joined from the capital of sierra leone, via skype, by a spokesman for the red cross in sierra leone. good to have you with us. house to house searches, tell us how that is going to work, how long that is going to go on for? >> well, the western area assault is a government of sierra leone, it was launched yesterday, as you might have heard from the president himself with an objective of scaling up on active community, and active contact. this is an initiative that is tended to reduce the spread of the virus in the country, particularly in the western area, where we have a huge population of sierra leoneans, and with crowded market and so many places. >> but why wouldn't people who are ill come forward for help and medical treatment. why would they hide in their houses? >> the problem has been that people in communities don't normally show up for treatment in treatment centers. there has also been a complaint that the government and stakeholders need to do more to go out and get people to be encouraged to come forward. this initiative is intended to be able to reach out to those comm

a female health company who had traveled to sierra leone to help battle the disease is being treated in an isolation unit here in glasgow by a specialist team. but she was transferred to the brinley center and was admitted using well-established well practiced protocols. she herself is quite stable. and she's not showing any great clinical concern the moment. >> this year, ebola has ravaged parts of west africa. the system -- the symptoms are diarrhea and vomiting as well as weakness bleeding, and fever. it is spread by contact with bodily fluids, but there is no known cure and it is killing 70% of the people it affects -- it infects. but for those in the u.k., there's no need to panic. >> a risk to other people as a result of this confirmed ebola case is team to be extremely low , given the early stage of diagnosis and the patient was displaying no system of the -- no symptoms of the kind that would lead to the transmission of other people at risk. >> the health care worker led -- left sierra leone yesterday bound for casablanca. she then boarded a flight to heathrow before flying f

but in neighboring sierra leone, the number is still rising. the w.h.o. says transmission of ebola remains intense in the capital freetown. on wednesday, the president of the world bank gave an upbeat assessment of the situation. >> sierra leone must emerge from the ebola epidemic much stronger than it was before the ebola epidemic. there's much we can do in responding to the ep dise epide. >> the country should not be defined by its ebola experience. >> sierra leone is still open for visitors. we are still safe here fighting ebola. the focus is for us to isolate the ebola and not to isolate the rest of the country. >> the international effort to find a cure or treatment is being stepped up. teams across the globe are looking into antiviral drugs while another is investigating how to use the blood of survivors as a potential therapy. >> translator: it's probable that these treatments will work but we have to check that the human body can tolerate then. the treatments must not be toxic. >> reporter: as things stand, more than 17,000 people have contracted

sierra leone has nearly 7,800 cases, following by liberia and new guinea. the total is 17,800 cases or suspected cases. the united nations set an interim goal of isolating 70% of patients to prevent the further spread of the disease. liberia and guinea have met that goal. but in sierra leone, about 500 new cases are reported each week. >>> a court has ruled that physical fatigue caused the death of a woman following the march 2011 disaster in northern japan. local government officials had refused a claim to that effect by her family. a lawyer said it's the first time a court has gone against such a decision. 85-year-old oyaka lived in se sendai. >> we survived in our car for three days. we had no water and no food. >> she and her common-law husband returned to the house. they lived there for about a month after the disaster. she needed nursing care. she and her husband decided against living in an evacuation site. she started running a temperature in april. she developed pneumonia. her condition worsened. she died in august. the presiding judge at sendai di

liberia and sierra leone are falling well short of the targets. the number of deaths from ebola has reached nearly 7,000. more than 16,000 people have been diagnosed since the outbreak began in march. the man who's been picked to lead the fight against ebola is tony banbury from the u.n. mission for ebola emergency response. let's find out what he had to say. >> we've succeeded, or we've exceeded those targets in many cases. probably even most places we've exceeded those targets. but there are some areas, including here in sierra leone, in freetown, in port loco, where we are falling short, and those are the areas where we need to really focus our assets, our capabilities, those are the priority areas. we have to work hard to bring assistance to those areas where we're not quite meeting them. >> so why is it proving so difficult to tackle the disease? the bbc's andrew harding has found some clues in a village outside the capital of sierra leone. >> reporter: we've come to a small village just outside freetown. in the space of a couple of hours wal

