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| [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
Geneva: World Health Organization (WHO) has blamed the practice of unsafe burials for the recent increase in the number of new cases of Ebola.
As per the WHO data, Sierra Leone registered 80 of the 124 new cases, Guinea 39 and Liberia the remaining five. It is the first weekly increase in 2015, ending a series of encouraging decline.
Briefing journalists in Geneva, WHO Assistant Director General - Bruce Aylward - said "unsafe burials are one of a number of practices that are probably still driving the problem."
At the same presser, David Nabarro, the United Nations special envoy on Ebola, said the virus still presented a grave threat and that “good progress is being made but the outbreak still prevents a grave threat and we really hope that there will be no complacency in anybody involved in the response."
Almost 9,000 people have died from Ebola since December 2013.
Aylward emphasized the need to step up efforts before the start of the April-May rainy season.
"This is not what you want to see two months before you're going into the low season, as you are running into cash flow problems and as the virus is starting to move again substantive distances between these countries," he stressed. - UNifeed