Doctors Without Borders has seen a significant decrease in the number of Ebola cases in the countries Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. There are only about 50 patients in their Ebola treatment center. This is from all three countries so this is a very, very small number. An article in TIME magazine stated," “This decline is an opportunity to focus efforts on addressing the serious weaknesses that remain in the response,” Brice de la Vingne, MSF director of operations said in a statement. “We are on the right track, but reaching zero cases will be difficult unless significant improvements are made in alerting new cases and tracing those who have been in contact with them.”" In other words, the lack of tracking and alerting of new cases is making it difficult to get this outbreak under control. For example, in Guinea and Liberia only half of the new cases are people who are known contacts of people with Ebola. This is a serious issue. It only takes one person to start another serious outbreak of Ebola.
In Sierra Leone, incidences of Ebola have dropped to their lowest levels since August, though there are still hot zones like the country’s capital of Freetown. Guinea’s cases are also dropping, but more cases are coming from regions that were previously thought to be improving. Liberia has experienced some of the greatest drops out of all three countries.
The latest numbers from the World Health Organization have recorded 21,724 cases with 8,641 deaths.
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