sierra leone imposes a two-week lockdown in a remote region after a surge in ebola infections. >>> fears of an ecological disaster in bangladesh after an oil spill. >>> and north korea accused after a haka tack which laid bare company secrets at a major hollywood studio. ♪ ♪ >>> the head of the cia has defended their techniques. he says they acted within the law and says information from detainees helped track down osama bin laden. patty culhane reports. >> reporter: in unprecedents news conference, a sign of just how much pressure the cia feels. their director invited the media to their head quarters to try to explain the torture that happened at secret prisons like this one. 119 men held. 26 of those were innocent. >> in a limited number of cases agency officers used interrogation techniques that had not been authorized, were abhorrent and rightly should be repute 80ed by all. >> reporter: but because of the 500 plus page report we know what the cia bosses authorized. confinement in a wooden box with insects. one man held like this for a total of 11 days. water boarding, sleep did

. >>> in sierr sierra leone two doctors have died from the virus. it has already killed 1 hup health workers across the country. dominick kane reports. >> every week hundreds of new cases of ebola are reported across sierra leone. health workers are at particular risk. more than 100 are known to have died from the virus across the country since the outbreak began. this week it killed two more doctors. before the outbreak began the country only had around $120 for a population of six million. now an influx of foreign medics has helped to address that shortage. medics like margie lee from scotland. >> we have to look after us before we look after anyone else. it's important to drink and put on and take off equipment properly. it's important to look after you. >> sierra leone's finance minister said that more than 100 cases are reported every day, but that figure could get much worse. >> this is in preparation of the fact that there may be an upsurge. >> reporter: in an effort to prevent that the nigerian government has sent at least 175 volume tires t

sierra leone is another story. >> woodruff: well, what about the challenges in sierra leone, based on what you saw? >> it's a really tough situation. physically, it's a very tough country -- mountainous, hilly, lots of mud -- very difficult simply to get around from place to place. and in the capital, you have a really massive level of denial, the kind of social distancing where everybody in liberia stays a learn distance away from the next person and washes their hands in bleach. you don't really see that in sierra leone. you don't have a sense that people are really appropriately fearful and then, on top of everything else, they have very complicated burial and funeral rituals that are quite dangerous and people are not reporting loved ones that are sick or dead because they don't want to be forbidden to practice traditional funeral services. >> woodruff: laurie, why do you think there's been more progress in guinea and liberia than sierra leone? what's the fundamental difference? >> well, certainly in the case of liberia, i do think the americans have made a difference. american ta

siegel that in liberia we're making progress, but in sierra leone, the war is still going on. a lot of it has to do with the fact that the infrastructure of care there is so weak and poverty is because of this. 5 million children are not going to school, and the lack of education is a huge problem. we have about 18,000 people that have been diagnosed with this and about 7,000 that have died from this. it's also hard to know if these numbers are really accurate. but we have come a long way. let me just take advantage of this. even though it's a medical show, i want to recognize the dedication and commitment of our military, the doctors who have been there and also the nurses. when you have a disease that has 70% lethality and death, to jeopardize and put your life at risk, that's how you know someone has a real commitment to this and they should be congratulated for doing this. i think america has been the leader in this, though i think the cdc lagged behind. we had a lot of discussion about this, and i'm glad the president listened to "sunday housecall" every sunday for half a

in sierra leone, the president insists it's still open to visitors. >> workers at an ebola treatment center get ready to treat their patients. this part of the capitol is a high risk area for the disease. here, each person suffering from ebola is given a special diet. >> every place in what was given the same diet was you have difficulty to swallow, you have patients with sore throat, with very little appetite, so based on the different condition of the patient, each would need a different diet. >> just over 40% of all people diagnosed with ebola in liberia have died from it. the world health organization says the number of new cases here has been stable for several weeks, but in sierra leone, the number is rising. the w.h.o. said transmission remains intense in the capitol, freetown. the president of the world bank gave an upbeat assessment. >> sierra leone must emerge from the ebola epidemic much stronger than it was before the ebola epidemic. we can build infrastructure, train people to be community health workers. there's much we can do in responding to the epidemic. >> the gover

