WHO declares Ebola outbreak over

Yahoo – AFP, Zoom Dosso, January 14, 2016

The worst Ebola outbreak ravaged west Africa over two years, infecting -- by the
most conservative estimates -- almost 29,000 people and killing more than
11,000 (AFP Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard)

Monrovia (AFP) - The world breathed a sigh of relief Thursday as a two-year Ebola epidemic that killed 11,000 and triggered a global health alert was declared over, with Liberia the last country given the all-clear.

The deadliest outbreak in the history of the feared tropical virus wrecked the economies and health systems of the three worst-hit west African nations after it emerged in southern Guinea in December 2013.

At its peak, it devastated Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with bodies piling up in the streets and overwhelmed hospitals recording hundreds of new cases a week.

Rick Brennan, the World Health Organization's chief of emergency risk management, hailed an important milestone but told reporters in Geneva that "the job is still not done", pointing out that there had already been 10 small flare-ups because of the persistance of the virus in survivors.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned the region can expect sporadic cases in the coming year but added "we also expect the potential and frequency of those flare-ups to decrease over time".

Reaction to the announcement was muted in Monrovia, where locals have become accustomed to good news on Ebola being followed by setbacks, and there was no official programme of celebration.

Aminata Kanneh, a 32-year-old entrepreneur, told AFP people were "no longer afraid" because recent flare-ups were dealt with quickly.

"The pronouncement today is a joy but does not call for celebration because we may experience another outbreak," she said.

Map locating coun tries caught up in the Ebola epidemic and a comparison with
recent outbreaks. 135 x 84mm (AFP Photo/I. de Véricourt/A.Bommenel, K Tian)

No celebration

Liberia, the country worst hit by the outbreak with 4,800 deaths, discharged its last two patients from hospital -- the father and younger brother of a 15-year-old victim -- on December 3, 2015.

Africa's oldest republic was the last country still afflicted by the outbreak that infected almost 29,000 people and claimed 11,315 lives, according to official data.

The real toll is suspected to be much higher, with many Ebola deaths believed to have gone unreported.

After the last patient is declared in the clear, a 42-day countdown -- twice the incubation period of the virus -- begins before the country is proclaimed Ebola-free.

Ebola causes severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea. In many cases it shuts down organs and causes unstoppable internal bleeding. Patients often succumb within days.

From a Guinean infant who was the first victim, the epidemic quickly spread into neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, notching up more deaths than all other Ebola outbreaks combined.

Liberia was first to be declared free of human-to-human Ebola transmission in May, only to see the virus resurface six weeks later.

It was officially credited with beating the epidemic for a second time in September before another small cluster of cases emerged.

Health workers assist a patient suspected of having Ebola on their way to a

 treatment centre run by the French Red Cross in Patrice, Guinea, on 

November 21, 2014 (AFP Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard)

Economic ruin

The WHO came under fire for its sluggish response to the epidemic, which local healthcare systems were woefully underequipped to handle. Over 500 healthcare workers died in three west African countries at the height of the outbreak.

Brennan acknowledged the WHO's initial inertia but said the organisation had "done a lot of soul-searching", pointing to a "major reform" it is undergoing.

While Cuba sent doctors, Western governments offered little until foreign aid workers started falling ill and returning home for treatment, sparking fears of a global pandemic.

The concerns inched higher when three cases of infections came to light outside Africa -- two in the United States and one in Spain.

The US, Britain and other countries eventually rallied to the cause, sending thousands of troops and medics to Africa in 2014 and developing a number of promising potential vaccines and treatments.

But the economic ravages of the epidemic are still being felt.

The World Bank estimates the economic damage of the outbreak, which devastated the mining, agriculture and tourism industries in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, at $2.2 billion over 2014-15.

WHO director Margaret Chan described the next three months as "the most critical," as foreign medical groups shut down operations in west Africa and national health ministries take over.

The scientific community echoed the WHO's cautious tone, noting that much research still had to be carried out on Ebola, despite claims by Russia on Wednesday, with little accompanying detail, that it had come up with a vaccine.

Related Article:

"Revelations of Darkness" - Oct 1, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ .. The Role of Gaia in Human Consciousness

One of those times might be frightening for you to know about, since it was a full cooperation with Gaia for your termination, and a pandemic almost wiped humanity off the map. A pandemic! Now, you say, "What has that got to do with Human consciousness, Kryon?" Pay attention, dear ones, because this is the day where the teaching was given by my partner, and he put together the Nine Human Attributes. One of the attribute sets included three Gaia attributes and one of them was the consciousness of the planet. Gaia is related to Human consciousness!

