En af de vigtigste internationale aktører i kampen mod ebolaudbruddet i Vestafrika har mistet 13 medarbejdere til virussen men fortsætter ufortrødent. Hjælpen er strømmet ind og forskere arbejder på højtryk for at udvikle behandling. Men der er langt igen.
Since the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was officially declared on 22 March in Guinea, it has claimed more than 8,200 lives in the region (de seneste tal fra WHO siger 8.429).
The outbreak is the largest ever, and is currently affecting four countries in West Africa: Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali.
Outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal have been declared over. A separate outbreak in DRC has also ended.
Antal tilfælde og dødsfald
- Guinea: 2.806 tilfælde – 1.814 døde
- Liberia: 8.331 tilfælde – 3.538 døde
- Nigeria: 20 tilfælde – 8 døde
- Sierra Leone: 10.124 tilfælde – 3.062 døde
- Senegal: 1 tilfælde – ingen døde
- Mali: 8 tilfælde – 6 døde
- Spanien: 1 tilfælde – ingen døde
- Storbritannien: 1 tilfælde – ingen døde
- USA: 4 tilfælde – 1 død
- Total: 21.296 tilfælde – 8.429 døde
Kilde: WHO, 1. januar 2015
Donorlande har bemanding til lokale myndigheder og NGO’er
In September, 2014, MSF called for states with biological-disaster response capacity to urgently dispatch human and material resources to West Africa, all three of the worst-hit countries have received some assistance from the international community.
But foreign governments have focused primarily on financing or building Ebola case management structures, leaving staffing them up to national authorities, local healthcare staff and NGOs.
Across the region, there are still not adequate facilities for isolating and diagnosing patients where they are needed.
Other elements that are essential to an Ebola response – such as awareness-raising and community acceptance, safe burials, contact tracing, alert and surveillance, access to health care for non-Ebola patients – are still lacking in parts of West Africa.
To forsøg med ebola-behandling i gang – et tredje på vej
Two (1,2) of the three clinical trials for different treatments led by MSF and three research institutions have started, while the third should start soon at MSF sites in West Africa.
The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) is leading a trial for antiviral drug favipiravir at MSF’s facility in Guéckédou, Guinea. The inclusion of patients at this site has started mid-December.
The University of Oxford leads, on behalf of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC), a Wellcome Trust-funded trial of the antiviral drug brincidofovir at Elwa3 in Monrovia. The inclusion of patients started on January, 1st.
The Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) will lead a trial of convalescent plasma therapy at MSF’s Donka Ebola centre in Conakry, Guinea. This trial is expected to start in the coming weeks.
The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) is based in Ghana to pursue five strategic priorities: stop the spread of the disease; treat the infected; ensure essential services; preserve stability; and prevent the spread of the disease to countries currently unaffected.
13 medarbejdere fra Læger uden Grænser er døde af ebola
MSF has been responding to the outbreak since March. On December 30, there was almost 3,800 staff working in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Mali.
Since the response began, 27 MSF staff members have fallen ill with Ebola, 14 of whom have recovered and 13 have died. The vast majority of these infections were found to have occurred in the community.
Læs hele artiklen men detaljer om Læger uden Grænsers indsats på organisationens websted.