in sierra leone the government banned holiday celebrations. on the radio christmas concerts were replaced by public health announcements. more from debora patta. >> reporter: before sierra leone took the descrask step of banning all public activities, it was going to be a bleak holiday for these ebola orphans. deprived of one or often both of their parents, they are cared for by survivors of the disease as the infection rate continues to rise in their country. sierra leone has had over 9,000 cases of ebola, more than three times that of guinea and 1200 more than liberia. american doctor dan kelli is an infectious disease expert just returned from more than a month working in the west african country. he says the christmas ban is sad but necessary. >> i can only imagine how that would impact a country of people who are used to going home to their villages and spending time with their families. i really hope this is the last christmas in sierra leone that we see the need for a ban. >> reporter: one reason for the high infection rate is that fami

leone with at least two and liberia and possibly one or maybe two in sierra leone. we are working with the cdc now. i want people to really appreciate that none of these have been shown to be effective. i think we we will get the chance to discuss. the distribution and a trial in which not everybody gets a a particular intervention is different. you are getting to an absolutely healthy person compared to a therapeutic when you are giving them to someone who may be drastically help. when you think about the design of trials thus that's the reason the discussion is a bit different. very quickly, you have heard about it. it has been given to seven people. it is an antibody cocktail that has been shown to protect monkeys. the phase one trial that is ongoing. 4430 would protect monkeys against ebola, also in a phase one trial. developed for other viruses but shown to have activity and has now been used. and so and so an inhibitor which has broad antiviral usage, it protects mice. it has not yet gone into a nonhuman primate. you can argue can argue that these have potenti

it was prompted by, you know, my family coming from sierra leone. and, you know, just the idea that i could help and wasn't able to. you know, i wanted to -- and, you know, we discovered quickly that -- needs to be targeted and very specific. so we know that west africa especially is very big on football. and we thought we'd just be quite aggressive in the campaign that would appeal to them using footballers. the footballers came willingly. >> if you don't mind, idris, tell me who's involved. name me some of the famous footballers that our audience will know so well. >> yaya toure. manchester city. patrice lamumba is also one of the players. we've had a big response from the players, especially the african players. and, you know, they want to help in an organic way. there were some concerns about footballers and celebrities helping, and they wanted to figure out a way that we could do it organically and this idea came. >> it's interesting what you just said, because i guess you know that the skeptics are going to say here we go, some more celebs, ac

it will make stops in sierra leone and liberia. with supportive partners including unicef and the world food program. according to the latest estimates by the centers for disease control, liberia has the most deaths from ebola nearly 3500. guinea and sierra leone have combined about 4,000. is that brings the death toll to be 7600. the cdc and hospital scrambled to protect the public. robert ray looks back at the spread of ebola in 2014. >> reporter: described as dreadful and merciless ebola a deadly disease with no cure that has infected almost 20,000 people and killed nearly 8,000. >> this morning i am declaring the current outbreak of ebola virus disease a public health emergency of international concern. >> reporter: in march of 2014 west africans in sierra leone guinea and liberia were put on high alert. >> protect yourself. listen to the health care workers. believe it is real, go out and carry the message to wherever you are. >> researchers believe the origin of this outbreak came from an infected fruit bat which some people

