It has been months since international media coverage of the killer airborne disease. Although the coverage trickles down and the world lays its focus on other crises, Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia are hard at work at making Ebola known as a health crisis only found in the history books.
With the international response from various organs including ECOWAS, UN, UNICEF and WHO, the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease is dropping significantly from his first hit a year ago.
According to the World Health Organisation, only 6 cases of Ebola have been reported in the past 21 days, all of which were in Guinea. Furthermore, no new cases were reported in any of the affected areas in the past week.
The response teams work tirelessly in ensuring a zero spread of infection; from local societies working on media campaigns, to door-to-door case finding operations and continuous administrations of trial vaccinations, particularly in Guinea.
Although there are such tactics to keep the spread at bay, this small piece of West Africa cannot be geographically quarantined forever, therefore measures are currently taken against spreading the virus in other areas in the continent. Countries of focus which are Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mali and Senegal are set to have training programs, equipment stock imports and laboratory testing – all in a manner of equipping themselves in case the virus unexpectedly hits.
