Ebola, previously known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is a rare and deadly disease. Ebola viruses are found in several African countries. Ebola was first discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since then, outbreaks have appeared at irregular intervals in Africa. The 2014 Ebola outbreak is the largest Ebola outbreak in history and the first Ebola outbreak in West Africa. This outbreak is the first Ebola epidemic the world has ever known – affecting multiple countries in West Africa. TOTAL CASES (AS OF SEPTEMBER 21, 2014) (UPDATED SEPTEMBER 25, 2014) •Total Case Count: 6263 •Total Deaths: 2917.
•Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 3487 CASES BY COUNTRY 1. Guinea •Total Case Count: 1022 •Total Deaths: 635 •Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 832 2. Liberia •Total Case Count: 3280 •Total Deaths: 1677 •Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 890 3. Nigeria •Total Case Count: 20 •Total Case Deaths: 8 •Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 19 4. Senegal •Total Case Count: 1 •Total Case Deaths: 0 •Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 1 5. Sierra Leone •Total Case Count: 1940 •Total Case Deaths: 597 •Laboratory Confirmed Cases: 1745 Symptoms of Ebola include: •Fever (greater than 38. 6°C or 101. 5°F) •Severe headache •Muscle pain •Weakness •Diarrhea •Vomiting •Abdominal (stomach) pain.
•Unexplained hemorrhage (bleeding or bruising) Symptoms may appear anywhere from 2 to 21 days after exposure to Ebola, but the average is 8 to 10 days. Recovery from Ebola depends on the patient’s immune response. People who recover from Ebola infection develop antibodies that last for at least 10 years. Risk All cases of human illness or death from Ebola have occurred in Africa. Healthcare providers caring for Ebola patients and the family and friends in close contact with Ebola patients are at the highest risk of getting sick because they may come in contact with the blood or body fluids of sick patients.
People also can become sick with Ebola after coming in contact with infected wildlife. Diagnosis Diagnosing Ebola in a person who has been infected for only a few days is difficult, because the early symptoms, such as fever, are nonspecific to Ebola infection and are seen often in patients with more commonly occurring diseases, such as malaria and typhoid fever. Treatment No specific vaccine or medicine has been proven to be effective against Ebola. Symptoms of Ebola are treated as they appear. Some experimental treatments developed for Ebola have been tested and proven effective in animals but have not yet been tested in randomized trials in humans.