2014 West Africa Ebola Crisis

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the West African Ebola Outbreak as an International Health Emergency. According to the Center for Disease Control, “The 2014 Ebola outbreak is the largest in history and the first Ebola outbreak in West Africa. This outbreak is actually the first Ebola epidemic the world has ever known — affecting multiple countries in and around West Africa.”

Updated: November 2: 2014: More than 13,000 cases have been confirmed, with nearly 5000 deaths. Though Senegal and Nigeria have been declared Ebola-free, the crisis continues to grow in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. The urgent need for donations supporting charities working in the region continues to grow.

• Trials are underway for the vaccines in the U.S and are going to begin in Africa, Germany, and Switzerland to determine the safety.  The World Health Organization is meeting with the top government officials from Ebola affected countries, funding agencies and vaccine manufacturers to discuss the best way to fast track testing and the deployment of the vaccines in big numbers to slow down the spread of the virus.

• Ebola is a viral illness that originates in animals, such as Fruit Bats. According to the World Health Organization, nearly all the cases of Ebola in the 2014 outbreak have been as a result of human to human transmission.
• Ebola is typically only contagious once symptomatic and is transmitted through direct human contact or contact with contaminated environments; however extreme caution is needed by health care workers and those handling bodies.