World records first Ebola-free week since 2014

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday said no new Ebola infections were reported in West Africa in the past week, bringing Sierra Leone closer to its goal of becoming Ebola-free in early November.

Since the epidemic started in 2014, this is the first week without new cases.

“Sierra Leone has seen no new cases in three weeks,” Margaret Harris, WHO press officer, told reporters on Thursday.

“The government would declare the end of the epidemic on November. 8 if the situation continued.”

While Guinea also recorded a week free of infections, 500 people who had been in contact with Ebola patients are still being monitored.

In addition, health workers have been unable to locate several people who pose a high risk because they had been in close contact with sick people.

“These things make us very wary,’’ Harris said.

Liberia, the third country affected by the outbreak, was declared Ebola-free in early September.

Report says since the first infections in West Africa in late 2013, over 28,400 people have fallen ill and nearly 11,300 have died from the viral hemorrhagic fever in the region.