Guinea

An ambulance transports the author to the Nebraska Medical Center in October. (Sait Serkan Gurbuz/Reuters)

THE ATLANTIC by Ashoka Mukpo                                                                          Feb. 12, 2015

Like the majority of patients taken to Western hospitals, I recovered from the disease—but health authorities are still struggling to figure out how to bring up the much-lower survival rate in West Africa.

...the 80-percent survival rate among patients who were evacuated to Western hospitals shattered the idea that an Ebola diagnosis spelled near-certain death. I know this all too well, as I’m one of those patients myself. In October, I contracted Ebola while covering the outbreak as a freelance journalist in Liberia. I was airlifted to a hospital in Nebraska, where aggressive treatment likely saved my life....
Read complete story.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/02/why-didnt-ebola-kill-me/385335/

THE WHITE  HOUSE  PRESS OFFICE                                          FEB. 11, 2015

Fact sheet on the Ebola situation

"...Together with our international partners – and the people of the three nations themselves – we have bent the curve of the epidemic and placed it on a much improved trajectory. We have gone from over 1,000 new suspected, probable, and confirmed Ebola cases a week in October, to roughly 150 new confirmed weekly cases in the most recent reports.  Liberia has reported only a handful of new cases per week, a drop of well over 90 percent.  Significant declines also have been reported in Sierra Leone from the epidemic’s peak. Among the accomplishments in this response:..."

Read complete Statement
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/02/11/fact-sheet-progress-our-ebola-response-home-and-abroad

Also see:

Most U.S. Troops will be withdrawn, posted yesterday, Feb. 11, 2015

Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization.
Credit Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone, via Associated Press

nytimes.com - by The Editorial Board - February 10, 2015

The World Health Organization’s anemic performance in handling the Ebola outbreaks in West Africa may yield one positive outcome: sweeping, and long overdue, institutional reforms to improve its ability to respond more quickly to the next outbreak of a lethal infectious disease. Scrambling to answer growing criticism, the W.H.O.’s executive board recently endorsed changes to enhance the agency’s rapid response capabilities.

The reforms call for well-trained public health workers to rush to the aid of beleaguered countries and an emergency fund to support their initial operations, among other advances.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(CLICK HERE - WHO - RESOLUTION AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION)

submitted by Novil Wijesekara

communityresiliencecenter.org

Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a severe, illness in human with average case fatality rate of around 50% (range 25%-90%). At present, survivors of EVD face psychological effects, social isolation and serious repercussions on health care seeking behavior for EVD.  Ebola Survivor Corps is a comprehensive and sustainable program aimed at getting survivors of EVD back to their communities and society as helpers, advocates, champions and heroes of health and development.

Vision of Ebola Survivor Corps:

A world with zero discrimination for Ebola Survivors

Mission of Ebola Survivor Corps:

To establish a comprehensive and sustainable social organization with Ebola Survivors at the heart for reintegrating, empowering and engaging Ebola Survivors as leaders, advocates, champions and heroes of health and development.

Objectives: