Western African Ebola epidemic

Western African Ebola epidemic

Situation map of the outbreak Note: US case not included.
Date	December 2013 – present
Location	Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, United States
Casualties
Reported Cases / Deaths (as of 30 September 2014) Total: 7,282 / 3,286 Liberia: 3,696 / 1,998 Sierra Leone: 2407 / 575 Guinea: 1,157 / 710 Nigeria: 20 / 8 Senegal: 1 / 0 United States: 1 / 0 See notes for 28 September on Timeline Section

As of 2014, an epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) is ongoing in West Africa. The epidemic began in Guinea in December 2013. It then spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. An initial case in the United States has been confirmed as of 30 September 2014. The outbreak was formally designated as a public health emergency of international concern on 8 August. This is a legal designation used only twice before (for the 2009 H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic and the 2014 resurgence of polio) and invokes legal measures on disease prevention, surveillance, control, and response, by 194 signatory countries.

The disease is caused by the Ebola virus (EBOV). It is the most severe outbreak of Ebola since the discovery of the virus in 1976. By September 2014 cases of EVD from this single outbreak exceeded the total of all cases from previous known outbreaks. The 2014 Democratic Republic of the Congo Ebola virus outbreak has been determined to be unrelated.

As of 29 September 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and local governments reported a total of 7,192 suspected cases and 3,286 deaths (3,988 cases and 1,954 deaths having been laboratory confirmed). Many experts believe that the official numbers substantially understate the size of the outbreak, due in part to community resistance to reporting cases, and a lack of personnel and equipment to investigate reports of the disease. As of 21 September WHO estimated that region's capacity for treating EVD is insufficient by the equivalent of 2,122 beds. Early WHO reports suggested an overall Case Fatality Rate (CFR) estimate of 53%, considerably lower than an average of the rates reported from previous outbreaks, but on 23 September, they released a revised overall CFR estimate of 70% derived using data from patients with definitive clinical outcomes.

Affected countries have encountered many difficulties in their control efforts. In some areas, people have become suspicious of both the government and hospitals; some hospitals have been attacked by angry protestors who believe that the disease is a hoax or that the hospitals are responsible for the disease. Many of the areas that have been infected are areas of extreme poverty with limited access to soap or running water to help control the spread of disease. Other factors include belief in traditional folk remedies, and cultural practices that predispose to physical contact with the deceased, especially death customs such as washing the body of the deceased. Some hospitals lack basic supplies and are understaffed. This has increased the chance of staff catching the virus themselves. In August, the WHO reported that ten percent of the dead have been health care workers.

By the end of August, the WHO reported that the loss of so many health workers was making it difficult for them to provide sufficient numbers of foreign medical staff. By September 2014, Médecins Sans Frontières, the largest NGO working in the affected regions, had grown increasingly critical of the international response. Speaking on 3 September, the international president spoke out concerning the lack of assistance from the United Nations member countries saying, "Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it." A United Nations spokesperson stated "they could stop the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 6 to 9 months, but only if a 'massive' global response is implemented." The Director-General of the WHO, Margaret Chan, called the outbreak "the largest, most complex and most severe we've ever seen" and said that it "is racing ahead of control efforts". By 12 September, there was not a single Ebola treatment bed available in all of Liberia and as of 23 September, in the three hardest hit countries, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, there were only 893 treatment beds available while the current need was 2122. In a 26 September statement, the WHO said, "The Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa is the most severe acute public health emergency seen in modern times. Never before in recorded history has a biosafety level four pathogen infected so many people so quickly, over such a broad geographical area, for so long."

Epidemiology

Initial outbreak

Researchers believe that a 2-year-old boy was the index case of the current Ebola virus disease epidemic. He died on 28 December 2013 in the village of Meliandou, Guéckédou Prefecture, Guinea. His mother, sister, and grandmother then became ill with similar symptoms and also died. People infected by those victims spread the disease to other villages. Although Ebola represents a major public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa, no cases had ever been reported in West Africa and the early cases were diagnosed as diseases more common to the area. Thus, the disease had several months to spread before it was recognized as Ebola.

On 19 March, the Guinean Ministry of Health acknowledged a local outbreak of an undetermined viral hemorrhagic fever that had sickened at least 35 people and killed 23. "We thought it was Lassa fever or another form of cholera but this disease seems to strike like lightning. We are looking at all possibilities, including Ebola, because bushmeat is consumed in that region and Guinea is in the Ebola belt." On 25 March, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Guinea's Ministry of Health had reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in four southeastern districts, with suspected cases in the neighbouring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone being investigated. In Guinea, a total of 86 suspected cases, including 59 deaths (case fatality ratio: 68.5%), had been reported as of 24 March.

On 31 March, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent a five-person team to assist Guinea's Ministry of Health and the WHO to lead an international response to the Ebola outbreak. On that date, the WHO reported 112 suspected and confirmed cases including 70 deaths. Two cases were reported from Liberia of people who had recently traveled to Guinea, and suspected cases in Liberia and Sierra Leone were being investigated. On 30 April, Guinea's Ministry of Health reported 221 suspected and confirmed cases including 146 deaths. The cases included 25 health care workers with 16 deaths. By late May, the outbreak had spread to Conakry, Guinea's capital, a city of about two million inhabitants. On 28 May, the total cases reported had reached 281 with 186 deaths.

The Ebola situation in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone as of 26 September 2014.

In Liberia, the disease was reported in Lofa and Nimba counties in late March. The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare recorded possible cases in Margibi and Montserrado counties in mid-April. The first cases in Liberia's capital Monrovia were reported in mid-June.

The outbreak then spread into Sierra Leone and rapidly progressed. A study of the virus genomes determined that twelve residents, when attending a funeral in Guinea, became infected. They then carried the virus back home. On 25 May, the first cases in the Kailahun District, near the border with Guéckédou in Guinea, were reported. By 20 June, there were 158 suspected cases, mainly in Kailahun and the adjacent district of Kenema. Others were reported in the Kambia, Port Loko, and Western districts in the northwest of the country. By 17 July, the total number of suspected cases in the country stood at 442, and had overtaken those in Guinea and Liberia. By 20 July, cases of the disease had additionally been reported in the Bo District. The first case in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, was reported in late July.

The first death in Nigeria was reported on 25 July. A Liberian-American with Ebola flew from Liberia to Nigeria and died in Lagos soon after arrival. As part of the containment efforts, 353 possible contacts were monitored in Lagos and 451 in Port Harcourt. As of 22 September, the WHO reported a total of 20 cases with 8 deaths. They continue to monitor a few contacts, but the disease appears to now be contained in Nigeria.

On 29 August, the Senegalese Health minister Awa Marie Coll Seck announced the first case in Senegal. This was subsequently identified as a Guinean national who had been exposed to the virus and had been under surveillance, but had travelled to Dakar by road and fallen ill after arriving. This case subsequently recovered and on 22 September the WHO announced that all contacts had completed a 21-day follow-up with no further cases of Ebola in Senegal.

Countries with widespread transmission

Quality of core services: Ebola treatment centres

File:Ebola Treatment Centres In West Africa.jpg Quality of core services: Ebola treatment centres as of 19 September 2014

Guinea

Main article: Ebola virus epidemic in Guinea

On 25 March, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Guinea's Ministry of Health had reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in four southeastern districts. In Guinea, a total of 86 suspected cases, including 59 deaths (case fatality ratio: 68.5%), had been reported as of 24 March. On 31 March, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent a five-person team to assist Guinea's Ministry of Health and the WHO to lead an international response to the Ebola outbreak.

Thinking that the virus was contained, Médecins Sans Frontières closed its treatment centers in May leaving only a small skeleton staff to handle the Macenta region. However, high numbers of new cases reappeared in the region in late August. According to Marc Poncin, a coordinator for MSF, the new cases were related to persons returning to Guinea from neighbouring Liberia or Sierra Leone.

On 18 September, it was reported that the bodies of a team of Guinean health and government officials, accompanied by journalists, who had been distributing Ebola information and doing disinfection work were found in a latrine in the town of Womey near Nzérékoré. The workers had been murdered by residents of the village after they initially went missing after a riot against the presence of the health education team. Government officials said "the bodies showed signs of being attacked with machetes and clubs" and "three of them had their throats slit."

