T

he rate of new Ebola infections in Liberia appears to be declining and could represent a real trend, the World Health Organization (WHO)said Wednesday, but the epidemic is far from over.

There are empty beds in treatment centers and the number of burials in the country has declined, Dr. Bruce Aylward, the assistant director-general for WHO, told reporters. He said there may be as much as a 25 percent week-on-week reduction in cases in Liberia. But experts are still trying to ensure their data is reliable.

Throughout the Ebola outbreak, WHO has warned that its data have been incomplete and the number of cases are likely vastly underreported. That is still a concern, Aylward said, but the trend nonetheless appears to be real.

So far, more than 13,600 people have been sickened in the outbreak, which has hit Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone hardest.

'€œThe epidemic [in Liberia] may be slowing down,'€ he said. But he cautioned: '€œA slight decline in cases in a few days versus getting this thing closed out is a completely different ball game.'€

Liberia'€™s Red Cross said Tuesday that teams collected 117 bodies last week from the county that includes Monrovia, down from the high of 315 in September.

Benoit Carpentier, a spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross, warned that it was too early to celebrate those numbers, saying Ebola outbreaks come in waves.

He noted that Red Cross figures show deaths are still increasing outside Monrovia.

Several times throughout this outbreak, including in Liberia, officials have thought the disease'€™s spread was slowing, only to surge again later.

They have often blamed those false lulls on cases being hidden because people were too afraid to seek treatment, wanted to bury their relatives themselves or simply weren'€™t in contact with authorities.

Aylward said that this is not the time to let up: The response has to continue going full bore.

'€œI'€™m terrified the information will be misinterpreted,'€ he said, and the international response will slow.

Aylward said the danger now '€œis that we will end up with an oscillating pattern where the disease moves up and down'€.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved a recommendation by military leaders that all US troops returning from Ebola response missions in West Africa be kept in supervised isolation for 21 days.

The move goes beyond precautions recommended by the Obama administration for civilians, although President Barack Obama has made clear he feels the military'€™s situation is different from that of civilians, in part because troops are not in West Africa by choice.

Hagel on Wednesday approved the recommendation sent to him by Army Gen. Martin Dempsey,
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Just over 1,000 US troops in Liberia and Senegal are there supporting efforts to combat the virus.

The Army, acting on its own, put a small number of returning soldiers on a 21-day quarantine earlier this week.

Pope Francis has praised the '€œheroic'€ response by doctors, nurses and volunteers helping contain the Ebola epidemic and has urged renewed international efforts to defeat the virus.

Francis also asked for prayers for the victims during his Wednesday general audience, noting that Ebola is striking parts of Africa where some of the world'€™s most disadvantaged already live.

He said that he was gravely concerned about this '€œimplacable illness'€ and was praying for those infected as well as those '€œwho are heroically doing everything possible to care for our sick brothers and sisters'€.