sierra leone's economy group funny percent and is now -- grew 20% and is now expected to contract. the world bank says the three countries look set to lose more than $2 billion in income. the world bank president jimmy yon kim is set to begin a visit to west africa and says the impact will grow more devastating. the organization has pledged $1 billion in financing for the worst hit nations. >> now to syria, the latest death toll has risen to about 200,000. as winter moves in, the u.n. says many refugees could go hungry. the world food program is being forced to pull he military aid to 1.5 million refugees as it does not have money. the shortfall is due to several countries who have failed to honor their pledges to help. in addition to the war parts of syria are under threat from the islamic state group. the northern town of kobane has been under siege for two months. most of the population has fled but there are some determined to remain among the ruins of their homes. here's more from our team on the ground. >> this talent used to have more than 50,000 residents. local officials s

who worked at sierra leone, the same place that successfully treated texas nurse nina pham in october. the first to catch the virus on u.s. soil. >> i feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today. >> she is still recovering and has yet to return to work? >> it has been, you know, a life-changing experience, and it's made me realize how short life can be. >> ten people in the u.s. have now been treated for ebola. a traction of the thousands dying in africa. the u.n. said it may be months before the outbreak is under control. dashing homes that it would be contained by end of the year. >> we are going to be in this work for quite a lot more months. but i am confident from what i have seen that we are going in the right direction. >> nearly 18,000 have been infected. more than 6,000 have died. as the spread of the virus slows in places like linebiera, it's now raging in neighboring sierra leone. in the past three weeks, gchltd uine uinea they have seen twice as many as the other two countries combined. >> the next challenge and quite frankly, the harder challenge, is getting to z

. >> a few weeks ago a 92-bed hospital in kerry town in sierra leone was completed, at a cost of £2 million to the british taxpayer. that is a good thing. as of last night, it was looking after five patients. it is run by save the children. would my right honorable friend have a word with the secretary of state for international development and others in the government to make sure that that hospital is made proper use of? >> my friend is absolutely right. it is good that the hospital has been built, and roughly on time, but there is an issue with its operation. and the work we are doing with save the children, and we are working with them intensively, to ensure that it reaches its full capacity and full use. we are building other facilities across sierra leone, and, of course, immunity centers, as well, because we need all those facilities to bring ebola under control. >> pete wishart. >> prime minister, we are living in the early days of a ukip uk in which farage and company pull all the strings in this house. pandering to ukip has been a disaster for the prime minister and for th

. >>> lockdown in sierra leone amid concerns the ebola virus may be more widespread than expected. ♪ >>> and we'll meet the moldovan musicians hoping new visa rules will rocket them to international status. ♪ >>> we begin in london where air traffic has just been restored after a technical failure lead to air space restrictions. flights had been grounded. but now flights have been resumed. let's go to neve barker who joins us live from london. do you know anymore of the cause of this power outage? >> well, the british air traffic control now say the problem has been fixed. they are pointing the finger at a computer glitch. initially they said a power outage may have been responsible for the suspension of flights across the british capitol. nows out of the city's second largest airport is that flights are able to now land and takeoff. but there could well be severe he days. similar story for the largest airport here in london, and some of the other airports as bell. this is exactly the kind of wobble that air traffic control and airports done want to have only a couple of weeks befo

sierra leone is the worst-affected country with more than 9,000 cases and 2500 deaths. >>> eyewitness misindication is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions in the united states. tom akerman reports from massachusetts, the state at the forefront of reform. >> reporter: dennis mayor is a happily married father of two, but the 19 years he spent in prison for rapes he did not commit are never far from his mind. nor is the realization that the victims were so mistaken in picking him as their attacker. >> i was trying to reason why it all happened? how could they misidentify me. the first victim said i didn't have a mustache the second said i did. >> reporter: mayor is among 321 men who have been exonerated thanks to scientific testing more than 70% of those wrongful convictions relied to some degree on inaccurate eyewitness testimony. jennifer was sure he man she sent to jail committed the crime. >> i can remember thinking to myself, if that's wrong, be bobby pool raped me and it wasn't ronald cotton then maybe everything i thought was true is not true. >> reporter: they have

