Aid workers racing to defeat Ebola before the rains come

MONROVIA, Liberia — Aid workers are rushing into neighboring Guinea to try to stanch a worrisome rise in cases of the deadly Ebola virus, which has been slowed in Sierra Leone and been all but eradicated here.

The mission is urgent because the coming rainy season could hamper travel to remote villages where the disease continues to emerge.

"I'm nervous but optimistic at heart that Guinea will follow the same trajectory" as Liberia and Sierra Leone where the disease has declined, said Jordan Tappero, director of the division of global health protection for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

"We've tripled the number of people we have in the field (in Guinea) and many other organizations are doing the same," he said. "We've got to keep pressing on and stay with it."

Nearly 25,000 people across West Africa have been infected with Ebola since the disease surfaced in the jungles of Guinea in December 2013. More than 10,000 have died in the worst outbreak of the disease in history.

The 95 new cases reported during the week of March 15 was the highest weekly total for the nation so far this year. This week, only 45 new cases were reported. Still troubling to World Health Organization workers is how new infections in Guinea are occurring in unexpected areas.

Many of the outbreaks are in distant villages, and only 38% of new infections in Guinea last week were among people being tracked. The week before, the figure was 28% — a low rate that is foreboding because it means healthcare workers aren't effectively establishing a chain of infection. A crucial element in defeating the virus is the process of contact tracing — tracking all who have been exposed so that chain can be broken and the disease can be halted.

Tracing contacts in new infections will become even more difficult when the rainy season begins in June and downpours happen daily by July, Tappero said.​ "That's why we have to get down to as close to zero with contact tracing all known, laboratory confirmed cases by then," he said. "I'll be honest with you, people are fatigued."

In nearby Sierra Leone, where more than 3,700 have died and almost 12,000 were infected, the nation's 6 million residents have been ordered to stay home for three days beginning Friday, except for religious services, in an effort to fight the spread of the disease, according to Associated Press.

Earlier this month, an American health worker ill with Ebola was evacuated from Sierra Leone to the United States and remains in critical condition at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

The worker was among 12 new Ebola infections involving caregivers in Sierra Leone and Guinea in the past few weeks. Nearly 500 healthcare workers across West Africa have died of the disease since the outbreak began. In Guinea, the workers affected are often a remote village's only nurse or doctor.

"We really need the rate of healthcare infections to be zero," said Ian Norton, a physician with the World Health Organization.

New infections in Sierra Leone are slowly diminishing, WHO reported. Last week 84% of the 33 new cases were among people health officials were tracking — good news, WHO said because it shows health workers are successfully identifying and isolating those who might become infected.

In Liberia, infections fell dramatically, dropping to zero for three straight weeks this month. Beaches and schools re-opened. Students showed up to have their temperatures taken and wash hands before entering class.

More than 4,200 of those killed by the virus were in Liberia where President Obama deployed about 3,000 troops to build clinics and train health care workers late last year. About 300 troops remain there.

There has been at least one setback. A ban on sporting activities was lifted and the first soccer match was underway in Monrovia March 20 with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in attendance when word of a new Ebola case broke.

A 44-year-old mother of six who worked as a food server at a school fell ill. She rode on a motorbike-taxi to the hospital, a common means of transportation in Monrovia, Liberia's capital. One small school where she worked has been temporarily closed. Eighty-six people who were in contact with her have been quarantined. The woman died Friday, Reuters reported.

The Ministry of Health is looking into whether the disease might have been transmitted through sexual contact with an Ebola survivor. Although the man she was dating was released from care more than three months before, research has found that the virus can survive in male sexual organs for an extended period of time.

"We were getting close to the finishing line when this sad event occurred," said Liberian government spokesman Isaac Jackson. "We are all saddened by this development. But we are consoled because we have in place the best system, surveillance, contact tracers, so we are still committed to beating this virus."

Zoroya reported from McLean, Va.