WHO press conference today in Geneva on Ebola - December 1, 2014

[sharon sanders]

From: WorldHealthOrganizationNews@who.int
To: undisclosed-recipients@null, null@null
Subject: WHO press conference in Geneva on Ebola
Date: Dec 1, 2014 5:28 AM

Dear journalists:


This is to inform you that WHO is holding a press conference on Ebola today in Geneva.


Subject:

Ebola briefing: WHO response and challenges to control the Ebola outbreak.

Speaker:
Bruce Aylward, Assistant Director General in charge of the operational response.


Date/time:

Monday, 1 December 2014, at 3 p.m ( Geneva time)

Place : Room III, UN building, Palais des Nations Geneva, Switzerland.

Following the press conference, an audio file will be available as well as a video package and the transcript of the press conference



Media contacts:

Tarik Jasarevic: tel:+41 22 791 5099;mobile:+ 41 79 367 62 14;Email: jasarevict@who.int

Fad?la Chaib, Tel : +41 22 791 32 28 / Mobile +41 79 475 55 56 Email: chaibf@who.int

Media line: mediainquiries@who.int ; tel: + 41 22 791 22 22

Best regards,

WHO Media team

 

[sharon sanders]

Re: WHO press conference today in Geneva on Ebola - December 1, 2014

From: WorldHealthOrganizationNews@who.int
To: undisclosed-recipients@null, null@null
Subject: WHO press conference on Ebola response - audio file
Date: Dec 1, 2014 10:59 AM
Dear Journalists,

Please find below the link to the audio file of today's press conference on Ebola response

http://terrance.who.int/mediacentre/presser/WHO-RUSH_Ebola_Press_Conference_01DEC2014.mp3

Best regards
WHO Media Team

 

[gsgs]

Re: WHO press conference today in Geneva on Ebola - December 1, 2014

Sep18,UNMEER
exp. in late Sep.,Oct
60 days ago, gap , 70-70-60
impressive response, i.e.NGOs
>70% safe burying in all 3 countries
doubling of burial teams
09:40 doubling of beds
Guinea stable at 200

slowdown in cases , no longer exponential
11:55 2months ago answered definitely
we can catch up
13:20 due to NGOs , changes that we see today
40% surviving is twice as high as 90% dying

16:16 slowing down
16:57 now, that the numbers have come down a lot

19:30 lower cases --> needed personnel increases
[I disagree]

22:24 100%,100%,100% needed , we will not be able to stop this until that investment is complete
22:30 at this point probably the biggest risk is that this drops out of the media...
23:00 optimism is completely inappropriate
[huh, but what had he been saying so far...]

24:00 other numbers on Fr. : Lib.=23% , Gu=40% , free beds
25:00 what wrong in SL
26:20 numbers at investigation time --> hospitalized only later
30:15 big facilities are risky
30:37 can quickly explode again
31:10 praises SL, very good prognosis
34:40 how long to zero , danger in reporting good news, complacency
35:50 latest numbers, how much is WHO paying
37:00 numbers do the work yourself,
38:20 already slowing down, go back 60 days, crystal ball , behaviour
41:20 1st week in Oct. we had ~1000 cases, the last week of Nov. we had 1100 cases
Lib. drop, Gu even, SL up
42:50 slowed down [he means the increasing-spead has slowed down]
44:00 what response wanted
44:40 how many surveillance teams needed, time needed to get it under control
45:20 surveillance improved in the last 2 months
53:00 20000 contact tracers
54:11 vaccines
54:22 missing data , better data , Gu up , stabalized = no longer exponential ?
57:00 data recollected, calculated, robust in Freetown we may be missing half the cases
58:40 we need better data , they are working on it
59:00 increasing geography as compared to Oct.1 , 9-->17 prefectures in Gu
62:40 how many intern. workers , risk that ebola spreads to other parts of the world
63:15 funding gaps , what % at SL currently (<70)
63:50 400 WHO-people at 60% now, 70 in Gu last week,

Audio and Video, no mention of a transcript

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multimedia/ebola_briefing/en/


--------------------------------
he wants to make us thing the slowing down of the speed, back from exponential
to stable, that that happened because of the WHO/UN UNMEER program,
more burial teams, more hospital capacity, more contact tracing.

I'm not so sure about this. Actually we have this stability since mid-Sep. as for the total numbers
after a short period of fast growth. Well before the start of the program.

And we had had declines in several areas even before that.
And despite the efforts we see little effect in Freetown, were they just late

Then, remember how Aylward predicted 10000 cases in the first Dec. week,
and now he claims for success, how good they were to get it at 1100.
But the 10000 was always unrealistic, we have 1000 since mid Sep.
So, did he "create" the 10000 so to claim for success now ?

------------------------------------------

transcript now available from
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/multimedia/ebola_briefing/en/

19 pages, .pdf