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Saturday 1 November 2014
Ebola cases in Liberia declining, WHO says
The fight against Ebola in Liberia got some
welcome news, with a little caution.
The number of new cases in the nation
appears to be declining, with fewer burials,
plateauing lab confirmations and less-
cramped hospitals, the World Health
Organisation said. If the trend continues, the
hardest hit nation will get a much-needed
break.
The deadly virus has left at least 4,922 people
dead mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and
Liberia.
More than half of the deaths have been in
Liberia, which has buckled under the weight
of the epidemic, and even declared a
shortage of body bags this month.
Too soon to celebrate
Though health experts expressed optimism,
they warned that the latest observation does
not mean Ebola is under control in Liberia.
The virus has the potential to appear in
waves, which can be mistaken for declining
cases.
“The danger now is that we move, instead of a
steady downward trend that gets us down to
zero, that we end up with a oscillating pattern
where the disease starts going up and down
and areas start getting re-infected,” said Dr.
Bruce Aylward, an assistant director-general
at the WHO.
“What gets the heat out of this thing and
slows it down isn’t necessarily what is going to
get us to zero.”
The numbers have been on the decline for
about week, he said.
Not declining in Sierra Leone
Despite the good news in Liberia, Ebola
infections have not slowed down in Sierra
Leone, he said.
One of the goals is to educate the population
to help reduce contact between Ebola
patients and those who are not infected.
“With the concerted community engagement,
with safe burials, with a big push on getting
the right information out through the right
channels, you can rapidly get the behavior
changes that are critical to protecting
populations,” Aylward said at a news
conference in Geneva on Wednesday. “And
that can translate into positive trends in
terms of the disease.”
Scramble to develop vaccines
As the world reels from the outbreak, health
experts are fast-tracking tests for various
vaccines, and hope to have millions of
experimental doses by next year.
There is currently no cure or vaccine for
Ebola, which has infected nearly 14,000
people mostly in the three most affected
nations.
Scientists racing to stop the epidemic are
trying various experimental drugs on patients,
including ZMapp and TKM-Ebola.
In addition to drug development, there’s a
scramble to develop vaccines, with scores of
companies working on experimental doses.
Health care workers in affected nations will
get the first opportunity to try the
experimental vaccines. At least 521 health
workers have caught the virus worldwide. Of
those, 272 have died.
Ebola is spread by direct contact with the
bodily fluids of an infected person.
Complete coverage on Ebola
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