EBOLA UPDATE:

EBOLA DRAGS ON: Twenty-six confirmed cases of Ebola were reported in the week of July 19: 22 in Guinea and 4 in Sierra Leone. Liberia reported no new cases. For the second consecutive week more than half of all cases were reported from the capitals of Guinea and Sierra Leone, Conakry and Freetown, says the World Health Organization. By contrast, other recent hotspots of transmission such as Boke in Guinea and Kambia in Sierra Leone have now reported no cases for 18 and 9 days, respectively.

There are also indications of a continuation of the improvements in contact tracing and case investigation seen in recent weeks, with all but two cases arising among registered contacts of previous cases, including all 13 of the cases reported from the Guinean capital Conakry. This is the highest proportion of cases to arise among contacts since the beginning of the outbreak. However, one of the 2 cases reported from Freetown arose from an unknown source of infection, and is considered to represent a high risk of further transmission. In addition, two cases, both from Guinea, were identified as EVD-positive only after post-mortem testing of community deaths. More details: http://bit.ly/1VvnmdD