Ebola Virus News Today: Global Death Toll Nears 8,000 - WHO; UK Records First Case

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has declared the 2014 Ebola Virus Disease (E.V.D.) outbreak as the deadliest Ebola epidemic in history, with the global death toll reaching nearly 8,000 as of last month.

A total of 20,206 confirmed, probable, and suspected E.V.D. cases and 7,905 deaths as of end-Dec. 28, 2014 have been reported, through W.H.O. country offices, by the Ministries of Health of the three intense-transmission West African countries – Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. There were a small number of cases reported in Nigeria and a single case reported in Senegal, but they were contained.

On Dec. 29, 2014, the WHO was notified by National IHR Focal Point for the United Kingdom (UK) of a lab-confirmed case of Ebola, the first to be detected in the U.K., of a female volunteer healthcare worker who returned from an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone. Public Health England undertook contact tracing, and as of Dec. 31, 2014, had spoken to 85 passengers who were in the same flight to the U.K.

The good news on Ebola is that the number of new cases reported each week in Guinea and Liberia has stabilized. Liberia reported a decline in new cases in the past six weeks. In Sierra Leone, the increase in incidence has slowed. The fatality rate in the three most-affected countries among all cases for whom a definitive outcome is known was 71 percent. Health-care inadequacies accounted for the outbreak in the three countries.

WHO coordinated the construction and staffing of treatment centers across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where those afflicted will have a higher chance of survival and will be less likely to infect others. As of October, there were 15 operational centers, with a total of 1,047 beds.

Interventions continue to progress in line with the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response aiming to conduct 100 percent of burials safely and with dignity, and to isolate and treat 100 percent of EVD cases by Jan. 1, 2015.

In the United States, where six Ebola cases were reported, the five airports -- Kennedy International, Washington Dulles International, O'Hare International, Hartsfield-Jackson International and Newark Liberty International -- are screening travelers from West Africa for fever.

The first Ebola outbreak in West Africa was reported in December 2013 in Guéckédou, a forested area of Guinea popular for bat hunting. Travelers took the virus across the border. By late March, Liberia reported eight cases and Sierra Leone six. By end-June, 759 people were infected and 467 people died, making it the worst-ever Ebola outbreak.

Ebola is transmitted from one person to another by direct contact with blood or other body fluids that remain in clothing, and by needles and/or syringes used to treat Ebola-infected patients. After an incubation period of from two to 21 days, symptoms include fever, muscle pain and headache, followed by vomiting, diarrhea, and worst, both internal and external bleeding. More than a dozen Ebola drugs are being developed, but none has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

The virus was discovered during an outbreak in 1976; it was thought to originate in gorillas, because human outbreaks began after people ate gorilla meat. Scientists believed that bats are the natural reservoir for the virus. According to Doctors Without Borders, apes and humans catch it from eating food that bats have drooled or defecated on, or by coming in contact with surfaces covered in infected bat droppings and then touching their eyes or mouths.