If Liberia finally declares itself free of the deadly disease after months of struggle to contain it, authorities must be vigilant and not fall victim to ‘Ebola fatigue’ while also ensuring a stable healthcare system is in place.
The release of Beatrice Yardolo from an Ebola treatment centre in the Liberian capital on March 5 was a much bigger celebration than usual.
The English teacher, 58, was the last patient undergoing treatment for the disease and left the Chinese-run centre to cheers from her friends and family.
Her release marked the first week since May 26 of last year that no new cases were confirmed. The country has now been Ebola-free for two weeks and all attention is turning to eradicating the deadly disease.
Yardolo had been in the treatment centre in Monrovia for two weeks. She has lost three of her children to the virus, which the World Health Organisation calls “deadly, tenacious and unforgiving”.
Doctors believed she contracted the disease from one of her sons, who became infected when working as a dental hygienist in the St Paul’s Bridge suburb.
Since the outbreak began, Liberia has suffered the most deaths, accounting for more than 4,000 of the 10,000 total deaths.
On her release, she said: “It makes me feel happy. It makes me feel like our country is coming to the end of a very horrible period.”
If her country registers no confirmed cases by April 4, after 42 days, it will be declared officially Ebola-free. This is double the maximum incubation period for Ebola and is calculated “from the last day that any person in the country had contact with a confirmed or probable Ebola case”, according to the WHO.
It gives enough time to allow for possible missed cases, uncertainty in reporting dates or hidden chains of transmission.
While this would inevitably be a long-awaited success after the longest and largest Ebola outbreak yet recorded, experts are warning that there is more pressure than ever to remain vigilant and learn from last year’s experiences.
“One undetected case can lead to a surge,” Dr Joanne Liu, Medecins Sans Frontieres international president, warned European Union representatives earlier this month. “To reach zero, every single person who has been in contact with someone infected with Ebola must be identified.
Yet today, there is still almost no cross-border information sharing on contact tracing. Surveillance teams lack basic resources for active case finding.”
The WHO also warns of “Ebola fatigue” setting in when the case numbers fall and individuals, authorities and communities become complacent.
“As experiences in Guinea made clear, this is a virus that can go into hiding for some weeks, only to return again with a vengeance,” it said.
“In Liberia, as caseloads declined, evidence of some complacency and ‘Ebola fatigue’ appeared in some populations even though transmission continued.”
The WHO and UN was under fire last year for not acting fast enough when the Ebola outbreak started. Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank group president, and Paul Farmer, an American anthropologist, wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post that if they worked effectively the virus “could be contained and the fatality rate ... would drop dramatically, perhaps to below 20 per cent”.
On March 22, 2014, WHO declared a major outbreak of Ebola in Guinea, but did not recommend any trade or travel restrictions and waited until August to announce it had become a public health emergency of international concern, by which time there had already been more than 1,700 cases in total.
In January this year, it released a 14-document package to mark one year of the outbreak. There were very few mentions of the criticism levelled at it for the delayed reactions by the international agencies. The penultimate and final dossiers focus on lessons learnt in 2014 and what needs to happen this year.
The first important lesson learnt last year, it said, was how devastating an outbreak can be in places where the health system is already weak.
Many of the countries affected by the virus last year were already suffering the effects of civil wars which, in some places, had devastated public health infrastructures and left many without access to any adequate healthcare.
Reliable water and electricity had been lacking in some hospitals and clinics, and even basic medical supplies were often in short supply.
In September last year, nurses from one of the biggest hospitals in Liberia went on strike demanding better protection.
They complained that they had not been provided with any protective equipment and would not resume their duties until they were properly prepared and protected. What began as a health crisis, WHO said, “snowballed into a humanitarian, social, economic and security crisis” that was felt globally.
It emphasised that a failure to invest in a stable health system leaves countries with no chance of surviving “sudden shocks”.
Second, vigilance for imported cases and a readiness to treat the first case as a national emergency made a night and day difference, it said.
Nigeria, Mali and Senegal all took swift action and managed to avoid the catastrophe that struck their neighbours.
Third, WHO said: “No single control intervention is, all by itself, sufficiently powerful to bring an Ebola epidemic” under control.
Finally, community engagement is critical to successful control, WHO said.
Getting through to communities, especially those who hide cases and secretly bury bodies, is a linchpin for beating the disease.
