CONAKRY, Guinea — The recent Ebola outbreak first reported in Guinea in February has now grown “out of control,” experts say. This outbreak is being hailed as the deadliest ever, killing more than 300 people and infecting upwards of 500 across three countries in West Africa.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said Robert Garry of Tulane University School of Medicine. Garry is a microbiology professor and has been leading the relief efforts and investigating the outbreak in West Africa.
So far, Guinea has been the hardest hit by the Ebola outbreak with around 264 confirmed deaths, Sierra Leone is in second with 49 deaths and Liberia is third with 24 deaths related to Ebola. Once tallies from smaller regions are collected, and with no sign of containment, these numbers are expected to rise drastically.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is the only organization working to combat and treat the outbreak, but volunteers are becoming overworked and overwhelmed as their resources are diminishing. Supplies and medical packs were sent to these areas, but the quantities are proving to be too little. Supplies must now be rationed – which is proving extremely difficult due to doctors having to change suits and gear every time they enter isolation areas.
With no vaccine or cure, Ebola kills at least 25 percent of those infected, with frequencies closer to 90 percent. The incubation rages from two to 21 days, so individuals who are infected can go weeks without any symptoms at all. However, patients do not become contagious until they are showing symptoms, but after that, many die within an average of 10 days. Ebola spreads through the exchange of bodily fluids.
Right now, the best defense against Ebola is education, but many people in the affected areas do not understand the virus or how it is spread. Often times, they do not believe the advisories and precautions. Many believe it is something supernatural affecting them.
“People have been resisting the idea that it was just not some type of curse or spirit. Or that it’s people trying to keep them from eating bush meat,” says Garry, “the only thing that people hear is ‘Don’t eat bush meat.’ It just gets people riled up. It’s not a useful message.”
Bush meat includes animals such as bats, monkeys and rodents. Experts believe this is how the AIDS virus was spread, and it is more than likely this is how Ebola has spread as well.
People of these regions eat fruit bat meat regularly, as well as other types of “bush meat.” These bats inhabit jungle areas, and the virus is believed to have spread from these areas that are in close proximity to more urban areas.
When in smaller, remote areas, Ebola is easier to contain – but this disease has spread outwards and has infected more than 60 locations in West Africa. It is believed that individuals crossing unmarked borders for farming and trading opportunities aided in the spread of the disease throughout the area. Liberia recently reported the first deaths caused from Ebola in its capital city, Monrovia.
Efforts are being made to strengthen borders and limit cross-border travelers, but with travelers crossing unmarked borders, these efforts are proving to be extremely difficult.
Right now the disease is at its worst, and with no foreseeable containment of the disease in the near future, organizations like MSF and WHO are working round clock to treat the infected. These workers are doing their best to keep themselves and others in close proximity as safe as possible while efforts to contain the outbreak continue.
– Jerilynn Haddow
Sources: NBC News 1, NBC News 2, CNN, BBC, WHO
Photo: CL Health News