Ebola Deaths Rise as Disease Spreads [Video]
by Tabitha Farrar
Guardianlv.com
June 26, 2014
Ebola virus disease, formally known as hemorrhagic fever, is a severe and often deadly disease that is currently on the rise, spreading though Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The death toll has reached 337 people this week, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the health services involved are struggling to keep this highly contagious disease contained. The virus was originally transmitted to humans from wild animals, and then spread amongst the human population by person-to-person contact.
The worst affected region is Guinea, where there have been 264 deaths so far from the virus. In recent weeks, the death toll in Sierra Leone and Liberia has begun to rise, with Sierra Leone suffering 49 deaths and 24 in Liberia. The newly affected localities in Guinea are Gueckeduo, a southeast region, and Boffa, located hundreds of miles northwest of the capital, Conakry. Robert Garry, a Tulane University professor of microbiology and the principal investigator on the study, believes the current death count to be only the tip of the iceberg. Garry explains that it is difficult to keep track of all those that may have come into contact with the virus and therefore getting them to a treatment facility is challenging.
Marie-Christine Ferir, emergency programs coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, believes the higher numbers mark a second peak in the epidemic, which is further complicated by the fact that infected people are not being adequately isolated which makes containing the disease difficult. Many of those who are suffering from the illness are reluctant to go to the hospitals and the situation is not being helped by the family members of sick individuals who try to remove them from isolation and take them home. There are also certain funeral rituals in West Africa which involve touching the body of the deceased that are proving to add to the problems associated with stopping the spread of the virus.
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