GENEVA, (Reuters) – The Ebola virus is still spreading in West Africa, especially in Sierra Leone, and the number of known cases globally has now exceeded 20,000, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.
The death toll from the outbreak, which has been mostly confined to West Africa, has risen to 7,905, the WHO said, following 317 fatalities recorded since it last issued figures on Dec. 24.
The number of known cases, including fatalities, totalled 20,206 at year-end, it said.
Sierra Leone accounted for 337 of 476 new laboratory-confirmed cases since Dec. 24.
They included 149 in Freetown, the highest incidence in the capital in four weeks.
The urgent need for assistance in Sierra Leone prompted the United States Agency for International Development to airlift two ambulances to Freetown from Liberia’s capital Monrovia, once the worst Ebola hotspot, the United Nations said.
However, the number of cases in Sierra Leone over a three-week period has fallen below 1,000 for the first time since Sept. 28, suggesting the spread of the disease is slowing.
In neighbouring Guinea, the three-week total rose for a second week to 346, suggesting the epidemic is growing there.
