<span id="midArticle_start"/>* Guinea and Sierra Leone report 12 cases in past week
<span id="midArticle_0"/>* Communities still hiding their sick and dying
<span id="midArticle_1"/>* "Not a best-case scenario" as rains set in, WHO says
<span id="midArticle_2"/>* Must plan to fight Ebola all year but funds needed
<span id="midArticle_3"/>By <a href="http://ift.tt/1HwhQj7;Stephanie Nebehay
<span id="midArticle_4"/>GENEVA, May 26 (Reuters) - The Ebola outbreak in Guinea andSierra Leone is expected to take all of 2015 to stamp out andmay persist even longer because of dwindling financing, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>Guinea and Sierra Leone reported a total of 12 cases in theweek to Sunday May 24th, down from 36 the previous week. Theyincluded new infections and deaths that occurred outside oftreatment centres as communities hide their sick, it said.
<span id="midArticle_6"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>Liberia, the third country hit by West Africa's year-longepidemic, was declared Ebola-free on May 9 after 42 days withouta case. The disease has killed more than 11,100 people overallamong 27,000 infected.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>"When you look at the case numbers today (in Guinea andSierra Leone), this is where Liberia was in January. As youknow, it took Liberia four months to get from those numbers tozero," WHO Special Representative for Ebola Dr. Bruce Aylwardtold a news briefing.
<span id="midArticle_8"/>"In a best-case scenario, one would be looking to perhapsstopping transmission by the end of September. But we're notdealing with the best-case scenario," he said.
<span id="midArticle_9"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>The rainy season has begun in West Africa, compounding thedifficulty of reaching remote areas, and one in three newinfections still occurs in people not suspected of having beenexposed to the virus, he said.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>"So the situation is very different; it is not a best-casescenario. Which means end-September is not a reasonable planningtime frame. We've got to plan right out through the end of2015," Aylward said.
<span id="midArticle_11"/>The virus is now concentrated in coastal areas with "thelast battlefield" the Forecariah district in Guinea and denselypopulated slum areas near Freetown in Sierra Leone, he said.
<span id="midArticle_12"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>But maintaining more than 1,000 WHO staff on the ground anda vast aid operation is expensive, especially the World FoodProgramme's air bridge, he said.
<span id="midArticle_13"/>"It is going to cost $50 million over the next six months tokeep those helicopters in the air, to keep the planes in the airand to keep those operations working," Aylward said.
<span id="midArticle_14"/>The WHO lacks more than $100 million towards its $350million budget for its Ebola operation over the next six months,jeopardising its ability to keep people on the ground, he said.
<span id="midArticle_15"/>"There is no reason that Ebola cannot be beaten, butfinancing is increasingly becoming the most glaring potentialreason for failure," he said.
<span id="midArticle_16"/>(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Larry King)
<span id="midArticle_17"/>
<span id="midArticle_0"/>* Communities still hiding their sick and dying
<span id="midArticle_1"/>* "Not a best-case scenario" as rains set in, WHO says
<span id="midArticle_2"/>* Must plan to fight Ebola all year but funds needed
<span id="midArticle_3"/>By <a href="http://ift.tt/1HwhQj7;Stephanie Nebehay
<span id="midArticle_4"/>GENEVA, May 26 (Reuters) - The Ebola outbreak in Guinea andSierra Leone is expected to take all of 2015 to stamp out andmay persist even longer because of dwindling financing, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>Guinea and Sierra Leone reported a total of 12 cases in theweek to Sunday May 24th, down from 36 the previous week. Theyincluded new infections and deaths that occurred outside oftreatment centres as communities hide their sick, it said.
<span id="midArticle_6"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>Liberia, the third country hit by West Africa's year-longepidemic, was declared Ebola-free on May 9 after 42 days withouta case. The disease has killed more than 11,100 people overallamong 27,000 infected.
<span id="midArticle_7"/>"When you look at the case numbers today (in Guinea andSierra Leone), this is where Liberia was in January. As youknow, it took Liberia four months to get from those numbers tozero," WHO Special Representative for Ebola Dr. Bruce Aylwardtold a news briefing.
<span id="midArticle_8"/>"In a best-case scenario, one would be looking to perhapsstopping transmission by the end of September. But we're notdealing with the best-case scenario," he said.
<span id="midArticle_9"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>The rainy season has begun in West Africa, compounding thedifficulty of reaching remote areas, and one in three newinfections still occurs in people not suspected of having beenexposed to the virus, he said.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>"So the situation is very different; it is not a best-casescenario. Which means end-September is not a reasonable planningtime frame. We've got to plan right out through the end of2015," Aylward said.
<span id="midArticle_11"/>The virus is now concentrated in coastal areas with "thelast battlefield" the Forecariah district in Guinea and denselypopulated slum areas near Freetown in Sierra Leone, he said.
<span id="midArticle_12"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>But maintaining more than 1,000 WHO staff on the ground anda vast aid operation is expensive, especially the World FoodProgramme's air bridge, he said.
<span id="midArticle_13"/>"It is going to cost $50 million over the next six months tokeep those helicopters in the air, to keep the planes in the airand to keep those operations working," Aylward said.
<span id="midArticle_14"/>The WHO lacks more than $100 million towards its $350million budget for its Ebola operation over the next six months,jeopardising its ability to keep people on the ground, he said.
<span id="midArticle_15"/>"There is no reason that Ebola cannot be beaten, butfinancing is increasingly becoming the most glaring potentialreason for failure," he said.
<span id="midArticle_16"/>(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Larry King)
<span id="midArticle_17"/>
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