According to Dr. Bruce Aylward, assistant director-general at the World Health Organization, there have been about 1,000 new Ebola cases in the affected areas each week for the last four weeks. The number includes suspected, confirmed and probable cases, Fox News reports. The total number of cases in this year’s Ebola outbreak has risen to almost 9,000, with the number of victims rising to almost 4,500 (and this number might be underestimated). According to a recent WHO warning, the number of new cases might increase to 10,000 each week in two months.
According to World Health Organization statistics, the total number of confirmed Ebola cases in this year’s outbreak is 8,914, the vast majority of them in West Africa, and the number of victims totals 4,477 up to this point. Although the previous estimates of the WHO expected the disease to have a death rate of 50%, this has risen to 70% during the last few weeks. According to Dr. Aylward, this rise in the death rate reclassifies Ebola as a “high mortality disease”. The WHO continues to focus on trying to isolate infected people and provide treatment as soon as possible.
The nations hardest hit during this year’s Ebola outbreak are Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, and the WHO is very concerned about the continuing spread of the disease in the countries’ capitals. The agency still tries to treat infected patients, despite the huge pressure on the African countries’ underdeveloped health systems. WHO tries to introduce preventive measures – they hand out protective equipment to families and set up some very simple clinics, but with no real treatment available.
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Ebola is a virus normally transmitted by fruit bats. Humans get infected by coming into contact with the bats themselves or animals infected by the bats. Once a human is infected, the virus can be transmitted to other humans through direct contact with the infected persons’ bodily fluids. The early symptoms of the disease resemble those of the flu – fever, nausea, diarrhoea and vomiting.