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 Case numbers have fallen to a low level and it should be possible to
stop transmission by mid-year, but the disease is "not waning" and
it is much too early to assume the outbreak will end, said WHO
Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward.
"We talk often about how steep the drop in cases has been. The only
thing that has dropped more quickly and more steeply is the new
contributions in financing," he told reporters in Geneva.
The year-old Ebola outbreak has killed 9,976 people and fears of its
spread commanded headlines globally in the second half of last year.
Case numbers have dwindled to a range of 100-150 for almost the past
eight weeks and the disease has been geographically concentrated
around Freetown and Conakry, the capitals of Sierra Leone and Guinea
respectively. But the failure to make further inroads is "alarming",
Aylward said.
"Getting from here to zero is going to require another reinvestment
(in the drive to tackle the outbreak)."
Liberia, where Ebola once raged, has had no new cases in 20 days but
it will need to count 42 days from its last negative Ebola test
result before it is declared free of the disease.
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Sierra Leone, the country worst hit by the outbreak, has reported 58
cases in the past week, the lowest figure since last June. Guinea
had the same number of new cases, bringing the cumulative number of
cases in all three countries to 24,282.
It became difficult to visit, invest or work in the affected
countries after Ebola struck, but the nations are in some ways even
more isolated now as the epidemic retreats, Aylward said.
"Today those travel challenges still remain, direct foreign
investment has not returned to the countries, and at the same time
it's no longer in the press, it's no longer in front of people ...
They need international assistance more than ever to get the job
finished," he said.
(Editing by Gareth Jones)
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