WHO revises Ebola toll

The World Health Organization Friday revised its figures showing more people killed by the deadly Ebola virus, but the number of cases of the disease was slightly lower.

The WHO said that 4,951 people had died across eight countries from Ebola and there was a total of 13,567 reported cases, up to and including October 29.

Earlier this week the WHO had set the figures at 4,922 deaths and 13,703 cases.

It said it had changed the figures after finding that some cases, particularly in Guinea, were not actually Ebola.

Since the latest outbreak of Ebola, the worst since the virus was first identified in 1976, the vast majority of the deaths have been reported in three nations at the epicentre of the epidemic: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where the outbreak began.

The latest figures showed Liberia with 2,413 deaths in 6,535 cases of Ebola; Sierra Leone with 1,510 dead out of 5,338 reported cases; and Guinea had 1,018 deaths in 1,667 cases.

There is also an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo though that came from a different source than the epidemic raging across west Africa, scientists said on Wednesday.

© 2014 AFP