World Health Organisation Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward gestures during a news conference at the organisation’s headquarters in Geneva, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

Liberia, the country worst-hit by the Ebola epidemic, may be seeing a decline in the spread of the virus, although the battle to contain the outbreak is far from won, the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

WHO Assistant Director General Bruce Aylward told a news conference the number of burials and new admissions had fallen and there was a plateau in laboratory-confirmed cases.

“All the data point in the same direction,” he said. “Do we feel confident that the response is now getting an upper hand on the virus? Yes, we are seeing slowing rate of new cases, very definitely.”

Aylward cautioned against overly optimistic conclusions but said: “We’re seeing a reversal of that rapid rate of increase to the point that there seems to be a decline right now.”

Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf told Reuters on October 8 there were early signs the outbreak might be “in decline”.

Aylward said the fresh information could be attributed to the wrong factors and misunderstood. “Getting a slight decrease in the number of cases on a day-to-day basis, versus getting this thing closed out, is a completely different ball game.”

Yes, we are seeing a slowing rate of new cases, very definitely

US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said governments who made commitments to help fight Ebola should deliver on their pledges and those yet to commit should do so.

Power said she was encouraged by progress in the last couple of weeks, and that the two most critical remaining challenges are to fill gaps in the delivery of people and resources and to fight fear, misinformation and stigma.

“There is a need for more beds, more bleach, more cash in order to pay community mobilisers or people who do safe burial,” she told a news conference in the capital of Ghana after a visit to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Aylward said there had been 13,703 Ebola cases in eight countries and the reported death toll, was likely to be over 5,000.