Emergency Response Preparedness: Requirements and Guidance for Ebola Virus Disease Control

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Subject Title: Teleforum programs Announcement on African Views: Week of April 11, 2014                                      SCHEDULE                   APRIL 11, 2014:         12:30 PM-2:30 PM EST Please Join This Week’s Discussion Live by Phone or Skype CALL THIS NUMBER DURING THE SHOW: (760) 283‑0850 TO CONNECT WITH SKYPE: ADD: AFRICANVIEWS  (CALL IN DURING SHOWTIME) PROGRAM: AV Special Edition: COLLABORATIVE TOPIC: Emergency Response Preparedness: Requirements and Guidance for Ebola Virus Disease Control Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) was first identified in 1976, and has since appeared in Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Sudan, and Uganda. The most recent outbreak of the deadly strain of Ebola virus has been described as unprecedented, causing 90% of fatality to infected cases and resulted in over 150 deaths in Guinea, and in neighboring Sierra Leone, Liberia and Mali. The International community has intervened to help contain the outbreak, which raises a very important question on how prepared hospitals and disease control institutions in Guinea are for responding to the EVD outbreak. However, rumor that the disease is airborne is causing people to protest setting up isolation centers in their communities.  This misinformation led to local crowd attacks on aid workers at Guinean EVD treatment center and similar incident took place in Lassa Commune IV in Bamako district, Mali, where Youth rallied by mass text messaging protested established observation site without community approval – and consequently burned down the mayor’s house. This is a major challenge for countries such as Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone which have developing health systems, mainly because they don't have adequate resources to set up isolation centers for affected people. EVD has received a lot of popular attention due to the best-seller, “The Hot Zone” and the Hollywood blockbuster movie, Outbreak, which the focused on an outbreak of a fictional Ebola-like virus called Motaba in Zaire and later in a small town in the United States. Has there ever been a case of Ebola infection in the United States? There are many open questions regarding this situation that would be best explained by experts on infectious diseases and anthropologist. Please join our discussion on this topic. "If you have something to say, here is the power to say it. The whole world is listening." African Views   WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND:                                          AV is the platform for anyone doing anything meaningful on a small or large scale to improve the conditions for life everywhere.  We are making sure that intelligent discussions are no longer only taking place in silos.  If you have something to say on the issue, here is the power to say it. The whole world is listening. Attend the forum by phone or Skype to weigh in your own objective analysis or share your vision of effective solution in the discussion as we connect local individuals to the global communities.   A GREAT PLATFORM FOR CONNECTING LOCAL INDIVIDUALS WITH THE GLOBAL COMMUNITIES   TELECONFERENCE INSTRUCTIONS CALLING BY PHONE:   The following teleconference commands are available via your telephone. *1 will raise your hand providing an indication to the operator that you have a question or want to speak Pressing *1 again will lower your hand or cancel your request to speak. All lines will be locked and muted as you enter the event. You may request to have your line unlocked by pressing *1 on your telephone. You will hear a message indicating your line has been unlocked and unmuted. CALLING BY SKYPE:                         Skype callers are expected to add ‘AfricanViews’ as contact on their Skype account.  Call in all at any time during the program, preferable before start time. Participants must join with their own unique Skype User ID. No group call or Video Call allowed. Audio calls only. Skype callers must mute their mics when they call in. Callers can use Skype chat to type their requests which will be visible to the hosts, studio engineers, and director. Callers will be placed in the cue and prompted to ask a questions or make comments on the air.   NOTES:                        Attendees must mute their mics unless the moderator has invited them to come on the air. Please do not have the program listening website page on while you are live on the program it will cause echo. DO not have two separate listening devices too close to when speaking on the air it will cause echo on the air. THANKS! This email notification and dial-in instructions have been sent from a...@africanviews.org.  Please send any query (a...@africanviews.org)