Beyond Ebola: From Dignified Response to Dignified Recovery

The geographical spread in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has brought enormous challenges.  Urban  and  rural,  from  hotspots  in  the  slums  of  capital  cities  to  others  in  remote  country sides,  it  has  even  caused  concern  that  sudden  surges  might  be  missed or rapid response capacity might simply be insufficient.

The  numbers  are  truly  horrific:  over  11,200  deaths  and  more  than  27,600  cases  by  mid-July 2015. Overall the situation was improving, but concerted efforts were still required to get to zero cases and stay there.  Even after Liberia was declared Ebola free, new cases occurred there.  In  Guinea  and  Sierra  Leone,  cases  were  down  significantly from those recorded at the end of 2014, but in the week to July 5, Guinea reported  18  cases  and  Sierra  Leone,  nine.  Weekly case incidence in the region had stalled at between 20 and 30 for six consecutive weeks and cases continued to arise from unknown sources of infection, or were detected only after post-mortem testing.

So the threat to the region continued. As humanitarians firmed up recovery plans, they were aware that response was still needed. The danger of fresh outbreaks, and even re-emergence in areas cleared of the virus, meant response and recovery operations might have to run side by side. 

IFRC, 2016 

Online Report
http://www.ifrc.org/Global/Documents/Secretariat/201601/Beyond%20Ebola%20report-EN_LR.pdf