WHO officials say deadly West Africa Ebola outbreak could last months
Origin of Ebola outbreak that has claimed at least 110 lives in West Africa unknown and could last several months, World Health Organisation experts say
Ebola could continue to spread in West Africa for months in one of the most challenging outbreaks of the disease the international community has ever faced, health experts said on Tuesday.
Dr Keiji Fukuda of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that while other outbreaks have seen more cases, the current one is remarkable for the wide area over which it has spread – from Guinea’s remote tropical forests to the country’s capital and over the border to Liberia. The fact that it has touched the teeming Guinean capital, Conakry, is also a concern.
More than 110 deaths in Guinea and Liberia have been linked to the current outbreak, which may have begun in January, said Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesman for the WHO. Because those who died early on in the outbreak will never be tested, the precise start of the outbreak will never be known, he said.
“We fully expect to be engaged in this outbreak for another two, three, four months.”
Officials got some good news this week when tests showed suspected cases in Ghana and Sierra Leone were not Ebola, the WHO said. It added that two of nine suspected cases in Mali were also cleared.