Gabriella Jóźwiak - Freelance Journalist

With the Ebola crisis still far from unresolved, Devex spoke to the scientist who helped to discover the Ebola virus almost four decades ago to learn more about what the global development community needs to do right now to tackle the disease. Peter Piot, director and professor of global health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and founding director of UNAIDS , traveled in 1976 to Zaire — now Democratic Republic of the Congo — to help quell an outbreak that was rapidly spreading from village to village. After identifying the virus from a Belgian nurse, Piot’s team put infected people into quarantine and was able to contain the epidemic within three months and after the disease had killed over 300 people. Here are Piot’s four pieces of advice for the ongoing international effort to contain Ebola in West Africa and beyond... To read the full article, go to Devex.com .

"Tuberculosis has killed more people than any other infectious disease in human history, yet before 2013 no new drugs to treat the illness had been developed for more than 40 years. Access to treatment varies from country to country, depending on the strength of health care systems and ability to buy drugs that can cost thousands of dollars. TB is treatable and curable, but 1.5 million people died from the disease in 2013. Delegates from all around the world came together last month in Barcelona, Spain for the first international parliamentarian TB summit , where attendees declared a commitment to end TB in a generation..." Read the full article on Devex.com . 

‘My two siblings and I lived with our parents before they both came down with the virus… one by one they died.’ These words, spoken by 13-year-old Liberian Ndebeh Kporloi, have become a familiar story in countries hit by Ebola. Across the worst-affected regions of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, at least 9,191 people have now been infected and 4,546 have died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). While Ebola has dramatically changed everyone’s lives in these regions, children are experiencing a degree of suffering for which childhood cannot prepare. One of the biggest concerns for children is the escalating number of orphans. In September Unicef estimated at least 3,700 children had lost one or both parents to Ebola. That number is growing, as Unicef’s Liberia spokesperson Laurent Duvillier explains: ‘WHO data shows the most Ebola-affected age group is aged 25 to 36 – that means most of them are parents. We have anecdotal evidence that the number is growing, followi...

When government officials in Ebola-hit Sierra Leone and Liberia ordered schools to close over the summer to prevent the spread of the deadly virus, they probably didn’t expect the shutdown would last so long. Ebola is transmitted through bodily contact, making children crowded onto classroom benches a high-risk situation. Months later, children of all ages are still confined to their homes and missing out on vital education. As infection rates continue to rise — more than 9,191 across the most-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to latest World Health Organization statistics — education ministries and nongovernmental organizations are considering other ways to deliver education in an such a challenging environment. Here are our top four innovations to delivering non-contact classes... Read the full article on Devex.com . 

"WHEN Oliver Johnson, a British doctor, left home on Friday to drive to work in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, the normal buzz of street life was hushed. A three-day nationwide lockdown — the government’s extraordinary experiment to combat the lethal ebola virus — had begun. “The streets were deserted except for small groups of people in bright white T-shirts saying ‘ebola is real’ on them,” said Johnson. Soldiers patrolled streets to ensure residents stayed indoors. Anyone moving around was escorted home under threat of arrest. Police set up checkpoints and allowed only official cars to pass..." Read the full article on the Sunday Times website .

"Princess Mayers sobs as she describes how Ebola has destroyed her life. The 17-year-old Liberian, whose story The Independent featured in May , had already suffered profoundly before the deadly virus struck the country. Aged 14 and an orphan, she was forced to work as a prostitute to survive, and bore a child. A British charity called Street Child found her in the streets of West Point, one of the largest slums in the capital, Monrovia. It intervened and set Princess and her daughter on a path towards a brighter future. But because of the impact of Ebola, she is now struggling to go on. And her baby is dead. The Ebola epidemic has claimed more than 2,600 lives across West Africa, with more than half of those deaths in Liberia. Last week, Barack Obama called the outbreak “a threat to global security”, and announced that he would send 3,000 US troops to affected regions. Princess’s child Angie did not die of Ebola..." Read the full story on the Independent website ....

"Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) children are among the lowest achieving at every level of education. In April 2012, a cross-departmental ministerial working group published 28 commitments to tackling inequalities faced by GRT communities. Six focused on education. Among plans to improve low school attendance and prevent bullying was a Department for Education pilot to appoint virtual head teachers for GRT pupils inspired by the successful virtual school heads model for looked-after children. The pilot set out to raise attainment levels among GRT pupils by addressing common barriers to education including tackling mistrust between parents and teachers created by historic persecution of GRT communities, and engaging parents who may not have completed formal education themselves and be unfamiliar with school systems..." Read the full article on the CYP Now website .