Headlines
Ebola virus toll nearly 8,800: WHO
Geneva, Jan 28
The number of people killed by the Ebola
virus disease has reached 8,795, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has
said.
A total of 22,057 cases of the Ebola virus disease have been reported, WHO said in a statement Tuesday.
In
line with statistics, the maximum number of Ebola-related deaths has
been registered in Liberia. There have been a total of 3,686 cumulative
deaths and 8,622 cumulative cases in the country. Liberia is followed by
Sierra Leone (3,199 deaths and 10,518 cases) and Guinea (1,910 and
2,917, respectively).
Separate cases have also been registered in Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, Britain and the US.
The
Ebola virus disease, previously known as the Ebola hemorrhagic fever,
is a severe illness in humans, often fatal, according to the WHO. The
virus is passed on to people from wild animals and can be transmitted
from humans to humans. The average Ebola case death rate is some 50
percent.
The first outbreaks of the EVD occurred in remote
Central African villages, near tropical rainforests. However, major
urban and rural areas have been involved in the most recent outbreak in
western Africa.
Early supportive care, which includes rehydration and symptomatic treatment, improves the survival rate.
No
licensed treatment has yet been proven to be able to neutralise the
virus but a number of blood, immunological and drug medications are
under development. There are no licensed Ebola vaccines yet but two
candidates are being evaluated.