(MENAFN- AFP) The west African countries ravaged by Ebola have made great strides to stem the spread of the deadly virus but missed key January 1 targets towards halting the epidemic, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
The United Nations set a 90-day target on October 1 to isolate and treat all Ebola patients in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and to ensure safe burials for all bodies, which are highly infectious.
WHO acknowledged in its latest situation report that the goals had not been met by the set deadline, but stressed that "efforts to attain each target will continue until the epidemic has been brought to an end."
Meeting the treatment and burial targets, and meticulously tracing people who have been in contact with Ebola patients, are seen as essential to reining in the epidemic, which has infected 20,747 people in just over a year, of whom 8,235 have died.
The three west African countries, which account for all but 15 of those deaths, have dramatically scaled up the number of beds available in Ebola treatment centres and now have the capacity to isolate and treat all patients, WHO said in its latest situation report.
In Liberia, which was long the hardest-hit country and still counts the most deaths at 3,496, a steep drop in transmission paired with a rapid scale-up in treatment means the country now counts 15.1 beds for every confirmed and probable case of the virus.
In Guinea, where the epidemic began in December 2013 and which counts 1,781 deaths, there are 2.1 available beds for each infected person.
And in Sierra Leone, which currently has the most infections - 9,780 - of whom 2,943 have died, there are 4.6 beds for each patient, WHO said.
But "the uneven geographical distribution of beds and cases, and the under-reporting of cases, means that the UNMEER (UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response) target of isolating and treating 100 percent of (Ebola) cases is still not met in some areas," the UN health agency said.
In Guinea, for instance, the virus has continued to spread to geographically but almost all of the country's treatment centres are based in the capital, WHO said.
"An increasing emphasis will be put on the rapid deployment of smaller treatment facilities to ensure that capacity is matched with demand in each area," it said.
The UN agency meanwhile found that all three countries now had the capacity to ensure safe burials for all people known to have died from Ebola.
But it warned that "the under-reporting of deaths means that the UNMEER target of 100 percent safe burial was not met."
WHO has acknowledged that the true number of Ebola deaths is likely far higher than the recorded figures, given that many deaths go unreported.
- Spike in healthcare workers infected -
The UN agency also reported a significant jump in the number of infected healthcare workers: as of January 4, 838 healthcare workers had been infected and 495 of them had died.
Just a week earlier, the tally stood at 678 cases and 382 deaths, but WHO stressed the hike was mainly due to previously unreported cases in Sierra Leone and not to a surge in new infections.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.