It has been reported that some people in this area believe that health workers have been purposely spreading the disease to the people, while others believe that the disease does not exist. Riots recently broke out in the regional capital, Nzérékoré, when rumors were spread that people were being contaminated when health workers were spraying a market area to decontaminate it.

WHO estimated on 21 September that Guinea's capacity to treat EVD cases falls short by the equivalent of 40 beds.

Liberia

Main article: Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia

In Liberia, the disease was reported in Lofa and Nimba counties in late March. By 23 July, the health ministry implemented measures to improve the country's response. On 27 July, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the Liberian president, announced that Liberia would close its borders, with the exception of a few crossing points, such as the airport, where screening centres would be established, and the worst-affected areas in the country would be placed under quarantine. Football events were banned, because large gatherings and the nature of the sport increase transmission risks. Three days after the borders were closed, Sirleaf announced the closure of all schools nationwide, including the University of Liberia, and a few communities were to be quarantined.

Sirleaf declared a state of emergency on 6 August, partly because the disease's weakening of the health care system has the potential to reduce the system's ability to treat routine diseases such as malaria; she noted that the state of emergency might require the "suspensions of certain rights and privileges". On the same day, the National Elections Commission announced that it would be unable to conduct the scheduled October 2014 senatorial election and requested postponement, one week after the leaders of various opposition parties had publicly taken different sides on the question. On 30 August, Liberia's Port Authority cancelled all "shore passes" for sailors from ships coming into the country's four seaports.

On 20 September, Liberia opened a new 150 bed treatment unit clinic in Monrovia. At the opening ceremony of the Old Island Clinic on Bushrod Island six ambulances were already waiting with potential patients. More patients were waiting by the clinic after making their way on foot with the help of relatives. Two days later 112 beds were already filled with 46 patients testing positive for Ebola, while the rest were admitted for observation.

As of 8 September, Ebola had been identified in 14 of Liberia's 15 counties. WHO estimated on 21 September that Liberia's capacity to treat EVD cases falls short by the equivalent of 1,550 beds.

On 25 September Liberia's chief medical official went on a self enforced quarantine after she was potentially exposed to the Ebola virus. By the 29th of September 2014, it was announced she tested negative for Ebola, but government officials praised her for following the self quarantine rules.

Sierra Leone

Main article: Ebola virus epidemic in Sierra Leone

The first person reported infected in the spread to Sierra Leone of this outbreak was a tribal healer. She had treated one or more infected people and died on 26 May. According to tribal tradition, her body was washed for burial and this appears to have led to infections in women from neighboring towns. On 31 March, Sierra Leone declared a state of emergency and instituted measures to screen travelers from Guinea and Liberia. On 30 July, the government began to deploy troops to implement quarantines.

On 29 July, well-known physician Sheik Umar Khan, Sierra Leone's only expert on hemorrhagic fever, died after contacting Ebola at his clinic in Kenema. Khan had long worked with Lassa fever, a disease that kills over 5,000 a year in Africa. He had expanded his clinic to accept Ebola patients. Sierra Leone's President, Ernest Bai Koroma, celebrated Khan as a "national hero".

In August, awareness campaigns in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, were delivered over the radio and through loudspeakers. Also in August, Sierra Leone passed a law that subjected anyone hiding someone believed to be infected to two years in jail. At the time the law was enacted, a top parliamentarian was critical of failures by neighboring countries to stop the outbreak.

In an attempt to control the disease, Sierra Leone imposed a three-day lockdown on its population from 19 to 21 September. During this period 28,500 trained community workers and volunteers went door-to-door providing information on how to prevent infection, as well as setting up community Ebola surveillance teams. On 22 September, government officials said that the three day lock down had obtained its objective and would not be extended. Eighty percent of targeted households were reached in the operation. A total of around 150 new cases were uncovered, although reports from remote locations had not yet been received.

On 25 September, the government added three more districts under "isolation," in an effort to contain the spread. The districts include Port Loko, Bombali, and Moyamba. This brings the total areas under isolation to five, including the outbreak "hot spots" Kenema and Kailahun which were already in isolation. Only deliveries and essential services were to be allowed in and out. A sharp rise in cases in these areas was noted by the WHO.

WHO estimated on 21 September that Sierra Leone's capacity to treat EVD cases falls short by the equivalent of 532 beds.

Countries with local transmission

Nigeria

Main article: 2014 Nigeria Ebola virus outbreak

Nigeria Ebola areas-2014

Nigeria Situation Map as of 5 September 2014
Date	July 2014 – present
Casualties
Cases / Deaths (as of 21 September 2014) Nigeria: 20 / 8

The first case in Nigeria was a Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who flew from Liberia to Nigeria's former capital Lagos on 20 July. Sawyer became violently ill upon arriving at the airport and died five days later. In response, the Nigerian government observed all of Sawyer's contacts for signs of infection and increased surveillance at all entry points to the country. On 6 August, the Nigerian health minister told reporters, "Yesterday the first known Nigerian to die of Ebola was recorded. This was one of the nurses that attended to the Liberian. The other five [newly confirmed] cases are being treated at an isolation ward." .

On 9 August, the Nigerian National Health Research Ethics Committee issued a statement waiving the regular administrative requirements that limit the international shipment of any biological samples out of Nigeria and supporting the use of non-validated treatments without prior review and approval by a health research ethics committee. Other than increased surveillance at the country’s borders, the Nigerian government states that they have also made attempts to control the spread of disease through an improvement in tracking, providing education to avert disinformation and increase accurate information, and the teaching of appropriate hygiene measures.

On 19 August, it was reported that the doctor who treated Sawyer, Ameyo Adadevoh, had also died of Ebola disease. Adadevoh was posthumously praised for preventing the index case (Sawyer) from leaving the hospital at the time of diagnosis, thereby playing a key role in curbing the spread of the virus in Nigeria.

On 19 August, the Commissioner of Health in Lagos announced that Nigeria had seen twelve confirmed cases; four died (including the index case) while another five, including two doctors and a nurse, were declared disease-free and released. On 22 September, the Nigeria health ministry announced "As of today, there is no case of Ebola in Nigeria. All listed contacts who were under surveillance have been followed up for 21 days." The WHO stated that Nigeria had not reported any new cases since 8 September and if no further cases are reported, Nigeria will be declared Ebola-free on 20 October.

Countries with an initial case or cases

Senegal

In March, the Senegal Ministry of Interior closed the southern border with Guinea, but on 29 August the Senegal health minister announced Senegal's first case, a university student from Guinea who was being treated in Dakar. The WHO was informed on 30 August. According to the WHO, the case was a native of Guinea who had traveled by road to Dakar, arriving on 20 August. On 23 August, he sought medical care for symptoms including fever, diarrhoea, and vomiting. He received treatment for malaria, but did not improve and left the facility. Still experiencing the same symptoms, on 26 August he was referred to a specialized facility for infectious diseases, and was subsequently hospitalized.

On 27 August, authorities in Guinea issued an alert informing medical services in Guinea and neighbouring countries that a person who had been in close contact with an Ebola infected patient had escaped their surveillance system. The alert prompted testing for Ebola at the Dakar laboratory, and the positive result launched an investigation and triggered urgent contact tracing. On 10 September, it was reported that the student had recovered but health officials would continue to monitor his contacts for 21 days. On 22 September, the WHO announced that all contacts had completed the 21-day follow-up with no further cases of Ebola in Senegal.

United States

Main article: Ebola virus case in the United States

On 30 September, the US CDC declared its first case of Ebola disease. A CDC spokesperson said, "The patient is a man who became infected in Liberia and traveled to Texas, where he was hospitalized with symptoms that were confirmed to be caused by Ebola." The patient arrived in Dallas on 20 September. Four days later he fell ill and sought medical treatment on 26 September and was sent home with antibiotics. He returned to the hospital by ambulance on 28 September. The patient is in isolation in the Health Presbyterian Hospital since the weekend of 28 September. According to the Canadian Chief Public Health Officer, that patient travelled via Brussels, Belgium.

The Director of Dallas County's health department, Zachary Thompson, has confirmed that a second person is being closely monitored for Ebola. More contacts of the infected patient are under watch and will be monitored for 21 days and placed in isolation if necessary.

On 1 October four relatives of the patient were placed legally under strict quarantine. Texas health officials have ordered them to stay at home and be available to undergo regular testing until 19 October, the end of the 21-day incubation period. Initial reports do not indicate whether the relatives have been infected with the virus.

