Other Interactive Maps on History
Try one of the many other Interactive Maps of Explorers and Historic Events at MyReadingMapped. (http://myreadingmapped.blogspot.com/)

Other disease related maps
- The Worldwide Outbreak of SARS
- Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) Outbreaks
- Mad Cow Disease
- U.S. Fungal Meningitis Outbreak

Ebola River

WHO Fact Sheet: Key Facts
WHO (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/)
- Ebola virus disease (EVD), formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever, is a severe, often fatal illness in humans.
- EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%.
- EVD outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests.
- The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission.
- Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are considered to be the natural host of the Ebola virus.
- Severely ill patients require intensive supportive care. No licensed specific treatment or vaccine is available for use in people or animals.

WHO Fact Sheet: Transmission
WHO (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/)
Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected animals. In Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found ill or dead or in the rainforest.
Ebola then spreads in the community through human-to-human transmission, with infection resulting from direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. Burial ceremonies in which mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased person can also play a role in the transmission of Ebola. Men who have recovered from the disease can still transmit the virus through their semen for up to 7 weeks after recovery from illness.
Health-care workers have frequently been infected while treating patients with suspected or confirmed EVD. This has occurred through close contact with patients when infection control precautions are not strictly practiced.

WHO Fact Sheet: Signs and Symptoms
WHO (http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs103/en/)
EVD is a severe acute viral illness often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. Laboratory findings include low white blood cell and platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes.
People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. Ebola virus was isolated from semen 61 days after onset of illness in a man who was infected in a laboratory.
The incubation period, that is, the time interval from infection with the virus to onset of symptoms, is 2 to 21 days.

Causes and Risk Factors
Wikipedia:
"Bats were known to reside in the cotton factory in which the index cases for the 1976 and 1979 outbreaks were employed, and they have also been implicated in Marburg virus infections in 1975 and 1980.[33]  Of 24 plant species and 19 vertebrate species experimentally inoculated with EBOV, only bats became infected.[36] The absence of clinical signs in these bats is characteristic of a reservoir species. In a 2002–2003 survey of 1,030 animals which included 679 bats from Gabon  and the Republic of the Congo  , 13 fruit bats were found to contain EBOV RNA fragments.[37]   As of 2005, three types of fruit bats  (Hypsignathus monstrosus, Epomops franqueti, and Myonycteris torquata have been identified as being in contact with EBOV. They are now suspected to represent the EBOV reservoir hosts.[38]
The existence of integrated genes of filoviruses in some genomes of small rodents, insectivorous bats, shrews, tenrecs, and marsupials indicates a history of infection with filoviruses in these groups as well.[3]  However, it has to be stressed that infectious ebola viruses have not yet been isolated from any nonhuman animal."

How Ebola is spread from one person to another
The Guardian: September 14, 2012
Authorities reported last week that 15 people had died in north-eastern Congo, where the tradition of washing and displaying corpses before funerals spreads the epidemic. The tradition is intended to show love and respect for the deceased, but the practice also brings people into close contact with victims of the virus."

WHO Fact Sheet: Natural Host
In Africa, fruit bats, particularly species of the genera Hypsignathus monstrosus [Hammer-Headed bat], Epomops franqueti [Frasnquet's epauletted fruit bat] and Myonycteris torquata [Little collared fruit bat] , are considered possible natural hosts for Ebola virus. As a result, the geographic distribution of Ebolaviruses may overlap with the range of the fruit bats.

Ecoregions Involved in Ebola
I added ecoregions to the map because to date (9/2014) the spread of Ebola seems to be limited within ecoregions that share some common traits. What traits they are that aide in the spread of the disease are yet to be determined. My unprofessional intuition tells me it is related to why the infected fruit bats migrate there.

Link to African Ebola Found in Bats Suggests Virus Is More Widespread
New York Times
January 28, 2013 - For the first time, scientists have found evidence of the African Ebola virus in Asian fruit bats, suggesting that the virus is far more widespread around the world than had been previously known. it is now theorized bats drink out of jars attached to trees to collect tasty palm sap, and that humans consume fresh sap contaminated with bat saliva, urine or feces. Similar to the Nipah virus outbreak in Bangladesh in 2008.

What do Ebola, MERS and SARS, 3 of the worse outbreaks in modern times, have in common?
How bats in remote locations are a threat to globalization's health.
Wikipedia Commons / Charlotte Roemer

CDC Graphic on Ebolavirus Ecology showing relationship with bats.
Enlarge (http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/resources/virus-ecology.html)
Centers for Disease Control / Public Domain

Range of the Hammer-headed Bat

Range of the Franquet's Epauletted Fruit Bat

Range of the Peter's dwarf epauletted fruit bat.

Range of the Egyptian Rousette Fruit Bat

Range of the Little Collared Fruit Bat

Electron micrograph of an Ebola virus virion
Wikipedia Commons

WHO Fact Sheet: Ebola Types
WHO
Genus Ebolavirus is 1 of 3 members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus), along with genus Marburgvirus and genus Cuevavirus. Genus Ebolavirus comprises 5 distinct species:
- Bundibugyo ebolavirus (BDBV)
- Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV)
- Reston ebolavirus (RESTV)
- Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV)
- Taï Forest ebolavirus (TAFV).
BDBV, EBOV, and SUDV have been associated with large EVD outbreaks in Africa, whereas RESTV and TAFV have not. The RESTV species, found in Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, can infect humans, but no illness or death in humans from this species has been reported to date.

Bundibugyo ebolavirus
Wikipedia:
"On November 24, 2007, the Uganda Ministry of Health confirmed an outbreak of Ebolavirus in the Bundibugyo District.  After confirmation of samples tested by the United States National Reference Laboratories and the CDC), the World Health Organization confirmed the presence of the new species. On 20 February 2008, the Uganda Ministry officially announced the end of the epidemic in Bundibugyo, with the last infected person discharged on 8 January 2008.[11]  An epidemiological study conducted by WHO and Uganda Ministry of Health scientists determined there were 116 confirmed and probable cases of the new Ebola species, and that the outbreak had a mortality rate of 34% (39 deaths).[12]  "

Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV)
Wikipedia:
"Also known simply as the Zaire virus, ZEBOV has the highest case-fatality rate of the ebolaviruses, up to 90% in some epidemics, with an average case fatality rate of approximately 83% over 27 years. There have been more outbreaks of Zaire ebolavirus than of any other species. The first outbreak took place on 26 August 1976 in Yambuku .  Mabalo Lokela, a 44‑year-old schoolteacher, became the first recorded case. The symptoms resembled malaria, and subsequent patients received quinine. Transmission has been attributed to reuse of unsterilized needles and close personal contact."

Sudan ebolavirus (SEBOV)
Wikipedia
"Like the Zaire virus, SEBOV emerged in 1976; it was at first assumed to be identical with the Zaire species.[6]   SEBOV is believed to have broken out first amongst cotton factory workers in Nzara, Sudan, with the first case reported as a worker exposed to a potential natural reservoir. Scientists tested local animals and insects in response to this; however, none tested positive for the virus. The carrier is still unknown. The lack of barrier nursing  (or "bedside isolation") facilitated the spread of the disease. The most recent outbreak occurred in May, 2004. 20 confirmed cases were reported in Yambio County, Sudan, with five deaths resulting. The average fatality rates for SEBOV were 54% in 1976, 68% in 1979, and 53% in 2000 and 2001."

Côte d'Ivoire ebolavirus (CIEBOV)
"Also referred to as Taï Forest ebolavirus and by the English place name, "Ivory Coast", it was first discovered among chimpanzees from the Taï Forest in Côte d'Ivoire, Africa, in 1994. Necropsies showed blood within the heart to be brown; no obvious marks were seen on the organs; and one necropsy displayed lungs filled with blood. Studies of tissues taken from the chimpanzees showed results similar to human cases during the 1976 Ebola outbreaks in Zaire and Sudan. As more dead chimpanzees were discovered, many tested positive for Ebola using molecular techniques. The source of the virus was believed to be the meat of infected Western Red Colobus monkeys, upon which the chimpanzees preyed. One of the scientists performing the necropsies on the infected chimpanzees contracted Ebola. She developed symptoms similar to those of dengue fever approximately a week after the necropsy, and was transported to Switzerland for treatment. She was discharged from the hospital after two weeks and had fully recovered six weeks after the infection.[10] "

Reston ebolavirus (REBOV)
"Discovered during an outbreak of simian hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV) in crab-eating macaques from Hazleton Laboratories (now Covance) in 1989. Since the initial outbreak in Reston, Virginia, it has since been found in non-human primates in Pennsylvania, Texas and Siena , Italy. In each case, the affected animals had been imported from a facility in the Philippines,[7]  the virus has also infected pigs.[8]  Despite its status as a Level‑4  organism and its apparent pathogenicity in monkeys, REBOV did not cause disease in exposed human laboratory workers.[9]   "

1976 - EBOV -Yambuku, Zaire
Cases: 318
Deaths: 280
Case-fatality rate: 88%

1976 - SUDV - Juba, South Sudan
Cases: 284
Deaths: 151
Case-fatality rate: 53%

1976 - SUDV - Mardidi, South Sudan
Part of Juba stats.

1976 - SUDV - Nzara, South Sudan
Part of Juba stats.

1976 - SUDV - Tambura
Part of Juba stats.

Ecoregion: East African montane forests
Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_montane_forests)
The East African montane forests extend across a total of 65,500 square kilometers (25,300 sq mi), in 25 separate enclaves, which range in size from 23,700 to 113 square kilometers. The northernmost enclave is on Mount Kinyeti in the Imatong Mountains of Southern Sudan, extending south through Mount Moroto in eastern Uganda and Mount Elgon on the Kenya-Uganda border. In Kenya and Tanzania, the ecoregion follows the mountains east and west of the Eastern Rift and associated volcanoes, including the Aberdare Range, Mount Kenya, Mount Kulal, Mount Nyiru, Bukkol, and the Nguruman Escarpment in Kenya, and Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Meru, Ngorongoro, and the Marang forests (Mbulu and Hanang) in northern Tanzania.[1]
Google Map / Panoramio / daffy-d

1977 - EBOV - Bandundu, Zaire
Cases: 1
Deaths: 1
Case-fatality rate: 100%

1979 - SUDV - Nzara, South Sudan

1988 - EBOV - Porton Down, UK
Laboratory accident

1989 - SHFV - Reston, VA
"While investigating an outbreak of Simian hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV) in November 1989, an electron microscopist from USAMRIID discovered filoviruses similar in appearance to Ebola in tissue samples taken from Crab-eating Macaque imported from the Philippines to Hazleton Laboratories Reston, Virginia.[103]  Due to the lethality of the suspected and previously obscure virus, the investigation quickly attracted attention.[citation needed  Blood samples were taken from 178 animal handlers during the incident.]   Of those, six animal handlers eventually seroconverted  When the handlers failed to become ill, the CDC concluded that the virus had a very low pathogenicity to humans."

1994 - TAFV - Taï National Park, Côte d'Ivoire; Switzerland

Ecoregion: Eastern Guinean forests
Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Guinean_forests)
The Eastern Guinean forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of West Africa. The ecoregion includes the lowland forests extending from the Gulf of Guinea a few hundred kilometers inland, from western Côte d'Ivoire to the western shore of Lake Volta in Ghana. A few small enclaves lie further east and inland in Togo and Benin. The Sassandra River of Côte d'Ivoire separates the Eastern Guinean forests from the Western Guinean forests which lie to the west. Inland and to the east, the Eastern Guinean forests transition to the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic.
The Eastern Guinean forests, together with the other tropical moist broadleaf forests of West Africa, is included within Conservation International's Guinean Forests of West Africa biodiversity hotspot.
Google Map / Panoramio / bacchus45

1994–1995 - EBOV - Woleu-Ntem, Gabon

1994-1995 - EBOV - Ogooué-Ivindo Provinces, Gabon
Part of the Woleu-Ntem stats.

Ecoregion: Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests
Wikipedia
The Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of central Africa, covering hills, plains, and mountains of the Atlantic coast of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Angola, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
This is rich forest home to large mammals such as Western Gorilla, chimpanzees, forest elephants and African buffalo, as well as many small mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and invertebrates. As well as chimpanzees and gorillas other primates include black colobus monkeys and mandrills.
Google Map / Panoramio / Soviof

1995 - EBOV - Kikwit, Zaire

1996 - EBOV - Mayibout 2, Gabon

1996 - EBOV - Sergiyev Posad, Russia
Laboratory accident

1996-1997 - EBOV - Ogooué-Ivindo Provinces, Gabon

1996–1997 - EBOV - Cuvette-Ouest Department, Republic of the Congo
Part of the Cuevette-Qusest stats.

