Experts urge caution over Ebola hopes

By
AFP
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Experts urge caution over Ebola hopes
MONROVIA: Health authorities called Thursday for renewed vigilance over the Ebola epidemic and urged caution over claims it is retreating as the World Bank announced a $100-million fund for more health workers.

The warning follows an announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that data from funeral directors and treatment centres indicated lower admission rates and burials in Liberia, the nation hit hardest by the killer virus.

But international aid agency Doctors Without Borders said the slowdown could be due to sick people not being picked up because of a lack of ambulances and so they were being omitted from the statistics.

The charity, known by its French initials MSF, said "mandatory cremation of dead bodies and a poor ambulance and referral system could also be reasons for this decrease in admissions".

"It is too soon to draw conclusions on the reduction of Ebola cases in Monrovia," Fasil Tezera, MSF head of mission in Liberia, said in a statement.

WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday that labs were seeing a "plateauing or slight decline" in the number of confirmed cases -- but warned that the crisis was far from over.

Liberia welcomed the possibility of a turning-point in the outbreak but echoed the call for caution issued by the WHO and MSF.

Deputy health minister Tolbert Nyensuah said that even if it managed to achieve no new cases, Liberia would not be able to consider itself Ebola-free until neighbours Guinea and Sierra Leone had eradicated the virus.

The outbreak has claimed almost 5,000 lives, according to the WHO -- almost all in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone -- while the number of cases registered worldwide has soared to 13,703.

- Economies ´devastated´ -

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced the $100-million (80-million-euro) donation, describing it as a "first down payment", as he visited the UN Mission on Ebola Emergency Response headquarters in Ghana.

"We have to end this epidemic, there´s just no other way around it. We´ve got to get to zero," he said, admitting the world had reacted too slowly and describing the economies of the three worst-hit countries as "devastated".

The outbreak has taken a huge toll on health workers in the region, with 272 deaths, most of them in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Researchers warned that traditional west African funeral rites, including kissing and touching a dead body, had driven the initial spread of Ebola and must be halted.

"To stem Ebola transmission in Liberia, it is imperative to simultaneously restrict traditional burials, which are effectively serving as superspreader events," a study in the journal Science said.

Meanwhile, a British navy ship arrived in Sierra Leone´s capital Freetown laden with 350 personnel and equipment to treat victims of the deadly virus.

"We have taken all precautions and understood the situation. Berthing in Freetown today, the mood of the personnel is one of a desire to get started on the job and to see that Ebola is kicked out," said Commander Ross Spooner, from Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose.

Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN said west Africa is showing "the first tangible signs" that Ebola will be beaten, after she completed a tour of the region this week. (AFP)