Countries with medically evacuated cases

A number of healthcare workers who had become infected with Ebola virus disease have been medically evacuated to treatment in isolation wards in their country of origin.

France

A French volunteer health worker, working for MSF in Liberia, contracted EVD and was flown to France on 18 September. She is being treated at a military hospital. Health Minister Marisol Touraine stated the nurse will receive an experimental drug.

Germany

Germany set up an isolation ward to care for six patients at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf. On 27 August, a Senegalese epidemiologist working for the WHO in Sierra Leone became the first patient.

A doctor working in Sierra Leone who contracted the disease will be treated in Germany. He will be flown to the country on 3 October and treated in the University Hospital in Frankfurt. The doctor of Belgian origin is a resident doctor at the hospital.

Spain

On 5 August, the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God confirmed that Brother Miguel Pajares had been infected. He was volunteering in Liberia. The Spanish military helped with his transfer on 6 August 2014. Authorities stated he would be treated in the 'Carlos III' hospital in Madrid. This attracted controversy, amid questions as to the authorities' ability to guarantee no risk of transmission. Brother Pajares died from the virus on 12 August.

On 21 September the Spanish Ministry of Health released a press statement stating that Brother Manuel Garcia Viejo was evacuated to Spain from Sierra Leone. Brother García Viejo, a medical director at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Lunsar, Sierra Leone, was the second Spanish health worker to be infected with the disease. On Thursday 25 September the Spanish Ministry of Health announced the death of Brother Manuel Garcia Viejo in Madrid. Brother García Viejo passed away after being infected with the virus in Sierra Leone.

Switzerland

On Monday 22 September a Swiss health worker was flown by a private airline to Geneva. The nurse was bitten by an Ebola-infected child on Saturday, 20 September in Sierra Leone. The unidentified male nurse will remain in isolation for 21 days at Geneva's University Hospital. The health ministry says it is unlikely that he was infected, but are monitoring him as a potential Ebola patient until the incubation period has passed.

United Kingdom

An isolation unit at the Royal Free Hospital received its first case on 24 August. William Pooley, a British nurse, was evacuated from Sierra Leone. He was released on September the 3rd.

United States

Kent Brantly, a physician and medical director in Liberia for the aid group Samaritan’s Purse, and co-worker Nancy Writebol were infected while working in Monrovia. Both were flown to the United States at the beginning of August for further treatment in Atlanta's Emory University Hospital. On 21 August, Brantly and Writebol recovered and were discharged.

On 4 September, a Boston physician, Rick Sacra, was airlifted from Liberia to be treated in Omaha at the Nebraska Medical Center. Working for Serving In Mission (SIM), he is the third US missionary to contract EVD. He believes he probably contracted Ebola while performing a caesarean section on a patient who had not been diagnosed with the disease. While in hospital, Sacra received a blood transfusion from Kent Brantly, who had recently recovered from the disease. On 25 September, Sacra was declared Ebola free and released from hospital.

On 9 September, the fourth U.S. citizen who contracted the Ebola virus arrived at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment. The identity of the patient, a doctor working for the WHO in Sierra Leone, was not released. He was scheduled to receive a blood or serum transfusion from a British man who had recently recovered from the disease. In addition, on 21 September, a CDC employee was flown back to the US after low risk exposure with a healthcare worker. Currently he shows no symptoms and is being monitored. The CDC announced he poses no risks to his family or the US. On 28 September, a fourth American doctor was admitted to National Institutes of Health hospital.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Main article: 2014 Democratic Republic of the Congo Ebola virus outbreak

Democratic Republic of Congo-2014

DRC Ebola area as of 6 September 2014
Casualties
Cases / Deaths (as of 23 September 2014) DR Congo: 70 / 42

In August 2014, the WHO reported an outbreak of Ebola Virus in the Boende District, Democratic Republic of the Congo. They confirmed that the current strain of the virus is the Zaire Ebola species, which is common in the country. The virology results and epidemiological findings indicate no connection to the current epidemic in West Africa. This is the country’s seventh Ebola outbreak since 1976.

In August, 13 people were reported to have died of Ebola-like symptoms in the remote northern Équateur province, a province that lies about 750 miles north of the capital Kinshasa. The initial case was a woman from Ikanamongo Village who became ill with symptoms of Ebola after she had butchered a bush animal that her husband had killed. The following week, relatives of the woman, several health-care workers who had treated the woman, and individuals with whom they had been in contact came down with similar symptoms. On 26 August, the Équateur Province Ministry of Health notified the WHO of an outbreak of Ebola. As of 23 September, the WHO has confirmed the number of cases at 70 and the death toll at 42 from possible or confirmed Ebola cases. Among this group are 8 health care workers.

Virology

Ebola virus disease is caused by four of five viruses classified in the genus Ebolavirus. Of the four disease-causing viruses, Ebola virus (formerly and often still called the Zaire virus), is the most dangerous and is the strain responsible for the ongoing epidemic in West Africa.

Since the discovery of the virus in 1976 when an outbreak occurred in the Democratic Republic of Congo (then called Zaire), Ebola disease has been confined to areas in Central Africa, where it is endemic. With the current outbreak, it was initially thought that a new strain endemic to Guinea might be the cause, rather than being imported from central to West Africa. However, further studies have shown that the current outbreak is likely caused by an Ebola virus lineage that has spread from Central Africa into West Africa, with the first viral transfer to humans in Guinea.

In a study done by the Broad Institute and Harvard University, in partnership with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, researchers may have provided information about the origin and transmission of the Ebola virus that sets this outbreak apart from previous outbreaks. For this study, 99 Ebola virus genomes were collected and sequenced from 78 patients diagnosed with the Ebola virus during the first 24 days of the outbreak in Sierra Leone. The team found more than 300 genetic changes that make the 2014 Ebola virus distinct from previous outbreaks. It is still unclear whether these differences are related to the severity of the current outbreak. Five members of the research team became ill and died from Ebola before the study was published in August.

Transmission

The life cycles of the Ebolavirus.

Human-to-human transmission can occur via direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from an infected person or by contact with objects contaminated by the virus. When adequate infection control measures are utilized, the potential for widespread Ebola infections is considered low as the disease is only spread by direct contact with the secretions from someone who is showing signs of infection. Airborne transmission has not been documented during Ebola outbreaks. The time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms is 2 to 21 days. Because dead bodies are still infectious, local traditional burial rituals may spread the disease. Semen and possibly other body fluids (e.g. breast milk) may be infectious in survivors for months.

One of the primary reasons for spread is that the health systems in the part of Africa where the disease occurs function poorly. The risk of transmission is increased among those caring for people infected. Recommended measures when caring for those who are infected include isolating them, sterilizing equipment and surfaces, and wearing protective clothing including masks, gloves, gowns, and goggles. However, even with proper isolation equipment available, working conditions such as no running water, no climate control, and no floors, continue to make direct care dangerous. Two American health workers who had contracted the disease and later recovered said that their team of workers had been following "to the letter all of the protocols for safety that were developed by the CDC and WHO", including a full body coverall, several layers of gloves, and face protection including goggles. One of the two, a physician, had worked with patients, but the other was working to help workers get in and out of their protective gear, while wearing protective gear herself.

It is not entirely clear how an Ebola outbreak is initially started. The initial infection is believed to occur after an Ebola virus is transmitted to a human by contact with an infected animal's body fluids. Evidence strongly implicates bats as the reservoir hosts for ebolaviruses. Bats drop partially eaten fruits and pulp, then land mammals such as gorillas and duikers feed on these fallen fruits. This chain of events forms a possible indirect means of transmission from the natural host to animal populations.

Prevention

See also: Ebola virus disease § Infection control and containment

Comparing the present Ebola outbreak to some in the past, the WHO notes that many of the most recent districts in which epidemics have occurred were in remote areas where the transmission had been easier to track and break. This outbreak is different in that large cities have been affected as well, where tracking has been difficult. Furthermore, without past Ebola experience medical staff did not suspect Ebola when they made a diagnosis, mistaking the symptoms for more familiar diseases such as malaria and typhoid fever, which are common to the area. Not aware that they were dealing with such a highly contagious disease, strict isolation and contact tracing techniques were not deemed necessary. Also, without recent past experience with the disease, some people have become intensely fearful and have denied that the disease even exists and, in some cases, attacked medical staff, believing that they cause the disease.

