The UN World Health Organization updated its figures regarding the West African Ebola Outbreak, keeping the death toll at 4,922 – unchanged since last Friday – due mainly to weeding out stray data bits such as suspected cases that turned out to be false positives. 

The latest WHO figure of 13,703 cases (.pdf link) is a significant leap on its previous situation report on Saturday, which showed cases rising above 10,000 for the first time – to 10,141.  Almost 300 fewer people are known to have died from Ebola in Liberia than previously thought, while more than 200 have been added to Sierra Leone's death toll.

“It appears that the trend is real in Liberia and there may indeed be a slowing,” said WHO’s Dr. Bruce Aylward.  “Do we feel confident that the response is now getting an upper hand on the virus?  Yes, we are seeing a slowing rate of new cases, very definitely.”

Red Cross teams in Liberia say collected 117 bodies last week – horrific, but significantly down from a high of 315 during one really depressing week in September.  And for the first time in a long time, Ebola treatment centers report having empty beds available for new patients.