African Ebola Epidemic

Sierra Leone confirmed a new case of Ebola on Wednesday, its second in less than a week, marking a further setback in efforts to end a two-year West African epidemic that has killed more than 11,300 people.

Liberia was declared free of the Ebola virus by global health experts on Thursday, a milestone that signalled an end to an epidemic in West Africa that has killed more than 11,300 people.

The Ebola epidemic is expected to be declared over in Sierra Leone on Saturday, when the west African nation will have gone 42 days without any new infections.

Guinea and Sierra Leone only registered one new Ebola case each last week, the UN's health agency said on Wednesday, hailing dramatic improvements in monitoring but warning the danger was far from over.

More than 70,000 Liberian babies were born without being registered as the deadly Ebola epidemic ravaged the impoverished west African nation, leaving them without healthcare and vulnerable to trafficking, UNICEF said today.

Amid a decline in a West African outbreak that has taken more than 11,000 lives, Jean-Jacques Muyembe warns that Ebola will strike again in the future and that the deadly virus poses "a threat to the whole world".

The three West African countries hit hardest by the Ebola epidemic called for an $8 billion "Marshall Plan" on Friday to help rebuild their economies and boost prevention efforts.

Measles cases could almost double in countries hardest hit by the West African Ebola outbreak as overwhelmed health systems are unable to maintain child immunisations, scientists said on Thursday.

Public health experts preparing for an international conference on Ebola on Tuesday seem to have no doubt that the disease can be vanquished in the West African countries ravaged by it in the last year.

The Ebola epidemic is decreasing but is still present in a third of the areas of the three affected west African nations, UN Ebola coordinator David Nabarro warned Thursday.

The World Health Organization expressed optimism Thursday after fresh figures showed the three west African countries ravaged by Ebola had all seen a clear drop in new cases of the deadly virus.

Liberia, the African nation at the center of world's deadliest Ebola outbreak, could see an end to the epidemic by June if 85 per cent of sick people get hospital care, US researchers said Tuesday.

Human tests of two possible Ebola vaccines have proven safe and now tests to measure their efficiency will begin within weeks in the three west African countries ravaged by the deadly virus, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Mali is scrambling to prevent a major Ebola epidemic after the deaths of an Islamic cleric and a nurse, as the official death toll in the worst ever epidemic of the virus passed 5,000.

Authorities in Sierra Leone say a doctor has died of Ebola - the fifth local doctor in the West African nation to succumb to the disease.

Sierra Leone confirmed a new case of Ebola on Wednesday, its second in less than a week, marking a further setback in efforts to end a two-year West African epidemic that has killed more than 11,300 people.

Liberia was declared free of the Ebola virus by global health experts on Thursday, a milestone that signalled an end to an epidemic in West Africa that has killed more than 11,300 people.

The Ebola epidemic is expected to be declared over in Sierra Leone on Saturday, when the west African nation will have gone 42 days without any new infections.

Guinea and Sierra Leone only registered one new Ebola case each last week, the UN's health agency said on Wednesday, hailing dramatic improvements in monitoring but warning the danger was far from over.

More than 70,000 Liberian babies were born without being registered as the deadly Ebola epidemic ravaged the impoverished west African nation, leaving them without healthcare and vulnerable to trafficking, UNICEF said today.

Amid a decline in a West African outbreak that has taken more than 11,000 lives, Jean-Jacques Muyembe warns that Ebola will strike again in the future and that the deadly virus poses "a threat to the whole world".

The three West African countries hit hardest by the Ebola epidemic called for an $8 billion "Marshall Plan" on Friday to help rebuild their economies and boost prevention efforts.

Measles cases could almost double in countries hardest hit by the West African Ebola outbreak as overwhelmed health systems are unable to maintain child immunisations, scientists said on Thursday.

Public health experts preparing for an international conference on Ebola on Tuesday seem to have no doubt that the disease can be vanquished in the West African countries ravaged by it in the last year.

The Ebola epidemic is decreasing but is still present in a third of the areas of the three affected west African nations, UN Ebola coordinator David Nabarro warned Thursday.

The World Health Organization expressed optimism Thursday after fresh figures showed the three west African countries ravaged by Ebola had all seen a clear drop in new cases of the deadly virus.

Liberia, the African nation at the center of world's deadliest Ebola outbreak, could see an end to the epidemic by June if 85 per cent of sick people get hospital care, US researchers said Tuesday.

Human tests of two possible Ebola vaccines have proven safe and now tests to measure their efficiency will begin within weeks in the three west African countries ravaged by the deadly virus, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

Mali is scrambling to prevent a major Ebola epidemic after the deaths of an Islamic cleric and a nurse, as the official death toll in the worst ever epidemic of the virus passed 5,000.

Authorities in Sierra Leone say a doctor has died of Ebola - the fifth local doctor in the West African nation to succumb to the disease.