Contact tracing

Contact tracing is an essential method to tamp down the spread of the disease. It involves finding everyone who had close contact with an Ebola case, and tracking them for 21 days. However, this requires careful record keeping by properly trained and equipped staff. WHO Assistant Director-General for Global Health Security, Keiji Fukuda, said on 3 September, "We don’t have enough health workers, doctors, nurses, drivers, and contact tracers to handle the increasing number of cases." This is a massive ongoing effort to volunteers and health workers. According to reports, 12,315 from Sierra Leone and 11,911 from Liberia are listed and being traced as of 23 September. Figures for Guinea are not known.

Travel restrictions and quarantines

Difficulties faced in attempting to contain the outbreak include the outbreak's multiple locations across country borders, Dr Peter Piot, the scientist who co-discovered the Ebola virus, has stated that the present outbreak is not following its usual linear patterns as mapped out in previous outbreaks. This time the virus is "hopping" all over the West African epidemic region. Furthermore, past epidemics have occurred in remote regions, but this outbreak has spread to large urban areas which has increased the number of contacts an infected person may have and has also made transmission harder to track and break.

On 8 August, a cordon sanitaire, a disease fighting practice that forcibly isolates affected regions, was established in the triangular area where Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone are separated only by porous borders and where 70 percent of the known cases had been found. By September, the closure of borders had caused a collapse of cross-border trade and was having a devastating effect on the economies of the involved countries. A United Nations spokesperson reported that the price of some food staples had increased by as much as 150% and warned that if they continue to rise widespread food shortages can be expected.

On 2 September, WHO Director-General Margaret Chan advised against travel restrictions saying that they are not justified and that they are preventing medical experts from entering the affected areas and "marginalizing the affected population and potentially worsening [the crisis]". UN officials working on the ground have also criticized the travel restrictions saying the solution is "not in travel restrictions but in ensuring that effective preventive and curative health measures are put in place." Médecins Sans Frontières, also speaking out against the closure of international borders, called it "another layer of collective irresponsibility": "The international community must ensure that those who try to contain the outbreak can enter and leave the affected countries if need be. A functional system of medical evacuation has to be set up urgently."

Healthcare settings

Local authorities have not had resources to contain the disease, with health centres closing and hospitals overwhelmed. In late June, the Director-General of Médecins Sans Frontières said, "Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own. I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible." Adequate equipment has not been provided for medical personnel, with even a lack of soap and water for hand-washing and disinfection.

Various aid organisations and international bodies, including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the U.S. CDC and the European Commission have donated funds and mobilised personnel to help counter the outbreak; charities including Médecins Sans Frontières, the Red Cross, and Samaritan's Purse are also working in the area.

A number of Ebola Treatment Centres have been set up in the area, supported by international aid organisations and staffed by a combination of local and international staff. Each treatment centre is divided into a number of distinct and rigorously separate areas. For patients, there is a triage area, and low & high risk care wards. For staff, there are areas for preparation and decontamination. An important part of each centre is an arrangement for safe burial or cremation of bodies, required to prevent further infection.

Deaths of healthcare workers

In August, it was reported that healthcare workers represented nearly 10 percent of the cases and fatalities, significantly impairing the ability to respond to the outbreak in an area which already faces a severe shortage of doctors. In the hardest hit areas there have historically been only one or two doctors available to treat 100,000 people, and these doctors are heavily concentrated in urban areas. Healthcare providers caring for people with Ebola and family and friends in close contact with people with Ebola are at the highest risk of getting infected because they may come in direct contact with the blood or body fluids of the sick person. In some places affected by the current outbreak, care may be provided in clinics with limited resources, and workers could be in these areas for several hours with a number of Ebola infected patients. According to the WHO, the high proportion of infected medical staff can be explained by lack of the number of medical staff needed to manage such a large outbreak, shortages of protective equipment, or improperly using what is available, and "the compassion that causes medical staff to work in isolation wards far beyond the number of hours recommended as safe.".

Among the fatalities is Samuel Brisbane, a former advisor to the Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, described as "one of Liberia's most high-profile doctors." In July, leading Ebola doctor Sheik Umar Khan from Sierra Leone died in the outbreak. His death was followed by two more deaths in Sierra Leone: Modupe Cole, a senior physician at the country`s main referral facility, and Sahr Rogers, who worked in Kenema. In August, a well-known Nigerian physician, Ameyo Adadevoh, died. She was posthumously praised for preventing the Nigerian index case from leaving the hospital at the time of diagnosis, thereby playing a key role in curbing the spread of the virus in Nigeria.

By 29 September, the WHO reported 377 workers had been infected and 216 had died. Liberia has been especially hard hit with almost half the total cases (185 with 95 deaths) reported. Sierra Leone registered 114 cases with 81 fatalities, thus indicating a death toll of seven out of ten. Guinea reported 67 infected cases with 35 deaths. In Nigeria 11 healthcare workers were also infected and 5 deaths were recorded.

Community

In order to reduce the spread, the World Health Organization recommends raising community awareness of the risk factors for Ebola infection and the protective measures individuals can take. These include avoiding contact with infected people and regular hand washing using soap and water. Traditional burial rituals, especially those requiring washing or embalming of bodies, have been discouraged. Airline crews are instructed to isolate anyone who has symptoms resembling Ebola virus.

A condition of dire poverty exists in many of the areas that have experienced a high incidence of infections. According to the director of the NGO Plan International in Guinea, "The poor living conditions and lack of water and sanitation in most districts of Conakry pose a serious risk that the epidemic escalates into a crisis. People do not think to wash their hands when they do not have enough water to drink."

Containment efforts have been hindered because there is reluctance among residents of rural areas to recognize the danger of infection related to person-to-person spread of disease, such as burial practices which include washing of the body of one who has died. A 2014 study found that nearly two thirds of cases of Ebola in Guinea are believed to be due to burial practices.

Denial in some affected countries has often made containment efforts difficult. Language barriers and the appearance of medical teams in protective suits has sometimes increased fears of the virus. There are reports that some people believe that the disease is caused by sorcery and that doctors are killing patients. In late July, the former Liberian health minister, Peter Coleman, stated that "people don't seem to believe anything the government now says."

Acting on a rumor that the virus was invented to conceal "cannibalistic rituals" (due to medical workers preventing families from viewing the dead), demonstrations were staged outside of the main hospital treating Ebola patients in Kenema, Sierra Leone. The demonstrations were broken up by the police and resulted in the need to use armed guards at the hospital. In Liberia, a mob attacked an Ebola isolation centre stealing equipment and "freeing" patients while shouting, "There's no Ebola." Red Cross staff were forced to suspend operations in southeast Guinea after they were threatened by a group of men armed with knives. In the town of Womey in Guinea, at least eight aid workers were murdered by suspicious inhabitants with machetes and their bodies dumped in a latrine on September 18.

Treatment

See also: Research into the Ebola virus disease and Treatment of the Ebola virus disease

Treatment facilities in West Africa

File:WHO ebola response map.jpg Treatment facilities and responses in the West African region as of 25 September 2014

No proven Ebola virus-specific treatment exists as of August 2014. Treatment is primarily supportive in nature and includes minimizing invasive procedures, balancing fluids and electrolytes to counter dehydration, administration of anticoagulants early in infection to prevent or control disseminated intravascular coagulation, administration of procoagulants late in infection to control bleeding, maintaining oxygen levels, pain management, and the use of medications to treat bacterial or fungal secondary infections. Early treatment may increase the chance of survival.

Level of care

In late August, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) called the situation "chaotic" and the medical response "inadequate". They reported that they had expanded their operations but were unable to keep up with the rapidly increasing need for assistance which had forced them to reduce the level of care they were able to offer: "It is not currently possible, for example, to administer intravenous treatments." Calling the situation "an emergency within the emergency", MSF reported that many hospitals have had to shut down due to lack of staff or fears of the virus among patients and staff which has left people with other health problems without any care at all. Speaking from a remote region, a MSF worker said that a shortage of protective equipment was making the medical management of the disease difficult and that they had limited capacity to safely bury bodies.