Are you starting to connect the dots? You are connected to this planet in a profound and spiritual way. As goes humanity goes the planet's consciousness. Gaia, Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it, cooperates with Human consciousness. If you spend 1,000 years killing each other, then Gaia will do its best to cooperate with your desires! Gaia will look at Human consciousness and try to help with what you have shown you like to do! Did you know this role of Gaia with you? It's a partner with you, fast tracking what you give to it. You may wish to review what the indigenous of the planet still understand. Gaia is a partner!

Pandemic: Don't you find it odd that in the last 50 years, when you have a population of seven billion Human Beings, with up to 2,000 airplanes in the air at any given moment, going between almost every conceivable place, that there has not been a pandemic in your lifetime? There have been five starts of potential pandemics over the last 20 years, yet none became serious. Did any of you put this together? Dear ones, when the world was far less populated a few hundred years ago, with no mass travel to spread a virus, there were still millions wiped out by a pandemic. With the increased population and mass travel, there is far more danger today than before. It doesn't make sense, does it? What happened to stop it?

When you know humanity's relationship to Gaia, it makes sense. Gaia is a life-force that is your partner, watching you change the balance of light and dark and reflecting what Humans want. It has polarity, too! Perhaps it's time to start your meditations with thanking your planet Earth for supporting you in the spirituality of your Akash, for always being with you, a life-force that is always present. The ancients started their ceremonies in that way. Have you forgotten?

Ebola

Now, I've just set the stage for the next subject, haven't I? Ebola. Are you afraid yet? Gaia is a life-force that is a part of Human consciousness. My partner put it on the screen today so you could see the connections [during the lecture series]. Now it's time to connect the dots. Dear one, Gaia is in the battle, too, for here comes something scary that you haven't had in your lifetime and you're afraid of it - the potential of a pandemic on the planet.

There's a very famous film that has some dialogue that my partner will quote. Some of you will know it and some of you won't, but here it is: "Have a little fire, scarecrow?" What are you afraid of? Darkness? Gaia is in the battle with you and is actively pursuing solutions through light. The energy of the planet is with you in this fight! The ebola virus is a shock and a surprise. It is propelled by ignorance and fear, so it can flourish. Look at where it started and look at how it gets its ability to continue. It expands its fear and power easily with those who believe it's a curse instead of those who understand the science.

Villages are filled with those who refuse to leave their family members because they believe the disease is a curse! FEAR! Instead of understanding that they should be in isolation from the virus, the family dies together through ignorance and fear. This represents how darkness works. Are you going to become afraid also? Dear ones, ebola will be conquered. Know this and be at peace. Pray for light for those in the villages who are afraid, that they can know more about how to keep the spread of this disease and live to see their families. .”

Guinea Ebola outbreak over, WHO declares

Yahoo – AFP, Mouctar Bah with Ben Simon in Geneva, December 29, 2015

A health official works at the Ebola treatment centre run by the French red cross
society in Macenta, Guinea on November 20, 2014 (AFP Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard)

Conakry (AFP) - The UN's health agency on Tuesday declared Guinea's Ebola outbreak over two years after it emerged, spreading death across west Africa and pushing the region's worst-hit communities to the brink of collapse.

One of the poorest nations in the world, the former French colony was the host for "patient zero" -- an infant who became the first victim -- and health authorities went on to record some 2,500 deaths.

"The epidemic of Ebola virus disease in Guinea is over," Mohamed Belhoucine, the World Health Organization's local representative, announced in the capital Conakry.

The fever spread stealthily and terrifyingly from December 2013, striking two neighbouring countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia, with sporadic cases also in Mali, Nigeria and Senegal.

People gather for a concert to celebrate 

Guinea reaching the final stages of the

 battle with the Ebola epidemic on 

September 26, 2015 in Conakry 

(AFP Photo/Cellou Binani)

As world health watchdogs struggled to respond, deaths mounted at a dizzying rate, igniting fears in Europe and elsewhere of a virus that transgressed borders and national controls.

Around 11,300 people died out of almost 29,000 recorded cases, according to a WHO tally that many experts believe greatly understates the real impact of the outbreak.

Paying tribute to Guineans for "standing their ground and fighting with courage", Belhoucine also acknowledged the international community's help in battling the outbreak.

"At the peak of the epidemic... the country recorded hundreds of cases per week. The social fabric was severely tested," he said.

