The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that no person tested positive for Ebola virus this week in the three West African nations at the center of the deadly epidemic.
Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 was recorded as the first week with no new cases in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone since the outbreak erupted in March 2014.
The epidemic saw its peak in mid-September 2014, when the three countries documented over 700 confirmed, probable, or suspected cases in a single week.
According to the agency, over 11,000 individuals have died in the said three countries in the worst known Ebola epidemic in the world. In its situation report, WHO said that while new Ebola cases have decreased sharply in 2015, there is still the possibility of the disease breaking out once again.
In Guinea, more than 500 persons remain under follow-up, while in both Guinea and Sierra Leone a number of “high-risk contacts” linked to active and recently active chains of transmission “have been lost to follow-up” or no longer traceable.
Guinea recorded its most recent Ebola virus cases on Sept. 27. Liberia, on the other hand, received a second declaration on Sept. 3 following a flare-up back in June but remains vigilant.
The last known patients in Sierra Leone were released last Sept. 28, and the country must wait 42 days to be declared disease-free.
The epidemic, said WHO, has entered a third phase, with a focus on achieving zero case incidence and a sustained end to transmitting the virus.
The virus has infected 28,457 people, killing 11,312 of those. In the United States, the only people to die from Ebola were Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan and Dr. Martin Salia, who was assigned at a hospital in Sierra Leone.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said that the Ebola outbreak was “an unprecedented challenge in scope, scale and clinical complexity.”
She expressed concern about Ebola cases that remain in West Africa, and called for funding efforts such as treatment centers not only “when there is a critical problem” but on an ongoing basis.
Photo: CDC Global | Flickr