Dr Liu of MSF also acknowledged this final point in her speech to the EU, saying: “Fear has been a dominant factor in the Ebola epidemic. This is a normal reaction to an unprecedented and lethal outbreak. Yet we must recognise that after a full year, community sensitisation efforts have failed to counter misinformation. The level of response there requires urgent improvement.”
To fully eradicate the disease, the WHO said that there are other certain conditions that must be met.
Health systems need to function again and put more emphasis on outbreak-related capacities, research into new medical products and vaccines must continue, success stories should be “mined” for lessons, incentives offered to those on the front line and “unwavering commitment at national and international levels”.
It also draws attention to “post-Ebola syndrome”, and the need for people who survived the disease, especially women and children, to get psychosocial counselling and support. Of course, another obvious tool in the fight to beat the disease is vaccination to prevent further outbreaks and to prevent outbreaks in unaffected countries.
In August, a panel of 12 experts agreed that in the current situation it was ethically acceptable to use medicines that had not been tested or registered.
Small shipments of experimental drugs were sent to West Africa to be given to Ebola patients. They were successful.
Now all eyes are on two vaccines in clinical trials in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
In Liberia, researchers from America’s National Institutes of Health want to test the drug on more than 27,000 people. That trial is expected to last for 12 months.
Participants will be split into three groups. One will be given a placebo saline injection, the rest will be given a dose of either cAd3-EBOZ or the VSV-ZEBOV vaccine. Neither volunteers or administration will know who was given what.
They will then be contacted one month later, and then every month for the next year. The NIH acknowledges that with the current situation in Liberia, there will need to be flexibility in the conduct and design of the trial.
“The scale of the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is unprecedented and specific medical countermeasures are needed for this and future outbreaks,” said Dr Anthony Faci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who developed one of the vaccines with GlaxoSmithKline.
“It is imperative that any potential countermeasures, including vaccines, be tested in a manner that conforms to the highest ethical and safety standards in clinical trials designed to provide a clear answer to the question of whether a candidate vaccine is safe and can prevent infection.
“This trial is designed to provide such answers.”
munderwood@thenational.ae
UAE WARRIORS RESULTS
Featherweight
Azouz Anwar (EGY) beat Marcelo Pontes (BRA)
TKO round 2
Catchweight 90kg
Moustafa Rashid Nada (KSA) beat Imad Al Howayeck (LEB)
Split points decision
Welterweight
Gimbat Ismailov (RUS) beat Mohammed Al Khatib (JOR)
TKO round 1
Flyweight (women)
Lucie Bertaud (FRA) beat Kelig Pinson (BEL)
Unanimous points decision
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) beat Regelo Enumerables Jr (PHI)
TKO round 1
Catchweight 100kg
Marc Vleiger (NED) beat Mohamed Ali (EGY)
Rear neck choke round 1
Featherweight
James Bishop (NZ) beat Mark Valerio (PHI)
TKO round 2
Welterweight
Abdelghani Saber (EGY) beat Gerson Carvalho (BRA)
TKO round 1
Middleweight
Bakhtiyar Abbasov (AZE) beat Igor Litoshik (BLR)
Unanimous points decision
Bantamweight
Fabio Mello (BRA) beat Mark Alcoba (PHI)
Unanimous points decision
Welterweight
Ahmed Labban (LEB) v Magomedsultan Magomedsultanov (RUS)
TKO round 1
Bantamweight
Trent Girdham (AUS) beat Jayson Margallo (PHI)
TKO round 3
Lightweight
Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) beat Roman Golovinov (UKR)
TKO round 1
Middleweight
Tarek Suleiman (SYR) beat Steve Kennedy (AUS)
Submission round 2
Lightweight
Dan Moret (USA) v Anton Kuivanen (FIN)
TKO round 2
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The specs: 2018 Maxus T60
Price, base / as tested: Dh48,000
Engine: 2.4-litre four-cylinder
Power: 136hp @ 1,600rpm
Torque: 360Nm @ 1,600 rpm
Transmission: Five-speed manual
Fuel consumption, combined: 9.1L / 100km
A%20MAN%20FROM%20MOTIHARI
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EAuthor%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAbdullah%20Khan%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EPenguin%20Random%20House%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPages%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E304%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAvailable%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
UAE%20athletes%20heading%20to%20Paris%202024