The last known case in Guinea was a three-month-old named Nubia, who was born with the disease but whose recovery was confirmed on November 16.

That triggered the countdown to the announcement, as a period of 42 days -- twice the virus's maximum incubation period -- is required to declare a country free of transmission.

'Au revoir, Ebola'

The WHO declared Sierra Leone' epidemic over on November 7, while Liberia discharged its last known Ebola cases on December 3.

President Alpha Conde is expected at an celebration in Conakry on Wednesday, flanked by representatives from donor countries and dozens of organisations involved in the recovery, from Doctors without Borders to the Red Cross.

Guests will pay tribute to the 115 health workers who died fighting Ebola and eight members of an Ebola awareness team killed by hostile locals in Guinea's forested southeast.

A range of top African musicians, including Youssou N'Dour and Mory Kante, will take to the stage for a "memorial" concert -- entitled "Bye-bye, au revoir Ebola" in the francophone country.

Amid the jubilation and hope for a return to normality, experts have sounded a note of caution, as the virus has been shown to persist in the sperm and other body fluids of survivors significantly longer than previously thought.

Shattered economies

Liberia was declared free of human-to-human transmission in May and again in September, but both times the fever resurfaced in small clusters.

"We have to be very careful because, even if open transmission has been stopped, the disease has not been totally defeated," said Alpha Seny Souhmah, a Guinean health technician and Ebola survivor.

The WHO said in a statement from Geneva that Guinea had entered a 90-day period of "heightened surveillance" to ensure any new cases are identified quickly before they could spread.

Guineans battling Ebola have been faced with huge obstacles, not least the country's grinding poverty and a crumbling medical infrastructure.

Frontline workers have also had to combat the rumour mill, entrenched denial, fear of Ebola stigma and resistance to confinement measures deemed authoritarian or unreasonable.

They also had to persuade people to abandon funeral traditions whereby mourners touch the body of their loved one -- a potent pathway to infection.

The epidemic devastated the economies of the worst-hit countries, as crops rotted in the fields, mines were abandoned and goods could not get to market.

Strong recent growth has been curtailed in Guinea and while Liberia has resumed growth, Sierra Leone is facing a severe recession, according to the World Bank, which has mobilised $1.62 billion for Ebola response and recovery efforts.

The bank's group president Jim Yong Kim called for continued support for Guinea and its neighbours, vowing to "do everything we can to help these countries and the world prevent another deadly pandemic".

WHO: No new Ebola cases in West Africa last week

The World Heath Organization has reported no new cases of Ebola in West Africa last week. The health body has said this is the first time there have been no new cases for a week since the outbreak spread in March 2014.

Deutsche Welle, 8 Oct 2015

The World Health Organization has said there were no new cases of Ebola reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the week to October 4, the first time since March 2014 a week has passed without any new cases being reported.

The healthy body said in a report on Wednesday that there "remains a near-term risk of further cases" of the deadly virus, which has killed 11,297 people out of 28,421 infected since the outbreak began.

Over 500 contacts remain under follow-up in #Guinea. There is still risk of further #Ebola cases https://t.co/ynpg1HaJHq

— WHO (@WHO) 7 oktober 2015

There have been less than 10 confirmed cases per week for the past 11 weeks across the West African countries, while instances of transmission have been geographically limited to small areas. WHO said this marks "a transition to a distinct, third phase of the epidemic."

In Guinea, more than 500 people remain under follow-up and some 290 people who may have had contact with someone infected with the virus remain untraceable, WHO said.

Sierra Leone has gone three consecutive weeks without a new case of Ebola. The last person to receive treatment in the country was released on September 26, but two high risk contacts remain untraced. The country must now wait 42 days to be declared free of the virus.

Liberia was declared free of Ebola on September 3.

Related Article:

"Revelations of Darkness" - Oct 1, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ .. The Role of Gaia in Human Consciousness

One of those times might be frightening for you to know about, since it was a full cooperation with Gaia for your termination, and a pandemic almost wiped humanity off the map. A pandemic! Now, you say, "What has that got to do with Human consciousness, Kryon?" Pay attention, dear ones, because this is the day where the teaching was given by my partner, and he put together the Nine Human Attributes. One of the attribute sets included three Gaia attributes and one of them was the consciousness of the planet. Gaia is related to Human consciousness!

Are you starting to connect the dots? You are connected to this planet in a profound and spiritual way. As goes humanity goes the planet's consciousness. Gaia, Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it, cooperates with Human consciousness. If you spend 1,000 years killing each other, then Gaia will do its best to cooperate with your desires! Gaia will look at Human consciousness and try to help with what you have shown you like to do! Did you know this role of Gaia with you? It's a partner with you, fast tracking what you give to it. You may wish to review what the indigenous of the planet still understand. Gaia is a partner!

