Epidemic likely to last a year – Expert

The current Ebola outbreak is likely to last till the end of 2015, an expert researcher has said.

Peter Piot, who was a member of the team that discovered the virus in 1976, stated after returning from Sierra Leone that there is still much to be done to contain the disease.

Piot however told the BBC that he was encouraged by the progress being made and the promise of new anti-viral therapies but also warned that vaccines would take time to develop.

"The Ebola epidemic is still very much there. People are still dying, new cases are being detected," Piot said

"We need to be ready for a long effort, a sustained effort [for] probably the rest of 2015,” he added.

The current outbreak, which is the worst ever recorded, has so far claimed 7518 lives.