Outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa
Date: 14.8.2014
On 8 August, the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) evolving in West Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The outbreak started in December 2013 and it is currently accelerating. The outbreak is growing in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and more recently in Nigeria, a newly affected country with locally acquired infections. Transmission has occurred in large cities of these four countries (Conakry, Freetown, Monrovia and Lagos).
As of 6 August, the cumulative number of cases reported was 1779, including 961 deaths, making this EVD outbreak by far the largest ever recorded in terms of geographical spread and number of cases and deaths reported. Of these, 815 (46%) cases including 358 deaths were reported in the past four weeks.
On 29 July 2014, WHO was notified of a probable EVD case in Nigeria. The case travelled by air and arrived in Lagos, Nigeria, on 20 July via Lomé, Togo, and Accra, Ghana and was symptomatic at the time of arrival.
As of 7 August, medical evacuations of EVD sick patients were performed to USA (two patients) and Spain (one patient).
The distribution of cases by week of reporting since the start of the outbreak you can find at original article:
