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West African Mining Projects Take Hit From Ebola Crisis

Epidemic Delays Rollout of Jobs Meant for Residents of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone

WALL STREET JOURNAL                                                                                             Nov. 19, 2014
By Patrick McGroarty in Liberia, David Gauthier-Villars in Guinea
and Alex MacDonald in London

...a promising corner of the global economic frontier is pocked with stalled mining projects. The Ebola epidemic has scared off ships and planes; prompted expatriates to abandon their posts; and delayed the rollout of thousands of jobs meant for residents of the three poor West African countries hardest hit by the virus: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A three-story steel shiploader at ArcelorMittal’s port in the Liberian city of Buchanan is part of a $1.7 billion expansion delayed by Ebola. Patrick McGroarty/The Wall Street Journal

“All the projects are at a standstill,” said Mr. Foulah, chief executive of the mining-explosives firm ECP Guinée.

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EU boosts anti-Ebola aid after Commissioners' mission to worst-hit countries

EUROPEAN COMMISSION HUMANITARIAN AID DEPARTMENT   Nov. 17, 2014

The European Union is continuing to scale up its response to the Ebola epidemic as its Coordinator for the emergency, Commissioner Christos Stylianides together with Vytenis Andriukaitis, Commissioner for Health, return from a four-day mission to the affected countries.

New funding of €29 million will be made available by the European Commissionfor transporting vital aid supplies and equipment to the affected countries, evacuation of infected international aid workers to hospitals in Europe and training and deploying health workers to the ground. Money will also reinforce local health facilities.

Of this total, €12 million is for assistance to the neighbours of the affected countries, to help them prepare for the risk of an Ebola outbreak through early detection and public awareness measures.

... The European Union's total contribution is close to €1.1 billion.

Sweden has announced that it will deploy, via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, 42 doctors, nurses and other health personnel who will run a treatment centre on the ground.

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Hospitals Improvise Ebola Defenses, at a Cost

ASSOCIATED PRESS                                                                                         Nov. 18, 2014

By David Caruso

NEW YORK ---What does it take to Ebola-proof a hospital?

Over the past few months, U.S. medical centers have spent millions of dollars putting together a plan to treat patients with the scary, but extremely rare disease.

To a large extent, it has been an exercise in improvisation.

A medical worker stands outside a patient care room in a new custom-built bio-containment unit for potential Ebola cases at Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York. The unit, built over two weeks, is completely separate from the main medical buildings and can house three patients simultaneously. (AP Photo/John Minchillo

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Cost to Treat Ebola: $1 Million For Two Patients

CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY: Nebraska University cites treatment costs

NBC NEWS                                                                                               Nov. 18, 2014

It cost more than $1 million to treat two patients sent to the University of Nebraska’s Medical Center, the hospital’s chancellor said Tuesday. And it’s still not clear who will pay the bill and how.

It is  the first on-the-record estimate of what it’s cost to treat Ebola patients in the United States. So far, 10 people have been treated on U.S. soil — most recently, Sierra Leonean Dr. Martin Salia, who died Monday in Nebraska.

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International Football Stars Unite in the Fight against Ebola

THE WORLD BANK   PRESS RELEASE                                                                                           NOV. 17, 2014

WASHINGTON— The world’s top football players, including Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Barcelona’s Neymar Jr., Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Bayern Munich’s Philipp Lahm, are joining forces with global health experts to help raise global awareness in the fight against Ebola.

In a new campaign “11 Against Ebola”, players from some of Europe’s biggest clubs come together to promote preventative measures aimed at communities affected by the Ebola virus.

Using the slogan “Together, we can beat Ebola” and the hashtag #wecanbeatebola, players share 11 simple health messages selected with the help of doctors and health experts from Africa, the World Bank Group and the World Health Organization, among the organizations tackling the outbreak in West Africa.

Each message is amplified through animated films, radio content, banners, posters and photographs of the players.

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In Ebola fight, private foundations provide critical financial aid

Description of the way the CDC Foundation, the Allen Foundation and large donors are playing an important role in countering Ebola.

THE WASHINGTON POST                                                                                                          Nov. 17, 2014
By Ariana Eunjung Cha

"...The unpredictable nature of the Ebola virus has made the government’s partnerships with private donors critically important in the crisis response. Working outside the politically charged federal appropriations process and the sometimes sluggish bureaucracy, foundations and private individuals have been able to offer much-needed relief for those on the front lines...."

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/in-ebola-fight-private-foundations-provide-critical-financial-aid/2014/11/16/b57ec57e-6109-11e4-9f3a-7e28799e0549_story.html

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The Shifting Ebola Epidemic

NEW YORK TIMES                                                                                         Nov. 16, 2014

EDITORIAL

Recent gains in controlling the Ebola epidemic in West Africa have been encouraging, but they offer no reason for complacency. In Liberia, the hardest-hit country, the rate of new infections has declined in some areas, and several treatment units have been reporting empty beds for more than a month. But in adjacent Sierra Leone the number of new cases has shot upward, while in Guinea, where the epidemic started, the incidence of new cases appears to have stabilized over all, with growth in some districts and declines in others. All told, Ebola has infected more than 14,000 people in West Africa and killed more than 5,000 of them...

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G20 leaders call for global action to tackle Ebola

IMF to provide additional funds to counter Ebola while NGO's criticizes the G20 statement as lacking  substance
(Two stories, scroll down.)
THE GUARDIAN                                                                                                      Nov. 15, 2014
By Patrick Wintour

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA --The G20 has welcomed a commitment from the IMF to provide $300m (£190m) in extra funding to help fight Ebola in the three worst-affected west African countries.

The IMF money for Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia will come through “a combination of concessional loans, debt relief, and grants”, according to a statement issued by the world leaders’ summit, being held in Brisbane.

U.S. President Barack Obama and other leaders gather for a group photo at the G20 summit in Brisbane November 15, 2014.Credit: Reuters/Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Pool

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Economic consequences of Ebola The ignorance epidemic

THE ECONOMIST                                                                                                        Nov. 14, 2014

NAIROBI -- Safari tents remain zipped, hotel pools are empty, game guides idle among lions and elephants. Tour operators across Africa are reporting the biggest drop in business in living memory. A specialist travel agency, SafariBookings.com, says a survey of 500 operators in September showed a fall in bookings of between 20% and 70%. Since then the trend has accelerated, especially in Botswana, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. Several American and European agents have stopped offering African tours for the time being.

The reason is the outbreak of the Ebola virus in west Africa, which has killed more than 5,000 people. The epidemic is taking place far from the big safari destinations in eastern and southern Africa—as far or farther than the homes of many European tourists (see map). There are more air links from west Africa to Europe than to the rest of the continent, whose airlines have in any case largely suspended flights.

Moreover Ebola is hardly the biggest killer disease in Africa (AIDS and malaria are bigger). Yet, in the mind of many visitors, all of Africa is a single country.

One despairing tour operator calls it an “epidemic of ignorance”.

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The economics of Ebola

HOMELAND SECURITY NEWS WIRE                                                                                             Nov. 13, 2014
By Catherine de Fontenay
Economists are being called upon to estimate the costs of the Ebola epidemic to West Africa and elsewhere. Economists, however, should also play a part in estimating the likelihood of the disease spreading. Economics is the study of incentives, and many biological models of the spread of the disease may be underestimating the impact of individual incentives.

 Based on cost-benefit analysis, the potential costs of Ebola spreading are extremely high and the risks may be much higher than they are currently portrayed. Voters and donors should support greater efforts to end Ebola in West Africa. As International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde says, “real action” is needed to counter the outbreak. Without such action Ebola places the global economy at risk.

...If Ebola spreads throughout West Africa, the cost could rise to US$32.6 billion by the end of 2015.
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http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/dr20141113-the-economics-of-ebola

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