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 Sierra Leone remains hardest-hit, accounting for 117 of the 145 new
confirmed cases, against 184 there the previous week and 248 the
week before that, the WHO said in its latest update.
"Case incidence continues to fall in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra
Leone," the United Nations agency said, adding that disease
surveillance was being stepped up in border districts of
Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal.
Every 10 days the number of new cases is halving in Guinea -- where,
at 20, the figure was the lowest since early August, it said. In
Liberia, where confirmed cases last week fell to 8 from a peak of
more than 300 per week in August and September, it takes two weeks
to halve, and in Sierra Leone nearly 20 days.
In all, there have been 21,724 cases of Ebola reported in nine
countries in the past year since the epidemic began in Guinea,
including 8,641 deaths, the WHO said.
The virus has been stamped out in Mali, Nigeria and Senegal, and
there have been no further cases among foreign health workers
returning to Britain, Spain or the United States, although a British
nurse is recovering in hospital in London.
To date, 828 health care workers have been infected in the three
worst-hit countries, including 499 who died, it said.
U.N. agencies need a final $1 billion to fight the deadly Ebola
epidemic as experts move to a new phase involving a massive
detective operation to trace remaining cases, U.N. Ebola chief David
Nabarro said on Wednesday.
"Incidents of community resistance to safe burials and contact
tracing continue to be reported in all three countries, although
they are most common in Guinea," the WHO said.
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The WHO's Emergency Committee on Ebola said on Wednesday that
passengers should still be screened on leaving Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone for temperature or other signs of infection.
The independent experts said in a statement that "more than 40
countries have implemented additional measures, such as quarantine
of returning travelers and refusal of entry. Such measures are
impeding the recruitment and return of international responders.
"They also have harmful effects on local populations by increasing
stigma and isolation, and by disrupting livelihoods and economies."
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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