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Ebola death toll stands at 5,420 - WHO

A nurse wearing personal protective equipment helps an Ebola patient at the Kenama treatment centre in Sierra Leone
A nurse wearing personal protective equipment helps an Ebola patient at the Kenama treatment centre in Sierra Leone

The World Health Organisation said that 5,420 people had so far died of Ebola across eight countries, out of a total 15,145 cases of infection, since late December 2013.

On Friday, the UN health agency had reported 5,177 deaths and 14,413 cases.

The WHO believes that the number of deaths is likely far higher, given that the fatality rate in the current outbreak is known to be around 70%.

The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever continues to affect Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone the most.

But the fresh toll came as the spread appeared to be slowing in the capital of Liberia, allowing the hardest-hit country to lift its state of emergency.

In its latest toll, WHO said that through 16 November, 2,964 people had died in Liberia, out of 7,069 cases.

In Sierra Leone, 1,250 people had died as of 16 November out of 6,073 cases, WHO said.

A Cuban doctor infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone will be flown to Switzerland in the next 48 hours for hospitalisation in Geneva, Swiss health authorities said.

He is the first Cuban known to have contracted the disease.

Guinea, where the outbreak began late last year, counted 1,192 deaths and 1,971 cases.

Authorities in Mali have reported six Ebola cases including five deaths, the WHO said.

All contacts of its first case, a two-year-old girl who died in October, have survived the 21-day incubation period.

Data from Nigeria and Senegal remained unchanged, and both countries have been declared Ebola free.

Nigeria had eight deaths and 20 cases, while Senegal had one case and no deaths.

There has been one case of infection in Spain, where an infected nurse has recovered.

In the United States, a surgeon who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone died early on Monday of the disease at a Nebraska hospital, medical officials said, the second death from the virus out of ten known cases treated in the US.

Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, is spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting.

People caring for the sick or handling the bodies of people infected Ebola are therefore especially exposed.

WHO said that a total of 568 healthcare workers were known to have contracted the virus, and 329 of them had died.