The death toll from the Ebola
epidemic rose to 4,922 out of 10,141 known cases in eight countries
through Oct. 23, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday.
The virus, which reached Mali through a two-year-old girl
who died on Friday, now threatens Ivory Coast, having infected people
virtually all along its borders with Guinea and Liberia.
Ivory Coast is the world's biggest cocoa producer. The
Ebola outbreak has hurt the economic growth that has been raising living
standards in the region.
The three worst-hit countries of West Africa -- Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone -- account for the bulk of the world's worst
Ebola outbreak, recording 4,912 deaths out of 10,114 cases, the WHO said
in its update.
The overall figures include outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal, deemed by
the WHO to be now over, as well as isolated cases in Spain, the United
States and a single case in Mali.
But the true toll
may be three times as much: by a factor of 1.5 in Guinea, 2 in Sierra
Leone and 2.5 in Liberia, while the death rate is thought to be about 70
percent of all cases.
The WHO has said that many families are keeping infected people
at home rather than putting them into isolation in treatment centres,
some of which have refused patients due to a lack of beds and basic
supplies.
The
U.N. agency, sounding an ominous note, said that out of the eight
districts of Liberia and Guinea sharing a border with Ivory Coast, only
two have yet to report confirmed or probable Ebola cases.
It has also said trials of Ebola vaccines could begin in
West Africa in December, a month earlier than expected, and hundreds of
thousands of doses should be available for use by the middle of next
year.
The WHO says 15 African states including Ivory Coast are at highest risk of the deadly virus being imported. CONTINUE READING
YAHOO HEALTH, WHO
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