Pandemic: Don't you find it odd that in the last 50 years, when you have a population of seven billion Human Beings, with up to 2,000 airplanes in the air at any given moment, going between almost every conceivable place, that there has not been a pandemic in your lifetime? There have been five starts of potential pandemics over the last 20 years, yet none became serious. Did any of you put this together? Dear ones, when the world was far less populated a few hundred years ago, with no mass travel to spread a virus, there were still millions wiped out by a pandemic. With the increased population and mass travel, there is far more danger today than before. It doesn't make sense, does it? What happened to stop it?

When you know humanity's relationship to Gaia, it makes sense. Gaia is a life-force that is your partner, watching you change the balance of light and dark and reflecting what Humans want. It has polarity, too! Perhaps it's time to start your meditations with thanking your planet Earth for supporting you in the spirituality of your Akash, for always being with you, a life-force that is always present. The ancients started their ceremonies in that way. Have you forgotten?

Ebola

Now, I've just set the stage for the next subject, haven't I? Ebola. Are you afraid yet? Gaia is a life-force that is a part of Human consciousness. My partner put it on the screen today so you could see the connections [during the lecture series]. Now it's time to connect the dots. Dear one, Gaia is in the battle, too, for here comes something scary that you haven't had in your lifetime and you're afraid of it - the potential of a pandemic on the planet.

There's a very famous film that has some dialogue that my partner will quote. Some of you will know it and some of you won't, but here it is: "Have a little fire, scarecrow?" What are you afraid of? Darkness? Gaia is in the battle with you and is actively pursuing solutions through light. The energy of the planet is with you in this fight! The ebola virus is a shock and a surprise. It is propelled by ignorance and fear, so it can flourish. Look at where it started and look at how it gets its ability to continue. It expands its fear and power easily with those who believe it's a curse instead of those who understand the science.

Villages are filled with those who refuse to leave their family members because they believe the disease is a curse! FEAR! Instead of understanding that they should be in isolation from the virus, the family dies together through ignorance and fear. This represents how darkness works. Are you going to become afraid also? Dear ones, ebola will be conquered. Know this and be at peace. Pray for light for those in the villages who are afraid, that they can know more about how to keep the spread of this disease and live to see their families. .”

Breakthrough in quest for Ebola vaccine

Yahoo – AFP, Mariette Le Roux, 31 July 2015

The World Health Organization began human trials of the VSV-ZEBOV

vaccine across Guinea in March 2015 (AFP Photo/Cellou Binani)

Paris (AFP) - An Ebola test vaccine provided blanket protection in a field trial in Guinea, said researchers Friday, possibly heralding "the beginning of the end" for the devastating West African outbreak that has killed thousands.

The serum was 100-percent effective, after a week, in more than 7,600 people innoculated, according to results published in The Lancet and hailed as "extremely promising" by World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan.

Health workers assist an Ebola patient at

 the Kenema treatment centre in Sierra

 Leone run by the Red Cross Society, on

 November 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/Francisco

Leong)

The world was "on the verge of an effective Ebola vaccine," the UN's health agency said in a statement.

"The initial results of the study show that the vaccine can effectively contain the further spread of the Ebola virus," said the University of Bern, which contributed to the research.

Though encouraging, the results are "interim" and the vaccine will not become immediately available as a community-wide Ebola shield, experts cautioned.

About 28,000 people have been infected in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since late 2013, according to the WHO. Nearly half have died, but there is thought to be a large undercount of cases and deaths.

Having brought an already fragile health sector to its knees, and driving out much-needed investment, the outbreak has started winding down but is not over.

Seven cases were confirmed the week ending in July 26 -- four in Guinea and three in Sierra Leone -- the lowest weekly total for over a year.

But even a single undetected case can spark a flareup -- the virus spreads through direct contact with body fluids.

"An effective vaccine will be another very important tool for both current and future Ebola outbreaks," said Chan.

Liberian health workers burn clothes

belonging to patients at an Ebola clinic in

 Monrovia, as the virus raged West Africa

in 2014 (AFP Photo/Pascal Guyot)

The trial, backed by drug firm Merck, the WHO and the governments of Canada, Norway and Guinea, saw 4,123 high-risk people vaccinated immediately after someone close to the trial participant fell ill with the haemorrhagic fever.

