Latest updates on the West African Ebola Outbreak. There is a slight lag in officially vetted numbers and the current situations, usually 1-3 days. I've consolidated pertinent facts and figures here from what I deem to be reliable sources. Namely, the WHO, the CDC, two or more news organizations reporting the same fact, and my personal and professional contacts in the Epidemiology community.Some quick facts about the current outbreak:
- Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, and Liberia have all had a spike in infections over the last week. The spike is primarily being driven by new infections in Liberia, which has struggled to control the outbreak throughout the course of the epidemic. 44% of all cases in the epidemic have occurred in the last 21 days.
- Senegal reported its first confirmed case, especially concerning due to its status as a tourist and transportation hub.
- An additional, unrelated outbreak of another strain of Ebola Virus Disease has occurred in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I'm more optimistic about the DRC outbreak due to the depth of experience in handling the disease there.
- The ongoing Ebola Virus epidemic in West Africa has hit health care workers especially hard. According to the WHO, "to date, more than 240 health care workers have developed the disease in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, and more than 120 have died."
Looking at the # of cases per week, the trend is very concerning:
The silver lining, if there is one, is that the cases are concentrated thus far in a few specific locations:
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