By September, treatment for Ebola patients had become unavailable in some areas. Speaking on 12 September, WHO director-general Margaret Chan said, "In the three hardest hit countries, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the number of new cases is moving far faster than the capacity to manage them in the Ebola-specific treatment centers. Today, there is not one single bed available for the treatment of an Ebola patient in the entire country of Liberia." According to a WHO report released on 19 September, Sierra Leone is currently meeting only 25% of its need for patient beds, and Liberia and Guinea are meeting only 20% of their needs.

Current bed capacity for patients in countries with active cases as at 21 Sep 2014.

Countries	Existing beds	Beds to be set up with partner	Additional beds required
Guinea	180	0	40
Liberia	345	440	1,550
Sierra Leone	323	297	532
Total	848	763	2,122

Experimental treatments

A researcher working with the Ebola virus while wearing a BSL-4 positive pressure suit to avoid infection.

The unavailability of treatments in the most-affected regions has spurred controversy, with some calling for experimental drugs to be made more widely available in Africa on a humanitarian basis, and others warning that making unproven drugs widely available would be unethical, especially in light of past experimentation conducted in developing countries by Western drug companies. As a result of the controversy, on 12 August an expert panel of the WHO endorsed the use of interventions with as-yet-unknown effects for both treatment and prevention of Ebola, and also said that deciding which treatments should be used and how to distribute them equitably were matters that needed further discussion.

Subsequently the WHO assistant director-general for health systems and innovation said on 5 September that transfusion of whole blood or purified serum from Ebola survivors is the therapy with the greatest potential to be implemented immediately on a large scale in West Africa, although there is little information on the efficacy of such treatment. In mid-September the sale of black market blood from survivors of the disease has been noted as a new trend in the Ebola-affected regions. While serum derived blood from surviving victims has been used under strict control in certain cases, this trend in an uncontrolled manner could lead to other infectious diseases. This treatment must be properly implemented as a medical treatment under strict control and screening of possible donors. Margaret Chan of the WHO has criticized the use of this practice in a black market environment, noting concerns over "storage and collection methods".

A number of experimental treatments are being studied or will undergo trials soon:

• ZMapp, a monoclonal antibody vaccine. The limited supply of the drug has been used to treat a small number of individuals infected with the Ebola virus. Although some of these have recovered the outcome is not considered statistically significant. ZMapp has proved highly effective in a trial involving rhesus macaque monkeys.
• TKM-Ebola, an RNA interference drug.
• Favipiravir, a drug approved in Japan for stockpiling against influenza pandemics. The drug appears to be useful in a mouse model of the disease and Japan has offered to supply the drug if requested by the WHO.
• In September, an experimental vaccine, now known as the cAd3-ZEBOV vaccine, commenced simultaneous Phase 1 trials in Oxford and Bethesda. The vaccine was developed jointly by GlaxoSmithKline and the NIH. If this phase is completed successfully, the vaccine will be fast tracked for use in West Africa. In preparation for this, GSK is preparing a stockpile of 10,000 doses. A second vaccine candidate, rVSV-ZEBOV, developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada is about to undergo Phase 1 trials.

Prognosis

See also: Ebola virus disease § Prognosis

According to a website for collaborative analysis and discussion about the Ebola emergence, as of 7 August, attempts to create an accurate case fatality rate (CFR) had been unreliable due to differences in testing policies, the inclusion of probable and suspected cases, and primarily the rate of new cases that have not run their course. In late August, the WHO made an initial CFR estimate of 52%. Compared to previous Zaire strain outbreaks, this number was quite low. The twelve Zaire strain outbreaks since the first one reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976 have had an average CFR of about 76%. Even the Sudan ebolavirus species, known to be less virulent than the Zaire species, has had an average CFR of about 57%. However, a weakness of the WHO figures was that they simply divided the number of deaths by the total number of total cases which may underestimate the CFR as it includes recently diagnosed individuals who may not survive. On 23 September, the WHO released a revised and far more accurate CFR of 70%, derived using data from patients with definitive clinical outcomes.

Projections of future cases

Statistical measurements

The basic reproduction number is a statistical measure of the number of people who are expected to be infected by one person who has the disease in question. If the rate is less than 1, the infection will die out in the long run and if the rate is greater than 1, the infection will continue to spread in a population. Using data supplied by the WHO, several studies done in early to mid September estimated a reproduction number for the epidemic in West Africa of between 1.2 and 2.5, with variations between countries and time during the outbreak.

A more recent study published on 23 September in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, "On the basis of the initial periods of exponential growth, the estimated basic reproduction numbers (R₀ ) are 1.71 (95% CI, 1.44 to 2.01) for Guinea, 1.83 (95% CI, 1.72 to 1.94) for Liberia, and 2.02 (95% CI, 1.79 to 2.26) for Sierra Leone. The estimated current reproduction numbers (R) are 1.81 (95% CI, 1.60 to 2.03) for Guinea, 1.51 (95% CI, 1.41 to 1.60) for Liberia, and 1.38 (95% CI, 1.27 to 1.51) for Sierra Leone; the corresponding doubling times are 15.7 days (95% CI, 12.9 to 20.3) for Guinea, 23.6 days (95% CI, 20.2 to 28.2) for Liberia, and 30.2 days (95% CI, 23.6 to 42.3) for Sierra Leone."

Total case projections

On 28 August, the WHO released its first estimate of the possible total cases (20,000) from the outbreak as part of its roadmap for stopping the transmission of the virus. The WHO roadmap states "[t]his Roadmap assumes that in many areas of intense transmission the actual number of cases may be two- to fourfold higher than that currently reported. It acknowledges that the aggregate case load of EVD could exceed 20,000 over the course of this emergency. The Roadmap assumes that a rapid escalation of the complementary strategies in intense transmission, resource-constrained areas will allow the comprehensive application of more standard containment strategies within 3 months." It includes an assumption that some country or countries will pay the required cost of their plan, estimated at half a billion dollars.

When the WHO released its first estimated projected number of cases, a number of epidemiologists presented data to show that the WHO's projection of a total of 20,000 cases was likely an underestimate. On August 31, the journal Science quoted Christian Althaus, a mathematical epidemiologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland, as saying that if the epidemic were to continue in this way until December, the cumulative number of cases would exceed 100,000 in Liberia alone. According to a research paper released in early September, in the hypothetical worst-case scenario, if a reproduction number of over 1.0 continues for the remainder of the year we would expect to observe a total of 77,181 to 277,124 additional cases within 2014. On 9 September, Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine controversially announced that the containment fight in Sierra Leone and Liberia has already been "lost" and that the disease would "burn itself out". Writing in the NYT on 12 September, Bryan Lewis, an epidemiologist at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, said that researchers at various universities who have been using computer models to track the growth rate say that at the virus’s present rate of growth, there could easily be close to 20,000 cases in one month, not in nine.

On 8 September, the WHO warned that the number of new cases in Liberia was increasing exponentially, and would increase by "many thousands" in the following three weeks. In a 23 September WHO report, the WHO revised their previous projection, stating that they expect there to be an excess of 20,000 Ebola cases in West Africa by 2 November. They further stated, that if the disease is not adequately contained it could become endemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, "spreading as routinely as malaria or the flu", and according to an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, eventually to other parts of Africa and beyond.

In a 23 September CDC report, a projection calculates a potential underreporting which is corrected by a factor of 2.5. With this correction factor, approximately 21,000 total cases are the estimate for the end of September 2014 in Liberia and Sierra Leone alone. The same report predicted that total cases, including unreported cases, could reach 1.4 million in Liberia and Sierra Leone by 20 January 2015 if no improvement in intervention or community behaviour occurred.

Economic effects

In addition to the loss of life, the outbreak is having a number of significant economic impacts.

• Markets and shops are closing, due to travel restrictions, cordon sanitaire, or fear of human contact, leading to loss of income for producers and traders.
• Movement of people away from affected areas has disturbed agricultural activities. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that the outbreak could endanger harvest and food security in West Africa.
• Tourism is directly impacted in affected countries. Other countries in Africa which are not directly affected by the virus have also reported adverse effects on tourism.
• Foreign mining companies have withdrawn non-essential personnel, deferred new investment, and cut back operations.
• Many airlines have experienced reduced traffic. Some airlines have suspended flights to the area.
• Forecasts of economic growth have been reduced. A 4 August World Bank-IMF assessment for Guinea projected a full percentage point fall in GDP growth from 4.5 percent to 3.5 percent and on 17 September, they reported that if the epidemic continues to grow, the affected countries could see the economic impact grow eight-fold, "dealing a potentially catastrophic blow to the already fragile states."
• The outbreak is straining the finances of governments, with Sierra Leone using Treasury bills to fund the fight against the virus.
• The IMF is considering expanding assistance to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia as their national deficits are ballooning and their economies contract sharply.

