Sierra Leone Overtakes Guinea in Ebola Cases

According to the latest figures from the WHO, Sierra Leone is now well ahead of Guinea in number of Ebola cases, despite having recorded its first case some two months after Guinea. For the month of July new cases of Ebola have been recorded at a much faster rate in Sierra Leone than in Guinea, suggesting efforts to halt the spread of the disease have not been as effective here as they have been in our sister republic. Guinea appears to have mounted a strong system of contact tracing, and this may have helped their efforts to contain the disease.

Meanwhile, our other neighbour, Liberia has also seen an increase in Ebola cases. Starting originally from a low level, it has approximately half the numbers seen in the other two countries.

From the start of the outbreak, figures provided by Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health have been lower than those provided by WHO. The latest (July 24) figures from WHO are shown below. These figures reflect data obtained up to July 20. In the last few days in Freetown there have been several reports of new cases of Ebola infection.These include the much publicized case of Dr Khan, the resident doctor at the Kenema treatment center, a report that has caused much anguish throughout Sierra Leone.