Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's
temperature being taken by a Chinese soldier
before the opening of a new Ebola virus
clinic
sponsored by China, in Monrovia, Liberia,
Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2014 (pix: ibtimes)
The Ebola outbreak in Sierra
Leone, which has been surging in recent weeks, may have
reached its peak and could be on the verge of slowing down, Sierra Leone's
information minister said Wednesday.
But
in a reminder of how serious the situation is in Sierra Leone, a ninth doctor
became infected Wednesday and the World Health Organization said the country
accounted for more than half of the new cases in the hardest-hit countries in
the past week. By contrast, infections appear to be either stabilizing or
declining in Guinea and Liberia, where
vigorous campaigning for a Senate election this week suggests the disease might
be loosening its grip.
In all, 15,935 people have
been sickened with Ebola in West Africa and
other places it has occasionally popped up. Of those, 5,689 have died. The case
total includes 600 new cases in Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone in
just the past week, according to the WHO.
The disease is transmitted
through contact with bodily fluids of the sick, putting health workers at
particular risk. Dr. Songo Mbriwa, a top military doctor who was working at a
treatment center in the capital, tested positive for Ebola on Wednesday, according
to Abass Kamara, a Health Ministry spokesman.
Nearly 600 health workers have become infected in the West African
outbreak, many in the hardest-hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone
— all of which had too few of the workers to begin with.
Still, Alpha Kanu, Sierra
Leone's minister of information, told
journalists in an online press conference that with the imminent completion of
two British-built treatment centers, the worst could be over for the country.
"We believe that now that those treatment centers
are ready, the transmission of new cases will start reducing," he said.
"I don't think we can get any higher than we are now — we are at the
plateau of the curve and very soon we will have a downward trend, once we have
somewhere to take people."
Sierra Leone has
nearly 6,600 of the reported Ebola cases, with about 1,400 deaths, and the
infections are increasing swiftly here.
In its release of the
latest figures on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said both Sierra
Leone and Liberia appeared to be far behind the U.N.-set goal of isolating 70
percent of patients by Dec. 1, with only about 20 percent isolated in each country.
Guinea,
by contrast, appears to have already passed that target. The agency warned that
data is poor and slow to come in, so firm conclusions are difficult.
Kanu, the information
minister, agreed that finding beds for patients had been a challenge in the
country and predicted that the new centers would expand the country's Ebola
treatment capacity to 1,000 beds and would help get the infected out of the
community.
He also said that Sierra
Leone would repeat its September shutdown
when people across the country had to remain at home while medical teams went
door to door.
In Liberia
a further sign of the country's recovery came when one candidate expressed
delight Wednesday at how many supporters turned out for a campaign rally for
Senate elections.
"They told me that there would only be 50 people but I see
four or five thousand people," said Senate candidate Robert Sirleaf, son
of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. "That gives me spirit."
Police last week said gatherings are still banned, but political
rallies are exempt from the ban.
The Senate election was
supposed to have been held on Oct. 16, but that was when hundreds of new Ebola
cases were being reported each week. The vote was delayed for two months. With
the rate of infection slowing, the green light remains on for the Dec. 16 vote.
Polling places are supposed to provide buckets of chlorinated water for
hand-washing and a clean pen for each voter to fill out his or her ballot.
Some Liberians are
concerned that it might still be too soon for electioneering.
"Even if Liberia was
declared free of Ebola today, there would still be no need to ... celebrate
until Guinea and Sierra Leone are also declared free," said Jerry Filika,
a 19-year-old, underscoring that the deadly disease can easily cross borders.
---------------------
Schemm reported from Rabat,
Morocco. Associated Press writers Jonathan Paye-Layleh and Wade Williams in Monrovia,
Liberia, and Sarah DiLorenzo in Dakar, Senegal,
contributed to this report.
-YAHOO NEWS
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