None of the vaccinated group caught the virus.

A second, comparison group of 3,528 people received the vaccine three weeks after potential exposure. Sixteen of them contracted the virus while unprotected, said the study, but by day six after innoculation, everyone in the second group was also fully shielded.

"Indeed, no vaccinee developed symptoms more than six days after vaccination, irrespective of whether vaccination was immediate or delayed," said the study paper.

The vaccine was safe, with no serious side-effects, according to the study.

Not known is how long the protection lasts, or the vaccine's effect on pregnant women and children -- high risk groups not included in the trial.

One of two leading vaccine candidates, VSV-ZEBOV has been developed and tested in a super-quick 12 months, compared to the normal decade or more. Ebola has no licensed cure or treatment either.

Sierra Leonean health officials check for

 the Ebola virus on passengers at a border

 crossing with Liberia in Jendema, on

March 28, 2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)

'Very exciting'

The Lancet said the Guinea trial would continue gathering evidence of the VS-ZEBOV's effectiveness and safety.

"The vaccine is not yet licensed. More data on efficacy are needed before it can be widely deployed," said an editorial in the medical journal.

Even then, it may be better used not to try and prevent outbreaks, but to limit virus spread once there is one, and for protecting healthcare workers -- the group at highest risk.

"The major problem is the very sporadic appearance of Ebola virus in outbreaks which are unpredictable in terms of where and when they might next appear," Andrew Easton, a virology professor at the University of Warwick, told AFP.

And the cost of mass vaccination to cover all eventualities would be prohibitive.

Disease experts welcomed the results.

"This is big news -- the most promising medical development so far in the ongoing race to shut down Ebola," Benjamin Neuman, a virologist with the University of Reading, told AFP.

Liberian doctor Francis Kateh (right) 

volunteered to receive a trial vaccine

against Ebola at Redemption Hospital on

 the outskirts of Monrovia, on February 3,

2015 (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)

Added Peter Smith of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, the results were "very exciting and suggest that the Ebola vaccine tested may be highly effective in protecting against Ebola disease among those in the immediate vicinity of an Ebola case."

The trial used a so-called "ring" approach -- the same used to eradicate smallpox in Africa in the 1970s. First to be vaccinated are people who had been in close contact with an Ebola patient, then those at a slightly more indirect risk, and so on.

"Where rings have been vaccinated... the transmission has stopped," WHO assistant director-general Marie-Paule Kieny told journalists in Geneva.

"Prior to the vaccination there were cases, cases, cases. The vaccination arrived, 10 days later no cases."

For one of the trial researchers, Matthias Egger, the trial proved not only the effectiveness of the vaccine, but also of the ring strategy.

"This could finally be the beginning of the end of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa and also be useful when combating this disease in the future," he said.

Related Article:

"Revelations of Darkness" - Oct 1, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ .. The Role of Gaia in Human Consciousness

One of those times might be frightening for you to know about, since it was a full cooperation with Gaia for your termination, and a pandemic almost wiped humanity off the map. A pandemic! Now, you say, "What has that got to do with Human consciousness, Kryon?" Pay attention, dear ones, because this is the day where the teaching was given by my partner, and he put together the Nine Human Attributes. One of the attribute sets included three Gaia attributes and one of them was the consciousness of the planet. Gaia is related to Human consciousness!

Are you starting to connect the dots? You are connected to this planet in a profound and spiritual way. As goes humanity goes the planet's consciousness. Gaia, Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it, cooperates with Human consciousness. If you spend 1,000 years killing each other, then Gaia will do its best to cooperate with your desires! Gaia will look at Human consciousness and try to help with what you have shown you like to do! Did you know this role of Gaia with you? It's a partner with you, fast tracking what you give to it. You may wish to review what the indigenous of the planet still understand. Gaia is a partner!

Pandemic: Don't you find it odd that in the last 50 years, when you have a population of seven billion Human Beings, with up to 2,000 airplanes in the air at any given moment, going between almost every conceivable place, that there has not been a pandemic in your lifetime? There have been five starts of potential pandemics over the last 20 years, yet none became serious. Did any of you put this together? Dear ones, when the world was far less populated a few hundred years ago, with no mass travel to spread a virus, there were still millions wiped out by a pandemic. With the increased population and mass travel, there is far more danger today than before. It doesn't make sense, does it? What happened to stop it?

When you know humanity's relationship to Gaia, it makes sense. Gaia is a life-force that is your partner, watching you change the balance of light and dark and reflecting what Humans want. It has polarity, too! Perhaps it's time to start your meditations with thanking your planet Earth for supporting you in the spirituality of your Akash, for always being with you, a life-force that is always present. The ancients started their ceremonies in that way. Have you forgotten?

