NBC NEWS     by Maggie Fox                                                                             Jan. 14, 2005
The number of new Ebolacases is starting to drop off in the three worst-hit West African countries, and Liberia has only reported 48 cases in the past three weeks, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday.

Guinea and Liberia both reported the fewest new cases since August, WHO says in its latest daily look at Ebola statistics. Sierra Leone is still suffering badly, with 769 new cases over the past 21 days, but that's a decline in reported cases.

"Sierra Leone has now reported a decline in case incidence for the second week running, and recorded its lowest weekly total of new confirmed cases since the week ending 31 August 2014," WHO said.

Overall, 21,261 people have been infected in this ongoing epidemic of Ebola, and 8,414 have died, WHO says.

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/situation-reports/en/

Ebola Situation report

WHO                                                                                         Jan. 14, 2015

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY                                                                                   Jan. 14, 2015
A new computer model that takes into account not only features of the virus and how it transmits, but also what is being done to halt its spread, predicts that the Ebola epidemic in Liberia could end by June if current high rates of hospitalization and surveillance continue.

                     The researchers believe their Ebola epidemic tool offers more realistic forecasts.

"That's a realistic possibility but not a foregone conclusion," says John Drake, an ecology professor at the University of Georgia (UGA), who led the project to develop the model with other ecologists at UGA and also at Pennsylvania State University.

The team reports how they developed the model and ran some scenarios through it, in the open access journal PLOS Biology.

Prof. Drake says their epidemic model is probably the first to take into account factors such as where infections occur, where patients are treated, growth in hospital bed numbers, and the adoption of safe burial practices.

Read complete story.

REUTERS                                                                                                      Jan. 13, 2015

MONROVIA-- Liberia is on the verge of containing the spread of the Ebola virus with only two of its 15 counties reporting new infections, the head of the country's Ebola response said on Tuesday.

Tolbert Nyenswah, who is also a deputy health minister, said the new cases were reported in Montserrado county, which includes the capital Monrovia, and Grand Cape Mount, on the border with Sierra Leone.

Bong, Nimba, Sinoe, and Margibi counties have not reported a single case since the end of December, he said. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Bong, Nimba and Sinoe have gone 21 days without a positive case - the maximum incubation period for the virus.

REUTERS                                                                         Jan. 9, 2015

(Two stories. Scroll down.)

WASHINGTON --The director of the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention said on Tuesday he was "confident" that the Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa can be brought under control but that "we are by no means out of the woods."

Speaking at a breakfast meeting in Washington with public health officials and lawmakers, Dr. Tom Frieden said it is vital that every case of the disease is eliminated.

"I remain very confident we can get to zero cases in this epidemic if we continue the way we're going and nothing unexpected happens," Frieden said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/13/us-health-ebola-frieden-idUSKBN0KM1KG20150113

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USAID: Eyes on Guinea as Liberia, Sierra Leone improve on Ebola

The rate of new Ebola cases in Liberia has plunged, Sierra Leone is beginning to turn the corner in dealing with the deadly virus and health officials are now focused on Guinea, a USAID official said on Tuesday.