Ebola death toll rises to 932 – WHO

By Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) – The death toll from the world’s worst Ebola outbreak has risen to 932 after 45 patients died between Aug. 2 and Aug. 4, the World Health Organisation said in a statement on Wednesday.

The number of suspected, probable or confirmed cases rose by 108 over the same period to 1,711. Of the newly reported deaths, 27 were in Liberia, which has had 516 cases and 282 deaths from the disease since the outbreak began in February.

Guinea, where the outbreak was first reported, had 10 new cases and 5 deaths, while the number of cases in Sierra Leone rose by 45 to 691, with 13 newly reported deaths, bringing its death toll to 286.

In Nigeria, the fourth country to be affected, the number of suspected cases climbed from 4 to 9. The WHO data included one death in Nigeria, of a man who collapsed shortly after he arrived by plane from Liberia, via Ghana and Togo.

But a nurse who treated him also died, Nigeria’s health minister said on Wednesday.

The WHO figures also did not contain any mention of Saudi Arabia, where a man died on Wednesday after returning from a business trip to Sierra Leone.

The WHO is holding an Emergency Committee meeting on Wednesday and Thursday to decide if the outbreak constitutes a public health emergency of international concern and, if so, what to do about it.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan briefed national representatives on Tuesday, the WHO statement said, and outlined a threefold response: intensifying measures in the four affected countries, steps to reduce the international spread, and treatment of one area of West Africa as a “unified sector”.

That area – on the borders of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia – would be subject to “public health measures meant to reduce movement in and out of the area”, the statement said.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)