14, May 2018
UN, Congo specialists deployed to tackle new Ebola epidemic 0
Emergency teams of specialists from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and United Nations agencies have been deployed to the African country to tackle the spread of a new wave of Ebola epidemic.
UN and Congolese authorities said Sunday that the deployment over the weekend came after reports suggested that more than 30 people had been infected by Ebola.
A total of 18 people have been killed since April 4 when first cases of Ebola were reported. Authorities officially confirmed last Tuesday there was an outbreak centered around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro in the northwestern province of Equateur.
Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga, along with officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), traveled to Equateur on Saturday after reports of the latest infection case emerged from the area a day earlier.
Kalenga said then government and UN agencies would do their best to root out the new epidemic as soon as possible.
“We have to pool our efforts quickly and align ourselves with the government response plan to fight this new epidemic effectively,” the minister said in a statement.
The Congolese government fears the Ebola virus, which killed more than 11,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia from 2014-216, could spread out of control.
The WHO is also acting more quickly in the DRC as it tries to avoid criticism that it faced over its slow response to the previous outbreak in West Africa.
“The WHO is strengthening its presence, positioning a dozen epidemiologists who will be divided on the axes of Mbandaka, Bikoro and Iboko to investigate alerts,” WHO’s Congo representative Allarangar Yokouide said Sunday.
Three separate locations covering 60 km (37 miles) or more in Equateur province have already been contaminated with Ebola as the provincial capital Mbandaka, with about 1 million inhabitants, is in immediate risk. Nine neighbors of Congo, especially Republic of Congo or Central African Republic, have been put on high alert as WHO fears a spread of the virus across the border.
The Ebola virus can be fatal as a result of damages it does on blood vessels which causes internal and external bleeding.
Source: Presstv
16, May 2018
Southern Cameroons War: The Focolare Movement is leaving Lebialem County 0
The foundation on which Lebialem is built has collapsed, and the possibility of rebuilding maybe smaller than a mere discussions. A decision to shut-down Mary Health African of Hospital Fontem – Lebialem was reached yesterday.
The selfless people – the Focolare Movement, whose only mission is “Love and Unity” and who indisputably own the recognition, and from whom no one can take away that “Honor” for building the Lebialem from scratch to its current image, are leaving.
After a lengthy meeting lasting many hours of evaluating the current circumstances of a war on citizens; they searched through pages, and their-52-year history in the area; “life and death,’ then, a tearfully decision – leave.
One of their many challenges laminated at the meeting, many of the medications come in from outside the country, especially Europe, but now they are limited to, not merely the inability to bring in medication from Europe, but also dealing with ruthless uneducated warring soldiers, who do not understand the work of the gentle people.
In really war times, Hospitals – a place where the dying, the wounded and the sick come, are guarded and protected from any attack, but just over two weeks ago, an employee a member of their 80-persons strong-staff was seized, tortured to death. The hospital called for a day of mourning from all other hospitals across Cameroon. No report here on the response; but the torture and killing of this employee, criss-cross the floor of discussion.
Today, the hospital lies flat, eight patients in total, in a 120 beds inpatient hospital, doctors and nurses take cover on a minute by minute base; and they are words of uncontrollable weeping, and wailing yesterday when this news of the Focolare’s departure broke.
Neither the War-President-in-Chief, nor anyone in that country knows what it takes to bring-in one of the members of the Focolare, or one of the doctors, or one of the nurses, from around the world to settle in that area. And no one has the slightest ideas of the extensive medical service these people provide to the entire area, off course, this is why no one cares about whoever dies.
Source: LECDA Yahoo Group