The World Health Organization declared Nigeria free of Ebola on Monday, a sign of how swiftly the virus can be reined in using basic disease-containment measures.
There haven’t been any cases of Ebola in Africa’s largest country by population in 42 days, said the WHO’s country representative, Rui Gama Vaz, in a news conference in the capital Abuja.
“The last chain of transmission has been broken. The disease is gone,” said Dr. Vaz. “This is a spectacular story, that Ebola can be defeated.”
All told, Nigeria kept its outbreak to 19 cases, of whom seven people died and 12 survived—a mortality rate of 37%.
The World Health Organization has declared Senegal to be free of Ebola. The statement praises the country as an example of what to do with an imported case. Senegal was supported by a range of public health experts from WHO, MSF and CDC. The ongoing high level of active "case finding" for the past 42 days has led to the declaration that the outbreak is over, although the country remains at risk of another imported case.
US health officials meanwhile are trying to establish a network of about 20 hospitals nationwide that would be fully equipped to handle all aspects of Ebola care.
Their concern is that poorly trained or poorly equipped hospitals that perform invasive procedures will expose staff to bodily fluids of a patient when they are most infectious. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with kidney specialists on clinical guidelines for delivering dialysis to Ebola patients. The recommendations could come as early as this week.
The United States imposed new constraints on Wednesday on people entering the country from three nations at the center of West Africa's Ebola epidemic, mandating that they report their temperature daily and stay in touch with health authorities.
President Barack Obama expressed cautious optimism about the situation in the United States after meeting with his Ebola response coordinator, Ron Klain, and other top officials on Klain's first day on the job since being named on Friday.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new restrictions on travelers arriving from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea marked the latest precautions put in place by the Obama administration to stop the spread of the virus. The steps stopped short of a ban on travelers from those countries demanded by some lawmakers.
Health authorities and the public have been on alert for Ebola since late September when a Liberian visiting Dallas, Texas became the first person diagnosed with the virus in the United States. Two nurses who cared for him were also infected.
The CDC said that, beginning on Monday, travelers from the three countries will be told to check in with health officials every day and report their temperatures and any Ebola symptoms for 21 days, the period of incubation for the virus.
The travelers will be required to provide emails, phone numbers and addresses for themselves and for a friend or relative in the United States covering the 21 days, and the information will be shared with local health authorities.
The travelers also will be required to coordinate with local public health officials if they intend to travel within the United States. If a traveler does not report in, local health officials will take immediate steps to find the person.
Imported cases
Many locations are testing people who have travelled to Ebola-affected countries and returned with a fever and other symptoms. Nigeria, Senegal and the United States have confirmed imported cases of Ebola. International SOS is monitoring these closely. Click here for more details.
Suspected cases: As concern over Ebola grows worldwide, there are increasing numbers of suspected cases being investigated. When credible, these are posted on the "Imported Cases" section of this site and updated once test results become available. If any suspected cases are positive for Ebola, they will be detailed on this News page and the specific country page as warranted. Thus far, Ebola has only spread person to person in two countries outside Africa: Spain and the US. In both locations, healthcare workers were infected while caring for a patient infected in Africa. There is no community spread outside of Africa.
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