Ebola

Dr. Margaret Chan told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that there have been no new cases in Liberia, and only three new cases in Sierra Leone and Guinea, in each of the last two weeks, the lowest numbers in well over a year.

She says fears that the Ebola virus could be permanently established in humans in the region have also been defeated, which is "very good news."

But Chan also cautions against "a false sense of security."

The Alabama Department of Public Health said in a statement Wednesday that the patient is improving. The patient's name hasn't been released.

Edward Khan of the Jefferson County Health Department says the patient was hospitalized Tuesday after developing symptoms and notifying authorities.

Khan says the patient recently traveled to a country with Ebola cases. He didn't identify the country or specify the symptoms.

Edward Khan of the Jefferson County Health Department says the patient is being treated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital after developing symptoms and notifying authorities.

Khan says the patient recently traveled to a country with Ebola cases, but he didn't identify the country or name the patient. 

There is currently no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola, which has so far killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa since the world's biggest outbreak began in the forest region of Guinea last year.

"If proven effective, this is going to be a game-changer," said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, which sponsored the study. "It will change the management of the current outbreak and future outbreaks."

The acting Director General of Health, Dr Robert Thomsen, says the traveller had visited the Ebola affected country of Liberia and came to Samoa through Australia before the required 21 days of clearance had been completed.

He says the woman had no signs of the deadly disease but the health requirements must be met.

She had left the country immediately after being quarantined.

The newly-built district hospital near Faleolo International Airport, in which the quarantine operation was carried out, has been closed for two weeks since the incident, but is now reopened.