On Ebola this week : A promising vaccine found for Ebola

West Africa for the first time in a one year period recorded it's lowest weekly case incidence this past week with only a total of 7 cases of Ebola Virus Disease in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
This followed a 2 month lull of 20-30 new cases per week.

Four cases were reported in Guinea and three in Sierra Leone in the week to the 26th of July. (WHO latest weekly update)

In the wake of this progress report, another 500+ persons have been placed in quarantine in Sierra Leone after a man who had traveled from Freetown to celebrate the end of the Ramadan month in his home town : central district of Tonkolili;  tested positive to Ebola after post-mortem testing.

The man reportedly presented at a community hospital on the 19th of July with headache and was seen as an outpatient and sent home. (WHO)
He was said to have represented at another hospital 2 days later where he was isolated on admission.
He died on 23rd July and was confirmed (Ebola) positive after post-mortem testing.

"Investigations are ongoing to establish the source of infection and identify and trace all contacts."

According to the WHO all of the 500+ contacts are located in Tonkolili, which earlier in July had recorded its first new case of Ebola in 150 days.
Most of the contacts have been categorized as high risk.

All of Guinea's new cases were all from registered contacts of previous infections. This shows that the spread of the virus is under control. 

One of the 4 cases in Guinea was a health worker infection. Guinea has recorded 5 health worker infections in the past 6 weeks.
Although there are no health worker infections currently in Sierra Leone, health workers have been listed as contacts of the Tonkolili case.

There were no cases in Liberia this past week.

A vaccine has been found to be highly effective against Ebola. Early results from a trial in Guinea showed a 100% protection in those that received it.

Margaret Chan, (the WHO director general) said today at a press conference that if proven effective, this vaccine will be a game changer and will change the management of the current Ebola outbreak as well as future outbreaks.