HIGHLIGHTS
WHO reports 132 new confirmed cases of EVD in Guinea and Sierra Leone in the week ending on March 1.
No new EVD cases confirmed in Liberia in nearly two weeks.
Response actors remain concerned regarding ongoing EVD transmission chains in Guinea’s Forécariah Prefecture, where 23 EVD cases since February 28— more than 70 percent of the 32 confirmed cases in the same time period countrywide—have occurred.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
As of March 3, the Government of Liberia (GoL) Incident Management System (IMS) had not reported a confirmed case of EVD in 12 days, with the most recent case documented in Montserrado County on February 19. On February 27, the IMS announced that Liberia had entered Phase 3 of the EVD response, which will focus on restoring non-EVD health services and improving triage and referral processes to enable medical staff to safely identify and isolate suspect EVD cases.
The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) is working with CDC, UN agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to strengthen quarantine practices, particularly in Western Area, where some contacts of EVD cases are reportedly fleeing to northwestern rural districts, facilitating the continued spread of EVD.
The E.U.—in coordination with the UN, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, and the Presidents of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone—hosted a highlevel international conference on EVD in Brussels, Belgium, on March 3. The meeting aimed to maintain worldwide attention on the crisis and included discussion on country-specific assessments and recovery plans, according to the E.U.
USAID/Liberia recently committed $11.1 million to support the reopening of Liberian schools and health care worker salary payments. To date, the USG has provided more than $1 billion to support EVD response activities in affected countries.
Map: USG Response to the Ebola Outbreak in West Africa Last Updated 03/04/15