Ebola

Now, I've just set the stage for the next subject, haven't I? Ebola. Are you afraid yet? Gaia is a life-force that is a part of Human consciousness. My partner put it on the screen today so you could see the connections [during the lecture series]. Now it's time to connect the dots. Dear one, Gaia is in the battle, too, for here comes something scary that you haven't had in your lifetime and you're afraid of it - the potential of a pandemic on the planet.

There's a very famous film that has some dialogue that my partner will quote. Some of you will know it and some of you won't, but here it is: "Have a little fire, scarecrow?" What are you afraid of? Darkness? Gaia is in the battle with you and is actively pursuing solutions through light. The energy of the planet is with you in this fight! The ebola virus is a shock and a surprise. It is propelled by ignorance and fear, so it can flourish. Look at where it started and look at how it gets its ability to continue. It expands its fear and power easily with those who believe it's a curse instead of those who understand the science.

Villages are filled with those who refuse to leave their family members because they believe the disease is a curse! FEAR! Instead of understanding that they should be in isolation from the virus, the family dies together through ignorance and fear. This represents how darkness works. Are you going to become afraid also? Dear ones, ebola will be conquered. Know this and be at peace. Pray for light for those in the villages who are afraid, that they can know more about how to keep the spread of this disease and live to see their families. .”

Donors pledge billions for Ebola recovery in West Africa

International donors have promised billions of dollars to help Ebola-hit countries in West Africa recover from the epidemic. More than 11,000 people have died since the virus broke out in late 2013.

Deutsche Welle, 11 July 2015

The new funds - a total of $3.4 billion (3 billion euros) - announced at a United Nations conference on Friday, are meant to help Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone rebuild their devastated economies and health systems.

"We consider this a very encouraging response," UN development chief Helen Clark told reporters at the end of the meeting. "This puts the recovery off to a very positive start."

Clark said the latest pledges brought the total amount allocated so far to Ebola recovery to more than $5 billion. Ahead of the conference, the leaders of the affected West African countries had appealed for $3.2 billion to finance their national recovery plans, as well as an additional $4 billion for a regional initiative.

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told the gathering the money would enable the countries to revive their economies, restore their damaged social fabric and promote regional stability and world trade.

"We can and we must return to the progress of our pre-Ebola trauma," she said, adding that the world had "a great stake in how we together respond to this global threat."

At #EbolaRecovery Conf, Germany pledges €196m to strengthen resilience, growth and development in affected countries. pic.twitter.com/Fn9QhNlLQA

— German Mission to UN (@GermanyUN) July 10, 2015

Not out of the woods

The Ebola epidemic began in Guinea in December 2013, and soon spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. Although the outbreak has largely been brought under control, the three countries are still recording around 30 new infections each week. Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May, but suffered a setback after new cases of the virus were discovered last month.

Sierra Leone's President Ernest Bai Koroma warned the UN conference that the threat from Ebola was still very real, and the risk would remain as long as health systems were crippled.

"The threat is never over until we rebuild the health sector Ebola demolished, until we rebuild the livelihoods in agriculture it compromised, until we shore up government revenues it dried up, and until we breathe life into the private sector it has suffocated," he said.

Among the new pledges were $745 million from the African Development Bank, $495 million from the European Union, $340 million from Britain, $266 million from the United States and $220 million from Germany.

nm/bk (Reuters, AFP, AP)

Ebola-hit Liberia rebuilds devastated child healthcare system

Yahoo – AFP, Zoom Dosso, 16 April 2015

A nurse works on April 7, 2015 in Liberia's first ever a children's hospital,

 just opened in Monrovia by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) as part of the 

country's response to the daunting challenge of repairing its wrecked health

service (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)

Monrovia (AFP) - Estella Verdier keeps vigil by her sick four-month-old grandson's hospital bed, praying for his recovery but placing her faith in the earthly healing powers of Liberia's first ever children's hospital.

The 46-bed unit, just opened in Monrovia by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), is part of the country's response to the challenge of repairing its wrecked health service as it emerges from the nightmare of Ebola.

Like countless young women in impoverished Liberia, Verdier's daughter died in childbirth, leaving the 63-year-old the infant's main guardian.

"Since then he continues to get sick. Anything he eats, he vomits it. No need to ask me how I feel -- I am feeling bad, of course -- but with this well-equipped hospital I have hope that the kid will survive," Verdier tells AFP.