2000–2001 - SUDV - Gulu, Uganda

2000–2001 - SUDV - Mbarara, Uganda
Part of the Gulu stats.

2000–2001 - SUDV - Masindi, Uganda
Part of the Gulu stats.

Ecoregion: Albertine Rift Montane Forests, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Wikipedia
The mountain rainforests of the ecoregion have a cooler climate than the Congolian lowland forests or the savanna of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, and therefore are home to a rich variety of Afromontane flora and especially fauna. The rare Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) survives only in this ecoregion as do L'Hoest's Monkey and a sub-species of Hamlyn's Monkey as well as many species of butterflies, and birds including Grauer's Warblers, Chapin's Flycatchers, and the Ruwenzori Turaco. The montane forests are included on the Global 200 list.
Google Map / Panoramio / Marco Cavani

2001–2002 - EBOV - Ogooué-Ivindo Provinces, Gabon

2001–2002 - EBOV - Cuvette-Ouest Department, Republic of the Congo
Part of the Ogooué-Ivindo stats.

2002 - EBOV - Ogooué-Ivindo Provinces, Gabon

2002 - EBOV - Cuvette-Ouest Department, Republic of the Congo
Part of the Ogooué-Ivindo stats.

2002–2003 - EBOV - Ogooué-Ivindo Provinces, Gabon

2002–2003 - EBOV - Cuvette-Ouest Department, Republic of the Congo
Part of the Ogooué-Ivindo stats.

2004 - EBOV - Koltsovo, Russia
Laboratory accident

2004 - SUDV - Yambio, South Sudan

2005- EBOV - Cuvette-Ouest Department, Republic of the Congo

Ecoregion: Western Congolian swamp forests
The Western Congolian swamp forests are an ecoregion of the Republic of the Congo and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Together with the adjacent Eastern Congolian swamp forests, it forms one of the largest continuous areas of freshwater swamp forest in the world. It is a flooded forest with a high canopy, dense undergrowth and has a muddy floor. It has not been disturbed very much by outside influences and so remains largely pristine as getting through this forest is called "almost impossible".[1]
Google Map / Panoramio / Nick Giesler

2007 - EBOV - Kasai Occidental Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo
"As of August 30, 2007, 103 people (100 adults and three children) were infected by a suspected hemorrhagic fever outbreak in the village of Kampungu,Democratic Republic of the Congo. The outbreak started after the funerals of two village chiefs, and 217 people in four villages fell ill. The World Health Organization sent a team to take blood samples for analysis and confirmed that many of the cases are the result of Ebolavirus."

2007–2008 - BDBV - Bundibugyo District, Uganda
"On November 30, 2007, the Uganda Ministry of Health confirmed an outbreak of Ebola in the Bundibugyo District. After confirmation of samples tested by the United States National Reference Laboratories and the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization confirmed the presence of a new species of Ebolavirus which is now tentatively named Bundibugyo.[113]  The epidemic came to an official end on February 20, 2008. While it lasted, 149 cases of this new strain were reported, and 37 of those led to deaths."

2008–2009 - EBOV - Kasai Occidental Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ecoregion: Angolan Miombo woodlands
Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angolan_Miombo_woodlands)
Angolan Miombo woodlands cover most of central Angola and extend into the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is part of the larger miombo ecosystem that covers much of eastern and southern Africa.[1]
This area of savanna and woodland covers an area of plateau and gentle hills in central Angola, in the Cubango-Zambezi Basin which drains into the Zambezi River to the east. The area lies east of the range of hills that parallel the Atlantic coast and north of the Kalahari Desert reaching up as far as the rainforests of the Congo.
It has a tropical climate, wetter than the surrounding savanna, with most of the rain falling in the hotter summer months (November–March).[2]
Google Map / Panoramio / VictorG

2011 - SUDV - Luweero, Uganda
World Health Organization
30 November 2012 - As of 28 November 2012, the Ministry of Health in Uganda reported 7 cases (6 confirmed, 1 probable) with Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Luweero and Kampala districts. Of these cases, 4 died.
reliefweb
CHF 107,056 from the IFRC’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) was allocated to support the Uganda Red Cross Society in delivering immediate assistance directly to 100 households affected by Ebola (585 affected people) and 3,628,390 people indirectly.

2011 - (type unknown) - Nairobi, Kenya
"In December 2011, an unidentified woman presented at a Nairobi hospital with "Ebola-like symptoms" and subsequently expired. The pathogen has yet to be identified"

2012 - SEBOV - Kibaale District, Uganda
"In July 2012, the Ugandan health ministry confirmed 13 deaths due to an outbreak in the Kibaale  District.[121]   As of July 28, 2012, 14 out of 20 (70% mortality rate) had died in Kibaale.[122]  On July 30, 2012, Stephen Byaruhanga, a health official in Kibaale District, said the Ebola outbreak has spread from one remote village to several villages."

2012 - BDBV - Haut-Uele, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Guardian: September 14, 2012:
Ebola virus outbreak in Congo kills 31
Death toll has more than doubled in a week, with 69 cases in all, according to the WHO.
"A deadly outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed 31 people in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, more than doubling the death toll from a week ago, the UN health agency said.
There were 69 cases in all, including nine confirmed by a laboratory, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday. Five of the deaths had been confirmed by laboratory work.

2012 - BDBV - Isiro , Orientale Province, Republic of the Congo
Aljazeera: August 19, 2012
Ebola Ebola outbreak claims more lives in DR Congo
Nine people have died from an outbreak of the Ebola virus in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's health minister has said.
The deaths announced on Saturday were among 11 "probable or confirmed" cases detected in the town of Isiro, Felix Kabangue was quoted as saying in a statement released by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
-----
IRIN: August 23, 2012               Bushmeat blamed for Ebola outbreak
At least 10 people in the province had died from suspected Ebola by 20 August, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), which first reported the outbreak on 17 August. Local sources say the first symptoms were spotted about a month ago.

2012 -BDBV - Viadana, Republic of the Congo
WHO: Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo – update (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2012_10_08a/en/index.html)
8 OCTOBER 2012 - As of 7 October 2012, 49 cases (31 laboratory confirmed, 18 probable) with Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Of these, 24 have been fatal (10 confirmed, 14 probable).
The cases reported are from Isiro and Viadana health zones in Haut-Uélé district in Province Orientale.

Ecoregion: Eastern Congolian swamp forests
This is an area of 60,000 m2 flat, wet forest between 300m and 400m in elevation on the left bank of the River Congo and spreading across a swathe of the Congo Basin including some of the Congo's largest tributaries and the Stanley Falls near Kisangani.[1] The forest is a mixture of wetland and swamp with drier forest and savanna flooded seasonally by the Congo and its tributaries.
Google Map / Panoramio / inonela

2013 - Mékambo, Gabon
globalmd.org (http://www.globalmd.org/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=PUB.1.116)
June 1, 2013 - Mékambo is the site of several outbreaks of ebola hemorrhagic fever.

2014 - Macenta, Guinea (unknown type)
reuters.com
At least five of the dead in Guinea have been medical officials, including the head of the regional hospital in Macenta, at the heart of the crisis, some 800 km (500 miles) from Guinea's capital Conakry.

Guinea bans people from eating bats as its battles outbreak of Ebola virus
news.com.au
Guinea has banned inhabitants of the south from eating bats, a common feature of the local diet, as the creatures are considered to be the natural host of the virus.
Transmission of Ebola to humans can come from wild animals, direct contact from another human’s blood, faeces or sweat, as well as sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

2014 - Conakry, Guinea (unknown type)
huffingtonpost.com
Guinea has received confirmation that a mysterious disease that has killed up to 59 people in the West African country, and may have spread to neighbouring Sierra Leone, is the haemorrhagic fever Ebola, the government said on Saturday.
Cases of the disease - among the most virulent pathogens known to infect humans, with a fatality rate of up to 90 percent - have been registered in three southeastern towns and in the capital Conakry since Feb. 9. It has never before been recorded in Guinea.
He [Dr. Sakoba Keita, who heads the epidemics prevention division at Guinea's health ministry] added that health officials had registered 80 suspected cases of the disease, including 59 deaths.

2014 - Gueckedou, Guinea

2014 - Kankan, Guinea

2014 - Kissidougou, Guinea

2014 - Nzerekore, Guinea

2014 - Buedu, Sierra Leone (unknown type)
huffingtonpost.com
World Health Organisation (WHO) officials said that cases showing similar symptoms, including fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding, had also been reported in an area of Sierra Leone near the border with Guinea.
Sierra Leone's chief medical officer, Dr. Brima Kargbo, said authorities were investigating the case of a 14-year-old boy who died in the town of Buedu in the eastern Kailahun District.
The boy had travelled to Guinea to attend the funeral of one of the outbreak's earlier victims.

2014 - Lofa, Liberia (type unknown)
frontpageafricaonline.com
The Lofa lawmaker stressed the need for an urgent effort to stop the spread of the deadly disease which has the propensity of wreaking havoc on impoverished Liberians. He referenced his visit in the border City of Foyah, Lofa County, his constituency and said; he was informed that two persons who were likely diagnosed with the virus have suddenly passed out.
Dr. Dahn continued:”As of this morning the 24th of March 2014, six cases have been reported of which five persons have already died, four female adults and one male child.” Dr. Dahn said all the six suspected cases came from Guinea for treatment in hospitals in Foya and Zorzor districts in Lofa County.“One of the suspected cases, a female child is under treatment.”

2014 - Bamako, Mali
aljazeera.com
Three people in Mali had been placed in quarantine and samples sent off to Atlanta in the United States for tests, the government said on state television late on Thursday.
HuffingtonPost
Ibrahim Coullibaly, who lives in the Lassa neighborhood of Bamako, said several people were wounded Friday when police tried to disperse the protesters.
The crowds were angry over reports that several people suspected of having the deadly disease were being held in isolation in their neighborhood.

2014 - Margibi, Liberia

4/17/2014 WHO report on Guinea Ebola Outbreak
who.int (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_04_17_ebola/en/)
As of 18:00 on 16 April, the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Guinea has reported a cumulative total of 197 clinical cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), including 122 deaths. To date, 101 cases have been laboratory confirmed, including 56 deaths, 43 cases (33 deaths) meet the probable case definition for EVD and 53 cases (33 deaths) are classified as suspected cases. Twenty-four (24) health-care workers (HCW) have been affected with 13 deaths. Clinical cases of EVD have been reported from Conakry (47 cases, including 16 deaths), Guekedou (117/80), Macenta (22/16), Kissidougou (6/5), Dabola (4/4) and Djingaraye (1/1).
Contact tracing activities continue in all affected areas including new contacts generated by a HCW who passed away 3 days ago. In Conakry, 60 community volunteers are assisting the MOH and response partners in following up the 221 contacts currently under medical observation. Seven contacts who developed symptoms have been placed in isolation as a precautionary measure. A total of 249 contacts are being followed in Guekedou, 54 in Macenta 17 in Kissidougou, 63 in Dabola and 2 in Dingaraye.
A total of 36 patients are currently in isolation; 23 in Conakry, 12 in Guéckédou and 1 in Macenta. Clinical teams from WHO, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) are supporting national medical and nursing staff at the Donka Hospital to strengthen patient triage, case management and infection prevention and control (IPC). Training on the safe handling of patients with EVD and the deceased was conducted jointly by the IPC and Logistics teams at the Donka hospital for staff working at the morgue, and for drivers and staff transporting patients in stretchers. A training of trainers activity for the directors of all 20 Centres de Santé in Conakry is planned for 17 April. IPC training is also scheduled at 2 community health centres tomorrow.
Numbers of cases and contacts remain subject to change due to consolidation of cases, contact and laboratory data, enhanced surveillance and contact tracing activities and the continuing laboratory investigations.

