Culture

As Ebola Ebbs in Africa, Focus Turns From Death to Life

Sun, 2015-02-01 09:07 — mike kraft

NEW YORK TIMES by Normitsu Onishi Feb. 1, 2015

MONROVIA, Liberia — Life is edging back to normal after the deadliest Ebola outbreak in history....

FEAR FADING Beachgoers in Monrovia, Liberia, recently ravaged by Ebola. As fear of the virus ebbs, Liberians are slipping back into their daily rhythm. John Moore/Getty Images

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Ending Ebola in '15 Depends on Locals as Much as Foreign Aid

Sat, 2015-01-10 16:01 — mike kraft

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS By MARIA CHENG and CLARENCE ROY-MACAULAY Jan 9, 2015

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone --

...Whether the world's worst-ever Ebola outbreak can be wiped out in West Africa in 2015 is uncertain. To a large extent, it depends as much on locals changing their practices and beliefs as it does on continued international assistance.

One of the biggest problems is finding all contacts of confirmed cases. Teams are in place in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three worst-hit countries, to monitor suspect cases, but too little is known about where the virus is spreading. Typically, every confirmed Ebola case has about 12 to 20 possible contacts who must be monitored. In Sierra Leone, the epicenter of the current crisis, officials are reporting just eight, leading to suspicions that contact tracing is inadequate....

Among concrete progress since the crisis gained international attention last summer, a major initiative led by the U.N. has been put into place, including:

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http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/ending-ebola-15-depends-locals-foreign-aid-28121449?singlePage=true

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Liberia eases up on cremation order for Ebola victims

Tue, 2014-12-30 17:03 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS Dec. 30, 2014

MONROVIA --Liberia's government is easing up on its order that all Ebola victims' bodies be cremated after authorities purchased a plot of land to bury them.

Ebola health care workers carry the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus in a small village Gbah on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/ Abbas Dulleh)

Ciatta Bishop, head of the national Ebola burial team, said Tuesday that the government has secured a 25-acre parcel of land where Ebola victims can now be buried.

The Liberian government ordered that victims be cremated at the height of the crisis because corpses are highly contagious.

The cremation decree is highly unpopular in Liberia, where funeral traditions are carefully followed and are considered a sacred obligation to the deceased.

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http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/12/30/liberia-eases-up-on-cremation-order-for-ebola-victims/

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Sierra Leone Urges Safe Burials to Stem Ebola

Sun, 2014-12-21 12:45 — mike kraft

ASSOCIATED PRESS by SARAH DiLORENZO Dec. 21, 2014
DAKAR, Senegal --The radio announcement is chilling and blunt: "If I die, I want the deaths to stop with me."

Dr. Desmond Williams continues: "I want to give my family the permission to request a safe and dignified, medical burial for me."

The announcement is part of a campaign to urge Sierra Leoneans to abandon traditional burial practices, such as relatives touching or washing the dead bodies, that are fueling the spread of Ebola in the West African country.

Officials are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to clamp down on traditional burials in Sierra Leone, where Ebola is now spreading fastest. The head of the Ebola response has even threatened to jail people who prepare the corpses of their loved ones.

Williams, a Sierra Leonean-American doctor who works for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, took to the airwaves last month as part of efforts to encourage people to avoid dangerous burial practices. Now similar pledges have been made by prominent Sierra Leoneans, including the communications director for the Health Ministry, pop stars and radio DJ's.

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Stricken with Ebola, a family runs away from treatment — and into the jungle

Thu, 2014-12-04 09:43 — mike kraft

November 21, 2014 - A family behind a bright orange quarantine rope learns of the death of a family member.
Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post

WASHINGTON POST--by Kevin Sieff Dec. 4, 2014
KOINADUGU, Sierra Leone --
...Six months after the world’s largest Ebola outbreak began, experts say one of their biggest challenges is persuading people to trust the medical system. Families still hide suspected Ebola victimsor refuse to take them to health facilities. The problem exists in Liberia, but some foreign health officials say it’s even more daunting in Sierra Leone, where the transmission rate continues to climb even as it declines in the neighboring country.

