ebola - The African Mirror

May

01

2021

U.S. lifts Ebola-related DRC travel restrictions

THE Biden administration yesterday lifted travel restrictions for U.S. visitors who have recently been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but left them in place for Guinea travellers over address Ebola concerns. In March, the Homeland Security Department (DHS) said travelers who had been in the two central African countries within the past 21 days must fly to one of six U.S. airports - New York-JFK, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington Dulles, Newark or Los Angeles. DHS said "the potential risk for Ebola virus exposure in the DRC has greatly diminished."

Mar

03

2021

By The African Mirror

Measures for DRC, Guinea travellers

NEWS

DAVID SHEPARDSON THE Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will impose new public health requirements for U.S. visitors who have recently been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or Guinea because of concerns about Ebola, the agency said on Monday. Starting this week, the U.S. government will require travelers from DRC and Guinea to fly into six U.S. airports. Airlines will collect and transmit passenger information to the CDC for public health follow-up for all passengers boarding a flight to the United States who were in DRC or Guinea within the previous 21 days. Recently, less than…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Ebola strikes West Africa again: key questions and lessons from the past

HEALTH

NEWS of a new outbreak of Ebola in Guinea is indeed distressing. The last in West Africa occurred between 2014 and 2015 and affected Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. It was the world’s deadliest Ebola outbreak, which began in Guinea and in which more than 11,300 people died. Among these were over 500 health workers. MOSOKA FALLAH, Part-time lecturer at the Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Lecturer at the School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, University of Liberia But countries in the West African region are in a very different position seven years on.…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

Calls for fast action after Ebola outbreaks in Guinea, Congo

HEALTH

OBI ANYADIKE TWO new outbreaks of Ebola in two weeks – first in the Democratic Republic of Congo and now in Guinea – have sent health teams scrambling to try to contain the spread of the deadly disease, ramping up contact tracing and medical support to local authorities. Guinea declared an Ebola epidemic on 14 February after three people died and four others became ill in the rural southeast of the country – the first reported outbreak in West Africa since a region-wide pandemic ended five years ago after claiming more than 11,000 lives. The initial case in Guinea’s new outbreak involved a…

Feb

19

2021

By The African Mirror

11,000 Ebola vaccines expected in Guinea

NEWS

GUINEA expects to receive more than 11,000 Ebola vaccines this weekend, with more to follow, and inoculations could start as soon as Monday, a health ministry official and the World Health Organization said yesterday. The 11,000 doses are being prepared in Geneva and over 8,600 more doses will be shipped from the United States to battle the outbreak, which Guinea declared over the weekend, WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti told a news conference. Guinea has recorded three confirmed and four probable cases of Ebola, including five deaths. Six of the cases were in the southeast, while one is…

Feb

08

2021

By The African Mirror

New Ebola case detected in eastern Congo

NEWS

FISTON MAHAMBA A new case of the Ebola virus has been detected in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo near the city of Butembo, and the infected person has died, the health ministry said on Sunday. A woman was found with symptoms of the deadly virus in the town of Biena on February 1 and died in hospital in Butembo on February 3. She was married to a man who had contracted the virus in a previous outbreak. "The provincial response team is already hard at work. It will be supported by the national response team which will visit Butembo shortly,"…

Oct

11

2020

By The African Mirror

Inside Story: How we broke the Ebola sexual abuse scandal

HUMAN RIGHTS

PAISLEY DODDS EARLY last year during a trip to the Ebola outbreak zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we were tipped off that aid workers might be sexually abusing and exploiting women. “Oh, they love our ladies,” reporter Robert Flummerfelt was told in March 2019 at a bar in Butembo, one of two hubs for workers trying to contain the virus in Congo’s northeast. “They arrive in military convoys to take the sick for treatment, and they are always taking the women.” Even though the practice seemed well known, we were warned few women would talk. “The victims of…

Oct

01

2020

By The African Mirror

‘God chose me’: Congo Ebola survivor finds new purpose

HEALTH

DJAFFAR AL KATANTY FOR Esperance Nyabintu, catching Ebola was a curse and a gift from God. A year ago the virus killed her husband. Most of her neighbours, friends and family abandoned her, such is the social stigma of surviving the disease. Undaunted by the challenge of bringing up 10 children alone, she has become a social worker, supporting other ostracised survivors like herself in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo. The epidemic, the second-largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was identified in 1976, has given her an enduring sense of purpose. "It makes me useful. I tell myself…

Sep

21

2020

By The African Mirror

Can COVID-19 inspire a new way of planning African cities?

AFRICITIES

PATRICK BRANDFUL COBBINAH, Lecturer, University of Melbourne ELLIS ADJEI ADAMS, Assistant professor, University of Notre Dame MICHAEL ODEI ERDIAW-KWASIE, Research fellow, University of Southern Queensland HEALTH crises are not new in Africa. The continent has grappled with infectious diseases on all levels, from local (such as malaria) to regional (Ebola) to global (COVID-19). The region has often carried a disproportionately high burden of global infectious outbreaks. How cities are planned is critical for managing infectious diseases. Historically, many urban planning innovations emerged in response to health crises. The global cholera epidemic in the 1800s led to improved urban sanitation systems.…

Aug

26

2020

By The African Mirror

Congo says world’s largest measles epidemic is over

NEWS

THE Democratic Republic of Congo has announced that it has ended the world's largest measles outbreak that has killed more than 7,000 children since it was declared 14 months ago. Congo's response to the epidemic was hobbled by a health service suffering from decades of underfunding, mismanagement and war, but was also overshadowed by an Ebola outbreak in the east of the country. Health experts say the actual measles death toll could be far higher because many cases go unreported in a country with such poor health infrastructure. "After several strategies mounted at the ministry level, we have just put…