GENEVA (Reuters) -
The death toll in the world's worst Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,689
out of 15,935 cases reported in eight countries by Nov. 23, the World
Health Organization said on Wednesday.
Almost all cases and all but 15 deaths have been in
Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - the three hardest-hit countries,
which reported 600 new cases in the past week, the WHO said in its
latest update.
"The total number of cases reported in Sierra Leone since the outbreak
began will soon eclipse the number reported from Liberia," it said. The
former British colony has reported 6,599 cases against 7,168 in Liberia.
Transmission of the virus remains intense in Sierra Leone,
especially in the west and north, with the capital Freetown still the
worst affected area, it said.
Sierra Leone appealed to the United States on Wednesday to
send military aid to help it battle Ebola as it falls behind its West
African neighbors Guinea and Liberia in the fight against the virus.
"Liberia and Sierra Leone report that fewer than 70
percent of patients are isolated, though there is wide variation among
districts," the WHO said, referring to an international target set for
Dec. 1. However, some data is out of date, it said.
Isolation is required to halt further spread of the viral
hemorrhagic disease, and the aim is to isolate 100 percent of patients
by Jan. 1, it added.
Contacts of people known to be infected should be monitored for
symptoms including fever, but relatively low numbers being reported
"suggest that in districts with high case incidence fewer contacts are
currently registered in connection with each new case than is necessary
to accurately monitor chains of transmission", the WHO warned.
Mali has reported 8 Ebola cases, six of them fatal, and
285 contacts exposed to the virus there are being checked, it said.
WHO teams are evaluating the preparedness of neighboring
countries to combat Ebola, and visits are planned to the Central African
Republic, Niger, and Ethiopia next week, it said.
Peter Piot, a leading specialist on the disease, said on
Wednesday that West Africa's Ebola epidemic could worsen further before
abating, but that but new infections should start to decline in all
affected countries by the end of the year.
The first Cuban doctor infected with Ebola, evacuated from
Sierra Leone to Geneva last week, is improving and responding to
treatment, the University Hospital of Geneva said in a statement late on
Tuesday. His medical team is "reasonably optimistic".
SOURCE: YAHOO
