Ebola has claimed nearly 7,000 lives in West Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says, adding about 1,200 more deaths to an earlier toll.
The rise was due to previously uncounted cases mainly from Liberia, not recent deaths, said WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic.
A total of 16,169 people had been infected with Ebola and 6,928 of these had died in the three countries at the centre of the outbreak – Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia – the United Nations health body said.
On Wednesday, it had put the death toll at 5,674, after 15 additional deaths in other countries but revised the figure after “a reconciliation of historical numbers”.
The agency had previously highlighted the difficulty in collecting accurate figures, saying it believed there were far more deaths than those registered.
The deadliest Ebola outbreak ever hit Liberia the hardest, although observers said the spread of the virus there had slowed significantly in recent weeks.
Nonetheless, Liberia accounted for the lion’s share of the new deaths tallied, now standing at 4,181 deaths from 7,244 cases.
Sierra Leone, which according to the WHO was still seeing a rapid spread of Ebola in many parts of the country, reported 1,461 deaths from 6,802 cases. This was 63 deaths and 203 cases more than reported on November 26.
Guinea, where the outbreak began nearly a year ago, meanwhile counted 1,284 deaths out of 2,123 cases. This was 24 deaths and 11 cases more than reported earlier.
The WHO did not provide an update on other countries affected by the outbreak.
In the previous update the UN agency said Mali, the most recent country in the region to be hit by Ebola, had eight confirmed cases, with six proving fatal.
The country announced on Friday it had for the first time successfully treated a patient with the virus.
Nigeria, which had reported eight Ebola deaths, and Senegal, which saw only one case, had recorded no new cases for 57 days. Both countries have now been declared Ebola-free.
Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, is spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting.
People caring for the sick or handling the dead from Ebola are especially exposed.
Health workers have been among the worst hit, with 340 deaths out of 592 cases.
AFP