Global Health Ebola Update 3/31

EBOLA
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Tracking the Missing Funds
What happened to more than half of the $18 million allocated by the Sierra Leone government to fight Ebola?

The question is the subject of an investigation into mishandling of funds set aside to respond to the Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 3,700 in Sierra Leone.

According to IRIN, an audit (http://www.auditservice.gov.sl/report/assl-report-on-ebola-funds-management-may-oct-2014.pdf) conducted by Audit Service Sierra Leone found that more than $10 million in spending was inadequately documented and $6 million may have been diverted to non-existent or "ghost" workers.

The Quote: “It makes one wonder how a serious humanitarian crisis was used as money-making machine,” said Ibrahim Tommy, coordinator for Sierra Leone’s Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law.
IRIN (http://www.irinnews.org/report/101293/sierra-leone-s-missing-ebola-millions)

MSF Reflects: Q&A with Joanne Liu, Part II
This second half of a Q&A with Joanne Liu, president of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), focuses on lessons learned in the 2014 Ebola crisis in West Africa.

Liu explains how everybody in the response effort was somehow late in the response to Ebola, and she emphasizes that West Africans shouldered most of the burden.

“I want people to understand that there is a lot of rewriting history about Ebola underway, and some of it strikes a very self-promotional tone. Let’s not fool ourselves. As in any major crisis around the world, the people who act and respond to those crises are first and foremost local people,” she said.—Dayna Kerecman Myers, associate editor.

In case you missed it last week, you can read the first part here (http://www.globalhealthnow.org/news/q-a-with-msfs-joanne-liu-the-year-of-ebola) .
Global Health NOW (http://www.globalhealthnow.org/news/msfs-joanne-liu-part-2-reflections-and-lessons-learned)

Related: Guinea’s Border Closed Over Ebola Fears – The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/31/world/africa/guinea-border-closed-over-ebola-fears.html)

Related: Sierra Leone Ebola lockdown exposes hundreds of suspected cases – Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-health-ebola-leone-idUSKBN0MQ1XR20150330)

Related: A look at Ebola chronicled through photography –
Al Jazeera America (Video) (http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/live-news/2015/3/a-look-at-ebola-chronicled-through-photography.html)

Related: Recovering from the Ebola Crisis – UNDP ReliefWeb (http://reliefweb.int/report/sierra-leone/recovering-ebola-crisis)