Ebola in Sub Sahara Africa
by Izzy Spence
What It Is
Ebola is in a group of diseases called "viral haemorrhagic fevers". Haemorrhagic means that it is a disease that involves bleeding. It can start within two days after being exposed. There is no treatment, vaccine, or cure for Ebola yet.
Ebola Cases
This graph shows the number of cases reported int the top 3 affected countries in Africa.
Virus
This is what the Ebola virus looks like.
The Ribbon
This is the official Ebola awareness ribbon.
Facts
- Blood tests are the only way to firmly diagnose Ebola.
- There are four strains of Ebola virus that have caused illness in humans. They are named after where they were detected.
- The four strains are Bundibugyo, Tai Forest, Sudan, and Zaire.
- The most recent outbreak was the Zaire strain.
- The disease is spread from person to person, or to people from animals.
- The last outbreak has reported more than 22,487 cases.
- Around 9,000 people have died from the recent outbreak.
- There is about 50% chance of survival from Ebola.
- The virus is spread with direct contact with body fluids.
- The first outbreak occurred in 1976.
Recent Outbreak
The most recent outbreak of Ebola was reported in March 2014, and is still continuing. The epidemic is sweeping across the whole region and has taken around 9,000 lives. There are six countries affected by Ebola so far, Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the US, and Mali.
Impact on Sub Sahara Africa
Treating Ebola has been very expensive and will greatly impact Sub Sahara Africa's economy. It was predicted that worst-case scenario the epidemic will cost $32 billion. More recently though, it has said to be much smaller, $3 billion- $4 billion. Ebola has obviously affected the health of Africa's people, and their population. The total number of reported cases is over 22,500. The number of reported deaths is around 9,000. Since Africa's health care system is so poor, they do not have enough doctors to treat the virus. Lack of staff is a big reason of why Ebola has spread so much in Africa.