Thousands of people in Sierra Leone are being forced to violate Ebola quarantines to find food because deliveries are not reaching them, aid agencies said. From the AP:
While public health authorities have said such measures may be necessary to bring under control an Ebola outbreak unlike any other, the Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella organization for aid organizations, warned on Monday that they were cutting off food to thousands of people.
“The quarantine of Kenema, the third largest town in Sierra Leone, is having a devastating impact on trade – travel is restricted so trucks carrying food cannot freely drive around,” the committee said in a statement. “Food is becoming scarce, which has led to prices increasing beyond the reach of ordinary people.”
Because services are not reaching them, people who are being monitored for signs of Ebola — and should be staying at home — are venturing out to markets to look for food, potentially contaminating many others, said Kamara.
When houses are put under quarantine, teams are supposed to go to them to identify their needs, she said: How many people are living there? Are there pregnant women or sick people with special needs?
But Kamara said that with the infections still increasing quickly, it was difficult for the government to keep up with the number of people being monitored for the disease. The outbreak in Sierra Leone has been shifting in recent weeks, with the number of new cases ballooning in the country’s western and northern districts, far from where the outbreak began, in the country’s east.
“The number is just rising exponentially,” she said. “The speed with which we have to have such a robust system of planning and coordination” is too fast.
—————————————-
Global Health and Development Beat
There have been 4,500 cases and 70 deaths from a cholera outbreak Nigeria’s in Borno State’s capital and principal town Maiduguri in the past month and the number of cases continues to rise, warns MSF.
For months, most clinics and hospitals in Liberia have been closed because of the Ebola crisis. But that hasn’t stopped dedicated health workers from helping their sick neighbors, reports BuzzFeed.
From using Bitcoins to fundraise, to adopting new strategies to prevent malaria victims appearing to be Ebola cases, to working with new partners – aid agencies in West Africa are learning to adapt fast.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim Tuesday urged Asia to send trained health workers to Ebola-stricken West Africa, warning the focus on stricter border control was not the solution.
Aid and some small harvests have helped stave off a feared famine in South Sudan, but any more fighting there could still leave millions facing severe hunger next year, a senior World Food Programme official said.
More than two-thirds of the investments made by the private sector arm of the UK’s aid program last year were channelled through “notoriously secretive” tax havens, according to a report that calls on European development agencies to be more transparent and accountable in their business dealings.
Disabled children are commonly believed to be largely excluded from school in developing countries, but a new study shows that the difference between disabled and non-disabled children’s attendance is lower than expected.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa is not over and people need to recommit themselves to eradicating the virus, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said on Tuesday.
—————————————-
Spotlight on PSI
If you are attending the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, join PSI speakers and thought leaders at our symposia and poster sessions through Thursday. See the full schedule below:
Wednesday, 5th November 2014
Noon-1.45pm
Poster Session C:
Using DHIS2 for routine monitoring of quality of health services in the private sector
Purity Njagi1, Martin Dale1, Victor Lara1, Preston Izulla2, Stephanie Dolan1, Nikki Charman1
1Population Services International, Nairobi, Kenya; 2Population Services Kenya, Nairobi, KenyaAbout: PSI is focused on ensuring high quality case management at the private provider level. The Monitoring for Performance Improvement Framework is based on the use of innovative technology – electronic tablets for provider supervision and an electronic database, DHIS2. Data is used for monitoring case management performance in the private sector; as an evidence base to guide policy development; to bridge the public/private service delivery gap. This approach is now the basis of a global strategy within PSI, in Cambodia, Kenya and Madagascar and soon in Angola, DRC, Myanmar, Nigeria and Tanzania.
