First Ebola diagnosis-free week for outbreak nations

The meeting, held via teleconference, was called for the committee to update the director-general on whether EVD is still a public health emergency of global concern and whether the regulations in place need to be revised, extended or reissued.

“Sierra Leone has seen no new cases in three weeks”.

A statement by the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Dr. Queeneth Kalu, on behalf of the Chief Medical Director, Dr. Thomas Agan, said: “On Wednesday, 7th of October, we managed a patient who presented with symptoms mimicking viral hemorrhagic fever”. Suspected cases should be isolated until classification as a confirmed case or contact is made. The country was declared free of Ebola on September 3rd this year.

The committee noted the enhanced Ebola control measures being implemented in each country and reaffirmed the importance of community outreach, social mobilization, and other best practices.

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 was declared free of Ebola transmission in early September, and Sierra Leone in late September began a 42-day countdown to becoming Ebola free. 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.

“Over 500 contacts remain under follow-up in Guinea, and several high-risk contacts associated with active and recently active chains of transmission in Guinea and Sierra Leone have been lost to follow-up”, it said in its situation report. These are high risk people who are linked to recent patients in these countries.