Tag Archives: WHO

Sierra Leone Due to be Declared Ebola Free Tomorrow

The Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone is expected to be officially declared over on Saturday, when the West African nation will have gone 42 days without any new infections. However jubilation over the ending of the outbreak in Sierra Leone, where almost 4,000 deaths have been reported, has been tempered by caution as neighboring Guinea continues to battle the deadly virus.

Speaking at a news conference in Freetown on Wednesday, Palo Conteh, the head of Sierra Leone’s Ebola response, indicated that there were no plans for “an elaborate celebration,” adding that instead, the World Health organization (WHO) will deliver a formal declaration in the capital city on Saturday of the end of the epidemic. He warned however that “we have to be vigilant as it is not the end of Ebola, but the end of the current outbreak. We have fought the disease and we have won.” Since emerging in December 2013, the worst outbreak of Ebola on record has infected a reported 28,500 people, with 11,300 deaths registered, however officials believe that the real toll is significantly higher than the official data. This is largely due to under-reporting of probable cases during the early stages of the outbreak. Saturday’s announcement marks the official end of a battle, which was prematurely thought to have been nearing its end on previous occasions. On 24 August, President Ernest Bai Koroma led a festive ceremony, celebrating the discharge of the country’s last known patient. Optimism however was quickly shattered by the deaths of a 67-year-old woman and, two weeks later, a 16-year-old girl. While the primary cost of the outbreak has been in human life, the crisis has also wiped out development gains in Sierra Leone. The World Bank estimates that the West African country will lose at least US $1.4 billion in economic growth in 2015 as a result, which will lead to an “unprecedented” GDP contraction of 23.5 percent.

Guinea Records Two New Ebola Cases After Two Weeks of No New Cases

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that there are two new cases of Ebola that have been recorded in Guinea this week, effectively ending two consecutive weeks in West Africa when no cases of the disease were reported.

Officials have indicated that the two new patients were not previously identified contacts being tracked by health authorities. This suggests that officials are still unable to monitor everyone exposed to Ebola. On Friday, WHO spokeswoman Dr Margaret Harris disclosed that the UN health agency had expected to see more cases despite the recent lull in the epidemic, adding that the cases were in areas where scientists knew Ebola was spreading.

In its weekly update, WHO officials disclosed that there was a “near-term risk of further cases among both registered and untraced contacts.” To date, Ebola has killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone Approaches Being Declared Ebola-Free

According to officials, Sierra Leone has not recorded a single new case of Ebola in the past four weeks, which effectively keeps the West African country on course to being declared free of the virus next month.

At a press conference, the head of the government’s National Ebola Response Centre, Palo Conteh, disclosed that “Sierra Leone has no Ebola-positive case recorded in the country for the fourth consecutive week,” adding that there were no more people in quarantine either.

The last known Ebola patients were discharged from hospital in late September, which allowed Sierra Leone to begin the standard 42-day countdown towards becoming Ebola-free. If no further cases are recorded, the World Health Organization (WHO) will declare Sierra Leone Ebola-free on 8 November.

First Full Week with No Ebola Cases Reported Since March 2014

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Wednesday that no new Ebola cases were confirmed last week, effectively marking the first full week without any new cases of the deadly disease being recorded in a year an a half.

In its latest situation report on the West African Ebola outbreak, the WHO disclosed that ‘no confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease were reported in the week to 4 October,” adding, “this is the first time that a complete epidemiological week has elapsed with zero confirmed cases since march 2014.” On Wednesday, WHO officials noted that the epidemic had clearly entered a third phase, noting that the focus was no on driving “case incidence to zero, and ensure a sustained end to (Ebola) transmission.” He UN health agency also disclosed that all contacts had been completely followed up in Sierra Leone, which has seen no new cases for the past three weeks.

While Wednesday’s report is good news for the region, which has been severely affected by the outbreak, the WHO has warned that the danger is still not over, adding that two high-risk contacts in Sierra Leone, one from Bombali and one from Kambia, have gone missing. The WHO has indicated that “efforts to trace these missing contacts and mitigate the risk of any undetected transmission will continue until at least 42 days have elapsed since the last reported case in each district.” Meanwhile in neighbouring Guinea, over 500 contacts remain under follow-up in three of the country’s prefectures, with the WHO noting that all the contacts were associated with a single chain of transmission centered on the Ratoma area of the capital, Conakry. Another 290 contacts had been identified but had not been traceable for the past 42 days. The four latest cases in Guinea, reported on September 26 and 27 in Forecariah, were people infected by an unregistered contact, likely linked to the Ratoma transmission chain.

The deadliest-ever outbreak of Ebola, since the virus was identified in central Africa in 1976, has killed to date 11,312 of the 28,457 people infected since December 2013, with nearly all the victims in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. In early September, Liberia was declared free of Ebola transmission for a second time, while late last month, Sierra Leone officially began a 42-day countdown towards becoming Ebola free.

Three New Cases of Ebola Reported in Sierra Leone

Authorities in Sierra Leone reported Tuesday that three more patients have tested positive for Ebola in a village in the northern region of the country that is already under quarantine in the wake of the death of a 67-year-old woman.

According to the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC), the new cases, which were diagnosed on Monday, bring the total in a recent outbreak in Sella Kafta in the district of Kambia to five. Speaking to reporters in the capital Freetown, NERC spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis disclosed that the three new cases were amongst the fifty “high risk persons” who have been identified as being close relatives of the food trader, who died on 28 August. He further disclosed that “the development remains a concern for us but since it has taken place within a quarantined home, it can be adequately monitored and further transmission can be contained.”

The latest outbreak brought to an abrupt end the optimism that was fuelled by the release of what had been the West African country’s last known Ebola patient from a hospital in the central city of Makeni in late August. In the wake of the latest Ebola death, Sella Kafta, a village of almost 1,000 people, was placed under a three-week quarantine lockdown.