4/17/2014 WHO report on the Mali Ebola Outbreak
who.int (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_04_17_ebola/en/)
The Ministry of Health (MOH) of Mali has on the 16th April reported that the clinical samples on the 6 suspected cases have tested negative for ebolavirus.
The samples were tested at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Arbovirus and Viral Haemorrhagic Fever of the Institut Pasteur, Dakar, Senegal. The samples were also tested using real-time PCR at the newly established, mobile high security laboratory at the SEREFO Center for HIV and TB Training and Research, University of Bamako. Malian laboratory experts from the SEREFO Center, the National Institute of Public Health (INRSP), the Centre National d'Appui à la lutte contre la Maladie (CNAM), the National Blood Transfusion Centre (CNTS) and the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Science, Technics and Technology, Bamako (FMOS) were trained in ebolavirus diagnosis by staff of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).
As of 16 April, no new suspected cases have been reported in Mali.
Continuing preparedness and response activities include raising awareness among health-care workers and the broader community about EVD and reinforcing personal and community-based risk reduction strategies. The need for strict adherence with infection prevention and control measures within health-care facilities remains a key intervention.
WHO is supporting the national health authorities of Mali, Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire in the planning of a cross-border meeting on Ebola virus disease. Response partners supporting the MOH include WHO, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), MSF, the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the NIH and the UN Children's Rights and Emergency Relief Organization (UNICEF).

4/17/2014 WHO report on the Liberia Ebola Outbreak
who.int (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_04_17_ebola/en/)
As of 16 April the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) of Liberia has reported a cumulative total of 27 clinical cases of EVD, including 13 deaths attributed to EVD. One new suspected case reported yesterday from Nimba County has been laboratory confirmed as a case of Lassa fever. Two patients remain hospitalised and 33 contacts remain under medical observation. The MOHSW commissioned a new ebolavirus laboratory on 16 April in collaboration with Metabiota.
The MOHSW, in collaboration with WHO and the GOARN team in Liberia, has conducted visits to the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Monrovia and the Redemption Hospital, New Kru Town in Montserrado County, and conducted the first training in case management, triage and infection prevention and control.

50 cases, 20 deaths in Conakry, Guinea
dailykos.com
We can see from the reports of 50 cases and 20 deaths in Guinea's capital city of Conakry which are four times the last numbers I reported for Conakry, the "outbreak is still spreading. I've collected a number of articles to bring you up to date.

4/7/2014 WHO report on the Sierra Leone Ebola Outbreak
On 15 April, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) provided a consolidated report of surveillance activities conducted in that country from 19 March onwards. A total of 12 suspected cases have been identified during that period. Two previously reported suspected EVD deaths occurred in individuals from one family who died in Guinea and their bodies repatriated to Sierra Leone for burial. All of the 15 case contacts have completed 21 days of medical follow-up and have remained well. The Metabiota laboratory team working at the Kenema Government Hospital Lassa Fever Isolation Unit have received and tested clinical samples from 11 of the suspected cases using 2 different real-time PCR protocols for Ebola Zaire, other viral haemorrhagic fevers and important locally endemic pathogens. All of the samples have tested negative for ebolavirus and the other pathogens included in the test panel.
Follow up on rumours of EVD cases and active case finding is ongoing in Sierra Leone. Metabiota in collaboration with the MOHS have conducted training of trainers for 75 clinicians and nurses from the main referral government, private and mission hospitals in the 13 districts on EVD preparedness and response at the Kenema Lassa Fever unit. Multimedia community sensitisation activities are also continuing.

4/26/2014 WHO report on the Guinea Outbreak
As of 18:00 on 26 April 2014, the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Guinea has reported a cumulative total of 224 clinical cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), including 143 deaths. To date, 202 patients have been tested for ebolavirus infection and 121 cases have been laboratory confirmed, including 74 deaths. In addition, 41 cases (34 deaths) meet the probable case definition for EVD and 62 cases (35 deaths) are classified as suspected cases. A revised number of 25 health care workers (HCW) have been affected (19 confirmed), with 16 deaths (12 confirmed); the number of HCW was previously reported as 26.

2014 Dabola, Guinea
The geographical distribution of clinical cases of EVD since the beginning of the outbreak is: Conakry (53 cases, including 24 deaths), Guekedou (140/99), Macenta (22/16), Kissidougou (6/5), Dabola (4/4) and Djingaraye (1/1).

2014 Dinguiraye, Guinea
The geographical distribution of clinical cases of EVD since the beginning of the outbreak is: Conakry (53 cases, including 24 deaths), Guekedou (140/99), Macenta (22/16), Kissidougou (6/5), Dabola (4/4) and Djingaraye (1/1).

5/9/2014 - Dramatic Improvement in Controlling Ebola Outbreak
abcnews.go.com
The outbreak has been blamed for the deaths of at least 168 people in Guinea and Liberia. There is no cure and no vaccine for Ebola, which causes a high fever and severe bleeding. The outbreak is unusual for West Africa as the disease is typically found in the center and east of the continent.
There are signs that the outbreak's spread is slowing, but it is not over yet, Jean-Bosco Ndihokubwayo, who is coordinating the U.N. health agency's response in Guinea, said Friday.
"The situation has improved dramatically in the last two weeks, but we're not there yet," he said.
The most recent two cases of the disease in Guinea were confirmed on Wednesday, he said, adding that the people were infected by others already known to have the disease. That's a positive sign because it means doctors are on top of the disease's contamination path, he said.

5/27/2014 - 8 ebola suspects freed by relatives in Sierra Leone
globalpost.com
FREETOWN, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Some eight ebola suspects admitted at the isolation ward of the Koindu Community Health Center in the Kailahun district, east of Sierra Leone, are now at large after their relatives stormed the facility on Monday night and set them free, Health Minister Miatta Kargbo told journalists Tuesday.

5/28/2014 - Telimele, Guinea
cidrap.umn.edu
Yesterday the WHO said 14 new cases and 5 deaths have been reported in Telimele (7 cases, 4 deaths) and three areas reporting their first outbreak cases: the prefectures of Boffa (5 cases, 1 death) and Boke (1 case) and the city of Dubreka (1 case, 1 death). The two prefectures are northwest of Conakry, with Boke located at the Guinea-Bissau border. The town of Dubreka is just north of Conakry.

Ecoregion:Guinean montane forests
Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinean_montane_forests)
The Guinean montane forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of West Africa
The ecoregion occupies the portions of the Guinea Highlands lying above 600 meters elevation, extending across portions of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire. It includes the Fouta Djallon plateau and the Simandou and Ziama Massifs in Guinea, the Loma Mountains and Tingi Hills in Sierra Leone, the Mount Nimba range in Guinea, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire, and other nearby mountains such as Mont Péko in Côte d'Ivoire. Mount Bintumani in the Loma Mountains is the highest peak in West Africa west of Mount Cameroon. The next highest peaks in the region are the Tingi Hills and the Sankan Biriwa.
Average rainfall is between 1,600-2400 mm per year and many important rivers have their sources in these mountains.
Google Map / Panoramio / Zagdash

5/28/2014 - Boffa, Guinea
cidrap.umn.edu
Yesterday the WHO said 14 new cases and 5 deaths have been reported in Telimele (7 cases, 4 deaths) and three areas reporting their first outbreak cases: the prefectures of Boffa (5 cases, 1 death) and Boke (1 case) and the city of Dubreka (1 case, 1 death). The two prefectures are northwest of Conakry, with Boke located at the Guinea-Bissau border. The town of Dubreka is just north of Conakry.

5/28/2014 - Dubreka, Guinea
cidrap.umn.edu
Yesterday the WHO said 14 new cases and 5 deaths have been reported in Telimele (7 cases, 4 deaths) and three areas reporting their first outbreak cases: the prefectures of Boffa (5 cases, 1 death) and Boke (1 case) and the city of Dubreka (1 case, 1 death). The two prefectures are northwest of Conakry, with Boke located at the Guinea-Bissau border. The town of Dubreka is just north of Conakry.

5/28/2014 - Kailahun, Sierra Leone
In Sierra Leone, health officials are now reporting 16 cases and 5 deaths. The numbers are up from 1 lab-confirmed case and 4 deaths reported on May 26, which were the country's first EVD illnesses. Suspected cases, though, were reported early in West Africa's outbreak but were ruled out after lab testing.
Sierra Leone's cases have all been reported from Kailahun district, which is near the Guinean border, not far from an outbreak hot spot, and the Liberian border. The WHO said lab tests have confirmed 7 of Sierra Leone's 16 EVD cases.

5/30/2014 - Foya, Liberia
As of 29 May 2014, one new suspected case who died in Foya district was reported. The body was transported to and buried in Sierra Leone. The case is being investigated by both Liberia and Sierra Leone.

5/30/2014 - 34 new cases in Sierria Leone
As of 18:00 on 29 May 2014, 34 new cases (7 confirmed, 3 probable, and 24 suspected) and one suspected death were reported from five districts. This brings the cumulative total number of clinical cases of EVD to 50 (14 confirmed, 3 probable, and 36 suspected) including 6 deaths (2 confirmed, 3 probable and 1 suspected). The geographical distribution of these cases and deaths are as follows: Kailahun (37 cases and 6 deaths), Kenema (1 case and 0 death), Koinadugu (1 case and 0 death), Bo (1 case and 0 death), Moyamba and (1 case and 0 death).

5/30/2014 - 10 new cases in Guinea
Cases and deaths attributable to Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak continue to be reported from new (Telimele and Boffa) and some affected districts (Conakry and Macenta) that did not report cases for more than 42 days. Since the last update of Disease Outbreak News of 28 May 2014, 10 new cases and 7 new deaths have been reported. The current evolving epidemiological situation could be partly explained by persistent community resistance in some communities in Gueckedou, Macenta, and Conakry.
As of 18:00 on 28 May 2014, a cumulative total of 291 clinical cases of EVD, including 193 deaths have been reported. The classification of these cases and deaths are as follows: confirmed, 172 cases and 108 deaths; probable, 71 cases and 62 deaths; and suspected, 48 cases and 23 deaths. The breakdown of cases and deaths by affected areas is as follows: Conakry, 53 cases and 27 deaths; Gueckedou, 179 cases and 133 deaths; Macenta, 40 cases and 23 deaths; Kissidougou, 7 cases and 5 deaths; Dabola, 4 cases and 4 deaths, Djinguiraye, 1 case and 1 death; and Boffa, 4 cases and 0 deaths.
The total number of cases in isolation is 13 (9 in Gueckedou, 3 in Telimele, and 1 in Conakry). The number of contacts under follow-up is 493 (275 in Gueckedou, 125 in Macenta, and 93 in Telimele).

6/4/2014 - Guinea - 37 new cases and 21 new deaths
Between 29 May and 1 June 2014, 37 new cases and 21 new deaths were reported from the following 5 districts: Conakry, 3 new cases and 0 deaths; Gueckedou, 11 new cases and 13 deaths; Macenta, 4 new cases and 1 death; Telimele, 19 new cases and 5 deaths; and Boffa, 0 new cases and 2 deaths. The cumulative number of cases and deaths attributable to EVD in Guinea is now 328 (laboratory confirmed 193, probable 80, and suspected 55) including 208 deaths. The geographical distribution of these cases and deaths is as follows: Conakry, 56 cases and 27 deaths; Gueckedou, 190 cases and 140 deaths; Macenta, 44 cases and 24 deaths; Dabola, 4 cases and 4 deaths; Kissidougou, 7 cases and 5 deaths; Dinguiraye, 1 case and 1 death; Telimele, 22 cases and 5 deaths; and Boffa, 4 cases and 2 deaths.
The number of contacts currently being followed countrywide is 604, distributed as follows: Gueckedou, 341 contacts; Macenta, 175 contacts; and Telimele (88 contacts). In terms of isolation, 16 patients are currently being hospitalized in Conakry (1), Gueckedou (12), Telimele (2), and Boffa (1).

6/4/2014 - Kailahun & Kenema, Sierra Leone
who.in (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_06_04_ebola/en/)
Between 29 May and 1 June 2014, 13 new cases (3 confirmed and 10 suspected) and no new deaths were reported from Kailahun (12 new cases and 0 death) and Kenema (1 new case and 0 deaths). This brings the cumulative total number of cases to 79 (18 confirmed, 3 probable, and 58 suspected), including 6 deaths. The geographical distribution of these cases and deaths are as follows: Kailahun, 41 cases and 6 deaths; Kenema, 3 cases and 0 deaths; Koinadugu, 2 cases and 0 deaths; Bombali, 1 case and 0 deaths; Bo, 13 cases and 0 deaths; Moyamba, 1 case and 0 deaths; and Free Town, 5 cases and 0 deaths. A total of 4 cases are in isolation at Kenema Hospital.