Private sector readiness for malaria case management and malaria market composition before and after the AMFm – results from three pilot countries
Megan Littrell1, Julius Njogu2, Raymond Sudoi2, Kevin Duff2, Hana Bilak3, Vamsi Vasireddy2, Kate O’Connell4, Stephen Poyer5
1ACTWatch, Population Services International, Washington, DC; 2ACTwatch, Population Services International, Nairobi, Kenya, 3Population Services International Europe, Chevry, France; Independent Consultant, Yangon, Myanmar; 5Population Services International, Nairobi, KenyaTrends in availability of malaria medicines and diagnostics in Kinshasa, DRCongo, from 2009-2013
Julie Archer1, Godéfroid Mpanya2, Stephen Poyer3, Antoinette Tshefu4, Willy Onema2, Jamie Ciesla2, Joris Losimba Likwela5, Megan Littrell6
1ACTwatch, Population Services International, Nairobi, Kenya; 2Association de Santé Familiale/PSI, Kinshasa, DRCongo; 3 Population Services International, Nairobi, Kenya; 4Ecole de Santé Publique de Kinshasa, Kinshasa, DRCongo; 5Programme National de Lutte contre le Paludisme, Kinshasa, DRCongo; 6ACTWatch, Population Services International, Washington, DCAuditing Village Health Teams’ capacity for management of malaria: results of the 2013 ACTwatch Uganda Outlet Survey
Julius Njogu 1, John H. Rogers1, Henry Kaula2, Vamsi Vasireddy V1, Megan Littrell3
1ACTwatch, Population Services International, Nairobi, Kenya; 2Program for Accessible health, Communication and Education-Uganda (PACE), Kampala, Uganda; 3ACTwatch, Population Services International, Washington, DCThursday, 6th November
10.15am-12pm
Sheraton – Rhythms (Second Floor)
Symposium #177: Market-based approaches to improving public health
Co-chairs: Dr Alexandra Cameron, UNITAID; Dr Prashant Yadav, University of Michigan’s William Davidson Institute
Speakers: Jennifer Daily, UNITAID; Anne Musuva, Population Services Kenya; Yasmin Madan, Population Services International; Vicky McDonald, Abt Associates
Stay tuned at psiimpact.com/astmh2014 for real time updates from the conference.
—————————————-
Buzzing in the Blogs
Putting an end to violence against women is a global responsibility, writes Lakshmi Puri, Assistant-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, in IPS. An excerpt:
The focus of prevention and response to violence against women should therefore be on strengthening the implementation of existing global policy frameworks and in ensuring accountability mechanisms are in place.
We must look critically at existing global policy frameworks and instruments, and identify gaps that prevent the existing framework from achieving its expected results and ways to enhance accountability.
Engaging key stakeholders such as civil society organisations as well as the public is critical in enhancing the accountability of member states but also establishing a “bottom-up” approach to addressing violence against women.
This is what UN Women aims to do with the 20-year review and appraisal of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (Beijing+20).
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action identified Violence against Women as one of its 12 critical areas of concern, and the review and appraisal of the Platform for Action is a key opportunity for the international community to not only acknowledge the progress made in the past 20 years but to also assess the remaining gaps and challenges in its implementation, including violence against women, to feed the lessons learned into the post-2015 development agenda processes.
UN Women has developed several good practices in engaging other stakeholders to hold member states accountable on their commitments to gender equality and the empowerment of women, in addition to our norm setting and knowledge building, and programmatic work in 81 countries.
UN Women has established global, regional, and national level Civil Society Advisory Groups, has worked through the U.N. Secretary-General’s “UNiTE campaign,” and the newly established “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!,” and the “HeForShe” Beijing + 20 campaigns to engage the global citizenry on ending violence against women.
—————————————-
Capital Events
Wednesday
12:00 PM – Communication Technology for Conflict Prevention and Humanitarian Response: Opportunities and Challenges for Policy and Practice – Georgetown
4:00 PM – 2014 Commitment to Development Awards – CGD
Thursday
7:30 AM – World Affair Councils of America 2014 National Conference – WACA
12:00 PM – EconNet: Does the Effect of Pollution on Infant Mortality Differ Between Developing and Developed Countries? Evidence from Mexico City – IADB
4:30 PM – A look at the Ebola Crisis – SAIS
Friday
7:30 AM – World Affair Councils of America 2014 National Conference (Day 2) – WACA
—————————————-
By Mark Leon Goldberg and Tom Murphy
Subscribe to receive the Daily Impact in your inbox each morning!
Have a news or story tip? Email us at [email protected].
Disclaimer: Opinions presented in this email do not necessarily reflect the views of PSI.