The World Health Organization said Nigeria is free from Ebola after 42 days with no new cases reported. WHO representative Rui Gama said Monday the development is a “spectacular success story.” From VOA:
Nigeria had 20 cases of Ebola and eight deaths as part of the worst-ever outbreak of the virus, which has killed more than 4,500 people.
Last week, the WHO also declared Senegal Ebola-free.
Meanwhile, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf called for long-term investment in the health care infrastructure in order to prevent a repeat of the outbreak.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Sirleaf said the international reaction was slow, allowing Ebola to spread in a way that overwhelmed her country’s health system.
She said the steps being taken now, such as U.S. soldiers helping set up treatment centers, would not be needed if the health care system were able to quickly and effectively respond at the beginning stages of an outbreak.
Sirleaf cited Uganda as an example where training and resources have enabled doctors to “recognize symptoms and isolate patients immediately” and also be protected themselves.
Sirleaf said examining ways to prevent future outbreaks is the way to “properly honor” those who have died.
Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone have been the hardest hit by the outbreak, with more than 9,100 cases of Ebola.
The outbreak has also spread to areas outside of West Africa, including Spain, where authorities say a nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for two infected priests now appears to be free of the disease, and in the United States, which has reported three cases of Ebola.
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Global Health and Development Beat
Campaigners against female genital mutilation are mourning the death of Efua Dorkenoo, regarded by many as “the mother” of the global movement to end FGM.
In Nairobi’s overcrowded slums, hungry children often trade their bodies for a few coins or food. Kenya has up to 30,000 child sex workers, according to the United Nations children’s fund, mainly along its palm-fringed tourist beaches, with child prostitution widely acknowledged as a problem that needs to be tackled by stronger law enforcement and by giving the youngsters a way out.
China has donated $6 million to help stave off food shortages in the three African countries worst affected by the Ebola virus, the World Food Program announced Monday, part of Beijing’s growing assistance to a continent where its companies have become major investors.
Jamaican prime minister Portia Simpson Miller announced that the island nation is in a ‘national emergency’ this week over the outbreak of Chikungunya.
Scientists have announced that for the first time, they have determined the precise atomic structure of the Hepatitis A virus. In an unprecedented step forward, a team of scientists from Beijing and Oxford have been able to map the exact construction of Hepatitis A, down to the individual atoms.
The European Union committed itself Monday to step up efforts toward getting $1.27 billion in aid to fight Ebola in West Africa and rejected the idea of halting direct flights coming from the region.
South Korea will send doctors, nurses and military officers next month to the West African region hit by Ebola amid growing concerns over the outbreak, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. South Korea has pledged to spend $5.6 million to help curb the virus.
The University of Cape Town’s Biopharming Research Unit group developed the first proof of efficacy of a plant-produced papillomavirus vaccine”. The unit’s breakthrough now sees it collaborating with Medicago, a Canadian biopharmaceutical company, to produce a plant based-HPV vaccine.
WFP’s country director in Sierra Leone speaks with Deutsche Welle about the importance of food aid during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
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Buzzing in the Blogs
Empowering women is a key part to ending global hunger, says Lisa Dreier, Senior Director of Food Security and Development Initiatives, World Economic Forum USA. She writes about some “quick wins” in the Huffington Post:
Reducing waste: Currently, we waste nearly one-third of the food we produce. In poor countries, most of the waste takes place during harvest, storage and transport due to limited infrastructure and resources. In rich countries, much of the waste is on the consumer end — food that is purchased or prepared then thrown out. Reducing this waste — and making better use of the food we already produce — will help meet global needs while reducing environmental impact and putting more money in consumers’ and farmers’ pockets. This requires investing in better infrastructure on the production side — such as transport, storage and processing – while encouraging customers and food service providers to avoid waste on the consumption side.
Empowering women: In some regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of farmers are women. If the world’s women farmers had equal access to resources, financing and training programmes, global productivity could rise by over 20% and the number of hungry people globally could be reduced by 150 million. Governments, companies and community organizations can strengthen efforts to reach and empower women farmers and entrepreneurs through financing, training and other support programmes.
Improving water efficiency: The world’s water resources are in crisis, with 3.5 billion people projected to live in water-scarce regions by 2025. Agriculture uses 70% of the fresh water tapped for human use, often in inefficient ways. Well-designed policy and economic incentives can encourage efficient water use by farmers, particularly in large-scale commercial operations; and technology innovations can provide cost-effective solutions to help smallholder farmers irrigate their crops. These solutions will become ever more urgently needed as a changing climate demands “climate-smart” production strategies that can withstand increasing water scarcity.
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Capital Events
Tuesday
5:00 PM – Why Nations Fail – Elliott School of International Affairs
Wednesday
12:00 PM – Caring for an Aging Population: US-Japan Comparative Research into the Potential of Prevention-Based Approach – East-West Center
6:00 PM – Awkward Engagement: Reflections on Doctors Without Borders’ Work in North Korea – SAIS
Thursday
8:00 AM – Launching A Road-map for the Base of the Pyramid Domain: Re-energizing for the Next Decade – SID
10:00 AM – World Population and Human Capital in the 21st Century – Wilson Center
Friday
12:00 PM – Beyond Great Places to Work: The Business Case for Investing in Front-Line Workers – Aspen Institute
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By Mark Leon Goldberg and Tom Murphy
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Disclaimer: Opinions presented in this email do not necessarily reflect the views of PSI.
