ebola we need the resources to fight.

“I am extremely grateful for the generosity of the Cuban government and these health professionals for doing their part to help us contain the worst Ebola outbreak ever known.

“Cuba is world-famous for its ability to train outstanding doctors and nurses and for its generosity in helping fellow countries on the route to progress,” Dr Chan added.

Cuban doctors have been sent to a range of countries, from Algeria to South Africa, and hundreds of Cuban medical workers were deployed to Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Among Havana’s established overseas medical initiatives is an extensive eye surgery programme in Venezuela.

Late Venezuela President Hugo Chavez chose Cuba for his cancer treatment, and the communist island is widely recognised for its cutting edge cancer procedures and research.

The Cuban health workers deployed to West Africa will be confronted with new challenges in the face of an outbreak of disease that has killed more than 2,500 people in recent months and infected over 5,000.

WHO officials say the number of people affected is likely to be much greater than current estimates suggest, moreover, and have forecast as many as 20,000 cases.

Of the six affected countries, the death toll remains highest in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. In the latter country, reports indicate there is not a single bed left to treat patients with Ebola.

After a recent trip to the region, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr Tom Frieden warned that the Ebola outbreak is much worse than official figures show and is “spiralling out of control.”

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Cuba joins Ebola battle as virus spreads faster than capacity to manage it

CARICOM formalising recommendations to deal with Ebola, Chikungunya

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Tuesday September 16, 2014, CMC – The Guyana-based Caribbean Community (CARICOM) says it is formalising recommendations to deal with any possible incidence of the Ebola virus and is also improving efforts to respond to the Chikungunya epidemic.

A CARICOM statement said that chief medical officers and other technical health experts from CARICOM member states met via video conference to rationalise the region’s response to the two diseases.

The meeting was convened by the CARICOM Secretariat in collaboration with the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).

“Among draft proposals that were fleshed out at the meeting was the achievement of the core competencies cited in WHO’s International Health Regulations. Discussions additionally focused on the need to urge a calm but prudent response when applying the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendation with regards to the Ebola virus – no restrictions on travel and trade in areas where the Ebola transmission has occurred,” the statement said.

It said the meeting also discussed the “urgent need to put in place isolation facilities and resources to permit barrier management of suspected or affected cases of Ebola”.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Dr Carissa Etienne, who has ended a visit to Guyana, has assured that there was a very low death rate from Chikungunya, despite the significant illness and disability it causes.

Dr Etienne paid a courtesy call on CARICOM Secretary-General, Irwin LaRocque and met with officials of the Directorate of Human and Social Development to discuss the region’s response to the current disease alerts.

Dr Etienne said that Chikungunya has had a significant effect on productivity and the social and economic life of affected communities, and it was therefore critical to concentrate response efforts on vector reduction.

“It is a household mosquito (aedes. aegypti) and all householders must become active in reducing the breeding sites inside and outside of their homes … garbage disposal, drainage of water, emptying of containers.

“We also have to ask people to sleep under bed nets so that you don’t get bitten, particularly an infected person. The treatment is mini-supportive, we give Tylenol, Paracetamol, Acetaminophen, and ensure fluid intake,” Dr Etienne said.

She said multi-sectoral action was needed to ensure access to water, to avoid storage which encourages mosquito breeding. Adequate garbage disposal and activating communities to take better care of themselves at the Community and individual levels were other critical responses the PAHO Director proposed.

With regard to Ebola, Dr Etienne noted that PAHO has observed outbreaks in Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and three other African countries, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sengal, which have reported cases, but have contained the disease.

“At this stage, the current Ebola outbreak has been upgraded to a United Nations Humanitarian Crisis which activates all of the UN to react to the crisis. It is being viewed not only as a health problem; it is generating food security and human security issues,” Dr Etienne said.

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CARICOM formalising recommendations to deal with Ebola, Chikungunya