WHO Press Releases, Notes for Media on the Ebola Outbreak

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti today visited Kinshasa (DR Congo) to discuss with national authorities and partners ways to mount a rapid, effective and coherent response in order to stop the ongoing Ebola outbreak. The visit follows notification by the Dem. Rep. of Congo Government of an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Likati health zone, Bas Uele Province, in the northern part of the country bordering Central African Republic. The Likati health zone is around 1400 kilometers from the capital. As of today, 11 suspected cases including 3 deaths have been reported.

Final trial results confirm Ebola vaccine provides high protection against disease

WHO declares the end of the most recent Ebola virus disease outbreak in Liberia

WHO declares the end of Ebola virus transmission in the Republic of Guinea.

Today, WHO declares the end of the most recent outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Liberia and says all known chains of transmission have been stopped in West Africa.

Today WHO declares the end of Ebola virus transmission in the Republic of Guinea. Forty-two days have passed since the last person confirmed to have Ebola virus disease tested negative for the second time. Guinea now enters a 90-day period of heightened surveillance to ensure that any new cases are identified quickly before they can spread to other people.

WHO declares that Ebola virus transmission in Sierra Leone has ended.

Preliminary results of a study into persistence of Ebola virus in body fluids show that some men still produce semen samples that test positive for Ebola virus nine months after onset of symptoms.

Detection of a new case of Ebola virus disease in Kambia, Sierra Leone, after the country had marked almost 3 weeks of zero cases has set in motion the first "ring vaccination" use of the experimental Ebola vaccine in Sierra Leone.

Use of rapid response teams and strong community involvement in finding Ebola virus disease cases and contacts is yielding results in Sierra Leone. An epidemiological week has now passed with no new Ebola cases for the first time since the beginning of the outbreak.

The Ebola virus vaccine is effective. But the fight goes on. We must move quickly towards full-scale production

Ahead of World Humanitarian Day, WHO is drawing attention to continued attacks on health staff and health facilities. In 2014 alone, WHO received reports of 372 attacks in 32 countries on health workers, resulting in 603 deaths and 958 injuries, while similar incidents have been recorded this year.

New research shows Ebola survivors most commonly face severe joint pains, eye problems leading to loss of vision in some cases, severe fatigue, headaches, poor concentration, and mental health challenges after recovery from Ebola.

WHO press release on Ebola vaccine: Results from an interim analysis of the Guinea Phase III efficacy vaccine trial show that VSV-EBOV is highly effective against Ebola.

Delegates at the World Health Assembly made a series of decisions stemming from the 2014 Ebola virus disease outbreak. These give the WHO Secretariat the go-ahead to carry out structural reforms so it can prepare for and respond rapidly, flexibly and effectively to emergencies and disease outbreaks.

A growing risk of outbreaks of measles, pertussis, and other vaccine-preventable diseases in countries affected by Ebola must be countered by urgent scaling up of routine immunization activities

WHO and WFP are combining their forces in a new partnership in the Ebola-affected countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Based on promising data from initial clinical trials in late 2014, WHO with the Health Ministry of Guinea, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Epicentre and The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), will launch a Phase III trial in Guinea on 7 March to test the VSV-EBOV vaccine for efficacy and effectiveness to prevent Ebola. The vaccine was developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada. A second vaccine will be tested in a sequential study, as supply becomes available.

One year after the first Ebola cases started to surface in Guinea, WHO is publishing this series of 14 papers that take an in-depth look at West Africa’s first epidemic of Ebola virus disease.

6 January 2015 -- The new Head of UNMEER, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, arrived in Liberia as part of his first tour of the affected countries.

The Ministry of Health in Iraq, in collaboration with WHO, confirms that there is no suspected case of Ebola virus disease in Iraq as of 5 January 2015.