Contagious #1

As of 2014, the most widespread epidemic of Ebola virus disease (commonly known as "Ebola") in history is currently ongoing in several West African countries. It has caused significant mortality, with a reported case fatality rate of about 71%.It began in Guinea in December 2013 and then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A small outbreak of twenty cases occurred in Nigeria and one case occurred in Senegal; both countries were declared disease-free on 20 October 2014.Several cases have been reported in Mali. Imported cases in the United States and Spain have led to secondary infections of medical workers but have not spread further. An independent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that started in August 2014 has been shown by genetic analysis to be unconnected to the main epidemic.^[

As of 16 November 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) and respective governments has reported a total of 15,145 suspected cases and 5,741 deaths,though the WHO believes that this substantially understates the magnitude of the outbreak. with true figures numbering three times as many cases as have been reported.The assistant director-general of the WHO warned in mid-October that there could be as many as 10,000 new Ebola cases per week by December 2014.Almost all of the cases have occurred in the three initial countries.

Some countries have encountered difficulties in their efforts to control the epidemic.In some areas, people have become suspicious of both the government and hospitals, some of which have been attacked by angry protesters who believe either that the disease is a hoax or that the hospitals are responsible for the disease.

Many of the areas seriously affected by the outbreak are areas of extreme poverty with limited access to the soap and running water needed to help control the spread of disease.Other factors include reliance on traditional medicine and cultural practices that involve physical contact with the deceased, especially death customs such as washing the body of the deceased.Some hospitals lack basic supplies and are understaffed, increasing the chance of staff catching the virus themselves.

 In August, the WHO reported that ten percent of the dead have been health care workers.By the end of August, the WHO reported that the loss of so many health workers was making it difficult for them to provide sufficient numbers of foreign medical staff.In September, the WHO estimated that the countries' capacity for treating Ebola patients was insufficient by the equivalent of 2,122 beds.

 By the end of October many of the hospitals in the affected area had become dysfunctional or had been closed, leading some health experts to state that the inability to treat other medical needs may be causing "an additional death toll [that is] likely to exceed that of the outbreak itself".