it is absolutely essential that britain takes this leading role in sierra leone and inserts not just the hospital beds and the staff, but the training and logistics that are going to be essential in turning around this crisis. and having rfa argus there with all its expertise and ability is an absolutely key part of that. >> mr. andy slaughter. >> following the closure of hammersmith and central middlesex a and e departments in september, west london now has some of the worst waiting times for a and e in the country, but last week nhs england told the evening standard that charing cross a and e would be replaced with an emergency centre run by gp's and nurses. will the prime minister abandon any further cuts to a and e services in west london? >> well, what the honorable gentleman should know not only that we are recruiting more a and e consultants and nurses in north-west london and that northwick park and ealing hospitals are getting more beds, but that both hammersmith and central middlesex hospitals have gp-led urgent care centers on site that are open 24 hours a day, seven days

her trip back to the uk began in freetown in sierra leone. she had a brief stop in casablanco and morocco, changed planes, and flew to london before taking an internal flight to glasgow. her journey finished on sunday evening just before midnight and it was on monday she developed a fever and took herself to hospital. she's since been placed in isolation and has been transferred to a specialist unit at the royal free hospital here in london. here are more details. >> reporter: arriving in an raf ambulance for specialist treatment. it's here at the royal free hospital in north london that the patient will receive care in a high level isolation unit. earlier at glasgow airport, she had been transferred in a quarantine tent for the flight to raf northholt. everything geared to containing the virus and minimizing the risk to anyone else. this sealed tent is where the health care worker will be treated. nurses and doctors reach through the side so there's no direct contact. staff at the royal free have already successfully treated one case. now th

sierra leone just 27% of its burial teams trained and in place. liberia, 26%, guinea, though, has 83% of its teams trained and in place. that gives you an idea of what they are up against. >>> well, let's take a closer look at all of this now. we have been covering the ebola outbreak and in cnn london, what are the reasons, nima, with all of the emphasis on ebola and support from around the world that these countries still are missing these targets? >> reporter: well, i think firstly we should be clear while there's been a lot of conversation about this and a lot of emphasis, the support isn't really at the levels needed to make a dent in this and i think we're seeing that now can the numbers. this is a huge wake-up call for the international community because this deadline was supposed to be the first hurdle this new stepped up international response was supposed to clear and they have failed and fallen at that first hurdle and it's extraordinarily disheartening. the other aspect is guinea to a certain extent follows the outbreak we've seen of th

sierra leone, not yet. it's still abug problem. you put up at the beginning, 7,000 deaths. plus, it's also affecting other diseases like malaria, like heart disease, cancer. pregnant women are not getting taken care of. over here, i think the big problem was we couldn't believe what our public officials were telling us. we saw one case, and the next thing we knew, two more nurses had it, and people naturally, as they always do with emerging diseases, especially infectious ones, said, i could be next. how do i know i won't be next? we went on tv and tried to talk about that, but there was a lot of fear with that. i think what finally calmed the fear is what happened at bellevue hospital where dr. spencer was successfully taken care of, did not spread it to anyone, and since then, we have had no more cases. >> it started, the fear, i think, was a result of the confusion, quite frankly, coming out of the cdc in the beginning and leaders weren't sure to tell the folks as to what we were supposed to do. let alone the actual emergency workers taking care of those people. the we l

liberia has now met those goals but sierra leone has not. >> they're running out of space. will they arrive in quick succession. the western industrial scale. the victims being very fast now before the virus can find a new home. at headquarters, there is a growing belief that the syria own -- sierra leone will avoid. will >> and with so much aid and effort focused, it is getting out of control. the children, they have been sick. we are the first to hear of it. having called the a bowl of hot ebola hotline. somebody perhaps could call for you. we could call for you. that is when the truth comes out. she is desperate. who will look after my children if i go away, she asks? the village leader called the hotline himself. we need to confirm she will be taken to hospital but what if the children are infected as well. there are left in the care of neighbors. the 15-year-old girl died last week suspected of the bola. he shrugs it off. others don't. >> when someone dies, we can't change that. >> and so the graves keep filling here. >> the bodies are among the most infectious part of

