Western Africa is bracing against an unprecedented outbreak of the deadly ebola virus. Guinea is the country affected the worst by the viral hemorrhagic fever. Since January, 86 people have died from it, out of 137 cases.
Shutting down the body’s immune system, ebola is highly contagious, transmitted by contact with the fluids of infected people or animals.
Epidemiologist Michel Van Herp, in Guinea with the non-governmental organisation MSF (Doctors Without Borders) said: “We are facing a scale that has never been seen before, looking at the number of cases in different areas.”
Death tolls in the past have been higher than in Guinea so far, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001 and Uganda the year before. But this time cases have been found far apart, not geographically concentrated. MSF describes ebola as one of the world’s deadliest diseases. There is no cure.