The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that the spread of Ebola is slowing down in Liberia.
Liberia is one of three West African nations which have been ravaged by the deadly diseases since June this year.
WHO’s Assistant Director-General in charge of the operational response, Dr Bruce Aylward said there had been a drop in the number of burials in Liberia and no increases in laboratory-confirmed cases.
Treatment centres in Liberia are now starting to see empty beds and there may be as much as a 25 per cent week-on-week reduction in cases in Liberia, Dr Aylward indicated.
Who says there are now 13,676 cases, 6,535 in Liberia, 5,235 in Sierra-Leone and 1,906 in Guinea.
The latest figures will be updated later today on WHO’s website.
“Yes, we are seeing slowing rate of new cases, very definitely” Dr Aylward said.
Despite the progress in decrease, Dr Aylward cautioned to not draw any premature conclusions as figures could easily climb back up again.
“I am terrified that the information will be misinterpreted and people will start to think, ‘Oh great, this is under control,' ” he said.
“That’s like saying your pet tiger is under control. This is a very, very dangerous disease.”
He also warned of any scaling back on investing in finding treatment for the disease.
"It would be a huge mistake for anybody to think: 'Oh great, we're getting in front of this virus, we can scale-back and some of the investments planned,” he said.
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