hundreds of nhs staff have volunteered to help in sierra leone. many working here at a hospital in kerrytown. the latest figures from the world health organization show more than 20,000 people have been infected with ebola and there have been at least 7,000 deaths. the real figure is likely to be higher. this latest case a reminder that even with the best precautions, wherever people travel viruses do, too. >>> bring you up to date on a couple of other stories. officials in malaysia say nearly a quarter of a million people have been forced from their homes by flooding. more than 20 people have been killed by the flood waters in the northeast of the country. 15 more deaths in neighboring thailand. >>> officials in western australia are searching for a shark which fatally attacked a teenager on monday. 17-year-old jay muskat was spear fishing with a friend when he was attacked. it's thought the shark was a great white and may have been hit by one of the spears during the attack. >>> to russia next because the opposition leader has been found guilty

sierra leone reported 537 new cases of the virus just in the last week. yet, the president insists it is still open to visitors. dominick caine reports. >>reporter: workers at an ebola treatment center get ready to treat their patients. this part of the liberian capital is a high risk area for the disease. >> every patient was receiving the same nutritional treatment, the same diet. you have patients that have sore throats and very little appetites. so based on let's say the difference condition of the patient, each one would need a different diet. >>reporter: just over 40% of all the people diagnosed with ebola in liberia have died from it. the number of new cases here has been stable for several weeks but in neighboring sierra leone, the number is still rising. the w.h.o. says transmission of ebola remains intense in the capital. on wednesday, the president of the world bank gave an up beat assessment of the situation. >> sierra must emerge stronger than they were before the ebola epidemic. there's much that we can do to respond. >>reporter: the governm

in sierra leone and then flown home for treatment. the world health organization now says the number of ebola cases in the three worst affected countries, sierra leone, liberia and guinea has passed 20,000. and more than 7800 people have died from the virus. sierra leone remains the worst affected country with more than 9 know cases and 2500 deaths. >>> thousands of nigerians have been forced to leave their homes because of boko haram's violence. led some to seek safety in neighboring countries and many have escaped to niger. >> escaped boko haram fighters in northern nigeria. her husband was murder by the group in jamena but at least her daughtersdaughters survived. >> translator: we ran away on a very narrow road, someone on the motor bike crashed and ran over reply foot. we were afraid boko haram would take away our things. >> set along cape chad, they lurk behind these mangroves where they reportedly hit some of the kidnapped owner nigerian school girls earlier this year. tens of thousands of nigerians have crossed over to nigh ni

the number is significant because, of the three most affected countries, sierra leone has the highest healthcare worker fatality rate. the world health organization reports at least 77% of healthcare workers who contracted ebola in sierra leone have died. across all of west africa, 607 health care workers have been infected, and 341 have died since the outbreak began in march. here in new york, police are bracing for a fourth night of protests since the grand jury announced it would not indict the officer who killed eric garner. most of the protests have been peaceful, but the n.y.p.d. did arrest about 20 people last night for being disorderly and blocking traffic. meantime, more protests are expected following today's funeral for another person killed by police. an officer shot an unarmed black man named akai gurley in a brooklyn housing complex last month. police chief bill bratton says the officer accidentally discharged his gun. the brooklyn d.a. is convening a grand jury in the case. on the west coast, experts say california is in the midst of the most severe three-year drought i

