Sierra Leone has had no confirmed cases for the third week in a row and all contacts linked to two recent cases have been followed up for the required 21 days.
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There were no new Ebola cases reported for the week that ended on Sunday, making it the first complete week with zero new cases since March 2014, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said here on Thursday.
Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone – the three worst affected countries by Ebola – have not reported a confirmed new case of since September.
Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian who arrived in Texas with the virus, and Martin Salia, a doctor who was working at a hospital in Sierra Leone, were the only people to die of Ebola on American soil.
This is the first time a week has passed without a contamination since the Ebola outbreak first started in March 2014.
The epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people and sparked panic in the Unites States during the summer of 2014 is now confined to small areas of Guinea and Sierra Leone, the global health agency reported.
He said, “Previous experience indicates that at the tail end of an Ebola outbreak, we may see weeks with zero transmission interspersed with a few flare-ups”. According to Reuters, Liberia was declared free of Ebola September 3.
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. In Guinea, the most recent case was recorded on September 27th.
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“Efforts to trace these missing contacts and mitigate the risk of any undetected transmission will continue until at least 42 days have elapsed since the last reported case in each district”, World Health Organization said. “There remains a near-term risk of further cases”, the update report said.
