SWITZERLAND: The World Health Organisation says the Ebola outbreak appears to be slowing down in Liberia but it would be wrong to think the virus is under control

Record ID: 708245

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: The World Health Organisation says the Ebola outbreak appears to be slowing down in Liberia but it would be wrong to think the virus is under control
  • Date: 29th October 2014
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 29, 2014) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION HEADQUARTERS WHO FLAG NEWS BRIEFING UNDERWAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHO ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATIONAL RESPONSE, DR. BRUCE AYLWARD, SAYING: "The actual number of newly reported cases is beginning to decline in Liberia, and the government is really driving a multi-pronged investigation looking at multiple strands of evidence to try and understand is this real, is this a reporting phenomena or is it even a care-seeking phenomena that's changing, and so far based on the information received today, and again most of you are somewhat aware of this, it appears that the trend is real in Liberia." JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHO ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATIONAL RESPONSE, DR. BRUCE AYLWARD, SAYING: "So again, I think we need to be careful here. We're not seeing, this hasn't dropped-off the cliff like this, what we are seeing is a reversal of that rapid rate of increase to the point where there seems to be a decreasing rate right now. Now, is that going to be sustained? Is that going to upward tip again? You know, there's a huge risk that it wouldn't be sustained, simply because the full capacity needed to track all cases, do the contact tracing, etc, etc may not be fully in place, but again, the trend is positive." CAMERAWOMAN FILMING (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHO ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATIONAL RESPONSE, DR. BRUCE AYLWARD, SAYING: "In the worst affected countries, that's Liberia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone, that's one thousand, sorry, 13,676 of those cases. Because somebody's going to ask, it's 6,535 in Liberia, 5,235 in Sierra-Leone and 1,906 in Guinea." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHO ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATIONAL RESPONSE, DR. BRUCE AYLWARD, SAYING: "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.' You know, these are wily viruses, they're waiting for you to make that kind of mistake. And as you've seen in places, you know, in Guinea, you've seen in Gueckedou, this thing will go on for a very, very long time, at lower rates of transmission, so you've got to exploit those opportunities as they arrive, step up your game, and, if anything, this should be a sign that, look, make those investments because this can be turned around, this virus can be stopped eventually, but it's going to take a very, very aggressive program of work to capitalize on those opportunities." JOURNALIST (SOUNDBITE) (English) WHO ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL IN CHARGE OF THE OPERATIONAL RESPONSE, DR. BRUCE AYLWARD, SAYING: "In Sierra-Leone, we are still seeing a continued rate of increase in cases, we are not seeing what we saw in Liberia certainly yet." WHO SIGN AND LOGO ON WALL ENTRANCE TO WHO HEADQUARTERS EXTERIOR OF WHO HEADQUARTERS
  • Embargoed: 13th November 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABLLQSCGUYEFV6KBD0DPV1OQWR
  • Story Text: Liberia may be seeing a decline in the rate of transmission of Ebola, with falls in the number of burials and new admissions as well as a plateau in laboratory-confirmed cases, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday (October 29).
    "The actual number of newly reported cases is beginning to decline in Liberia, and the government is really driving a multi-pronged investigation looking at multiple strands of evidence to try and understand is this real, is this a reporting phenomena or is it even a care-seeking phenomena that's changing, and so far based on the information received today, and again most of you are somewhat aware of this, it appears that the trend is real in Liberia," WHO Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward told a news conference.
    "I think we need to be careful here. We're not seeing, this hasn't dropped-off the cliff like this, what we are seeing is a reversal of that rapid rate of increase to the point where there seems to be a decreasing rate right now," he added.
    Aylward said there had been 13,703 cases in eight countries and the reported death toll, to be published later on Wednesday, was likely to be over 5,000. A jump of more than 3,000 in the number of cases since Saturday was largely due to the data being updated with old cases rather than new cases, he said.
    "In the worst affected countries, that's Liberia, Guinea, Sierra-Leone, that's one thousand, sorry, 13,676 of those cases. Because somebody's going to ask, it's 6,535 in Liberia, 5,235 in Sierra-Leone and 1,906 in Guinea," he said.
    Aylward said he would be "terrified" if wrong conclusions were read into his statement and Ebola was thought to be under control.
    "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.' You know, these are wily viruses, they're waiting for you to make that kind of mistake. And as you've seen in places, you know, in Guinea, you've seen in Gueckedou, this thing will go on for a very, very long time, at lower rates of transmission, so you've got to exploit those opportunities as they arrive, step up your game, and, if anything, this should be a sign that, look, make those investments because this can be turned around, this virus can be stopped eventually, but it's going to take a very, very aggressive program of work to capitalize on those opportunities," he said.
    But he said that if current trends continued, the worst hit countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone should be able to "comfortably" meet a target to scale up Ebola-containment measures by Dec. 1.
    Last week Mali became the sixth West African country to report a case of the disease, which has an incubation period of two to 21 days. The patient, a two-year-old girl, died after travelling by bus from Guinea with her grandmother, with at least one stopover, in the capital Bamako.
    Aylward said the government of Mali was putting in a "Herculean" effort to track people who had contact with the girl, with 84 people being monitored so far. No new suspected Ebola cases had yet been reported, he added.
    The WHO has been rushing to help organise bed spaces to take care of Ebola patients in treatment centres, but there were now around 100 beds empty in Liberia, he said.
    In neighbouring Sierra Leone, the second worst hit country, the number of cases was continuing to increase in some areas, including the capital Freetown, Aylward said.
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