. >>> a 5-day lockdown in sierra leone in on honored to tackle ebola. christians will be allowed to attends church on christmas day. >> reporter: crowds head to christmas marketses in the capital free town. but all around there are reminders that the ebola virus remains a threat. in the north of the country, scenes like these are impossible, the government has declared a five-day lockdown. but even in free town where such restrictions aren't in place, christmas celebrations are mooted. >> we have not enjoyed the festival we are just working hard for our children so they will have something to eat for a day. we can't enjoy ourselves when we are suffering like this. >> reporter: the government has also announced more travel restriction asks a ban on public parties over christmas and new year. >> reporter: in neighboring liberia, more than 3,000 people have been killed by ebola. with with although the number ow infections are going down, evening show people have struggled for find much to celebrate. >> we are not going to celebrate because of ebola. i told

because still to come, after a grisly discovery in ebola-stricken sierra leone, we're hoping to speak live to the world health organization. they're on the ground and they're going to talk about the areas where the scale of the outbreak is still unknown. ♪ earlyfit ♪ latefit ♪ risefit ♪ fallfit ♪ ballfit ♪ wallfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ pingfit ♪ pongfit ♪ rowfit ♪ throwfit ♪ slowfit ♪ olliefit ♪ oopsfit ♪ otisfit ♪ thiswayfit ♪ thatwayfit ♪ daddyfit ♪ pappyfit ♪ datefit ♪ weightfit ♪ goalfit ♪ gooooooalfit ♪ stepfit ♪ stairfit ♪ smartfit ♪ heartfit ♪ spinfit ♪ bikefit ♪ hikefit ♪ yikesfit ♪ wheeeeefit ♪ wowfit ♪ whoafit ♪ findyourfit ♪ it's all fitbit ooh sabra... that tight end is the best. oh it's the tightest. excuse me. pass it! are we out? [ group cheering ] [ male announcer ] sabra hummus. dip life to the fullest. so you think santa will like these... red and green m&m's? i don't know! i never met the guy! whaaaaa! he does exist! they do exist! uhm... santa? >>> a powerful storm with heavy rain and high wi

now we have sierra leone, which there are more cases now in sierra leone last week than there had been in liberia ever. the issue of the arc now is doing this in sierra leone, this in liberia. guinea is kind of like this. that's the way ebola works. it comes in waves. even though we are making progress, we are still in a very critical, serious situation. the thing about ebola just finally is that unlike other diseases, when the trajectory goes down, almost by itself it will disappear. ebola, if there's one case that's out there, one case can ignite another explosion. it's one of the unusual diseases that you have to put every ember and every spark out. we are far from that right now. >> thank you. ron, tony has spent his entire career engaged in addressing infectious diseases. in november you were minding your own business when the president called you but he said we need you to help us develop our national response. what was it like in those early days? how did you come to terms with the challenges that you faced in this new role? tell us about the learning curve and how you were able

. >>> a lot more to come in this half hour, including sierra leone shuts market like this in the north which is under lockdown to stop the spread of ebola. plus. the parents of mexico's missing students reflect on their first christmas without their children. >> by the thousands, they're sending their government a message. >> ahead of 'em is a humanitarian crisis where tens of thousands of people are without food, water, shelter. >> a special one hour look at global attacks on free press. monday 9:00 eastern. on a >> i'm ali velshi, the news has become this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first choice for the news. ♪ ♪ >>> hello there, now a reminders of the top stories on al jazerra. syrian medical sources say government air strikes have killed at least 45 people in areas held bite islamic state of iraq and the levant. the attacks targeted the towns in the northeastern province of aleppo. kurdish fighters appear to

. >> sierra leone is cancelling christmas celebrations because of the epidemic. more than 1800 people in that country have died in the outbreak. health care was a problem in sierra leone before the outbreak especially for pregnant women who need it most. >> reporter: even before the ebola outbreak, sierra leone was one of the most dangerous places for a woman to give birth. they have the highest infant mortality rate and the weakest health care system. at one point, 120 doctors to treat a country of 6 million people. then, ebola hit. and the meager resources once allocated to sustain basic services were diverted to fight the disease. people wait hours, if not days for on overburdened fleet of ambulances to transport ebola patients. if a patient is lucky enough to get to a treatment center, there aren't enough hospital beds for them let alone those are other diseases. the bare essentials like rubber gloves are running out. the system is buckling under the strain. women are most at risk. >> partly because of their role as healers and carers in the home and partly b