Responses

International organizations

World Health Organization

In July, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened an emergency sub-regional meeting with health ministers from eleven countries in Accra, Ghana. On 3 July, the West African states announced collaboration on a new strategy, and the creation of a WHO sub-regional centre in Guinea "to co-ordinate technical support"; the centre was inaugurated in Conakry on 24 July.

The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Luis Sambo, visited the affected countries from 21 to 25 July, meeting with political leaders, ministers of health, NGOs, and other agencies. He stressed the need to "promote behavioural change while respecting cultural practices." On 24 July, WHO's Director General met with agencies and donors in Geneva to facilitate an increase in funding and manpower to respond to the outbreak. On 31 July, the WHO and West Africa nations announced a requirement for $100 million in aid to help contain the disease.

WHO declared the outbreak an international public health emergency on 8 August, after a two-day teleconference of experts. On 11 August, they emphasised lack of supplies and capacity as one of the problems, while local awareness of the disease had increased. Revised guidelines on how to prevent the spread of the disease were released, updating guidelines from 2008.

On 28 August, the WHO published a roadmap to guide and coordinate the international response to the outbreak, aiming to stop ongoing Ebola transmission worldwide within 6–9 months. It simultaneously revised its cost estimate for the global resources required over the next six months up to $490 million. They report that they "are on the ground establishing Ebola treatment centres and strengthening capacity for laboratory testing, contact tracing, social mobilization, safe burials, and non-Ebola health care" and "continue to monitor for reports of rumoured or suspected cases from countries around the world." Other than cases where individuals are suspected or have been confirmed of being infected with Ebola, or have had contact with cases of Ebola, the WHO does not recommend any travel or trade restrictions.

On 16 September, the WHO Assistant Director General, Bruce Aylward, announced that the cost for combating the epidemic will be a minimum of $1 billion. "We don't know where the numbers are going on this," according to Aylward.

United Nations Security Council

On 18 September, the United Nations Security Council declared the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa a "threat to international peace and security". The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution urging UN member states to provide more resources to fight the outbreak. The resolution was the first in the history of the Security Council to deal with a public health crisis. It was sponsored by 131 countries, which – according to US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power – makes it the most broadly supported of the 2,176 resolutions in the entire history of the United Nations.

For the first time in the history of the UN Security Council they have created a mission for a public health emergency. The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) will be formed in the coming days. The mission's primary task will be coordinating the UN agencies' vast resources to combat the epidemic under the leadership of the WHO. In a press statement Dr. David Nabarro, the UN Secretary General’s Senior Coordinator, said, "This unprecedented outbreak requires an unprecedented response. The number of cases have doubled in these countries in the last three weeks. To get in front of this, the response must be increased 20-fold from where it is today." The city of Accra, in Ghana, will serve as a base for UNMEER from where they will work closely with the governments of the affected areas.

Médecins Sans Frontières

According to a WHO report released on 18 September, the humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is the leading organization responding to the crisis. Currently it has five treatment centers in the area with two in Guinea, two in Liberia and one in Sierra Leone. The centers are staffed by 210 international workers in collaboration with 1,650 staff from the affected regions.

Médecins Sans Frontières has campaigned since the beginning of the epidemic for a better response from governments and international agencies. Speaking at a United Nations (UN) briefing on 2 September, Joanne Liu, international president of Médecins Sans Frontières, criticized the lack of assistance from UN member countries.

"Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain it. In West Africa, cases and deaths continue to surge. Riots are breaking out. Isolation centers are overwhelmed. Health workers on the front lines are becoming infected and are dying in shocking numbers. Others have fled in fear, leaving people without care for even the most common illnesses. Entire health systems have crumbled. Ebola treatment centers are reduced to places where people go to die alone, where little more than palliative care is offered. It is impossible to keep up with the sheer number of infected people pouring into facilities. In Sierra Leone, infectious bodies are rotting in the streets."

Economic Community of West African States

In March, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) disbursed US$250,000 to deal with the outbreak. In response to the ECOWAS Special Fund for the Fight Against Ebola, in July the Nigerian government donated 3.5 million dollars to Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, the West African Health Organization, and the ECOWAS Pool Fund, to aid in the fight against the epidemic.

European Union

In April, a mobile laboratory, capable of performing the molecular diagnosis of viral pathogens of risk groups 3 and 4, was deployed in Guinea by the European Mobile Laboratory project (EMLab) as part of the WHO/GOARN outbreak response. Prior samples were analyzed at the Jean Mérieux BSL-4 Laboratory in Lyon.

World Bank Group

The World Bank Group has pledged US $230 million in emergency funding to help Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone contain the spread of Ebola infections, help their communities cope with the economic impact of the crisis, and improve public health systems throughout West Africa. On 25 September The World Bank made additional funding of $170 million available to help curtail the spread of the Ebola virus. The funds will be used to finance medical supplies and increase the number of healthcare workers.

World Food Programme

On 18 August, the World Food Programme (WFP) of the United Nations announced plans to mobilize food assistance for an estimated 1 million people living in restricted access areas. In an 18 September WHO Ebola Response Roadmap Situation Report it was reported that as of that date the WFP have delivered an estimated 3,000 metric tonnes of food to the worst affected areas, enough to feed 147,500 people. They have also assisted in the transportation of 400 cubic meters of medical cargo.

National responses

A number of governments across the world have put measures in place to protect their populations from Ebola. These include:

• Advisory notices to warn travellers of the potential risk of travel to countries affected by the epidemic. (Germany, Spain, UK, USA, Colombia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia.)

• Withholding visitor visas from nationals of the affected countries, closing borders and cancelling flights. (Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, South Africa, Chad, Seychelles, Mauritania)

• Precautions such as isolation facilities, training of staff, biocontainment exercises, and health screening for incoming travellers. (Malta, Colombia, India, South Africa, Morocco, Mali, Germany, Philippines, Mauritania)

Australia

Australia announced on 17 September that it will commit an additional 7 million Australian dollars to help the international response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, bringing the total committed to AU$8 million. The funds will be divided between support to the British government's response, the World Health Organization, and Medecins Sans Frontieres. However MSF has declined the donation, saying that what's needed instead is a specialised deployment of civil and military assets.

Brazil

In response to the request for international cooperation made by the World Health Organization, Brazil's Health Ministry has donated a number of medical kits to affected countries. Each kit comprises 1.2 tons of supplies including antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, gloves and masks, sufficient to treat 500 patients for three months. Four kits have been allocated to Guinea, five to Sierra Leone and five more to Liberia.

Canada

On 12 August, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) announced that the country would donate between 800 and 1,000 doses of an untested vaccine (VSV-EBOV) to the WHO. The offer was made by the Minister of Health directly to the Director General of the WHO as part of the country's commitment to containment efforts. The Government of Canada holds the patent associated with the vaccine, but has licensed BioProtection Systems of Ames, Iowa to develop the product for use in humans.

As of 12 August, Canada's contribution to address the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa is estimated at $5,195,000. This includes resources dedicated to humanitarian, security, and public health interventions.

On 6 September, the Public Health Agency of Canada announced that they will be resuming work at the Kailahun mobile laboratory in Sierra Leone after having recalled three members in late August, after they had possible contact with infected persons who had stayed in the same hotel. A team of three has been sent to the laboratory; staff will rotate on a monthly basis.

China

In August, China sent their second donation of supplies to Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The supplies, worth 30 million yuan (4.9 million US dollars), include medical protective clothes, disinfectants, thermo-detectors, and medicines. China has also sent three expert teams composed of epidemiologists and specialists in disinfection and protection.

Some Chinese companies in West Africa have also joined the relief efforts. China Kingho Group, a leading exploration and mining company in Sierra Leone, donated 400 million leones (about $90,000) to the government and people of Sierra Leone on 15 August.

