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Swift action needed to curb climb in Ebola outbreak

GENEVA, Sept 23 (KUNA) -- Unless Ebola control measures in West Africa are enhanced quickly, numbers of infection will continue to climb exponentially, and more than 20,000 people will have been infected by early November, said a new Study from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Imperial College, London, on Tuesday The new article in the New England Journal of Medicine released six months after WHO was first notified of the outbreak in West Africa.
In the article, public health epidemiologists and statisticians reviewed data since the beginning of the outbreak in December 2013 to determine the scale of the epidemic, better understand the spread of the disease, and what it will take to reverse the trend of infections.
Although WHO was first notified of the outbreak on March 23rd, 2014, investigations retroactively revealed the outbreak started in December 2013.
Between December 30th, 2013 and September 14th, 2014, a total of 4,507 cases were reported to WHO.
The data in the study help clarify some details of who is most affected by this outbreak.
Although the current epidemic in West Africa is unprecedented in scale, the clinical course of infection and the transmissibility of the virus are similar to those in previous Ebola outbreaks. In addition, certain characteristics of the population may have led to the rapid spread of the disease, for example, the populations of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are highly interconnected, with extensive cross-border traffic at the epicentre and relatively easy connections by road between rural towns and villages and the densely populated capital cities.
Experimental therapeutics and vaccines offer promise for the future, but are unlikely to be available in the quantities needed to make a substantial difference in control efforts for many months, even if they are proved to be safe and effective.
The risk of continued expansion of the Ebola outbreak is real. This study provides the evidence needed for an urgent wakeup call requiring intensive scaling up of control measures while working towards rapid development and deployment of new medicines and vaccines. (end) ta.gta