The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Wednesday that the numbers of Ebola cases are going up again in Guinea and Sierra Leone after weeks of steady decline.
"In recent weeks, the decline in case incidence and the contraction of the geographic area affected by Ebola virus disease (EVD) transmission that was apparent throughout April and early May has stalled," WHO said in its weekly Ebola Situation Report on Wednesday.
The global health organisation reported 16 new cases in Guinea in the week ending June 7 and 15 new cases in Sierra Leone during the same period.
"This is the second consecutive weekly increase in case incidence, and the highest weekly total number of cases reported from Sierra Leone since late March," WHO said.
Liberia, the worst-hit region in West Africa, was declared Ebola-free in May. However, with continuous increases in Ebola cases, Sierra Leone and Guinea are unlikely to be declared Ebola-free in the coming months, the Agence France Presse reported.
Ebola has killed 507 health workers in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since the start of the outbreak, with a total of 869 confirmed health worker infections reported from these West African countries, WHO said.
In related development, the Italian health ministry declared on Wednesday that the Italian male nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone has been cured and was discharged from the hospital.
The male nurse, who worked with medical non-profit group Emergency, spent a month in a Rome hospital for treatment, according to Reuters. He was the second Italian to contract the virus.
Health workers in these countries finding it difficult to spread awareness about Ebola, as people are still burying loved ones who died from the disease in unsafe ways, NBC News reported. The disease is still spreading mysteriously in some regions of West Africa.
Ebola has infected over 27,000 people and killed more than 11,000 of them since its latest outbreak in West Africa, according to WHO.
