No Ebola cases confirmed in S. Africa: health authorities

The National Department of Health is continuing to monitor the situation and will keep South African citizens informed, department spokesperson Popo Maja said in an update on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Xinhua reports.

South Africa has been on alert to prevent the Ebola virus from entering the country. To alleviate public fear, the South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) has said the introduction of the virus into South Africa from Guinea is considered low. Though there have been a number of Ebola outbreaks in Africa in the last 30 years, South Africa is unlikely to be affected by an outbreak, the NICD said. The outbreak continued to accelerate in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. As of Friday, the total number of probable and confirmed cases in these countries rose to 3,069, with 1,552 deaths. More than 40 percent of the total number of cases have occurred within the past 21 days. However, most cases are concentrated in only a few localities. The overall death rate is 52 percent, ranging from 42 percent in Sierra Leone to 66 percent in Guinea. A separate outbreak of Ebola virus disease, which is not related to the outbreak in West Africa, was laboratory-confirmed on August 26 by the Democratic Republic of Congo. Ebola disease cannot be spread through casual contact but is rather transmitted from person to person through direct contact with blood or infected tissues from an infected person. Health workers and family members of infected persons in the outbreak area would therefore be at risk.