"As of 17 July 2014, the cumulative number of cases attributed to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea stands at 1,048, including 632 deaths"
Since that time, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were both treated with ZMapp, an experimental drug to treat Ebola, that had never before been tried in humans. The FDA allowed them to be treated under a "Compassionate Use" exception. They both recovered and were released from the hospital.
WHO declared the outbreak an international public health emergency on 8 August 2014. Better late than never.
Miguel Pajares (75y), a Spanish brother of The Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God, a Catholic order, was infected in Liberia. He also received ZMapp but he died on August 12. The first European to die in this outbreak.
Dr. Sheik Umar Khan (39y) died on July 29, after treating over 100 patients- he is hailed as a national hero in Sierra Leone and will be greatly missed.
Nigeria has seen 15 cases with 4 deaths. Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, aged 58 (She led the medical team at First Consultants Medical Centre in Lagos) and the nurse who treated Patrick Sawyer both contracted Ebola from him, and died as a result. Dr. Adadehoh, however, with her early identification of Sawyer's infection, likely prevented a larger spread of Ebola in Africa's biggest city. Another national hero.
In Liberia, Minister Lewis Brown said the government only received a small number of ZMapp doses and gave them to one Nigerian and two Liberian doctors who had caught Ebola whilst helping save the lives of other victims of the virus.The three doctors in Liberia with Ebola who started taking an experimental drug last Thursday are showing remarkable signs of improvement, a minister says)
The Canadian Health Minister, Rona Ambrose, announced that her government will donate between 800 and 1,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine, VSV-EBOV.
The New England Journal of Medicine published Emergence of Zaire Ebola Virus Disease In Guinea- Preliminary Report on August 11th. The report indicates that Patient Zero may have been a 2y patient in the village Meliandou in Guéckédou, Guinea (This is an area in southern Guinea that is close to the borders of both Sierra Leone and Liberia). The child saw an onset of symptoms (fever, black stool and vomiting) on December 2 and died December 6th. The child's mother and 3y sister became ill, mom with bleeding, the 3y with the same symptoms as Patient Zero. Mom died on December 13 and the 3y sister died on December 29. When Patient Zero's grandmother died on January 1, the illness spread beyond this village as people attended the funeral and brought the virus home with them. "A health care worker from Guéckédou with suspected disease, seems to have triggered the spread of the virus to Macenta, Nzérékoré, and Kissidougou in February 2014," according to the report. Then in early March, the Ministry of Health in Guinea and Doctors Without Borders in Guinea were notified about the disease clusters.
An epidemic was born...
The Butcher Bill as of 8-20-2014, according to WHO stands at 2473 cases of Ebola, including 1350 deaths.
Read more about Ebola:
Peter Piot helped discover the virus in 1976
Bioethicist on ZMapp use Who should be getting the experimental drug that is in short supply.
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