In rural areas like Koinadugu, a district bordering Guinea, the problem is especially severe. There is no electricity or running water, let alone a modern hospital. Medicine usually means local herbs, generic malaria pills or the advice of a local healer. People whisper that disinfectant spreads the disease rather than kills it.

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Ebola crisis: Struggling to change behaviour in Sierra Leone

Tue, 2014-12-02 21:45 — mike kraft

BBC by Andrew Harding Dec. 2, 2014

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone --

... "By now, everyone knows about Ebola; and nobody with symptoms should, logically, be dying at home or on the street anymore.

Sometimes suspected Ebola cases are not reported to the health authorities

They should all have been taken to hospital.

But to understand why that is not happening, all you have to do is drive to any of the impoverished suburbs of Freetown..."

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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30279932

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UN releases manual for safe Ebola burials

Fri, 2014-11-07 14:57 — mike kraft

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NOV. 17, 2014

BERLIN The World Health Organization has released a 17-page manual detailing how to safely bury people who have died from Ebola.

The U.N. agency said Friday the guidelines are part of an effort to reduce the likelihood of people contracting Ebola from corpses.

WHO Ebola expert Pierre Formenty says at least one in five infections occur during burials.

The guidelines give step-by-step advice to health workers for both Christian and Muslim burials.

See complete article
http://news.yahoo.com/un-releases-manual-safe-ebola-burials-154352654.html

See WHO manual

http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/137379/1/WHO_EVD_GUIDANCE_Burials_14.2_eng.pdf?ua=1

http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/ebola/safe-burial-protocol/en/

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THE FEAR THAT KILLED 8 EBOLA WORKERS

Sun, 2014-09-21 17:46 — mike kraft

The Daily Beast September 20, 2014
By Abby Haglage

They were sent in to help educate villagers about how to ward off the lethal virus. Then fear took over and the machetes came out.

At the time of Wednesday’s announc

ement out of Guinea that seven of nine missing Ebola workers had been found dead, we knew little. Men with knives had abducted members of a group sent there to spread awareness about the disease. Two relief workers were missing; the rest, dead. Six suspects were in custody.

By Friday morning, we knew more. These details, the stuff of horror films. A local government group of relief workers—a mix of doctors, religious leaders, and journalists—had arrived Monday to educate the remote southeastern village of Womey about Ebola. Just 24 hours after their arrival, violence broke out, allegedly sparked by the false belief that a disinfectant being sprayed was actually the disease itself. An angry mob brandishing machetes, stones, and knives lashed out.

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Safe burial to reduce Ebola spread

Fri, 2014-08-01 11:37 — JSole

Another challenge in trying to contain Ebola is the very strong cultural beliefs in that area of Africa.

The No. 1 contamination risk is touching the body around the time someone has died from Ebola.

"They do rituals before they bury the body that involves washing the bodies and even, sometimes, sleeping with them, the dead person."

So after someone dies at a treatment centre, the Doctors Without Borders staff bring the family to the centre and do what they call a safe burial.

"We wash the body and we put them in a body bag, but with the zipper open so they can see the face, and we bring the body to the village," in conjunction with the Guinea Red Cross, Forget says.

"People can still do a burial process but in a safe way so they don't touch the body … they can still pray and perform ceremonies but without touching the body.

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Oldest Baby Boom in North America Sheds Light on Native American Population Crash

Tue, 2014-07-01 22:40 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Sites like Pueblo Bonito in northern New Mexico reached their maximum size in the early A.D. 1100s, just before a major drought began to decrease birth rates throughout the Southwest. Credit: Nate Crabtree

Scientists chart an ancient baby boom—in southwestern Native Americans from 500 to 1300 AD

phys.org - June 30, 2014

Washington State University researchers have sketched out one of the greatest baby booms in North American history, a centuries-long "growth blip" among southwestern Native Americans between 500 to 1300 A.D.

It was a time when the early features of civilization—including farming and food storage—had matured to where birth rates likely "exceeded the highest in the world today," the researchers write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A crash followed . . .

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CLICK HERE - PNAS - RESEARCH - Long and spatially variable Neolithic Demographic Transition in the North American Southwest

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