On 16 August, Chinese President Xi Jinping and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed several issues, including Ebola, in their fourth meeting this year. Xi said China will continue to make joint efforts with the international community to prevent and control the Ebola virus outbreak that has hit West Africa. China's medical teams in the countries are working with local staff, according to Xi. Xi also spoke highly of the measures taken by the United Nations and WHO and its professional institutions, and called for more assistance and input for medical and health services in African countries. On 25 September, a second mobile lab landed at Lungi Airport in Sierra Leone. The lab will assist the 29 CDC workers experts from China already in the region to help fight the disease.

Cuba

On 10 September, Cuba announced its willingness to help curtail the spread of the disease. Cuba will be sending 165 doctors and nurses to Sierra Leone on a six month rotation starting early October. Infection control specialists will be among the group. On 27 September, Cuba announced it is sending another 296 healthcare workers to the Liberia and Guinea. The first batch of 62 doctors and 103 nurses will be dispatched to Sierra Leone by October after they received the necessary training in tropical diseases.

Germany

The German government announced on 19 September that its contributions to the fight against Ebola had reached a total of euro 17 million to date. This includes contributions to the World Health Organisation, Medecins sans Frontieres, and other agencies. Material contributions include air transport to the region and a treatment station for Liberia.

On 22 September Ursula von der Leyen, the German defense minister, has asked volunteers from their military contingent to assist in staffing a clinic in the epidemic region. The minister appealed to soldiers to "voluntarily make yourselves available for this unusual mission."

Ghana

On 30 August, the Ghanaian Presidency released a press statement, announcing the country's willingness to use Accra as a support base to help fight Ebola in the stricken countries. This agreement follows a telephonic meeting with the United Nations chief, Ban Ki-moon and John Dramani Mahama, the President of Ghana. Accra will serve as a base for air lifting medical and other supplies to countries affected by the Ebola outbreak, as well as personnel to curtail the disease. In the coming months Ghana will play a major role in the fight against the disease in the region. The city of Accra will be the designated base for UNMEER, the newly formed mission by the UN.

Ivory Coast

The Ivory Coast, on 22 August, released a statement on state-owned television announcing the closure of its borders to the neighbouring countries affected by the Ebola outbreak. Attempting to prevent the Ebola outbreak of the virus from spreading to the Ivory Coast, the government announced the closure of all its land based borders to the country's West African neighbours Guinea and Liberia.

The Ivory Coast previously placed a ban on all flights to and from Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) is allowing shipping commerce to enter the port of Abidjan from the affected countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Vessels coming from those countries are required to undergo a medical inspection by a boarding team prior to entry.

Japan

In April, the Government of Japan gave $520,000 through the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to support the Ebola outbreak response in Guinea. In August, another $1.5 million in additional support was provided to be disbursed via the WHO, UNICEF and Red Cross, and will be used for measures to prevent Ebola infections and to provide medical supplies.

On 25 August, Japanese authorities announced that they would be willing to provide access to an anti-influenza drug currently under development called favipiravir to try to treat EVD patients. Fujifilm Holdings Corp and MediVector have reportedly approached the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to request approval for this experimental use of favipiravir. Up to 20,000 doses of favipiravir would currently be available.

Malaysia

Malaysia plans to send more than 20 million medical gloves to Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone to alleviate a shortage of medical supplies in the affected countries. Malaysia will also send medical gloves to the Democratic Republic of Congo which is also dealing with an Ebola outbreak unrelated to the one affecting West Africa.

Philippines

The Department of Health expressed its willingness to send medical workers to Ebola-affected countries to help contain the outbreak. On 23 August, the Philippines announced that it is pulling out its 115 UN peacekeepers stationed in Liberia due to the increasing health risk the troops face due to the outbreak.

Saudi Arabia

In August, Saudi Arabia announced that it would block issuance of Hajj and Umrah visas to the citizens of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.

United Kingdom

The UK government has made £2 million available to partners including the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) and Médecins Sans Frontières that are operating in Sierra Leone and Liberia to tackle the outbreak. Additionally a £6.5 million rapid response research initiative has been announced jointly by the Department for International Development and the Wellcome Trust to better inform the management of Ebola outbreaks. This includes research which could help tackle the current outbreak.

On 8 September Mark Francois, a spokesperson for the Minister of Armed Forces, announced that British troops, medics and equipment will be deployed to help assist Sierra Leone in the containing of the disease. The troops will be building a 62 bed treatment facility near Freetown. The Armed Forces' engineers and medics expect the facility to be completed and operational in two months. The treatment center will be staffed by Armed Forces’ medical personnel and handed over to one of the aid organizations in the country.

United States

By the beginning of August, the Centers for Disease Control had placed staff in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria to assist the local Ministries of Health and WHO-led response to the outbreak. On 8 September, United States President Barack Obama announced that the United States government would send military personnel to the epidemic area. The military will assist in the setting up of isolation units and will provide additional safety to health workers in the area. The military will also assist in providing transportation of medical equipment. President Obama added that the steps are necessary to curtail the spread of the virus. The announcement came amid fears that the virus might mutate and become more virulent and "represents a serious national security concern."

On 8 September, the Department of Defense announced that it had allocated $22 million to set up a 25-bed field hospital in Liberia to treat healthcare workers affected by the Ebola virus. On 9 September, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced that it will support the African Union’s deployment of approximately 100 health workers to West Africa to manage and run Ebola treatment units.

On 16 September, President Obama announced that the U.S. military will take the lead in overseeing the response to the epidemic. The military will dispatch up to 3,000 personnel to West Africa in an effort that could cost up to $750 million over the next six months. U.S. Major General Darryl A. Williams, Commander, United States Army Africa, will be in place in Monrovia, Liberia, within the week to lead the effort. The general will head a regional command based in Liberia that will help oversee and coordinate U.S. and international relief efforts while a new, separate regional staging base in Senegal will help accelerate transportation of urgently needed equipment, supplies and personnel. In addition, the Pentagon will send engineers to set up 17 treatment centers in Liberia — each with a 100-bed capacity — and will set up a site in the region to train up to 500 health-care workers a week. The President said that the armed forces “are going to bring their expertise in command and control, in logistics, in engineering” to help do tasks ranging from bringing in aid workers and medical equipment to distributing supplies and information kits to families in high-risk areas so they can take the appropriate precautions. He added, “Our armed services is better at that than any organization on Earth.”

However the CDC has warned that there may be insufficient staff for the new treatment facilities which the international community is building.

Charitable organizations, foundations and individuals

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

On 10 September, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released $50 million to the United Nations and other international aid agencies fighting the epidemic. The foundation also donated $2 million to the CDC to assist them with their burden. Previous donations consisted of $5 million to the WHO and $5 million to UNICEF to buy medical supplies and fund support efforts in the region. “We are working urgently with our partners to identify the most effective ways to help them save lives now and stop transmission of this deadly disease,” the Foundation CEO said in a statement.

Paul G. Allen Family Foundation

On 11 September, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation pledged $9 million to the CDC. The funds will be appropriated to build treatment co-ordination centers and assist in training programs. This follows their earlier donation of $2.8 million, in August, to the Red Cross.

Samaritan's Purse

Samaritan's Purse is providing direct patient care in multiple locations in Liberia. At a congressional committee hearing on 7 August 2014, the head of Samaritan's Purse told the committee, "The international response has been a failure, and it's important to understand that."

Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust announced on 23 September a £(British pounds) 3.2 million grant to fast-track trials of the most promising Ebola treatments. This will enable multiple partners around the world to quickly establish clinical trials at existing Ebola treatment centres in West Africa, where treatments can be formally evaluated in patients with Ebola virus disease.

Individual contributors

On 14 August, the Nigerian government said Aliko Dangote had donated $1 million to halt the spread of the Ebola virus outbreak.

Popular culture

"Ebola in Town", a dance tune by a group of West African rappers warning people of the dangers of the Ebola virus and explaining how to react, became popular in Guinea and Liberia during the first quarter of 2014.

In August 2014, George Weah and Ghanaian musician Sidney produced a song to raise awareness about Ebola.

There are a number of Ebola-themed jokes circulating in West Africa to spread awareness.

Timeline of cases and deaths

Data comes from reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the WHO. All numbers are correlated with United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) if available. The table includes suspected cases that have not yet been confirmed. The reports are sourced from official information from the affected countries' health ministries. WHO has stated the reported numbers "vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak", saying there may be 2.5 times as many cases as officially reported. Cases in remote areas may also be missed.

