Liberia

thenewdawnliberia.com - by Lewis S. Teh - edited by Jonathan Browne - December 1, 2015

The West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative or (WADPI) has ended a two weeks intensive training on disaster management in Monrovia.

The training, which began last week at the Golden Gate Hotel in Paynesville outside Monrovia, brought together officials of government line ministries and agencies, and commissions with 30 participants from five counties includingMontserrado, Gbarpolu, Bomi, Grand Cape Mount, and Margibi, respectively.

The exercise was conducted under the auspices of the West Africa Disaster Preparedness Initiative or WADPI in collaboration with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) based in Ghana.

It was specifically meant to build capacities of ECOWAS countries to improve responses to disasters such as Ebola at the national and international levels, and other disasters that may occur.

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Image: A microscopic view of the Ebola virus. Credit: CDC/Cynthia Goldsmith/Public Health Image Library

livescience.com - October 20th, 2015 - Ashley P. Taylor

Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey — who became sick with Ebola about a year ago and recovered, but then became very ill again last week with what may be a relapse of the deadly virus — is now improving.

"Pauline Cafferkey's condition has improved to serious but stable," representatives from London's Royal Free Hospital said in a statement Monday (Oct. 19).

Hospital representatives said on Oct. 9 that the nurse had developed an "unusual late complication" of the virus, and reported last week that she was "critically ill."

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submitted by George Hurlburt

Yaovi Gaffa, 20, chained in a room at a prayer camp near Lomé, Togo, in April. Chaining is a last resort for families in West Africa where psychiatry is virtually unknown. Credit Joao Silva/The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Benedict Carey - October 11, 2015

KPOVÉ, Togo — The church grounds here sprawled through a strange, dreamlike forest. More than 150 men and women were chained by the ankle to a tree or concrete block, a short walk from the central place of worship. Most were experiencing the fearsome delusions of schizophrenia.

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submitted by Gavin Macgregor-Skinner

Temperature-Independent, Portable, and Rapid Field Detection of Ebola via a Silk-Derived Lateral-Flow System

googlesciencefair.com - 2015

I developed a “stable and stored at room temperature” Ebola Assay Card, applicable as an ELISA-based diagnostic for diseases such as HIV, Lyme and certain cancers, that will allow for water-activated, timed-release detection of Ebola antigens, with detection limits that are analogous to current sandwich ELISA techniques. Reagents become chemically “stabilized” when mixed into silk, which enables them to remain “chemically active” without refrigeration. This Ebola Assay Card will allow for shipment and storage without refrigeration, and provide detection of the Ebola viral antigens based on color change in as little as 30 minutes.

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