Liberia is one of three countries, together with Guinea and Sierra Leone, that were ravaged by the worst outbreak of Ebola in history.

The epidemic has killed at least 10,600 people since December 2013, some 500 of them healthcare workers.

Clinics which could not cope with the highly infectious virus were forced to close as the death toll rose, and with it the number of Liberians dying from easily treatable diseases.

"We saw people dying simply because they could not access timely medical care. They were usually suffering from illnesses like severe malaria or typhoid," said Philippe Le Vaillant, MSF's head of mission in Liberia.

"Pregnant women facing obstetrical complications also have suffered the same fate."

Recovery phase

Meanwhile the vaccination rate "took a very deep dive", according to Sheldon Yett, the Liberia representative for UNICEF, the United Nations children's agency.

A woman sits next to her baby on April 7, 2015 in Liberia's first ever children's 

hospital, just opened in Monrovia by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), part of 

the country's response to the daunting challenge of repairing its wrecked health

service (AFP Photo/Zoom Dosso)

UNICEF's own contribution to building up paediatric healthcare includes supporting a government campaign planned for May to immunise more than 600,000 under-fives against measles and polio.

"Polio immunisation was at 88 percent in 2013 compared to 49 percent by November 2014. Measles coverage among one-year-olds fell from 74 percent to 46 percent," Yett told AFP.

Liberia is now in the Ebola recovery phase with no new cases reported for weeks, but like Sierra Leone and Guinea has missed a goal of being "Ebola free" by mid-April.

The country of four million people had been on course to meet the target but on March 20 authorities recorded a new patient who died a week later, meaning the 42-day countdown to Ebola-free status had to start again.

With its Ebola clinics now empty, Liberia's priority is curing the ailing healthcare system.

"We basically decided to come and help the medical system in the effort of restoration after Ebola hit," MSF project coordinator Ondrej Horvath told AFP.

"We were thinking how to do this (so) we sent a small team of specialists who explored Monrovia... One of the suggestions was to focus on children."

MSF began by helping clinics welcome back parents who kept their children out of clinics for fear they might become Ebola carriers.

"We decided to open an in-patient department, specialised in the hospitalisation of children, so it is not a clinic where you go in, get consultation and medication and get out," Horvath said.

'I feel ready'

The hospital was opened on March 23 in an old three-storey block of flats rented from a former cabinet minister in the northern suburb of Bardnesville.

Inside the L-shaped concrete block, MSF healthcare workers triage young patients, ensuring they do not have Ebola before admitting them for treatment for a variety of other illnesses.

Health staff care for a baby on April 7, 2015 in Liberia's first ever children's hospital, 

just opened in Monrovia by Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), part of the country's

 response to the daunting challenge of repairing its wrecked health service (AFP

Photo/Zoom Dosso)

The unit, which can extend its capacity to 100 beds, is equipped to cope with any illness other than AIDS, tuberculosis and Ebola, says MSF, known in the English-speaking world as Doctors Without Borders.

"In our hospital we treat kids with common diseases like malaria, malnutrition, pneumonia, et cetera," says paediatric specialist Stephanie Taylor.

Newborns who become ill after home births are a significant proportion of the intake, says Taylor, along with infants malnourished because of prohibitive increases in food prices caused by the Ebola crisis.

MSF has also been assisting James David Junior Memorial Hospital in Monrovia's Paynesville neighbourhood to upgrade its paediatric and maternal services to standards that now take account of Ebola.

"The virus has taught us all a lesson in the hardest way," Beatrice Jlaka, nursing supervisor in the intensive care unit at JDJ hospital, said in an interview posted on MSF's website.

"Many of our colleagues have died fighting the disease without proper training or equipment. To honour them, we must always be careful. I am no longer afraid to work. I feel ready."

Related Article:

"Revelations of Darkness" - Oct 1, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ .. The Role of Gaia in Human Consciousness

One of those times might be frightening for you to know about, since it was a full cooperation with Gaia for your termination, and a pandemic almost wiped humanity off the map. A pandemic! Now, you say, "What has that got to do with Human consciousness, Kryon?" Pay attention, dear ones, because this is the day where the teaching was given by my partner, and he put together the Nine Human Attributes. One of the attribute sets included three Gaia attributes and one of them was the consciousness of the planet. Gaia is related to Human consciousness!

