CDC PUBLIC HEALTH IMAGE LIBRARYWith a fatality rate of up to 90 percent, Ebola is one of the most virulent and deadly viral diseases. An ongoing outbreak in Africa that has claimed the lives of more than 600 people since February appears to be on the move. Having already struck in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Ebola infection has now killed a 40-year-old man who traveled through a Lagos airport, health officials confirmed on Friday (July 25), marking “a new and alarming cross-border development in a disease that has spiralled into the world’s biggest epidemic, spread across three West African countries,” The Guardian reported.
“The national authority in Nigeria is working closely with WHO and partners to ensure that this incident case is contained at the source,” the World Health Organization (WHO) noted in a July 27 statement. Health officials are now monitoring individuals who may have had...
Two American health-care workers in Liberia have tested positive for Ebola, USA Today and the Associated Press reported. One is symptomatic and in isolation; the other has not shown signs of the disease, Stephan Monroe, deputy director of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, said during a press conference today.
“This is the largest Ebola outbreak in history,” said Monroe. The risk of transmission beyond West Africa is very low, he noted, but the CDC is urging health-care workers to protect themselves in an effort to stop the spread of Ebola virus. “Stopping outbreaks where they occur is the most effective and least expensive [approach],” Monroe added.
Interested in reading more?
The Scientist ARCHIVES
Become a Member of