Ecoregion: Guinean forest-savanna mosaic
Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinean_forest-savanna_mosaic)
The Guinean forest-savanna mosaic covers an area of 673,600 square kilometers (260,100 sq mi), extending from western Senegal to eastern Nigeria, and including portions of Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, and Benin. The Cameroon Highlands of eastern Nigeria and Cameroon separate the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic from the Northern Congolian forest-savanna mosaic, which lies to the east. The Dahomey Gap is a region of Togo and Benin where the forest-savanna mosaic extends to the coast, and separates the Upper Guinean forests of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, and Ghana from the Lower Guinean forests of Nigeria and Cameroon.
Wikipedia Commons / Lindsay Stark (http://www.flickr.com/people/90124137@N00)

6/20/2014 - Doctors Without Borders: Ebola 'out of control'
boston.com
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa is ‘‘totally out of control,’’ according to a senior official for Doctors Without Borders, who says the medical group is stretched to the limit in responding.
The outbreak has caused more deaths than any other of the disease, said another official with the medical charity. Ebola has been linked to more than 330 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the World Health Organization.

6/18/20124 - Kouroussa, Guinea
who international (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_06_18_ebola/en/)
1 case and 1 death.

6/18/2014 - Dabola, Guinea
Who International (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_06_18_ebola/en/)
4 cases and 4 deaths

6/18/2014 - Dinguiraye, Guinea
WHO International (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_06_18_ebola/en/)
1 case and 1 death

6/18/2014 - Kono, Sierra Leone
WHO International (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_06_18_ebola/en/)
1 case

6/18/2014 - Kambia, Sierra Leone
WHO International (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_06_18_ebola/en/)
1 case and 0 deaths

6/18/2014 - Port Loko, Sierra Leone
2 cases and 1 death

6/18/2014 - Nimba, Liberia
2 cases and 0 deaths.

6/18/2014 - Montserrado, Liberia
8 cases and 8 deaths

Ecoregion: Western Guinean lowland forests
The Western Guinean lowland forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of West Africa. The ecoregion includes the lowland forests extending from the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred kilometers inland, and from western Côte d'Ivoire across Liberia, southeastern Guinea, most of Sierra Leone, and into southwest Guinea. The Sassandra River of Côte d'Ivoire separates the Western Guinean forests from the Eastern Guinean forests which lie to the east. Inland and to the west, the Western Guinean forests transition to the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic, and to the Guinean montane forests at higher elevations.
The Western Guinean forests, together with the other tropical moist forests of West Africa, is included within Conservation International's Guinean Forests of West Africa biodiversity hotspot.
Google Map / Panoramio / blk24ga

7/15/20014 - WHO Update: Ebola death toll now 603, 964 cases
As of 12 July 2014, the cumulative number of cases attributed to EVD in the three countries stands at 964, including 603 deaths. The distribution and classification of the cases are as follows: Guinea, 406 cases (297 confirmed, 92 probable, and 17 suspected) and 304 deaths (198 confirmed, 92 probable, and 14 suspected); Liberia, 172 cases (70 confirmed, 41 probable, and 61 suspected) and 105 deaths (48 confirmed, 33 probable, and 24 suspected); and Sierra Leone, 386 cases (339 confirmed, 37 probable, and 10 suspected) and 194 deaths (151 confirmed, 38 probable, and 5 suspected).

7/24/2014 - Worst Ebola outbreak ever gets worse: top Ebola doctor now infected
v
The deadliest Ebola outbreak in recorded history is happening right now. And Reuters reports that the head Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone has contracted Ebola and is receiving medical care.
That doesn't necessarily mean he will die, though. The death rate during this outbreak has been roughly 60 percent. And it's an unfortunate blow in a long battle that doesn't look like it's slowing down.

7/25/2014 - Nigerian Government Confirms Ebola Death In City Of Lagos
huffingtonpost.com
ABUJA/GENEVA, July 25 (Reuters) - A Liberian man who died in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos on Friday tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus, Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said.
Patrick Sawyer, a consultant for the Liberian finance ministry in his 40s, collapsed on Sunday after flying into Lagos, a city of 21 million people, and was taken from the airport and put in isolation in a local hospital. Nigeria confirmed earlier on Friday that he had died in quarantine.

7/31/2014 - Emory University Hospital to receive 3 US Ebola patients from Africa
http://abcnews
Two American patients stricken with Ebola are to be flown from Africa to the U.S., ABC News has learned.
The patients will be transported one by one, sources said.
Meanwhile, there are plans to transfer a patient with Ebola virus infection to Emory University Hospital's special facility containment unit within the next several days, hospital officials said in a statement. Officials added that it's unclear when the patient will arrive in Atlanta.
"Emory University Hospital has a specially built isolation unit set up in collaboration with the CDC to treat patients who are exposed to certain serious infectious diseases," hospital officials said. "It is physically separate from other patient areas and has unique equipment and infrastructure that provide an extraordinarily high level of clinical isolation. It is one of only four such facilities in the country."
"Emory University Hospital physicians, nurses and staff are highly trained in the specific and unique protocols and procedures necessary to treat and care for this type of patient. For this specially trained staff, these procedures are practiced on a regular basis throughout the year so we are fully prepared for this type of situation."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offices in Atlanta are close to the Emory University Hospital

7/31/2014 - WHO report update
WHO continues to monitor the evolution of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. The Ebola epidemic trend remains precarious, with community and health-facility transmissions of infection still taking place. Between 21 and 23 July 2014, 96 new cases and 7 deaths were reported from Liberia and Sierra Leone. In Guinea, 12 new cases and 5 deaths were reported during the same period. These include suspect, probable, and laboratory-confirmed cases. The surge in the number of new EVD cases in Guinea after weeks of low viral activity demonstrates that undetected chains of transmission existed in the community. This phenomenon is retrogressive to the control of the EVD outbreak; and calls for stepping up outbreak containment measures, especially effective contact tracing.
In addition, the Ministry of Health of Nigeria has reported the first probable case of EVD. According to the Nigeria authorities, the case is a 40-year-old Liberian male national who recently travelled to Nigeria where he presented in hospital with symptoms of EVD. The patient travelled by air and arrived in Lagos, Nigeria, on 20th July via Lomé, Togo. He was symptomatic while traveling, was admitted to a private hospital immediately on arrival, and died on 25 July. On 22 July, a sample was taken and preliminary laboratory analysis was conducted in the virology laboratory of Lagos University Teaching Hospital and tested positive for Ebola virus. The sample from this case is being referred to the WHO Collaborating Centre at the Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal, for confirmation. The national authority in Nigeria is working closely with WHO and partners to ensure that this incident case is contained at the source.

Article: Why Did Two U.S. Missionaries Get an Ebola Serum While Africans Are Left to Die?
newrepublic.com
The Liberian nurses whom worked with Brantly and Writebol will not see such treatment. Neither ZMapp nor a Gulfstream jet will be sent for them. And ELWA hospital, where all four worked, is now shuttered. It was closed late last week. According to a doctor there, the facility ran short on protective clothes for the workers.

Experimental Ebola drug developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical given to stricken doctors in Atlanta with favorable results.
newrepublic.com
In mid-July, Mapp Biopharmaceuticals, a small, privately held biotech firm based in San Diego, inked a deal to finalize the commercialization of an experimental drug known as ZMapp, a cocktail of three lab-created antibodies that, when combined, can do what no antibody—naturally occurring or otherwise—had been proven to do just several years ago: neutralize the Ebola virus.
Before this week, the drug was narrowly known, mostly by industry watchers and researchers. That changed on Monday, when it was reported that ZMapp had been given to Kent Brantly, a missionary doctor from Texas who contracted Ebola while working at ELWA hospital, in Monrovia, Liberia. According to CNN, "Brantly was able to walk into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after being evacuated to the United States last week." Nancy Writebol, a missionary who worked in the same hospital, reportedly was also given ZMapp and arrived in Atlanta on Tuesday. Prior to these doses, the drug had never been tested in human subjects.

Successful convalescent therapy that was first employed in 1995 remains unapproved
newrepublic.com
It was initially reported by Samaritan’s Purse that Brantly had not been given ZMapp but instead received convalescent therapy, which involves transfusing blood from someone who has survived the current outbreak to those infected by the disease. The technique was first reported in the medical literature in 1977, alongside one of the first articles to describe Ebola. The piece, which appeared in the British Medical Journal, explains how a London scientist, working to isolate the virus in blood samples taken from those infected in Zaire, accidentally pricked his thumb through a protective rubber glove. Six days later, he came down with the disease. Blood taken from survivors was treated at 140 degrees Fahrenheit to ensure no active aspects of the virus remained, and was then transfused to the researcher.
The man’s temperature peaked at 104 degrees Fahrenheit on the fourth day of his illness, and he suffered severe vomiting, diarrhea, and a rash covering his body. His mental state deteriorated sharply. Three days later, he turned the corner, and went on to a full recovery.
Convalescent therapy was employed again in 1995 on a small group of patients during an outbreak in present-day Democratic Republic of Congo. “We treated eight patients and seven of them survived,” Dr. John-Jacques Muyembe, a professor of medicine in Kinshasa and a researcher with the Pasteur Institute, told me. The overall death rate for the outbreak was 80 percent; in the test group, it was 12.5 percent. The paper Muyembe and his colleagues published contains data on viral loads in the blood of six patients treated with the therapy. Five of them cleared the Ebola antigen within four days.

Spillover: Is the Ebola virus in West Africa changing over time and becoming more contagious in people?
npr.org
The Ebola Outbreak: 'A Dress Rehearsal For The Next Big One'
Potentially. That's a real concern.
Viruses evolve by way of Darwinian natural selection. The more cases of Ebola we have, the more chances the virus gets to replicate. And the more chances there [are] for it to mutate in a particular way that it adapts well to living in humans — and perhaps transmitting more easily from human to human.
The longer this outbreak in West Africa goes on, the more chances there are for the Ebola virus to mutate and adapt. That's no small concern.

8/2014 - Saudi Arabia reports a suspected case of Ebola died
syracuse.com
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry says a man who was being tested for the Ebola virus and has died. The 40-year-old returned on Sunday from Sierra Leone, where there has been an Ebola outbreak, and was then hospitalized in Jiddah after showing symptoms of the viral hemorrhagic fever.

8/2014 - Nigerian nurse becomes 2nd Ebola death in Nigeria
syracuse.com
The death of the unidentified nurse marks the second Ebola death in Nigeria, and is a very worrisome development since it is the Africa's most populous country and Lagos, where the deaths occurred, one of its biggest cities.

8/2014 - Spain to air lift Spanish missionary priest who has Ebola
syracuse.com
Spain's Defense Ministry said a medically-equipped Airbus 310 is ready to fly to Liberia to repatriate a Spanish missionary priest who has Ebola. The ministry said Wednesday preparations for the flight are being finalized but it is not yet known at what time the plane would take off.
The priest, Miguel Pajares, is one of three missionaries being kept in isolation at the San Jose de Monrovia Hospital in Liberia who has tested positive for the virus, Spain's San Juan de Dios hospital order, a Catholic humanitarian group that runs hospitals around the world, said Tuesday.

8/2014 - CDC issues highest-level alert for Ebola
usatoday.com
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued its highest-level alert for a response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa.
"Ops Center moved to Level 1 response to given the extension to Nigeria & potential to affect many lives," CDC chief Tom Frieden said Wednesday on Twitter.
Level 1 means that increased staff and resources will be devoted to the outbreak, officials said. It is the first time the agency has invoked its highest level alert since 2009, over a flu outbreak.

8/2014 - WHO declares Ebola an international health emergency
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization on Friday declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international public health emergency that requires an extraordinary response to stop its spread.
It is the largest and longest outbreak ever recorded of Ebola, which has a death rate of about 50 percent and has so far killed at least 932 people. WHO declared similar emergencies for the swine flu pandemic in 2009 and for polio in May.
The WHO chief, Dr. Margaret Chan, said the announcement is "a clear call for international solidarity" although she acknowledged that many countries would probably not have any Ebola cases.

8/2014 - FDA Enables Potential Use Of Experimental Ebola Drug On Infected Patients
Aug 7 (Reuters) - Tekmira Pharmaceutical Corp said on Thursday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had modified its clinical hold status on Tekmira's experimental Ebola treatment to enable its potential use in humans infected with the virus.
The FDA told Burnaby, British Columbia-based Tekmira that it had modified the full clinical hold on the drug to a partial clinical hold, the company said in a statement.