sierra leone has overtaken liberia as the country worse effected by the virus. winnie is a spokeswoman for the world health organization, and she says people attending funerals are inned a vert wantly spreading the virus. >> generally most of the infections are being spread two ways, bun which attending unsafe barrels. when someone dies the tradition here is you come together as a family. there is some washing of the body and some rituals with that waterer, which is highly infectious. it is the most dangerous time to be around someone who has died of ebola is at the moment of death or just before. so for them to come and touch that person and weep and brush away their tears that's when they introduce the disease into their body. so the funerals are a main transmitter of the ebola infection, and then of course if you are caring for someone who is very sick in your house, it's very easy to catch ebola through the care of that person, and through handling the body fluids as you clean them up as we would for any loved person that we care for. >>> zimbabwe's two new

the vast majority of these are in liberia, guinea and sierra leone. w.h.o. officials also confirm six deaths in mali but say the outbreaks in senegal and nigeria are officially over. >>> scientists say the first experimental trial of an ebola vaccine have led to good results. it has so far proven safe for humans. we spoke with the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. skblt proof of the pudding is going to be whether it actually works. that's next step. so sometime over the next months, likely in mid january we're going to do a much larger trial, and many, many more people in west africa to determine if these promising, early results actually spell out to be a vaccine that works. and we won't know that until we test it in the setting where there's ongoing ebola infection going on. and the only place that that's happening is in west africa. >> the trial vaccine includes genetic material from two ebola strains, including the one that is fueling the deadly outbreak in west africa. let's take a very short break now, but still to

she traveled sunday from sierra leone to scotland. she was hospitalized the next day. >> under uk protocols, she's been admitted to a special unit. nick rosen joins us live now outside that hospital. if that's anywhere she's going to be that's the place. they've successfully dealt with one ebola patient already. any update on her condition? >> reporter: not so far. what we know from the hospital is she's in the high level isolation unit, a unit set up in 2006 designed for the isolation treatment of people with infectious diseases. william pooley a medical worker who was in west africa caught ebola, was brought back here and successfully treated several months ago. this new patient, a woman, she is the first to be diagnosed with ebola in britain. she had returned from an assignment in sierra leone. she is a nurse with the national health service here in the uk based in scotland. she was volunteering for the save the children fund. she had gone out there to work to help people with ebola late november. she was returning, got back late s

liberia's growth was revised ton to 2.2%, sierra leone 4%, and guinea 2.5%. tens of thousands of citizens still have the virus. that spring in my next guest, she was in sierra leone as ebola began to grip the nation. she is from the international charity restless development. it was a sense of the impact of ebola on both the people of sierra leone and the economy itself. >> good morning, thank you. impact of the ebola crisis on west africa is huge. as you mentioned, sierra leone of 11 point growth 3% prior to the ebola virus hitting the country earlier this year. it will now experience a retraction of 13%, down to -2% growth forecasted for 2015. so alongside the devastation and the loss of life of so many nationds of lives, a that is already recovering from civil war, i think the economic impact their speaks for itself. >> will the crisis get worse unless efforts are stepped up to turn the tide? say.'s difficult to this epidemic is unprecedented. there is a lot going on in the country. working we can do is be towards the rebuilding of the country while tackli

. >> sierra leone is the country that is having the most difficulty. that is the one where most of the problems continue to be. we just need to send more people there. we have spent most of our effort in liberia. we are now beginning to send more people were the u.s., from the c.d.c. into sierra leone so that they can learn the same lessons that were daughter in liberia, and put in place. >> is that because liberia politically for the united states, closer ally, close connections, a long-standing relationship made it easier for us to create the relationship. is that a big part of this? >> exactly. history. we had the relationship with liberia. the british had the relationship with sierra leone, and the french with guinea. and so the three countries divided things up along historical routes. >> 2400 service members in west africa, and coming up in the middle of jan, they'll have to decide what they'll do. the options are to move another part of west africa, or pack up and go home. should u.s. boots stay on the ground in west africa? >> my presence would