29 January – World Health Organisation reports new Ebola cases drops to lowest level in 7 months
WHO reported Thursday that for the first time since the week ending 29 June 2014, there have been fewer than 100 new confirmed cases reported in a week in the 3 most-affected countries.
A combined total of 99 confirmed cases were reported from the 3 countries in the week to 25 January: 30 in Guinea, 4 in Liberia, and 65 in Sierra Leone.
They reported further that the Ebola epidemic has now moved to a second phase "as the focus shifts from slowing transmission to ending the epidemic”.
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29 January 2015 - Liberia reopens schools after Ebola-imposed shutdown.
Liberia demonstrated its progress in the fight against Ebola Thursday, by taking the decision to open its schools again on the 2nd of February.
Having ordered the closure of schools 6 months back in order to keep students at home to prevent further spread of the disease, the move to reopen them demonstrates the progress the government believe they have made. But the hard work on Ebola is far from complete.
While cases of Ebola in Liberia have fallen from a peak of more than 300 a week in August and September to eight last week, the Liberian government did caution that it would be a “colossal mistake” for the world to abandon the west African countries worst-affected by the Ebola epidemic in the premature belief that the disease has been beaten into retreat.
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24 January 2015 - British Nurse makes total recovery from Ebola.
Just 3 weeks after her condition was described as critical, Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, who contracted Ebola on an aid mission to Sierra Leone, has been declared free of the virus and discharged from hospital.
She told reporters she is "happy to be alive" and thanked staff at the Royal Free Hospital in London who she said saved her life.
She further commented, “I feel quite weak, but I'm looking forward to going home. I want to say a big thank you to the staff who treated me... They saved my life."
Ms Cafferkey was treated by Dr. Michael Jacobs at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, the same doctor involved in the successful treatment of 29-year-old British volunteer nurse William Pooley back in August / September 2014.
Although Michael Jacobs said the treatment of Ms Cafferkey was “quite separate” from the treatment or Mr. Pooley and that they treated her “absolutely on her own merits” it appears that like both patients were treated with convalescent plasma taken from the blood of a recovered Ebola patient, together experimental anti-viral drugs.
Before treating Ms. Cafferkey, Dr Jacobs explained that there were several stocks of plasma around Europe which would be considered in her treatment.
While there is likely still a long road ahead of clinical trials and a process of converting experimental drugs into widely available vaccines, we at least appear to be making progress on the medical front.
"People are very hopeful that we may be seeing some early results towards the end of the first quarter (of 2015) with some of these therapeutics," said Michael Kurilla of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).
"If these things do prove to be efficacious, we may be able to approve some of them and then have cures or specific licensed treatments for Ebola."
The Daily Mail reports that while hopes are riding on a pharmaceutical breakthrough some experts say improvements in medical infrastructure and infection control measures such as isolating patients, contact tracing and education provide the best answers.
"Outbreaks that have occurred in the past, they have been stopped without vaccine," said David Heymann, a virologist and head of the Centre on Global Health Security.
Read a full lengthy account of her infection, relocation and treatment here - EBOLA NURSE TREATED
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