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At least 50 Ebola hotspots remain in the three hardest-hit West African countries but new cases are declining and the deadly disease will be defeated, the UN’s Ebola chief said on Thursday.
The latest report from the World Health Organisation showing reductions in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone “is very good news,” Dr David Nabarro said in an interview.
In the week ending January 11, WHO said Guinea reported its lowest weekly total of new Ebola cases since mid-August. Liberia had its lowest total since the first week of June and no confirmed new cases for the final two days of the week. And new cases in Sierra Leone declined for a second week to the lowest level since the end of August.

But Nabarro cautioned that “there are still numbers of new cases that are alarming, and there are hotspots that are emerging in new places that make me believe there is still quite a lot of the disease that we’re not seeing.”
There are “at least 50 micro-outbreaks” underway, and the chains of transmission of the virus “have still got to be understood,” he said.
The Ebola outbreak has been the worst in world history. According to the latest WHO report released on Wednesday, there have been more than 21,000 cases and 8,300 deaths. The death toll in Liberia as of Sunday was 3,538, followed by Sierra Leone with 3,062 deaths and Guinea with 1,814.

The key, Nabarro said, is getting local communities to change their traditional healing rituals and funeral and burial practices, which involve a lot of contact with the body fluids known to spread Ebola.
Evidence suggests that as many as 50 people became infected at a single funeral, he said.
Nabarro said the national and international campaign for safe healing and burial practices, isolation of suspected cases, and quick treatment for Ebola victims is working. But he appealed for greater global support including “virus detectives” who can identify where there are cases, “anthropologists who can tell us how the communities are reacting,” and managers to make sure treatment centres are adequately equipped.
“We saw a big shift in behaviour in Liberia in November and December,” he said. “We’re now seeing a big shift of behaviour in much of Sierra Leone, though there are still one or two communities that are reluctant to change behaviour. And we’re beginning to see a big shift in behaviour in Guinea as well.”
However, the goal of isolating and treating 100 per cent of patients and conducting 100 per cent of burials safely by January 1 was missed. That’s “a sign of the task still to be done,” Nabarro said.

“Of course, 100 per cent of safe burials and 100 per cent of everybody quickly under treatment are still the directions that we’re aiming at,” Nabarro said. “And I do really anticipate that in much of the region, we will be there in a very short distance in the future, and that’s why the number of cases is coming down and will continue to come down, and we will before long see an end to this outbreak.”
Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma predicted this week that his country would be Ebola-free by WHO standards by May, which means zero new cases for a period of time.
Nabarro said Koroma’s judgment “is based on the way the local communities are embracing the response”.
“I personally would respect his judgment and his prediction,” said Nabarro, who just returned from a 10-day visit to West Africa including all three hard-hit countries. “I’m very wary myself to make predictions because I just don’t have the information.”
 


Ebola hotspots remain in West Africa, but new cases falling: UN

United Nation's special envoy on Ebola Dr David Nabarro speaking at the UN headquarters in New York on Thursday. Photo: Reuters

Liberians walk past a sign reading 'Ebola disease outbreak' outside the Ministry of Finance in Monrovia earlier this week. Photo: Reuters

Health workers push a stretcher holding a newly-admitted Ebola patient at a treatment centre outside Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo: Reuters

A cemetery reserved for the burial of Ebola victims in Monrovia earlier this month. Photo: AFP

American doctor who survived Ebola ventures back to virus-stricken Liberia

Dr Rick Sacra, 52, was in and out of hospital for Ebola and complications from the virus, but is returning to Africa to help an understaffed hospital. Photo: AP

World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan reluctant to dole out tough medicine

Dr Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun has been under severe criticism because of WHO's slow response last year to the Ebola outbreak. Photo: Xinhua

Stricken British nurse to be injected with Ebola survivor's blood as infection cases top 8,000

Pauline Cafferkey contracted the virus while working in Sierra Leone. Photo: EPA

Health workers carry the body of a suspected Ebola victim for burial at a cemetery in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo: Reuters

Boy playing in bat-filled tree may have been Ebola outbreak’s ‘patient zero’

A healthcare worker dons protective gear before entering an Ebola treatment center in the west of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photo: AP

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United Nations's Ebola chief urges caution over the apparent decline of the disease but says he believes the latest WHO report offers 'very good news'


Ebola hotspots remain in West Africa, but new cases falling: UN

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}United Nations's Ebola chief urges caution over the apparent decline of the disease but says he believes the latest WHO report offers 'very good news'

United Nations's Ebola chief urges caution over the apparent decline of the disease but says he believes the latest WHO report offers 'very good news'