The death toll in the Ebola epidemic has risen to 5,459 out of 15,351 cases identified in eight countries by the end of Nov. 18, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday.

The figures showed an increase of 39 recorded deaths and 106 new cases since those issued on Wednesday.

“Transmission remains intense in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone,” the WHO said, referring to the three hardest-hit West African countries that account for all but 15 of the deaths. All six known Ebola cases in Mali have now died and 327 contacts exposed to the virus are being monitored.

A Cuban doctor, the first infected with Ebola, was evacuated overnight from Sierra Leone to Geneva by the WHO. Swiss authorities told a news briefing yesterday at University Hospital of Geneva, where Felix Baez is in isolation, that he was in a stable condition.

The 43-year-old is being given the drug ZMapp, they said.

Transmission remains intense in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone

Earlier yesterday, the WHO declared that a separate outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo was over after no people showed symptoms for two incubation periods since the last case. In all, there were 49 deaths out of 66 people infected in the remote northwestern Equateur province.

Two maximum incubation periods of 21 days each must pass with no new cases being detected before the UN health agency can declare that an outbreak is finished.

“Having reached that 42-day mark, the Democratic Republic of Congo is now considered free of Ebola transmission,” the WHO said.

“WHO commends the Democratic Republic of Congo’s strong leadership and effective coordination of the response that included rapidly mobilising an expert response team to Jeera County, identifying and monitoring contacts and organising safe burials,” the WHO said.