For the first time in 2015, the weekly count of new Ebola cases has risen, concerning United Nations and World Health Organization officials, according to The New York Times.
During the week ending Feb. 1, 124 new cases of Ebola were reported in West Africa, including 80 cases in Sierra Leone, 39 in Guinea and five in Liberia. The 124 new cases hardly mark a drastic increase from the 99 cases reported the previous week but are concerning nonetheless, according to global health officials.
WHO Assistant Director-General in charge of the Ebola response Bruce Aylward, MD, and UN Special Envoy on Ebola David Nabarro, MD, outlined three major reasons why the new cases are so worrisome at a news conference in Geneva.
Highlighted below are their concerns, as reported in The New York Times.
1. Some of the newly reported cases were individuals who were not included on health officials' lists of people to monitor for possible infection. The lists are used by epidemiologists and are a vital part of their strategy to fight Ebola.
2. Tracking potentially infected individuals will be difficult considering some of the new cases were of people who had traveled great distances from their original points of infection.
3. The uptick in the number of reported cases correlates with a dwindling of emergency funds. Also, the rise in cases has come just a few months before the beginning of West Africa's rainy season which will only exacerbate the difficulty of identifying, isolating and treating patients.
Both Dr. Aylward and Dr. Nabarro highlighted resistance to the adoption of safe burial practices as a major contributor to the transmission of the virus.
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