The case numbers reported may include probable or suspected cases. Numbers are revised downward if a case is later found to be negative. (Numbers may differ from reports as per respective Government reports. See notes at the bottom for stated source file.)

• 
  Cumulative totals of cases and deaths over time
• 
  Cumulative totals in log scale
• 
  Average new cases and deaths per day (between WHO reporting dates)

• 
  Cumulative number of cases and deaths by country, using a linear scale
• 
  Cumulative number of cases and deaths by country, using a logarithmic scale
• 
  Cases and death based on population, using a linear scale
• 
  Cases and death based on population, using a logarithmic scale

Ebola cases and deaths by country and by date - 1 August to present.

Date	Total		Guinea		Liberia		Sierra Leone		Nigeria		Senegal		United States		Refs
	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths
28 Sep 2014	7,192	3,286	1,157	710	3,696	1,998	2,317	570	20	8	1	0	1	0	✓
25 Sep 2014	6,808	3,159	1,103	668	3,564	1,922	2,120	561	20	8	1	0			✓
23 Sep 2014	6,574	3,043	1,074	648	3,458	1,830	2,021	557	20	8	1	0			✓
21 Sep 2014	6,263	2,900	1,022	635	3,280	1,707	1,940	550	20	8	1	0			✓
17 Sep 2014	5,762	2,746	965	623	3,022	1,578	1,753	537	21	8	1	0			✓
14 Sep 2014	5,339	2,586	942	601	2,720	1,461	1,655	516	21	8	1	0			✓
10 Sep 2014	4,846	2,375	899	568	2,415	1,307	1,509	493	22	8	3	0			✓
7 Sep 2014	4,366	2,177	861	557	2,081	1,137	1,424	476	22	7	3	0			✓
3 Sep 2014	4,001	2,089	823	522	1,863	1,078	1,292	452	22	7	1	0			✓
31 Aug 2014	3,707	1,808	771	494	1,698	871	1,216	436	21	7	1	0			✓
25 Aug 2014	3,071	1,553	648	430	1,378	694	1,026	422	19	7					✓
20 Aug 2014	2,615	1,427	607	406	1,082	624	910	392	16	5					✓
18 Aug 2014	2,473	1,350	579	396	972	576	907	374	15	4					✓
16 Aug 2014	2,240	1,229	543	394	834	466	848	365	15	4					✓
13 Aug 2014	2,127	1,145	519	380	786	413	810	348	12	4					✓
11 Aug 2014	1,975	1,069	510	377	670	355	783	334	12	3					✓
9 Aug 2014	1,848	1,013	506	373	599	323	730	315	13	2					✓
6 Aug 2014	1,779	961	495	367	554	294	717	298	13	2					✓
4 Aug 2014	1,711	932	495	363	516	282	691	286	9	1					✓
1 Aug 2014	1,603	887	485	358	468	255	646	273	4	1					✓

Archived Ebola cases and deaths by country. - 22 March to 30 July

Date	Total		Guinea		Liberia		Sierra Leone		Nigeria		Senegal		Refs
	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths	Cases	Deaths
30 Jul 2014	1,440	826	472	346	391	227	574	252	3	1			✓
27 Jul 2014	1,323	729	460	339	329	156	533	233	1	1			✓
23 Jul 2014	1,201	672	427	319	249	129	525	224					✓
20 Jul 2014	1,093	660	415	314	224	127	454	219					✓
17 Jul 2014	1,048	632	410	310	196	116	442	206					✓
14 Jul 2014	982	613	411	310	174	106	397	197					✓
12 Jul 2014	964	603	406	304	172	105	386	194					✓
8 Jul 2014	888	539	409	309	142	88	337	142					✓
6 Jul 2014	844	518	408	307	131	84	305	127					✓
2 Jul 2014	779	481	412	305	115	75	252	101					✓
30 Jun 2014	759 (6/25)+22	467 +14	413 +3	303 +5	107 +8	65 +7	239 +11	99 +2					✓
22 Jun 2014	599	338	—	—	51	34	—	—					✓
20 Jun 2014	581	328	390 +0	270 +3	—	—	158 +0	34 +4					✓
17 Jun 2014	528	337	—	—	—	—	97 (6/15)+31	49 +4					✓
16 Jun 2014	526	334	398	264	33 (6/11)+9	24 +5	—	—					✓
15 Jun 2014	522	333	394	263	33	24	95	46					✓
10 Jun 2014	474	252	372	236	—	—	—	—					CDC
6 Jun 2014	453	245	—	—	—	—	89 +8	7 +1					✓
5 Jun 2014	445	244	351 +7	226 +6	—	—	81 +9	6					✓
3 Jun 2014	436	233	344 +11	215 +3	—	—	—	—					✓
1 Jun 2014	383	211	328	208 +21	—	—	79 +13	6					✓
29 May 2014	354	211	—	—	— +1	— +1	50 +34	6 +1					✓
28 May 2014	319	209	291	193	—	—	—	—					✓
27 May 2014	309	202	281	186	—	—	16	5					✓
23 May 2014	270	185	258	174	—	—	—	—					✓
18 May 2014	265	187	253	176	—	—	—	—					✓
12 May 2014	260	182	248	171	—	—	—	—					✓
10 May 2014	245	168	233	157	12	11	—	—					✓
7 May 2014	249	169	236	158	—	—	—	—					✓
3 May 2014	244	166	231	155	—	—	0	0					✓
2 May 2014	239	160	—	—	13	11							✓
1 May 2014	237	158	226	149	—	—							✓
30 Apr 2014	233	155	221	146	—	—							CDC
24 Apr 2014	253	152	—	—	35	—							✓
23 Apr 2014	252	152	218	141	—	—							✓
21 Apr 2014	242	147	—	—	34 ↓26?	11 -2							✓
20 Apr 2014	235	149	208	136	—	—							✓
17 Apr 2014	230	142	203	129	27	13							GU LI✓
16 Apr 2014	224	135	197	122	27	13	(1)						✓
14 Apr 2014	194	121	168	108	—	—							✓
11 Apr 2014	184	114	—	—	26	13							✓
10 Apr 2014	183	113	—	—	25	12	—	—					✓
9 Apr 2014	179	111	158	101	—	—	—	—					✓
7 Apr 2014	172	105	151	95	21	10	— (-2)	—					✓
1 Apr 2014	135	88	127	83	8 +0	5 +1							✓
31 Mar 2014	130	82	122	80	8	2	—	—					✓
29 Mar 2014	114	71	—	—	2 ↓5	1 ↓1	—	—					?
28 Mar 2014	120	76	112	70	—	—	(2)	(2)					✓
27 Mar 2014	111	72	103	66	8	6	(6)	(5)					✓
26 Mar 2014	86	62	86	62									✓
25 Mar 2014	86	60	86	60									✓
24 Mar 2014	86	59	86	59									✓
22 Mar 2014	49	29	49	29									✓

Notes:

Date is the "as of" date from the reference. A single source may report statistics for multiple "as of" dates.

Total cases and deaths before 1 July 2014 are calculated.

Numbers with ± are deltas from a previous report. The deltas may not be consistent.

Numbers with a ↓ indicate cases that were eliminated.

Liberia:

29 Mar: LI data is confused. Earlier, there were 8 suspected cases and 6 deaths (no confirmed cases). Seven suspected cases were tested by 29 Mar, and five were not Ebola. That should take suspected cases to 3, but a total was not stated; it also implies deaths should be at most 3. The report states only 2 suspected deaths were tested, and one was not Ebola.

21 Apr: reduced deaths by 2: one in Guinea total and one case discarded. 26 samples negative for Ebola.

24 Apr: stated it was reviewing its 27 suspected cases and may toss all of them;

2 May: reclassification complete.

Sierra Leone: cases were reported, but by 3 May there were no cases. Early reports are marked with parens "()".

7 Apr: 2 suspected cases of EVD were confirmed as Lassa Fever.

15 Apr: Of 12 suspected cases, 11 were tested for Ebola but came up negative.

Mali: 4 possible cases were reported on 7 April, but they were not EVD.

External links

• Outbreak Updates, World Health Organization (WHO).
• Outbreak Updates, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• 2014 Ebola Outbreak Timeline Healthmap.org
• How Ebola has grown since March (Graphic)