New Ebola cases in West Africa have declined 81 percent since November, but the upcoming season of high rainfall could wipe out some of those gains, experts warn.
The Obama administration said Thursday that new cases in the hardest-hit countries — Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone — have declined to 371 this week, compared to more than 2,000 back in November.
The figures come on the heels of the president’s announcement Wednesday to pull a majority of the nearly 3,000 U.S. troops in the region by April 30, with 100 staying behind to help.
President Obama said the troops were effective in setting up needed infrastructure, such as 15 Ebola treatment centers and training healthcare workers.
The adminstration’s Ebola czar, Ron Klain, also departed his post Thursday to return to the private sector. Klain, the former chief of staff to Vice President Biden, announced in December he would be leaving. He has coordinated America’s response to the Ebola crisis since October.
Meanwhile, the administration plans to ramp up the civilian response to the outbreak, building on the more than 10,000 workers already involved.
However, the Ebola-stricken region isn’t out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.
West Africa’s rainy season is expected to begin in April and last until July, during which the region will get a majority of its rainfall for the year. The World Health Organization is worried the high rainfall could wash away roads, making it harder for relief workers to reach Ebola patients.
“The logistics of this response are going to get that much more complicated,” warned Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general of polio eradication and humanitarian response, during a WHO board hearing last month in Geneva.
With the high rains a few months away, WHO is making a frenzied push to reach zero Ebola infections.
“Cases are clearly declining in all three countries, but we must maintain the momentum and guard against complacency and donor fatigue,” WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said at the meeting. “As we have seen time and time again, an upsurge in new cases can follow a single unsafe burial or violent act of community resistance.”
So far there have been more than 22,500 reported infections in West Africa and more than 8,900 deaths, the administration reported. The U.S. has treated 12 domestic Ebola patients, two of which died.
This story originally published at 4:31 p.m. and has been updated since then.
