HIGHLIGHTS
The Government of Liberia (GoL) documented only one new confirmed EVD case between February 17 and 23— the lowest one-week total since June 2014.
WHO has expressed concern that the downward trend in the number of new cases seen in January in Guinea and Sierra Leone has leveled off in recent weeks.
Staple and cash crops are available in local markets in the EVD-affected countries; however, weak household purchasing power caused by EVD-related economic disruptions may lead to localized acute food insecurity in the coming months.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
Between February 17 and 23, the GoL Incident Management System (IMS) documented only one new confirmed EVD case—the lowest one-week total since June 2014. Response actors isolated the individual on February 18 and confirmed EVD on February 19. The case is linked to Montserrado County’s St. Paul Bridge cluster, which is currently the only known active transmission chain in the country.
During a February 20 news conference, UN Special Envoy for Ebola David Nabarro and WHO Director-General for the Ebola Response Bruce Aylward reported that the number of new EVD cases in West Africa, particularly in Guinea and Sierra Leone, is no longer dropping at the rate seen in January and that the region has recorded approximately 120 to 150 new cases weekly in February. The two senior officials expressed concern that the aim of reaching zero EVD cases by mid-April—a goal recently set by heads of state from the three acutely affected countries—may be difficult given the current trend.
Initial findings of market assessments conducted in early February by the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), national governments, and two UN agencies indicate that staple and cash crops are available in most local markets in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone despite previous concerns that the EVD outbreak would negatively affect harvests. While economic conditions across the three countries are slowly improving relative to previous months, EVD-related movement restrictions, the prolonged closure of borders and markets, and fears of frequenting EVD-affected areas have disrupted livelihood activities, particularly in communities reliant on cross-border trade. As a result, weak household purchasing power may contribute to localized acute food insecurity in all three countries in the coming months, especially among wage-dependent households once families deplete food stocks from recent harvests.