UNITED NATIONS, February 6. /TASS/. The international community has reached major progress in fight against Ebola, and "it is not a question of if West Africa will get to zero cases, but a question of when," a senior UN relief official said on Thursday after a week-long trip to countries in the Ebola-affected region.

A few months ago few people could imagine that Ebola would be taken under control, said John Ging, Director of Operations for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

"The number of cases has been reduced dramatically," John Ging said. "It has brought a sense of hope for people in the region," he added.

"There is most definitely a fantastic combined community, national and international effort that has turned this crisis around," John Ging told reporters at a press briefing in New York.

"But there is no room for complacency," Mr. Ging added. "The last mile is the hardest mile. We must stay the course."

As of February 1, the death toll from the current Ebola outbreak had reached 8,981 and as many as 22,495 were infected, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement.

Most Ebola deaths were reported from Liberia (3,746) and Sierra Leone (3,276). The death toll from Ebola stood at 1,944 in Guinea.

Separate cases have also been registered in Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, Great Britain and the United States, where 13 people have died and 35 have been infected all in all.