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEquestrian%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EAbdullah%20Humaid%20Al%20Muhairi%2C%20Abdullah%20Al%20Marri%2C%20Omar%20Al%20Marzooqi%2C%20Salem%20Al%20Suwaidi%2C%20and%20Ali%20Al%20Karbi%20(four%20to%20be%20selected).%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EJudo%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EMen%3A%20Narmandakh%20Bayanmunkh%20(66kg)%2C%20Nugzari%20Tatalashvili%20(81kg)%2C%20Aram%20Grigorian%20(90kg)%2C%20Dzhafar%20Kostoev%20(100kg)%2C%20Magomedomar%20Magomedomarov%20(%2B100kg)%3B%20women's%20Khorloodoi%20Bishrelt%20(52kg).%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECycling%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ESafia%20Al%20Sayegh%20(women's%20road%20race).%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESwimming%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EMen%3A%20Yousef%20Rashid%20Al%20Matroushi%20(100m%20freestyle)%3B%20women%3A%20Maha%20Abdullah%20Al%20Shehi%20(200m%20freestyle).%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EAthletics%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3Cbr%3EMaryam%20Mohammed%20Al%20Farsi%20(women's%20100%20metres).%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
'Dark Waters'
Directed by: Todd Haynes
Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, William Jackson Harper
Rating: ****
1971: The Year The Music Changed Everything
Director: Asif Kapadia
4/5
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201.8-litre%204-cyl%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E190hp%20at%205%2C200rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20320Nm%20from%201%2C800-5%2C000rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeven-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%206.7L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh111%2C195%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
How much do leading UAE’s UK curriculum schools charge for Year 6?
- Nord Anglia International School (Dubai) – Dh85,032
- Kings School Al Barsha (Dubai) – Dh71,905
- Brighton College Abu Dhabi - Dh68,560
- Jumeirah English Speaking School (Dubai) – Dh59,728
- Gems Wellington International School – Dubai Branch – Dh58,488
- The British School Al Khubairat (Abu Dhabi) - Dh54,170
- Dubai English Speaking School – Dh51,269
*Annual tuition fees covering the 2024/2025 academic year
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Kill%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Nikhil%20Nagesh%20Bhat%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3A%20Lakshya%2C%20Tanya%20Maniktala%2C%20Ashish%20Vidyarthi%2C%20Harsh%20Chhaya%2C%20Raghav%20Juyal%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.5%2F5%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Alaan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Parthi%20Duraisamy%20and%20Karun%20Kurien%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%247%20million%20raised%20in%20total%20%E2%80%94%20%242.5%20million%20in%20a%20seed%20round%20and%20%244.5%20million%20in%20a%20pre-series%20A%20round%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
RESULTS
Bantamweight
Victor Nunes (BRA) beat Siyovush Gulmamadov (TJK)
(Split decision)
Featherweight
Hussein Salim (IRQ) beat Shakhriyor Juraev (UZB)
(Round 1 submission, armbar)
Catchweight 80kg
Rashed Dawood (UAE) beat Otabek Kadirov (UZB)
(Round-1 submission, rear naked choke)
Lightweight
Ho Taek-oh (KOR) beat Ronald Girones (CUB)
(Round 3 submission, triangle choke)
Lightweight
Arthur Zaynukov (RUS) beat Damien Lapilus (FRA)
(Unanimous points)
Bantamweight
Vinicius de Oliveira (BRA) beat Furkatbek Yokubov (RUS)
(Round 1 TKO)
Featherweight
Movlid Khaybulaev (RUS) v Zaka Fatullazade (AZE)
(Round 1 rear naked choke)
Flyweight
Shannon Ross (TUR) beat Donovon Freelow (USA)
(Unanimous decision)
Lightweight
Dan Collins (GBR) beat Mohammad Yahya (UAE)
(Round 2 submission D’arce choke)
Catchweight 73kg
Martun Mezhulmyan (ARM) beat Islam Mamedov (RUS)
(Round 3 submission, kneebar)
Bantamweight world title
Xavier Alaoui (MAR) beat Jaures Dea (CAM)
(Unanimous points 48-46, 49-45, 49-45)
Flyweight world title
Manon Fiorot (FRA) v Gabriela Campo (ARG)
(Round 1 RSC)
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Soldier F
“I was in complete disgust at the fact that only one person was to be charged for Bloody Sunday.
“Somebody later said to me, 'you just watch - they'll drop the charge against him'. And sure enough, the charges against Soldier F would go on to be dropped.
“It's pretty hard to think that 50 years on, the State is still covering up for what happened on Bloody Sunday.”
Jimmy Duddy, nephew of John Johnson
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million