8/2014 - Liberia health system collapsing as Ebola spreads
reuters.com
WASHINGTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The health care system in Liberia is collapsing, hospitals closing down and medical workers fleeing from the Ebola epidemic, which is poised to worsen, Liberia’s foreign minister said on Thursday.
“People are dying from common diseases because the health care system is collapsing,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Augustine Kpehe Ngafuan said in an interview with Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“It is going to have a long-term impact, even after this crisis is behind us.”
Treatable diseases such as malaria and diarrhea are left untended because frightened Liberians are shunning medical centers, and these deaths could outstrip those from the Ebola virus by three or four fold, he said.

8/2014 - 4 Newly Reported Ebola Cases In Nigeria Are All Linked To Patrick Sawyer
Four new cases of Ebola were reported in Nigeria on Aug. 8, and all of the cases were in people who had contact with the Liberian-American man who died from Ebola last month, The Washington Post first reported.
Gregory Hartl, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, told The Washington Post that “they’re all contacts of Patrick Sawyer,” and that they include cleaners and hospital and health care workers.
Sawyer collapsed after getting off a plane in Nigeria, having traveled from Liberia. A nurse who treated him has also contracted the virus and died.

8/2014 - Ebola outbreak: Fears strike Canadian hospital as patient isolated following 'flu-like symptoms'
independent.co.uk
A hospital in Ontario, Canada, has isolated a patient with flu-like symptoms after the person was revealed to have recently travelled from Nigeria – one of the Ebola-hit areas.
The measure is just a precautionary one and the patient has not yet been diagnosed with the deadly disease – a virus with a mortality rate as high as 90 per cent and which has swept through west Africa killing 961.
The unnamed patient has been admitted to Brampton Civic Hospital, with a diagnosis yet to come.

8/2014 - Ebola Attacks Kakata: 4 Die, 11 Infected
liberianobserver.com
As of late yesterday afternoon, a registered nurse and three other clinical staff have died at the C.H. Rennie Hospital in Kakata, Margibi , and 11 others working at the facility are said to be showing symptoms of the Ebola disease, the hospital's Medical Director has disclosed.

8/2014 - Nigerian man in Hong Kong suspected to have Ebola
channelnewsasia.com
HONG KONG: A Nigerian man in Hong Kong has been placed in quarantine after he was suspected to be carrying the Ebola virus, said Chinese media on Sunday (Aug 10).
According to CCTV, the 32-year-old had arrived in the southern Chinese city from Nigeria on Thursday. He was sent to hospital after experiencing vomiting and diarrhoea. It also said the man has been sent to Princess Margaret Hospital, where he will undergo tests for the virus. CCTV added that the test result may be known on Sunday night.
South China Morning Post reported that Hong Kong’s Department of Health declined to comment on the case, but said it would make a public announcement if any Ebola case is confirmed.
Xinhua said the man had been staying at a guesthouse in Tsim Sha Tsui district. He reportedly told the building's security staff that he was feeling unwell. He was later sent conscious to hospital.

8/2014 - Ebola Spreads to Senegal.
investmentwatchblog.com
A Malian national living in northern Senegal has been quarantined in a hospital due to suspected Ebola symptoms, Senegalese News Agency reported Saturday.
The 27-year-old patient had just returned to the northern city of Ourossogui from a trip to Mali, where he was in contact with nationals of Guinea, said the head doctor of the local medical team, adding samples have been sent to Dakar for analysis and the results could be available within 48 hours.

8/2014 Kumasi, Ghana
ghanaweb.com
Reports say three persons have been isolated at the Nsawam Government hospital in the Eastern Region for supposedly showing signs of the Ebola attack.
The third patient’s case, she said, was a peculiar one because he had blood in his urine and faeces and was in a feverish condition.
He is a 53-year-old long distance driver, who plies the Accra-Kumasi route. Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service is awaiting the test of a result of a Burkinabe, who was admitted at a health facility in Bawku in the Northern Region.

8/2014 - Adawso, Ghana
ghanaweb.com
Reports say three persons have been isolated at the Nsawam Government hospital in the Eastern Region for supposedly showing signs of the Ebola attack.
Matilda continued that a 56-year-old man also came in from a nearby village, Adawso, with blood in his urine.

8/2014 - Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research in Ghana
ghanaweb.com
Reports say three persons have been isolated at the Nsawam Government hospital in the Eastern Region for supposedly showing signs of the Ebola attack.
Among the patients is a 16-year-old girl who went to the infirmary Thursday with blood in her urine.

8/2014 - U.N. endorses use of untested Ebola medicines
usatoday.com
The use of unproven drugs to combat the deadly Ebola virus won support Tuesday from the World Health Organization, which cited deep concerns over "the largest, most severe and most complex outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history."
The endorsement from the U.N.'s health care agency came after two American health care workers were treated with an experimental Ebola drug. Officials warned, however, that the improvement they showed may not have been directly related to the drugs.
WHO says 1,013 people have died since March in the outbreak, the vast majority of them in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Officials estimate that Ebola kills about half of those afflicted with the disease.
"Over the past decade, research efforts have been invested into developing drugs and vaccines for Ebola virus disease. Some of these have shown promising results in the laboratory, but they have not yet been evaluated for safety," WHO said in a statement.

8/2014 -Government of Canada donates experimental Ebola vaccine to World Health Organization
news.gc.ca
The Honourable Rona Ambrose, Minister of Health, today announced that the Government of Canada will donate doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada to the World Health Organization (WHO) in its role as an international coordinating body in responding to the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The WHO will help to facilitate distribution of the vaccine.
Minister Ambrose spoke to Dr. Margaret Chan, Director General of the WHO, and offered the experimental vaccine as part of Canada's ongoing commitment to support its international partners in responding to the outbreak.
The Government of Canada will be donating between 800 - 1,000 doses to the WHO. The final number of doses provided will be based on the amount required for applied research and clinical trials. Canada will also keep a small supply of the experimental vaccine in the unlikely event it is needed for compassionate use in Canada.

8/2014 - Ebola victims are most infectious right after death—which means that West African burial practices, where families touch the bodies, are spreading the disease like wildfire.
thedailybeast.com
The harder phone calls that the Dead Body Management Team receives, and the more dangerous burials they perform, take place in the communities themselves. Here, they must walk a delicate line between allowing the family to perform goodbye rituals and safeguarding the living from infecting themselves. The washing, touching, and kissing of these bodies—typical in many West African burials—can be deadly. But prohibiting communities from properly honoring their dead ones—and thereby worsening their distrust in medical professionals—can be deadly, too.

8/2014 - WHO warns deadly epidemic is 'vastly' underestimated.
abc.net.au/news
The scale of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has been vastly underestimated and extraordinary measures are needed to contain the disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says.
The UN agency says it is coordinating "a massive scaling up of the international response", in a bid to tackle the worst epidemic of Ebola since its discovery four decades ago.
"Staff at the outbreak sites see evidence that the numbers of reported cases and deaths vastly underestimate the magnitude of the outbreak," the organisation said on its website.
"The outbreak is expected to continue for some time. WHO's operational response plan extends over the next several months."
The agency says the death toll has climbed to 1,145, with Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea at the epicentre of the outbreak.

8/2014 - Nigeria records fourth Ebola death – health ministry
vanguardngr.com
ABUJA (AFP) – The death toll from the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria has risen to four, while six others infected with the virus are being treated in the economic capital Lagos, the health ministry said on Thursday.
Nigeria has not recorded a case outside Lagos but there were fears that a nurse who contracted Ebola from Sawyer at the hospital may have carried the virus to the key eastern city of Enugu.
The nurse began showing symptoms after reaching her home in Enugu and was transported back to Lagos for treatment.
Officials on Wednesday said 21 people in Enugu who had contact with the nurse were being monitored.

8/2014 - Article: Experimental drugs and airport screenings will do nothing to stop this plague. If Ebola hits Lagos, we're in real trouble.
foreignpolicy.com
Wake up, fools. What's going on in West Africa now isn't Brown's silly Inferno scenario -- it's Steven Soderbergh's movie Contagion, though without a modicum of its high-tech capacity.
Last week, my brilliant Council on Foreign Relations colleague John Campbell, former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, warned that spread of the virus inside Lagos -- which has a population of 22 million -- would instantly transform this situation into a worldwide crisis, thanks to the chaos, size, density, and mobility of not only that city but dozens of others in the enormous, oil-rich nation. Add to the Nigerian scenario civil war, national elections, Boko Haram terrorists, and a countrywide doctors' strike -- all of which are real and current -- and you have a scenario so overwrought and frightening that I [Laurie Garrett] could not have concocted it even when I advised screenwriter Scott Burns on his Contagion script.

8/2014 - Ebola patients flee isolation center at the NV Massaquoi School in West Point, Monroiva, Libria
fontpageafricaonline.com
Late Saturday night, the remaining 17 left the isolation center assisted by angry residents of the West Point Community.
Tarplah said a group of people overwhelmed the center chanting slogans such as “NO Ebola, Ellen broke, she want more money; she lying about Ebola” and helped the 17 patients to leave the center.

8/2014 - Women bear brunt of Ebola in West Africa.
examiner-enterprise.com
As the number of lives claimed by the Ebola epidemic in West Africa rises above 1,000, the rate of infection among women is outpacing that among men because women are the caregivers, nurses and cross-border traders, health officials report.
Outbreaks are thought to originate through contact with infected forest animals, often making men who hunt for bushmeat or handle the meat the first targets of infection.
But as an outbreak progresses, women tend to be disproportionately affected. Women account for 55 to 60 percent of the dead in the current epidemic in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, according to UNICEF.
“Women constitute a large section of the health workers and are on the front lines of this crisis,” Nyama Koroma, first lady of Sierra Leone, said in a telephone interview.
At a task force meeting in Liberia a few weeks ago, health teams reported that 75 percent of those who were infected or died from Ebola were women, said Julia Duncan-Cassell, Liberia’s minister for gender and development.
“Women are the caregivers — if a kid is sick, they say, ‘Go to your mom,’ ” she said in an interview. “The cross-border trade women go to Guinea and Sierra Leone for the weekly markets, [and] they are also the caregivers. Most of the time when there is a death in the family, it’s the woman who prepares the funeral, usually an aunt or older female relative.”
Women also are the traditional birth attendants, nurses and the cleaners and laundry workers in hospitals, where there is risk of exposure.

8/2014 - Armed men attack Liberia Ebola clinic, freeing patients
cbsnews.com/news
Liberian police depart after firing shots in the air while trying to protect an Ebola burial team in the West Point slum on August 16, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. A crowd of several hundred local residents, chanting, 'No Ebola in West Point,' drove away the burial team and their police escort. The mob then forced open an Ebola isolation ward and took the patients out, many saying that the Ebola epidemic is a hoax. The isolation center, a closed primary school originally built by USAID, was being used by the Liberian health ministry to temporarily isolate people suspected of carrying the virus. Some 10 patients had 'escaped' the building the night before, according to a nurse, as the center had no medicine to treat them. The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 1,000 people in four West African countries, with Liberia now having the most deaths.

8/2014 - Imported Anti-Ebola Drug Turned Out To Be Pesticide
spyghana.com
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared that Nano-Silver, the drug the Ministry of Heath in Nigeria is planning to use for Ebola infected patients in the country is a pesticide.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a chief U.S. regulatory body, has made known its worries known over the safety of nano-silver, the name given to the experimental drug Nigeria’s ministry of health announced it would be using to treat eight Ebola patients in Lagos.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has however classified nano-silver as a known anti-bacterial used to fight mold and other bacteria, hence, calling it a pesticide.
According to Sahara Reporters, a spokeswoman for the U.S. FDA, Erica Jefferson, claimed they could not find or verify any information on the treatment, though they did not explicitly call it by name.
Although the Nigerian government claims the treatment was given by a Nigerian scientist in the diaspora, but did not give the doctor’s name, the US FDA has however revealed that the makers of the drugs are not recognized which means the drug has not been tested.

