Liberia: Liberia Situation Report on EVD - 19 August 2015

HIGHLIGHTS

• There are no new cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Liberia. As of 19 August 2015, 26 days have passed since the last case was discharged. There are no remaining contacts under follow up.
  Liberia

• UNICEF remains a key player in Liberia’s Ebola response efforts and is co- leading the WASH, psychosocial support services (PSS) and social mobilization pillars of the response.

• The Ebola outbreak disrupted birth registrations in Liberia, leaving thousands of children without citizenship and in danger of being trafficked or illegally adopted. The closure of health facilities and limited health services due to the Ebola outbreak halted Liberia's progress in registering births. UNICEF is supporting the government to clear this backlog by providing the necessary resources for mobile teams to go from county to county to register these children and issue them birth certificates.

• UNICEF supported the Health Promotion Unit of the Ministry of Health, in organizing a communication stakeholders meeting regarding the possible post-trial deployment of the Ebola vaccine. Workshop participants agreed that an Ebola vaccine will be a game changer but they noted that community attitudes are not currently favourable for such. Active and periodic research, early planning and robust community engagement were recommended as crucial to the success of the Ebola vaccine introduction.

• Recent data shows that 585 severely malnourished children were discharged from the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) program by the end of July 2015, 95 per cent of whom were cured while one per cent died, two per cent defaulted, and two per cent did not respond to treatment. Last month, 771 severely malnourished children were admitted to the IMAM program in the six counties worst affected by Ebola.

• Ahead of the reopening of schools in the new calendar year scheduled for 7 September2015, the training of 10,000 teachers and 5,000 Parent Teacher Association members on pedagogy and psychosocial support began with the training of National Level Master Trainers.