Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have witnessed the worst breakout of ebola in history. About 9000 souls were lost in a year due to the deadly virus
"According to the WHO, the five cases are laboratory confirmed cases," Lisa White, a spokeswoman
for the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, said. She added that government figures for Tuesday had shown 21 suspected and probable cases—but only one lab-confirmed
Liberia was reporting more than 300 new cases a week around August and September. This was the peak of the Ebola crisis. It overwhelmed aid workers were having to turn people away from swamped clinics, often to die in the streets. Massive efforts by the WHO, US and health care workers who volunteered from different countries have helped in stabilizing the situation
The WHO said in its latest update on the epidemic that 8,688 people had died, among a cumulative total of 21,759 cases, since the disease emerged in Guinea a year ago. The body demands rapid implementation and utilisation of the $250 million fund
President Ernest Bai Koroma pointed to a "steady downward trend" in new cases in recent weeks, adding that "victory is in sight". Liberian Government has previously banned transportation around six districts out of possible 14
British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said on Friday its candidate Ebola vaccine was expected to arrive in Liberia later in the day.
The batch of 300 vials will be the first to arrive in one of the main Ebola-hit countries and will be used in trials led by the US National Institutes of Health in the coming weeks involving up to 30,000 people.
Around 200 volunteers are already testing the candidate vaccine in smaller-scale trials Britain, the United States, Switzerland and Mali, with initial results showing it to be safe.
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