UN: Africa’s Ebola outbreak has not run its course

Africa's Ebola epidemic has yet to run its course, infecting an estimated 30 people each week, the United Nations’ special envoy for the disease warned Monday.

The outbreak of the virus — which has resulted in the deaths of more than 11,000 people across West Africa — has abated in recent months. But a new flare-up in Liberia has proved a setback, prompting concern from health experts.

"The battle can be won, but it requires sustained effort, very careful negotiation with communities and perfection in follow-up of everybody who has been a contact,” David Nabarro, the man appointed by the U.N. to coordinate its response, told a media briefing in Cape Town.

Under normal circumstances, Nabarro added, an infection rate of 30 people per week would be considered "a major, major outbreak."

"Probably about one third of these people are not coming from the contact list, which means they are surprise cases, and that’s a big worry," Nabarro earlier told a conference organized by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Infection rates are down from the peak of the crisis. But Liberia reported a 17-year-old boy tested positive for the virus on June 30 — almost two months after the country was declared free of Ebola.

Liberia, the country worst hit by the outbreak, had been hailed as an example for neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone, which are also struggling to stop the spread of the disease.

But a report by the U.S. Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) published on Friday found that many Liberians were fearful of survivors and didn't trust health authorities after the epidemic. Respondents to the CDC survey said they feared not seeing their family again if they sought help at an Ebola treatment clinic.

Olawale Maiyegun, social affairs director at the African Union Commission, said it appeared communities were forgetting a key "ABC" or "avoid body contact" rule and becoming complacent.

"Where is the ABC rule? I saw people dancing together, I was alarmed in [Sierra Leone's capital] Freetown,” Maiyegun told journalists.

The Ebola outbreak has galvanized a global response. Last week donor countries pledged another $3.4 billion in addition to $1.8 billion of unspent money in an effort to eradicate the disease that has wreaked economic and social havoc.

Al Jazeera and Reuters