Ebola death toll in three African countries hits 7,373: WHO
The death toll
from Ebola in the three worst-affected countries in West Africa has
risen to 7,373 among 19,031 cases known to date there, the World Health
Organization said on Saturday.
The latest
data, posted overnight on the WHO website, reflected nearly 500 new
deaths from the worst ever outbreak of the hemorrhagic fever in Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone since previous WHO figures were issued on Dec.
17.
Sierra Leone
accounts for the most cases, 8,759, against 7,819 for Liberia. But
Sierra Leone's death toll of 2,477 is far less than 3,346 recorded in
Liberia, leading some experts to question the credibility of the figures
reported by Freetown.
Sierra Leone's government this week launched a major operation to contain the epidemic in West Africa's worst-hit country.
President
Ernest Bai Koroma said on national television that travel between all
parts of the country had been restricted as part of "Operation Western
Area Surge", and public gatherings would be strictly controlled in the
run-up to Christmas.
Sierra Leone's
leading doctor, Victor Willoughby, died of Ebola on Thursday, hours
after the arrival in the country of an experimental drug that could have
been used to treat him, the government's chief medical officer said.
U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday praised health care workers
fighting the Ebola virus as he paid his first visit to Liberia and
Sierra Leone following the outbreak.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Stephen Powell)