29 September, 2014 - Combined Ebola Operations Update No.2
Summary
Through international Emergency Appeals in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and now Senegal,
IFRC continues to support National Societies to combat Ebola, through a 5 pillar approach spelled out in the Ebola regional framework.
These include: (1) Beneficiary Communication and Social Mobilization; (2) Contact Tracing and Surveillance; (3) Psychosocial Support; (4) Case Management; as well as (5) Dead Body Management, Burials and Disinfection. In addition, a regional appeal has been launched to cater to multi-country support needs.
IFRC also continues to support smaller preparedness and response operations financed under the IFRC’s Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) in Mali, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Togo, Benin, Central African Republic, Senegal, Chad and Gambia.According to the WHO, assuming no changes in control efforts, the cumulative number of confirmed and probable cases by November 2014 will exceed 20,000 cases in total (5,740 in Guinea, 9,890 in Liberia, and 5,000 in Sierra Leone). True case load, including suspected cases and undetected cases, will be higher still. On average each patient infects 1.7 people in Guinea, 1.8 in Liberia and 2 people in Sierra Leone. The present epidemic is exceptionally large, not principally because of the biologic characteristics of the virus, but rather because of the attributes of the affected populations and because control efforts have been insufficient to halt the spread of infection.