8/2014 - Sinje, Balaja, Liberia: In Liberia village, shunned Ebola victims left to die
news.yahoo.com
When AFP visited Fatu's village of Ballajah on Sunday, she had been locked away with her mother's body for a week after most residents fled to the forest to escape an outbreak of the virus.
Belongings lay abandoned around the village, the doors of some homes left open by those rushing to leave.
A few villagers remained, including Momoh Wile, a septuagenarian local chief, who told AFP Fatu's harrowing story.
Ballajah, some 150 kilometres (90 miles) from the Liberian capital Monrovia, is at the heart of one of the quarantine zones established in the country in a desperate bid to try to contain the spread of the disease.

8/2014 - Nigerian woman who died at Abu Dhabi airport suspected of Ebola
theglobeandmail.com
The health authority in the emirate said in a statement carried by the Emirati state news agency WAM on Sunday evening that the 35-year-old woman was travelling from Nigeria to India for treatment of advanced metastatic cancer.
Her health deteriorated while in transit at Abu Dhabi International Airport and as medics were trying to resuscitate her, they found signs that suggested a possible Ebola virus infection. Medical staff treating the woman followed safety and precautionary measures in line with World Health Organization guidelines, the statement added.
The woman’s husband, who was the only person sitting next to her on the plane, as well as five medics who treated her are being isolated pending test results on the deceased woman. All are in good health and show no symptoms of the illness, according to health officials.

8/2014 - Ebola Disease Outbreak: Hunters decry campaign against bush meat
ngrguardiannews.com
A REPORTED drop in the sale and consumption of bush meat across Nigeria following the Ebola outbreak and the attendant control campaigns that warn people to desist from consuming same, hunters in the country yesterday branded the man who brought the disease into the country, the late Patrick Sawyer, as mischievous, and should be investigated.
They also condemned the Minster of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, for banning the consumption of bush meat over reports that some animals are vectors of the dreaded virus, stating that the claim lacks scientific backing.
In news briefing yesterday in Benin City, Edo State, President of the Association of Animal Hunters of Nigeria (AAHON), Comrade Ray Macaulay, tasked Chukwu to explain how the virus “jumped from Patrick Sawyer and those who had direct contact with him at the Lagos hospital and the aircraft in which he came into Nigerian wild animals within a space of three weeks.”

8/2014 - Ebola Dead Can’t Be Buried in Liberia Amid Bag Shortage
Bloomberg News
Ebola Dead Can’t Be Buried in Liberia Amid Bag Shortage
The bodies of some Ebola victims in the region of Liberia hit hardest by the outbreak can’t be buried because there are no body bags, adding to the obstacles the West African nation faces as it tries to tame the virus.
The northern county of Lofa, which borders Guinea and Sierra Leone, has “absolutely no body bags,” Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said in a statement dated Aug. 17 and posted on its website yesterday. The government also has only a small fraction of the protective clothing, chlorine powder and mattresses it needs, according to the statement.
Liberia, which has fewer doctors per person than any West African nation, has had more Ebola deaths than any of the other three nations affected by the epidemic. A lack of supplies and experienced health-care workers, who sometimes don’t wear protective equipment properly, are contributing to infections among medical personnel in the worst Ebola outbreak on record, the World Health Organization said.

8/2014 - Germany Ebola scare as Nigerian woman showing symptoms of killer disease faints in jobcentre forcing 600 people into quarantine
dailymail.co.uk/news
A woman was rushed to hospital and hundreds of people were quarantined today after she showed symptoms of Ebola virus infection in a jobcentre in Germany.
As many as 600 visitors and staff at the employment office building in Berlin were also stopped from leaving for several hours as emergency services sealed off part of the street.
The mass-circulation daily Bild said the woman had fainted, that she hailed from Nigeria and that she said later that she had recently been in contact with people infected with Ebola.

8/2014 - The economic impact of Ebola
economist.com/news
ONE of the first casualties of any epidemic is tourism. The outbreak of Ebola in west Africa provides the latest evidence. “The Ebola scare is really affecting bookings,” says Darren Julyse, a manager with a boutique hotel group in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city and its commercial capital. “A lot of big companies are putting on travel restrictions.”
Nigeria has registered just two deaths from Ebola. Business has suffered more in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the virus has killed over 1,000 people in all. Government restrictions on the movement of goods and people have halted commerce in some areas. Cross-border markets have been shut down, stripping vendors of their one source of income. Farmers have fled affected zones, leaving crops to rot in the fields.
Governments and aid groups will probably spend hundreds of millions of dollars containing Ebola and caring for its victims. But the cost to the affected economies could well exceed the medical bills. The extent of the damage will depend on how far the disease spreads and how long the outbreak lasts. Already the World Bank has revised down its economic-growth estimate for Guinea this year by one percentage point. The Liberian finance minister believes that the IMF’s projection of 5.9% growth in his country is now unrealistic.

8-/2014 - Sierra Leone's 365 Ebola deaths traced back to one healer's claims to special powers in Sokoma, Sierra Leone
news.yahoo.com
Kenema (Sierra Leone) (AFP) - It has laid waste to the tribal chiefdoms of Sierra Leone, leaving hundreds dead, but the Ebola crisis began with just one healer's claims to special powers.
The outbreak need never have spread from Guinea, health officials revealed to AFP, except for a herbalist in the remote eastern border village of Sokoma.
"She was claiming to have powers to heal Ebola. Cases from Guinea were crossing into Sierra Leone for treatment," Mohamed Vandi, the top medical official in the hard-hit district of Kenema, told AFP.
"She got infected and died. During her funeral, women around the other towns got infected."

8/2014 - Sierra Leone Makes Hiding Ebola Patients Illegal
Sierra Leone has passed a new law imposing possible jail time for anyone caught hiding an Ebola patient — a common practice that the World Health Organization believes has contributed to a major underestimation of the current outbreak.

8/2014 - Two New Cases of Ebola Stem From Secondhand Contact
nytimes.com
Two new cases of Ebola were reported in Nigeria on Friday, both in spouses of health workers who died after caring for the Liberian-American who brought the disease there last month.
Twelve people who had contact with Mr. Sawyer, in the hospital or in the car that took him there, have fallen ill. Two doctors, two nurses and the driver have died.

CDC Ebola Map of the most effected areas as of 8/14/2014

8/2014 - Monrovia slum is quarantined
time.com
A few weeks ago, West Point was merely the worst slum in war-racked Liberia. Today, it is both that and the most notorious urban center of the world’s worst Ebola outbreak.
It is also quarantined from the rest of the Liberian capital Monrovia, and its dank alleyways subject to a nightly curfew. Barricades and barbed wire have gone up, and troops posted. Ships started patrolling the waterfront on Wednesday to further restrict the movement of the 70,000 or so residents. Food prices have skyrocketed. On Thursday, hundreds of people lined up for government handouts of rice and water.

8/2014 - Ebola quarantine order sparks clashes between army, locals
pangeatoday.com
Ebola quarantine order sparks clashes between army, locals
Violence recently erupted in a heavily populated area of the Liberian capital of Monrovia when soldiers opened fire and used teargas on local residents resisting a quarantine order by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to stop the deadly Ebola disease.
Several people were reported injured in the clashes in Monrovia’s West Point slum district, which has been officially closed off.
A nighttime curfew has also been imposed by President Sirleaf as part of new security measures aimed at preventing the Ebola virus from spreading further.

8/2014 - Ganta, Liberia residents fleeing over fears
worldbulletin.net
Hundreds of residents in the northern Liberian city of Ganta are fleeing their homes to nearby towns and villages over fears that their city might be quarantined over the increased number of Ebola deaths within its limits.
"This Ebola thing is scaring us because people are just dying around us, and we just heard that the government has quarantined two communities in Margibi and West Point, so maybe they will come here too," Junior Paye, a Ganta resident, told Anadolu Agency as he scrambled to collect his family’s belongings before fleeing the city.
Paye was referring to a decision by the government to quarantine West Point and Dolo Town as a bid to contain the Ebola outbreak that killed hundreds in the country.

8/2014 - Ivory Coast closing borders in response to Ebola outbreak
cnn.com
Ivory Coast announced Saturday that it's closing its borders in response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Prime Minister Daniel Duncan signed the order that closes the land borders Ivory Coast shares with Guinea and Liberia.
The borders will remain closed until further notice in an effort to prevent the Ebola virus from spreading into its territory, according to the government statement.

Unidentified fever 'kills 13' in DR Congo in 10 days in Lokolia and Watsikengo,
news.yahoo.com
A fever of unidentified origin has killed 13 people in the northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo since August 11, the health minister said.
"All 13 people who have died suffered from a fever, diarrhoea, vomiting and, in a terminal stage, of vomiting a black matter," Dr Felix Kabange Numbi said late Thursday.
So far, about 80 people who came into contact with the deceased are being monitored at their homes, he added.
But a World Health Organization (WHO) official and the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday it was too soon to tell whether a haemorraghic fever caused the deaths, while an epidemic of often fatal and highly contagious Ebola raged in west Africa to the north.
---
Map in article shows the affected cities of Lokolia and Watsikengo,

8/2014 - Watsi Kengo, Democratic Republic of the Congo - 2 Ebola Deaths Confirmed In Congo: Minister
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Two Ebola-related deaths have been confirmed in Congo, the country's health minister said Sunday, though local officials believe the cases are unrelated to the outbreak in West Africa that has killed more than 1,400 people.
Eight samples were taken from Djera, located in the Boende region of Congo's northwest Equateur province, and two of them came back positive, Felix Kabange Numbi said on state television Sunday.

Ecoregion: Central Congolian lowland forests
The Central Congolian lowland forests are an ecoregion within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is a remote, inaccessible area of low-lying dense wet forest, undergrowth and swamp in the Cuvette Centrale region of the Congo Basin south of the arc of the River Congo.[1]
Google Map / Panoramio / zhoufengjing

8/22/2014 - WHO Report 142 new cases in 2 days
wwho.int (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_08_22_ebola/en/)
New Cases between 19 and 20 August 2014 :
Guinea: 28
Liberia: 110
Nigeria: 1
Seirra Leone: 3

8/2014 - Ebola alert, hospitals stand by as planes with Indians from Liberia land in Mumbai
indianexpress.com
As many as 112 Indian nationals suspected to have been exposed to the Ebola virus are expected to land in Mumbai from Liberia on seven different flights Tuesday. Civic authorities, meanwhile, are busy creating an isolation facility in a suburban hospital.
According to a spokesperson for the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), the seven flights are carrying Indians evacuated from Liberia by the Indian embassy. Liberia is one of the four countries in West Africa affected by the Ebola virus.
While three flights will be diverted via Delhi, the remaining four will reach Mumbai directly at different times on Tuesday. All the flights are originating from Johannesburg.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is preparing 120 beds after it received an alert from the CSIA. According to acting executive health officer (EHO) at BMC, Dr Shreedhar Kubal, an action plan has been drawn up. “We are isolating 120 beds. We have been told that more than 100 passengers are suspected to have been exposed to Ebola,” Kubal said.

8/2014 - Report: Dogs Eating Dead Bodies Of Ebola Victims On Liberian Streets
atlanta.cbslocal.com
Dogs in one community in Liberia are reportedly eating the remains of dead Ebola victims lying on the streets.
The New Dawn reports that the Liberian government buried bodies of those suspected to have died from Ebola a few weeks ago in Johnsonville Township, outside of Monrovia. A number of dogs were reportedly seen pulling the bodies out of the graves and eating the remains.
Alfred Wiah tells The New Dawn that the government’s Health Ministry was called about the incident but that officials did not do anything about it.
“We are very disappointed in the Health Ministry, especially the government that took an oath to defend and protect us. To see them act in such manner is unacceptable and we’ll never allow the government come to bury any longer,” Wiah told The New Dawn. “They will be resisted by us because I think the government has failed to protect us. Why bring Ebola bodies and not bury them well?”
Dr. Stephen Korsman of the University of Cape Town’s medical virology division tells News 24 that dogs can be infected with the Ebola virus but that “infections appear to be asymptomatic.”
“This means that dogs won’t get sick, but they still could carry a potential risk through licking or biting,” Korsman explained to News 24.

