Ebola epidemic ended by summer?

Experts have hope for an early end to the Ebola epidemic

01/30/2015

The Ebola epidemic could be over by the summer. The Ebola Commissioner of the Federal Government, Walter Lindner, told the news agency in Berlin on Friday „KNA“. Accordingly, the significantly reduced number of new infections in the main countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia hope for an early end to the epidemic.

Number of new infections of Ebola has dropped significantly
The diplomat has just returned from his fifth trip to West Africa in the Ebola region. „We see the light at the end of the tunnel, "quoted the Lindner news agency, as the number of new infections in the worst-affected countries fell from 300 at the end of December to less than 100 a week, although the fight against Ebola should not be allowed to end the first schools and markets are reopened, but the goal of completely preventing new infections must be pursued. „The follow-up of each individual case must be one hundred percent ", says Lindner.

The diplomat pointed to another problem. Ebola survivors and orphans would be stigmatized and marginalized. So village communities chased off affected children who had lost their entire family from their communities. „These children have no one left. "It could take years for these people to be seen as healed by the rest of the population and thus accepted again.

Linder also emphasized that both the affected and helping countries, the EU and the United Nations needed to learn from the experience gathered in this crisis so that they could better respond in the future. Furthermore, functioning health systems would have to be built up in the Ebola region.

MSF warns against too much optimism
The aid organization Doctors Without Borders, however, warns against too much optimism. Although falling case numbers encouraged the response, measures to tackle the Ebola epidemic are unlikely to abate, according to a statement by the organization (Médecins Sans Frontières, MSF).. „It is encouraging that the overall number of patients is falling, but Ebola in West Africa is far from being defeated. In Guinea, the rate of new infections is currently rising again“, quotes the „Pharmaceutical newspaper online“ Tankred Stöbe, President of MSF Germany. In addition, the infection routes are often still unknown. „It is always possible for a single patient to trigger new and uncontrolled transmission chains and the epidemic to resurface“, reminds Stöbe. (Ag)