WHO denies Ebola outbreak out of hand

GENEVA (Xinhua) - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday denied the ongoing Ebola outbreaks took place in West Africa has got out of hand.

"The situation was not out of hand, and a lot of work had been done in the three affected countries - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia - to tackle the situation and stop the transmission of Ebola virus," Dr Pierre Formenty, an expert from WHO's Department of Communicable Diseases Surveillance and Response told a press conference.

He said WHO with local authorities had been able to control the outbreak in different places, for example Telimele and Dabola in Guinea. Despite there were places where WHO was not totally successful, but other places where it had been successful in stopping the chain of transmission.

However, difficulties in identifying cases, tracing the point of contact and delivering the message to the population about the infection still existed in those affected countries, notably in the forest areas.

"Given the recent outbreak of the virus in Sierra Leone, and with people traveling to Liberia and elsewhere, WHO needed to address the possibility of continuous transmission between countries," he added.

He warned the other West African border countries, such as Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau and others would be prepared in case people infected with the disease traveled to them.

As of Thursday, a total of 386 Ebola confirmed, probable and suspected cases had been reported in Guinea, including 280 deaths. Sierra Leone had reported 176 cases including 78 deaths. Liberia had reported 63 cases including 41 deaths.

In an effort to interrupt further spread of this virus in the shortest possible time, WHO will convene a special meeting between July 2 and 3 in Ghana to discuss the best way of tackling the crisis collectively as well as develop a comprehensive inter country operational response plan.