8/2014 - Ebola virus has mutated during course of outbreak
washingtonpost.com
The genomic sequencing also offers hints as to how the Ebola “Zaire” strain at the heart of the current outbreak — one of five types of Ebola virus known to infect humans — likely ended up in West Africa in the first place. Researchers said the data suggests that the virus spread from an animal host, possibly bats, and that diverged around 2004 from an Ebola strain in central Africa, where previous outbreaks have occurred.
“We don’t actually know where the virus has been since then,” said Sabeti, referring to the time between 2004 and when the virus resurfaced earlier this year. “We’re trying to piece together an historical record.”
Thursday’s study also details hundreds of genetic mutations that make the current Ebola outbreak different from any in the past. Some of those changes have the potential to affect the accuracy of diagnostic tests or the effectiveness of vaccines and treatments under development for the disease.
“We’ve uncovered more than 300 genetic clues about what sets this outbreak apart from previous outbreaks,” Stephen Gire, one of the study’s co-authors and an infectious disease researcher at Harvard, said in an announcement about the findings. “Although we don’t know whether these differences are related to the severity of the current outbreak, by sharing these data with the research community, we hope to speed up our understanding of this epidemic and support global efforts to contain it.”

8/2014 - Parcelles Assainies, Dakar, Senegal
The West African state of Senegal became the fifth country to be hit by the world's worst Ebola outbreak on Friday, while riots broke out in neighboring Guinea's remote southeast where infection rates are rising fast.
A Health Ministry official, who asked not to be named, said that the 21-year-old crossed into Senegal via its southern border with Guinea and had been living in the densely populated Dakar suburb of Parcelles Assainies for weeks. He added that the man appeared to have a good chance of recovering.
The man had been under surveillance by health authorities in Guinea because of his contact with Ebola victims but escaped to Senegal, Seck said.
Residents in Dakar reacted with anger and concern. "When you are sick, why do you leave your own country to export the disease to another?" asked radio host Taib Soce on RFM, a popular station owned by Senegalese music star Youssou N'dour.

Ecoregion: Sahelian Acacia savanna
Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahel)
The Sahel[p] is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition in Africa between the Sahara desert to the north and the Sudanian Savanna to the south. Having a semi-arid climate, it stretches across the southernmost extent of Northern Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. The Arabic word sāḥil (ساحل) literally means "shore, coast", describing the appearance of the vegetation found in the Sahel as being akin to that of a coastline delimiting the sand of the Sahara.
The Sahel covers parts of (from west to east) the Gambia, Senegal, southern Mauritania, central Mali, Burkina Faso, southern Algeria and Niger, northern Nigeria and Cameroon, central Chad, southern Sudan, northern South Sudan and northern Eritrea.[1]
Google Map / Panoramio / Marcoafrika2

8/2014 - Man Hospitalized in Sweden With Suspected Case of Ebola Virus
online.wsj.com
A young man who recently had traveled in an Ebola-hit African country was placed in medical isolation in Stockholm after developing a high fever Sunday evening, local media reported.
"Yes, we have a suspected [Ebola] case, but it's not confirmed," a spokeswoman for Stockholm's County Council told The Wall Street Journal.

9/2014 - Video of Ebola Patient Escapes Quarantine And Causes Panic In Liberia
digg.com/video:
View video.
A patient suffering from the deadly Ebola virus left his quarantine in Monrovia and attempted to search for food at a local market before being caught by doctors and forced back into an ambulance.

9/2014 - Ebola spreads to Kerouane, Guinea
reuters.com
Guinea, the first country to detect the virus, previously said it was containing the outbreak but announced that nine new cases had been found in the prefecture of Kerouane, some 750 km (470 miles) southeast of the capital Conakry.
"There has been a new outbreak in Kerouane, but we have sent in a team to contain it," said Aboubacar Sikidi Diakité, head of Guinea's Ebola task force.
The latest outbreak started after the arrival of an infected person from neighboring Liberia, and a total of 18 people were under observation in the region, the health ministry said.

9/2014 - Ebola spreads to Port Harcourt, Nigeria
The haemorrhagic fever was gaining in Nigeria where 18 cases, including 7 deaths, have been reported, three in the oil hub of Port Harcourt. The WHO warned that the outbreak there "has the potential to grow larger and spread faster than the one in Lagos" as containment measures had been less effective.

Ecoregion: Cross-Niger transition forests
The ecoregion extends across the Nigerian states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Ebonyi, and Imo, covering an area of 20,700 square kilometers (8,000 sq mi). The Niger River separates the Cross-Niger transition forests from the Nigerian lowland forests to the west, which probably resembles most closely the original environment of the Cross-Niger ecoregion. To the south and south-west lies the Niger Delta swamp forests. To the north, the Cross-Niger transition forests yield to the Guinean forest-savanna mosaic of the drier interior.
The climate is wet, becoming drier further inland, with a dry season from December to February.
Google Map / Panoramio / Akudo Ude

9/2014 - More than 50 cases of Ebola in the DRC
More than 50 cases of Ebola have been reported in a remote northern jungle region of Democratic Republic of Congo, although these are not linked to the West African cases.
Since Ebola was first detected in Congo in 1976, WHO has reported more than 20 outbreaks in Africa and 1,590 victims.
The WHO warned last week that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people and spread to 10 countries.

9/2014 - Eboloa spreads to Sanniquellie, Liberia
reliefweb.int
4 suspected cases combined from Saclepea and Sanniquellie City; 4 Specimen collected

9/2014 - Eboloa spreads to Saclepea, (Saglelpie?) Liberia
reliefweb.int
4 suspected cases combined from Saclepea and Sanniquellie City; 4 Specimen collected

9/2014 - Tubmanburg, Liberia
reliefweb.int
Eight (8) patients presently at the holding center in Tubmanburg, Bomi County; two new admissions reported

9/2014 - Monrovia Central Prison
Case Investigation reported that, there are 5 patients at the Central Prison!!!!

9/2014 - Sierra Leone declares 3-day Ebola lockdown
bbc.com (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29093048)
Sierra Leone - one of the countries worst hit by West Africa's Ebola outbreak - has announced a three-day lockdown to try to tackle the disease.
From 19 to 21 September people will not be allowed to leave their homes, a senior official said.
The aim of the move is to allow health workers to isolate new cases to prevent the disease from spreading further.
The outbreak has killed about 2,100 people in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria in recent months.

9/2014 - Ebola making a comeback in places it was contained
thestar.com/news/
Instead, new cases appeared across the border in Liberia and then spread across West Africa, carried by the sick and dying. Now, months later, Macenta is once again a hotspot.
The resurgence of the disease in a place where doctors thought they had it beat shows how history’s largest Ebola outbreak has spun out of control.
It began with people leaving homes in Liberia to seek better care or reunite with families back in Guinea, a pattern repeating itself all over.
“Currently in Guinea, all the new cases, all the new epidemic, are linked to people that are coming back from Liberia or from Sierra Leone,” said Marc Poncin, the emergency co-ordinator for Médecins San Frontières in Guinea.

Ecoregion: Guinean mangroves
Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinean_mangroves)
Guinean mangroves can be found: in the Saloum River and Casamance deltas in Senegal; in the lower Gambia River basin; much of the coast of Guinea-Bissau, including the Cacheu and Mansoa Rivers; across the border in northern Guinea; and much of the coast of Sierra Leone including the Sherbro River. Mangroves thrive on flat coastal inlets and estuaries where the ocean tides wash warm salt water high upriver, in this ecoregion as far as 100 km, for example in the Cacheu River of Guinea-Bissau.[1][2]
Google Map / Panoramio / Filipe Duarte

9/2014 - Gates Foundations pledges $50 million to fight Ebola epidemic
af.reuters.com
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $50 million on Wednesday to support emergency efforts to contain West Africa's Ebola epidemic, which has already killed almost 2,300 people in the worst outbreak of the virus in history.
The U.S.-based philanthropic foundation said it would release funds immediately to U.N. agencies and international organisations to help them buy supplies and scale up the emergency response in affected countries.
It will also work with public and private sector partners to speed up to development of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics that could be effective in treating Ebola patients and preventing further spread of the haemorrhagic fever-causing virus.

9/2014 - Virologist: Fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia is lost
dw.de
But Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg told DW that he and his colleagues are losing hope for Sierra Leone and Liberia, two of the countries worst hit by the recent Ebola epidemic.
"The right time to get this epidemic under control in these countries has been missed," he said. That time was May and June. "Now it is too late."
Schmidt-Chanasit expects the virus will "burn out itself" in this part of the world.
With other words: It will more or less infect everybody and half of the population - in total about five million people - could die.

9/2014 - Liberia is facing a serious threat to its national existence.
Washingtonpost.com
With Ebola's death toll surging and a top United Nations official declaring that "the rate of acceleration is now picking up dramatically," Liberian officials have been making dire pronouncements about the deepening crisis in their country.
At a news conference Thursday, finance minister Amara Konneh said Liberia is at "war with an enemy we don't see." Two days earlier, the Ebola-ravaged country's defense minister, Brownie Samukai, delivered a harrowing warning of his own.
"Liberia is facing a serious threat to its national existence," Samukai told the U.N. Security Council. "The deadly Ebola virus has caused a disruption of the normal functioning of our state."

9/2014 - Situation so bad Monrovia soccer stadium to house Ebola centre: FIFA
Geneva (AFP) - A large football stadium in Monrovia will be converted to house two large Ebola treatment units, FIFA said Thursday.
The international football federation said in a statement it was cooperating with the World Health Organisation to transform the Antoinette Tubman Stadium in the Liberian capital for use in the fight against the epidemic ravaging west Africa.
The stadium, which FIFA had donated to Liberia's Football Association, would "serve as the site for two urgently needed large-scale Ebola treatment units," it said.
"Today we can use the power of football to combat the Ebola epidemic," FIFA president Sepp Blatter said in the statement.
FIFA would cover the cost of any damage done to the recently installed pitch, he said.
Nearly 2,300 people have died since the west Africa Ebola outbreak started at the beginning of the year.
Liberia, with 1,200 dead, has borne the brunt of the outbreak, and has run perilously short of space at the few Ebola treatment sites operating.

9/2014 - As Ebola cases accelerate, Liberia’s sick must fend for themselves.
washingtonpost.com
With each day, the small group of caregivers trying to cope with the worst outbreak of Ebola on record falls further and further behind as the pace of the virus’s transmission rapidly accelerates. Health facilities are full, and an increasing number of infected people are being turned away, left to fend for themselves.
The epidemic has killed more than 2,200 people in five African countries and now poses a threat to Liberia’s “national existence,” according to its defense minister. The World Health Organization says the epidemic’s growth has been “exponential” in recent weeks, especially in Liberia.

9/2014 - Ebola patients buying survivors' blood from black market, WHO warns
CNN:
As hospitals in nations hardest hit by Ebola struggle to keep up, desperate patients are turning to the black market to buy blood from survivors of the virus, the World Health Organization warned.
The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history has killed at least 2,400 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone -- the countries most affected by the virus.
Thousands more are infected, and new cases have emerged in Nigeria and Senegal.
Blood from survivors, referred to as convalescent serum, is said to have antibodies that can fight the deadly virus. Though unproven, it has provided some promise in fighting a disease with no approved drug to treat it.

WHO Intl.com (http://www.who.int/csr/don/2014_09_10_ebola/en/)
Between 2 and 9 September 2014, there have been 31 more cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), increasing the cumulative number of cases to 62 (14 confirmed, 26 probable, and 22 suspect). In total, 35 deaths have been reported (9 confirmed and 26 probable). No deaths have been reported among suspected cases. Nine health-care workers have been diagnosed with EVD, including 7 deaths. All the cases have been localized in Jeera county. The affected villages are Watsi Kengo, Lokolia, Boende, and Boende Muke. Currently, 9 cases have been hospitalized: 4 in Lokolia; 2 in Watsikengo; 2 in Boende; and 1 in Boende Moke. A total of 386 contacts have been listed and 239 contacts have been followed-up. All cases and contacts are linked to the initial index case reported to the World Health Organization on 26 August 2014.

9/2014 - WHO: 700 new Ebola cases emerge in one week
aljazeera.com/news
Deaths in West Africa pass 2,600 as Sierra Leone prepares for unprecedented three-day lockdown to contain disease.
More than 700 more Ebola cases have emerged in West Africa in the past week week, a statistic that showed the outbreak was rapidly accelerating, the World Health Organisation has said.
The UN health agency said on Thursday that more than 5,300 people have now contracted the virus, and that the latest statistics showed that just under half of these cases were recorded in the last three weeks.

