Thursday, October 30, 2014

Ebola crisis: Infections 'slowing in Liberia'

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 and lab confirmations, and less-cramped hospitals, the World Health Organization 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.  

The latest WHO figure of 13,703 cases is a significant leap on its previous situation report on Saturday, which showed cases rising above 10,000 for the first time - to 10,141.

But Dr Aylward, the WHO's assistant director general, said that this increase was due to data being updated with old cases, rather than new cases being reported.

Saturday's situation report put the death toll at 4,922.

The similar death toll in the latest report was mainly a result of a revision of the Liberian statistics.


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