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| Map of Ebola outbreak |
Ebola,
the deadly virus with no cure, has reemerged in West Africa at an unprecedented
rate. Over the past three weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) has
confirmed 157 cases in the nation of Guinea, with 101 deaths. Twenty deaths
have been reported in the city of Conakry, Guinea’s capital that is home to
over two million people. In neighboring Liberia, 21 cases have been reported
with ten deaths. Cases have also been reported but not confirmed in Ghana,
Sierra Leone and Mali.
As
the virus spreads, so does the panic. In Macenta, another city in Guinea, the
nonprofit worldwide aid organization Doctors Without Borders was forced to flee
a health center when an angry mob of citizens attacked them, accusing the
workers of starting the outbreak. Officials from WHO say it is difficult to
convince sick people to leave their families and enter isolation facilities at
health centers, only helping to increase the spread of Ebola. People in Conakry
have stopped shaking hands out of fear of catching the virus.
The
virus causes a hemorrhagic fever that kills nearly 90% of those infected by it.
Ebola spreads throughout the bloodstream shutting down the immune system,
causing high fever and a large amount of bleeding. WHO describes this outbreak
as the most widespread and challenging since the virus first emerged in 1976.
