The number of Ebola cases reported in the current outbreak topped 10,000, the World Health Organization said Saturday, as it added a new nation to the list of countries affected by the disease.
In an update, the United Nations health agency said 4,922 people had died of confirmed, suspected or probable cases of Ebola. Almost all of the deaths were in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three West African countries at the center of the epidemic. A total of 10,141 confirmed, probable or suspected cases have been reported.
The WHO update included a case in Mali, bringing the total number of countries affected by the outbreak to eight. On Friday, a 2-year-old girl hospitalized in Kayes, a city in western Mali, died from the disease after traveling from Guinea with her grandmother. The WHO said it was trying to ensure that health-care workers are properly trained in using “personal protective equipment,” the gowns, masks and other instruments used by physicians and nurses treating Ebola patients. It is also trying to provide Ebola treatment facilities with enough sets of the gear.
Health-care workers are at high risk of contracting the disease, which spreads through an infected person’s bodily fluids. A New York doctor who had volunteered in Guinea tested positive for Ebola this week, marking an appearance of the disease in the biggest city in the U.S.
A total of 450 health-care professionals have been infected with the Ebola virus since the start of the outbreak, the WHO said. Of those, 244 have died. On Friday, Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, an assistant director-general for the WHO, said the first efficacy trials of Ebola vaccines in West Africa have been moved up a month to December and that a few hundred thousand doses might be available by the middle of next year. Dr. Kieny also said two potential Ebola vaccines are ready for testing outside of Africa and five other candidates are being studied.
Ebola causes high fever and internal bleeding. The disease has an incubation period of up to 21 days.
The WHO said 67 cases and 49 deaths have been reported in a separate and unrelated outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Eight of the fatalities were health-care workers.
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