9/2014 - Ebola Deaths Doubled in a Month, Health Group Says
nytimes.com
GENEVA — The number of people in West Africa who have contracted the Ebola virus and died from the hemorrhagic fever that it causes has doubled in the past month, the World Health Organization reported on Thursday.
In Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the three countries hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak, a total of 5,335 people have been infected and 2,622 have died, the organization reported. The tally a month ago was 2,458 infections and 1,346 deaths.
Liberia accounts for more than half of the cases. The first of 13 aircraft delivering American medical aid to the country is expected on Friday, carrying equipment for a military field hospital to treat medical workers who contract the disease.

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9/2014 - Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas
A Dallas hospital expects preliminary test results Tuesday that may confirm whether a patient there has Ebola.Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas placed the patient into “strict isolation” after the person’s symptoms and recent travel history raised concerns, spokeswoman Candace White said in a written statement Monday.The name and other details about the patient were not released.The hospital said it is following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations to ensure the safety of patients, staff members and visitors.

9/2014  - Liberia's newest, largest treatment clinic already at capacity
The centre, known as Island Clinic, was exactly seven days old when CBC News toured the “green zone," or safe zone, of the facility on Sunday. It has almost doubled the Ebola treatment capacity in Liberia's capital city of Monrovia, a major urban centre overwhelmed by an exponentially increasing number of cases of the deadly virus.                                                                                               When it opened, there were 120 beds available. Within hours, the clinic was already stretched — every space available filled with the city’s most frightened and seriously ill. Somehow, room was made for more patients and currently, by adding beds and sofas where possible, staff estimate the total number is likely closer to 200.

9/2014 - Thai hospital claims to have developed treatment against Ebola
Bangkok: A Thai hospital Monday claimed to have successfully developed an "antibody treatment" against the dreaded Ebola virus that has killed over 3,000 people in West Africa this year.                                                                                                       In a brief announcement, Siriraj Hospital at Mahidol University said doctors have developed "the successful production of an antibody treatment against Ebola for the first time in Thailand," Bangkok Post online reported today.                                                                                                 It is not clear what exactly the hospital has to offer.                                                                                                                                                                       While a government-run website proclaimed it a "cure" for the disease, other reports said it was a preventative vaccine.                                                                                                                                              It could mean the hospital's development of antibodies could lead to a treatment applied after infection to stimulate the body's natural immune system to fight off infection, the report said.

9/2014 - UN's Ebola virus HQ in Ghana opens
The UN mission to combat Ebola opened its headquarters on Monday in Ghana, where it will co-ordinate international aid to assist West Africa to combat the accelerating crisis.                                                                                                                   This outbreak has spiralled into the worst ever for Ebola, and the World Health Organization says it is has linked more than 3,000 deaths to the disease. Even that frightening figure is likely an underestimate of the true toll, said WHO. Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea have been hit hardest. Senegal and Nigeria have also been touched, but have not reported a new case in weeks.

9/2014 - Walking Dead create Mass Panic
Fear and panic is spreading in Nimba County, an African community where dead Ebola patients have reportedly "resurrected" and roams around among the living. The victims were allegedly women in their 40s and 60s who had died from the virus in Liberia's Nimba County.
According to the local paper The New Dawn, the pair of "walking dead" is believed to be amongst the living. The report said Dorris Quote, and Ma Kabeh who is said to be in her 60s, both from Hope Village Community and the Catholic Community in Ganta, were about to be buried when they "rose from the dead." Witnesses claimed Ma Kabeh had stayed indoors for about two nights without receiving medication or taking any food before her reported death.
When residents gathered to prepare the burial of the dead women, they were shocked to see the dead rise. Aside from the mass panic, many have wondered whether Kebeh had survived the virus after all, if the presumption of her death turned out to be false.

9/2014 - Ebola outbreaks in Nigeria, Senegal, appear contained: CDC reports
In Nigeria, no new cases of Ebola have occurred since August 31, "suggesting that the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria might have been contained," according to one of three reports released on Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Senegal, healthcare workers have contained Ebola after a single case was confirmed on August 29. The man has since recovered.

10/2014 - Ebola Healthcare Workers Are Dying Faster Than Their Patients
The bulk of healthcare workers are locals who don't have enough resources or training to treat not only their patients, but also each other

10/2014 - A Plan to Use Survivors’ Blood for Ebola Treatment in Africa
With no proven drugs to treat Ebola and experimental ones in short supply, the health authorities are planning to turn instead to a treatment that is walking around in the outbreak zone in West Africa.
That would be the blood of people who have been sickened by the Ebola virus but have since recovered. Their blood should contain antibodies that might help other patients fight off the infection.
The World Health Organization is making it a priority to try such convalescent blood or plasma, as it is called, and is talking with the affected countries about how to do it.
This week, the organization issued guidance on how to collect the blood and administer transfusions.

9/2014 - Ebola outbreak: 'Thousands of orphans shunned'
(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-29424919)
At least 3,700 children in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone who have lost one or both parents to Ebola this year face being shunned, the UN children's organisation has said.
Carers were urgently needed for these orphans, Unicef said.
A basic human reaction like comforting a sick child has been turned "into a potential death sentence", it added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says more than 3,000 people have died of Ebola in West Africa.

10/2014  - Nurse in Spain tests positive in first infection outside west Africa
A nurse in Spain has tested positive for the Ebola virus after treating a patient repatriated to Madrid from Sierra Leone, the country’s health authorities said on Monday. The nurse is thought to be the first person to have contracted the virus outside west Africa.
The auxiliary nurse was part of the team attending to a Spanish missionary with Ebola who was repatriated two weeks ago. The 69-year-old missionary, Manuel García Viejo, died just four days after being brought to Madrid’s Carlos III hospital.

10/2014 - Liberia’s Ebola Workers Threaten To Strike
NAIROBI — Dissatisfied health care workers manning Liberia’s Ebola treatment wards may not turn up for work next week unless the government increases newly announced hazard pay.
Several health care workers told BuzzFeed News that plans for a strike are in the works after widespread dissatisfaction with a hazard pay scale announced by Liberia’s finance ministry on Oct. 1.
Nearly 200 Liberian health care workers have been infected with Ebola since the virus broke out in West Africa in March; 92 have died, according to the latest figures from the Liberian Health Ministry.

10/2014 - Suspected Ebola case causes panic in Manipur
Panic gripped Manipur when a Japanese woman who had made a stop-over at Imphal was suspected of having infected with Ebola virus. The tourist, identified as Kawakubo Yuko (27), had already visited five countries. She was coming to Nagaland and had checked in at a hotel in Imphal as she was planning to visit some places in the state. She came to Manipur from Myanmar by road.
Doctors said that she had started showing symptoms of a patient suffering from Ebola. She was shifted to a private hospital in Imphal. Local tests for some common ailments proved negative.

10.2014 - Sierra Leone suffers record deaths & cases in one day.
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - Sierra Leone recorded 121 deaths from Ebola and scores of new infections in one of the single deadliest days since the disease appeared in the West African country more than four months ago, government health statistics showed on Sunday. The figures, which covered the period through Saturday, put the total number of deaths at 678, up from 557 the day before. The daily statistics compiled by Sierra Leone's Emergency Operations Centre also showed 81 new cases of the hemorrhagic fever.

10/2014 - Sierra Leone turns to help families tend to patients at home.
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Acknowledging a major “defeat” in the fight against Ebola, international health officials battling the epidemic in Sierra Leone approved plans on Friday to help families tend to patients at home, recognizing that they are overwhelmed and have little chance of getting enough treatment beds in place quickly to meet the surging need.
The decision signifies a significant shift in the struggle against the rampaging disease. Officials said they would begin distributing painkillers, rehydrating solution and gloves to hundreds of Ebola-afflicted households in Sierra Leone, contending that the aid arriving here was not fast or extensive enough to keep up with an outbreak that doubles in size every month or so.
“It’s basically admitting defeat,” said Dr. Peter H. Kilmarx, the leader of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s team in Sierra Leone, adding that it was “now national policy that we should take care of these people at home.”

10/2014 - Ebola outbreak: UN health worker dies in Germany hospital
(http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29611713?)
A UN medical worker infected with Ebola has died at a hospital in Germany.
Doctors at the hospital in Leipzig said the man, 56, originally from Sudan, died despite receiving experimental drugs to treat the virus.

10/2014 - Ebola threatening world’s chocolate supply
According to a report by Politico Ivory Coast, the world’s largest producer of cacao has shut down its borders with Liberia and Guinea, putting a major crimp on the workforce needed to pick the beans that end up in chocolate bars and other treats just as the harvest season begins.
The West African nation of about 20 million — also known as Côte D’Ivoire — has yet to experience a single case of Ebola, but the outbreak already could raise prices.
The manufacturers have taken note of this.
According to the report the World Cocoa Foundation is collection large donations from companies such as Nestlé and many of its 113 other members for their Coca Industry Response to Ebola Initiative.

10//5/2014 - CDC: 2014 Ebola Outbreak in Democratic Republic of the Congo
http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/drc/2014-august.html
As of October 5, 2014, there have been 70 cases of Ebola virus disease reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In total, 43 deaths have been reported. This outbreak is unrelated to the current outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.

10/2014 - UN warns Ebola is running faster than us and it is winning the race.
Nearly 9,000 cases of ebola have been reported so far in West Africa, including 4,447 deaths.
"The WHO advises within 60 days we must ensure 70% of infected people are in a care facility and 70% of burials are done without causing further infection," said Anthony Banbury, the UN's deputy ebola coordinator.

10/2014 - Ebola is spooking Wall Street
The arrival of Ebola in the U.S. has coincided with a period of extreme turbulence in the stock market, which has tumbled about 8% from record highs.
The deadly virus is clearly not the only factor behind the market slide, but it's a major unknown that is increasingly weighing on market psychology. That was the case again on Wednesday as the Dow plummeted as much as 370 points and health officials revealed a second health-care worker in Dallas tested positive for Ebola.Ebola fears are most obvious in the airline sector. Shares of American Airlines Group (AAL) and Delta Air Lines (DAL) fell sharply on Wednesday, hurt by the news that the new Ebola patient flew the day before being diagnosed. Both airlines are down nearly 20% over the past month alone.

10/2014 - Doctor in New York City Is Sick With Ebola.
A doctor in New York City who recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea became the first person in the city to test positive for the virus Thursday, setting off a search for anyone who might have come into contact with him.
The doctor, Craig Spencer, was rushed to Bellevue Hospital Center and placed in isolation at the same time as investigators sought to retrace every step he had taken over the past several days.

10/2014 - First Ebola Case Confirmed In Mali
BAMAKO, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Mali confirmed its first case of Ebola on Thursday, becoming the sixth West African country to be touched by the worst outbreak on record of the haemorrhagic fever, which has killed nearly 4,900 people.
Mali's Health Minister Ousmane Kone told state television that the patient in the western town of Kayes was a two-year-old girl who had recently arrived from neighboring Guinea, where the outbreak began.

10/2014 - Newark Passenger Who Worked With Ebola Patients Develops Fever
A female healthcare worker with Doctors Without Borders who was quarantined because she had contact with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone has developed a fever after arriving at Newark Liberty Airport, the New Jersey State Health Department said on Friday.
She has been isolated and is being evaluated at University Hospital in Newark. The woman was tested for Ebola on Friday, and results were expected on Saturday, WABC reported.
She had no symptoms upon arrival in Newark, but said she had contact with patients while in Sierra Leone when questioned at the airport, The Register reported. She was put under quarantine due to the possibility she was exposed to Ebola. The New York Times and WABC said that she had treated patients in the West African country.
She developed a fever while under quarantine later on Friday night, the New Jersey State Health Department said.

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11/24/2014 - First suspected Ebola case emerges in Pakistan
Zulfiqar Ahmad, 40, who resides in Chiniot, returned to Pakistan on November 16 after working for the Togolese Republic in West Africa.
Ahmad faced multiple health-related problems and was admitted to the DHQ Hospital in Chiniot and later shifted to the Allied Hospital by his relatives.
After conducting initial diagnostic tests, doctors said that he may have contracted the Ebola virus.

11/24/2014 - 100 people tested for Ebola in England
http://danews.co.uk/2014/11/100-people-tested-ebola-england/
Public health England (PHE) have revealed that 99 people have been tested for the infectious disease with one confirmed case which was “in the public domain.”
The ages of patients tested between January 21 and November 9 range from “under five” to 75-year-olds, a Freedom of Information response to the Press Association revealed.
It has been revealed that most of the people tested for Ebola in hospitals across England had visited west Africa…well who’d have guessed?