A team of researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Innovations for Poverty Action Sierra Leone developed a study evaluating the use of mobile technology in improving the process of tracing contacts of Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. As part of this study, the team, with the help of a developer, designed a customized application using Dimagi’s CommCare that has been implemented in the district of Port Loko. The research team seeks an individual or small group of mHealth experts to
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The Working Group on Clinial Trials coordinated by the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform has produced a working document which considers the clinical trials that are planned as part of the Ebola outbreak response from a sociological and anthropological perspective. The document develops a series of critical and empirical questions to guide research that should be conducted within, alongside or separate from clinical interventions. The document goes on to consider questions specific to vaccine, therapeutic and convalescent blood and plasma trials.
Survivors are rapidly becoming a strategic population for the Ebola Outbreak response. The public health potential of this group appear to be manifold—from safe burials and the care for orphan children to community outreach and the donation of blood for clinical trials. There are a number of stories emerging from the field of survivors who refuse to leave Ebola Treatment Units, offering their support in caring for new patients. Data regarding the status and experience of survivors is somewhat thin, although anthropological experience of the
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