Are you starting to connect the dots? You are connected to this planet in a profound and spiritual way. As goes humanity goes the planet's consciousness. Gaia, Mother Nature, whatever you want to call it, cooperates with Human consciousness. If you spend 1,000 years killing each other, then Gaia will do its best to cooperate with your desires! Gaia will look at Human consciousness and try to help with what you have shown you like to do! Did you know this role of Gaia with you? It's a partner with you, fast tracking what you give to it. You may wish to review what the indigenous of the planet still understand. Gaia is a partner!

Pandemic: Don't you find it odd that in the last 50 years, when you have a population of seven billion Human Beings, with up to 2,000 airplanes in the air at any given moment, going between almost every conceivable place, that there has not been a pandemic in your lifetime? There have been five starts of potential pandemics over the last 20 years, yet none became serious. Did any of you put this together? Dear ones, when the world was far less populated a few hundred years ago, with no mass travel to spread a virus, there were still millions wiped out by a pandemic. With the increased population and mass travel, there is far more danger today than before. It doesn't make sense, does it? What happened to stop it?

When you know humanity's relationship to Gaia, it makes sense. Gaia is a life-force that is your partner, watching you change the balance of light and dark and reflecting what Humans want. It has polarity, too! Perhaps it's time to start your meditations with thanking your planet Earth for supporting you in the spirituality of your Akash, for always being with you, a life-force that is always present. The ancients started their ceremonies in that way. Have you forgotten?

Ebola

Now, I've just set the stage for the next subject, haven't I? Ebola. Are you afraid yet? Gaia is a life-force that is a part of Human consciousness. My partner put it on the screen today so you could see the connections [during the lecture series]. Now it's time to connect the dots. Dear one, Gaia is in the battle, too, for here comes something scary that you haven't had in your lifetime and you're afraid of it - the potential of a pandemic on the planet.

There's a very famous film that has some dialogue that my partner will quote. Some of you will know it and some of you won't, but here it is: "Have a little fire, scarecrow?" What are you afraid of? Darkness? Gaia is in the battle with you and is actively pursuing solutions through light. The energy of the planet is with you in this fight! The ebola virus is a shock and a surprise. It is propelled by ignorance and fear, so it can flourish. Look at where it started and look at how it gets its ability to continue. It expands its fear and power easily with those who believe it's a curse instead of those who understand the science.

Villages are filled with those who refuse to leave their family members because they believe the disease is a curse! FEAR! Instead of understanding that they should be in isolation from the virus, the family dies together through ignorance and fear. This represents how darkness works. Are you going to become afraid also? Dear ones, ebola will be conquered. Know this and be at peace. Pray for light for those in the villages who are afraid, that they can know more about how to keep the spread of this disease and live to see their families. .”

Japanese Ebola test gives results in 11 minutes: researcher

Yahoo – AFP, 9 April 2015

Health workers in protective suits carry a patient suspected of having Ebola,

 on their way to a treatment centre in Macenta, Guinea, on November 21, 2014

(AFP Photo/Kenzo Tribouillard)

Tokyo (AFP) - A Japanese research team said on Thursday it had developed a field test for Ebola that gives results in just over 11 minutes -- down from the 90-minute test used now.

The breakthrough by Nagasaki University's Institute of Tropical Medicine will allow medics to move much more quickly in treating people with the haemorrhagic fever, Professor Jiro Yasuda told AFP.

"The result time was unexpectedly short," said Yasuda of the trial conducted in Guinea last month on 100 samples, of which 47 proved positive.

The Ebola virus, transmitted through 

contact with infected bodily fluids, has

 killed more than 10,000 people in 

western Africa since it re-emerged in 

December 2013 (AFP Photo/Francisco 

Leong)

The Guinean government has now asked the institute and its collaboration partner Toshiba to supply equipment to roll out the test, he added.

The test hinges on what the researchers have called a "primer", a substance that amplifies only those genes specific to the Ebola virus found in a blood sample or other bodily fluid.

Using existing techniques, ribonucleic acid (RNA) -- biological molecules used in the coding of genes -- is extracted from any viruses present in a sample.

This is then used to synthesise the viral DNA, which can be mixed with the primer and then heated to 60-65 degrees Celsius (140-149 Fahrenheit).

If Ebola is present, DNA specific to the virus is amplified by the action of the primers. The by-products from the process cause the liquid to become cloudy, providing visual confirmation, Yasuda said.

Currently, a method called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is used to detect the Ebola virus. This requires doctors to heat and cool samples repeatedly and takes at least 90 minutes, sometimes up to two hours.

The Ebola virus, transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids, has killed more than 10,000 people in western Africa since it re-emerged in December 2013.