Doctors Without Borders has revealed that Ebola fatality rate in West Africa is declining.
The humanitarian non-government organization has revealed that more Ebola patients, who are visiting their centers in West Africa, are surviving. Doctors Without Borders has cared for more Ebola patients in comparison to any other organization. The humanitarian aid revealed that currently it has 8 centers in different parts of West Africa but previously it had 22 centers.
"The reasons are really unclear," says Dr. Gilles van Cutsem, the Medical Director of Doctors Without Borders in South Africa.
The Ebola death rates at Doctors Without Borders' centers have reduced from 62 percent to 52 percent. Patients are getting more care at the centers but the agency does not believe that it is the factor that has reduced death rates in Ebola patients.
The agency also revealed that they have detected less virus in the blood of new Ebola patients. Medical experts suggest that less virus in the body means that a person has more chances of surviving the deadly disease.
Medical experts claimed that early diagnosis of the disease helps in saving the life of a patient. However, many people speculated that patients who entered an Ebola center for treatment did not recover and died. Such rumors faded over time and people were encouraged to visit Ebola centers if they noticed symptoms.
Patient interviews revealed that the time of people arriving at health care centers after the first symptom has hardly changed in the last 11 months.
Doctors Without Borders suggest people are now more careful about the Ebola infection. People are adopting to appropriate precautionary measure such as cover their faces and wear gloves while taking care of the infected people or while burying an infected person's dead body.
Experts also believe that the virus may have got less dangerous over time but there is no proof to support the theory.
Whatever the reason be, it is good news that Ebola death rates is reducing in West African countries. The latest Ebola outbreak started early in 2014 and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were the worst affected countries.
The Ebola virus is believed to have infected around 24,000 people and killed more than 9,500 people. Currently, there are no licensed vaccines that can cure Ebola but a few drugs are undergoing human safety trials before they can be rolled out for commercial use. Current treatment for Ebola just relieves the symptoms of the disease.
