West Africa – Ebola Outbreak Fact Sheet #1, Fiscal Year (FY) 2015

The delegation is scheduled to meet with Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Government of Liberia (GoL) and U.N. officials, other USG partners, and EVD-affected community members. On September 28, U.N. Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) Tony Banbury arrived in Accra, Ghana, the regional hub for UNMEER operations. SRSG Banbury plans to visit Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in the coming weeks as UNMEER begins operations. UNMEER aims to work closely with regional governments in response to the developmental, economic, security, and social challenges posed by the outbreak. To date, U.S. Government (USG) funding for the West Africa EVD outbreak has surpassed $111 million. USAID and the U.S. Department of State are providing a $10 million grant to support an African Union (AU) medical mission responding to the EVD outbreak. The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) has mobilized nearly 200 volunteers to deliver EVD prevention messages in densely-populated areas of the capital city of Freetown, aiming to reach 500,000 people by early October. The U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported on September 30 that the EVD outbreak has orphaned at least 3,700 children in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. UNICEF also noted that many of the children face stigma and rejection from extended families and communities due to parents dying from EVD. With rising case numbers, the UNICEF report found that the number of orphaned children could double by mid-October. In Liberia, the Government of Liberia (GoL) national-level emergency operation center (EOC) became operational on September 25 in Monrovia. USG and U.N. staff continue to support the GoL to increase staffing and integrate effective incident command structures in the EOC, which will coordinate the GoL response to the EVD outbreak. DoD technicians completed mobile laboratory site assessments in recent days near the Bong ETU and at the Island Clinic ETU in Monrovia. Thereafter, six additional DoD technicians and the two mobile laboratories arrived on September 28. DoD anticipates starting specimen testing in early October. In Sierra Leone, the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) placed Bombali, Moyamba, and Port Loko districts, which have a total population of approximately 1.2 million people, under quarantine on September 25, raising the total number of districts quarantined in Sierra Leone to five. The GoSL has maintained quarantines around Kailahun and Kenema districts since early August. On September 27, CDC and DART staff accompanied U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Kathleen FitzGibbon to the site of a new ETU in Sierra Leone's Port Loko District. As of September 24, health officials had confirmed 209 cases of EVD in Port Loko, one of the most EVD-affected areas in Sierra Leone. The DART is working with the private sector to support the construction of a 50-bed ETU.