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A health worker is disinfected after being in contact with patients in Liberia.
The current Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa was first reported in March and has quickly become the deadliest epidemic of the disease since its discovery in 1976.
As of September 2,105 people had been reported to have died from the disease in four countries in the area: Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
Nigeria had its first case of the disease in July and in the same month two doctors died in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Senegal reported its first case on August 29.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an international public health emergency.
The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said last week that a coordinated international strategy must be put in place to control the disease.
In addition, DCD experts warned that the «sales window» to triumph over Ebola «is closing.»
image source, BBC World Service
where did it start
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A research published in the New England Journal of Medicine tells how the disease outbreak was traced to a two-year-old girl who died on December 6, 2013 in Meliandou, a small town in southeastern Guinea.
In March, hospital staff alerted the Guinean Ministry of Health and then the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders.
Then there was a mysterious onset disease in the southeastern regions of Gueckedou, Macenta, Nzerekore and Kissidougou.
The disease caused fever, diarrhea and vomiting. It also had a high mortality rate. Of the first 86 cases, 59 people were born.
The WHO later contributed the disease as Ebola.
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Those who care for Ebola patients must fully isolate themselves to avoid contagion.
Magnitude of the 2014 outbreak
In June, the NGO Doctors Without Borders said the Ebola outbreak was out of control.
Ebola appears periodically in sub-Saharan African regions, although fewer than 500 cases are typically reported each year.
Between 1979 and 1994 no cases were reported.
The 2014 outbreak is the largest of all previously recorded Ebola epidemics.
image source, BBC World Service