Region
Child protection: 16,600 children are estimated to have lost one or both parents or their primary caregivers to Ebola, but less than 3% had to be placed outside of family or community care (UNICEF, 06/02/2015).
Diagnostics: A pharmaceutical company announced that it will launch a rapid test for Ebola in March. Specificity of the test is recorded as 98%, but for patients with a very low viral load false negatives might occur (Deutsche Welle, 09/02/2015).
Spread of the disease: Weekly case incidence increased in all three countries for the first time this year (WHO,04/02/2015). The rainy season, beginning in April, will complicate response and could potentially threaten some progress made in the containment of the epidemic (AFP, 24/01/2015).
Number of cases: As of 7 February, 22,828 cumulative reported cases across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, including 9,152 deaths (WHO, 09/02/2015).
