Ebola situation improving but not over yet, says WHO

flickr by European Commission DG ECHO

ALTHOUGH the number of new cases of Ebola reported in Africa appears to be dropping considerably, the World Health Organisation has warned that it is still an international health emergency.

Just 30 cases were registered during the first week of April, the lowest amount recorded since the third week in May 2014.

Guinea registered 21 cases compared to 57 the week before, Sierra Leona just nine compared to 25 the previous week and none at all were reported in Liberia.

 “This shows that we’ve made real progress,” said Bruce Aylward, WHO Ebola delegate, explaining that things were looking good as just two weeks beforehand 150 new cases had been registered.

Yet there is still work to do and problems to solve, WHO reported.

One main problem is the fact that many people have been found dead in their homes after refusing to go to hospital, with the contagion risk this creates.

When asked how this could still be happening 15 months after the first case was declared with all the work that has been put in, Aylward replied that: “although the whole world knows about Ebola, not everyone has first-hand experience in treating it. Some people still think they are better off being looked after at home by relatives and that they will die if they go to a hospital, when in fact in hospital they have much better chances of recovering.”

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