In Liberia, girls look at a poster distributed by UNICEF about best practices that prevent the spread of Ebola.
There is finally some good news out of Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone — the three countries that have been battling Ebola since last year: the disease seems to have reached a “turning point” as the number of new cases throughout the region have plummeted, reports the BBC.
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Of the three countries, Liberia, which at one point was being reported as being ravaged by the disease, has made the most-impressive progress with the deadly disease.
At Ebola’s peak, Liberia was coming down with 509 cases per week.
Now, according to officials, including the World Health Organization, Liberia is down to eight cases per week, with some days reportedly going by without any infections.
Guinea comes in next in progress, with just 20 cases of Ebola weekly. At Ebola’s peak, Guinea was recording an average of 292 Ebola patients.
And while Sierra Leone comes in last of the three countries, the progress the nation has made is no less impressive: in the worst of times, the nation tallied a shocking 748 Ebola patients per week. Now Sierra Leone is down to 117 infections weekly.
Consequently, Director of Strategy Dr. Christopher Dye told the BBC, “The incidence is pretty clearly going down in all three countries now.
“Each of the last three weeks has been the most promising we’ve seen so far, the message is reductions in all places.
“I would have identified the turning point as the beginning of the decline, first in Liberia and then later in Sierra Leone and Guinea.”
Still, Dr. Dye emphasized that this is not the time to become complacent; it only takes one case to re-ignite an outbreak.
Therefore, he said “contract tracing” must be instituted in order to definitively efface the disease.
“Contact tracing [is needed] to find every last case needs to be intensified and we need all guns blazing on all fronts.”
At press time, Ebola has infected 21,724 people and killed 8,641.
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