Tag Archives: Ebola Free

WHO Declares West Africa Ebola-Free

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland declared West Africa Ebola-free, affirming that the transmission of the Ebola virus has been stopped in West Africa.

 

 

WHO experts, however, warned that there was still a risk that the haemorrhagic fever could flare up again.

 

 

They said this is because the Ebola virus can persist for up to 12 months in the semen of male survivors.

 

The announcement came 42 days after the last case was confirmed in Liberia, the final of three West African countries with active transmission of the virus.

 

 

WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, said Sierra Leone was declared free of Ebola transmission on Nov. 7 and Guinea on Dec. 29.

 

 

“More than 11,300 people have died since the outbreak in December 2013 in West Africa, while 28,500 have been infected.

 

Detecting and breaking every chain of transmission has been a monumental achievement,” she said.

 

 

Ebola, which was discovered in 1976 and transmitted through contact with blood and other bodily fluids, causes massive haemorrhaging.

 

 

It has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent if left untreated.

 

 

Liberian Deputy Health Minister, Tolbert Nyenswah, said the country would be vigilant, as related to maintaining surveillance and thereby keeping the nation safe from Ebola.

 

 

Luis Encinas, Medical Head of Projects in Niger, for the Doctors Without Borders (MSF), said they would remain in West Africa, where they started Ebola response services in March 2014.

 

 

He said this has become necessary because the health system has to be completely reconstructed in the most-affected countries.

 

 

“MSF will be ready if there is another outbreak, but much depends on resources.

 

 

If there is no money and people are not trained, there will be a problem,’’ the official said.

 

 

(dpa/NAN)

WHO Declares Guinea Ebola-Free

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The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday declared Guinea Ebola-free, after more than 2,500 people died from the virus, leaving Liberia as the only country still waiting for the end of the epidemic.

 

People in the capital, Conakry, greeted the declaration by authorities and the WHO with mixed emotions, given the deaths and the damage the virus caused
the economy and the country’s health and education sectors.

 

Rene Migliani, WHO Official, National Coordination Centre for the Fight Against Ebola, said Ebola had made more than 6,200 children orphans in Guinea.

 

He said there were more than 3,800 Ebola cases in Guinea out of the more than 28,600 cases globally with 11,300 deaths.

 

Migliani said almost all the cases and deaths were in Guinea and its neighbours Liberia and Sierra Leone.

 

WHO said a country was declared Ebola-free 42 days after the recovery or death of the last patient and if there were no new infections.

 

It said Liberia lost more than 4,800 people to the haemorrhagic fever, “but if all goes well, the country can be declared virus-free in January.”

 

The country was declared Ebola-free in May and September, but each time new cases emerged thereafter.

 

 

(Reuters/NAN)

Mali due to Declare 108 Ebola-free after Quarantine

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Mali is preparing to release 108 people from Ebola quarantine in a tentative step toward declaring it has contained an outbreak.

Mali became the sixth West African country to report a case of Ebola when a 2-year-old girl died last month, leading to an urgent search for anyone who may have been infected during her 1,200-km bus trip from Guinea to the Malian town of Kayes.

The Malian Ministry of Health is expected to confirm later on Monday that 29 people who may have had contact with her during a two-hour stopover in Bamako, along with 12 people in Kayes, can be released from a 21-day quarantine on Tuesday.

A further 67 contacts, including three relatives who traveled with her and 33 healthcare workers, are due to be given the all clear on Saturday.

“If all goes well, by this Saturday all 108 contacts we were following up will be safe and will have completed their 21 days,” WHO representative Ibrahima Soce Fall said.

Two further contacts who got off the bus in a village called Niamiga have been traced to Paris and Dakar and are still being monitored, a WHO spokesman said. They are thought to be at low risk, as are about 37 contacts who have not been traced.

If there are no new cases, Mali will be declared Ebola free on Dec 6, twice the maximum incubation period for the disease.

“We need to remain vigilant and to strengthen surveillance and the capacity to respond to any new cases that might come in as Mali shares an 800-km border with Guinea,” said Fall.

Nigeria to be Declared Ebola Free Zone

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Nigeria is expected to be declared officially free of Ebola on Monday, after six weeks with no new cases.

Nigeria has won praise for its swift response after an infected Liberian diplomat brought the disease there in July. The World Health Organization officially declared Senegal Ebola-free on Friday and is set to declare Nigeria an Ebola free zone.

The World Health Organization can officially declare an Ebola outbreak over if two incubation periods of 21 days pass with no new cases, of which the last reported case in Nigeria was discovered on 5 September.