The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday that the spread of the Ebola infection in Liberia has slowed down.
WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward is positive that the actions taken against the virus have put the situation under control. The number of new cases dropped and confirmed cases have become stable. However, he warned that the crisis is not yet over.
"All the data point in the same direction," he stated during a news conference. "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."
Charity foundation Wellcome Trust warned that though there is a decline, the next few weeks are still critical in maintaining the positive changes brought by international efforts.
"We're going through a very, very important phase. For the first time during this epidemic I think we will look on the last week as the week we put in place the jigsaw puzzle that changes the epidemic," Wellcome Trust director Jeremy Farrar told Reuters.
Officials have encouraged governments to comply with their pledges and other groups that promised to help combat the deadly disease. According to a report from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the Central Emergency Response Fund has reached $493 million in actual donations as of Oct. 29. However, the total funding requested for the program was $988 million. A large stake of the funding came from the United States and World Bank, BBC reported.
For the past few weeks, different organizations and businesses announced that they are working on the development of the Ebola vaccines and will deliver samples by next year. For now, beds, sanitary items, and more cash are needed by the communities affected by the virus, especially Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.
Senegal and Nigeria are both Ebola-free, and if the current phase lasts, health experts predict that the three regions will be free of the disease by Dec. 1.
