Liberia News

Coordinated response bringing more resources and access to care 
 

Community leaders in three counties in Liberia – Montserrado, Margibi, and Lofa – are receiving information sessions on Ebola as part of the effort to contain the disease. WHO is supporting the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to conduct these sessions on the basics of the disease, how it is transmitted and what people can do to help authorities contain the disease.

Monrovia, Liberia:

On behalf of Dr. Margaret Chan (Director-General of the World Health Organization) and Dr. Luis G. Sambo (WHO Regional Director for Africa), the WHO Country Office for Liberia is delighted to donate 66 boxes of Onchocerciasis Drugs to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. The donation is valued at over US$150,000.00 (One Hundred Fifty Thousand United States Dollars).

A team of Ugandan doctors and health workers are deployed by WHO to provide medical support for an Ebola treatment centre in Monrovia, Liberia. This team comes with vast experience in managing Ebola outbreaks, having faced many cases of this disease since 2000. They work shifts alongside their Liberian colleagues to provide around the clock care and to help maintain strict infection control measures.

Monrovia 9 April, 2014: Following reported 22 suspected and 5 confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease, including 10 deaths from the 24th of March 2014 to present, Liberia has been scaling up activities to prevent further spread of Ebola. The Minister of Health and Social Welfare has established the National Task Force to coordinate Ebola outbreak response in the country. The Task Force meets on a daily basis to give updates on progress made, challenges and opportunities in prevention and control of the disease.

20 August 2014 -- “Take away the fear, don’t hide yourself. People can still survive from Ebola,” are the lyrics of the Ebola Rap, a song written by Charles Yegba, a Liberian artist seeking to raise awareness about the virus in his community. Charles, leader of the AFROCO music group, is recording his song and creating a video to disseminate his message across Liberia, one of the west African countries severely affected by the Ebola virus disease outbreak.

The observance of the African Vaccination Week in Liberia was primarily a mass media campaign.

The strategies used were as follows:

Monrovia (Liberia), August 2014 - The World Health Organization (WHO) appealed to community leaders in Montserrado county, Liberia, to adopt control measures to stop the Ebola outbreak, that has already claimed 355 lives by killing many among confirmed, probable and suspected cases in the country since March 2014. The epidemic also affects Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, being the highest ever known in number of cases and deaths. 

T

he Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners officially launched the African Vaccination Week (AVW) on 21 April 2012 under the theme: “An unimmunized child is one too many. Give polio the last push”.

Last week saw a welcome boost to numbers of treatment places available to people with Ebola in Monrovia, Liberia. The Island Clinic, a private clinic refurbished as an Ebola Treatment Unit by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare with support from WHO and other partners, opened its doors on Sunday 21 September, adding another desperately needed 120 Ebola treatment beds to the 240 available in Monrovia.