The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recently provided an update on the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa while pointing out the importance of maintaining surveillance and immediate response abilities in the countries originally affected by the virus.
The center said that as of Nov. 18, there had been 28,598 cases of Ebola virus disease related to the outbreak in West Africa that began in December 2013. Of those, 11,299 people have died.
Although Liberia was declared Ebola-free in September, the Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare reported three new confirmed cases on Nov. 20 with another suspected patient also being kept in isolation at a hospital in Monrovia.
Another 153 contacts of those four patients are being closely monitored.
Sierra Leone also was declared Ebola free in November and as yet no new cases have been reported. Guinea has not reported any new cases since Oct. 29.
