For the first time in West Africa, a case of Ebola was confirmed on March 21, 2014, three weeks after the first alert of a possible viral hemorrhagic fever emerged from Guinea’s Forest region.(UPI/FILE/EC/ECHO)
-- Guinea, 543 cases (396 confirmed, 140 probable, and 7 suspected), including 394 deaths;
-- Liberia, 834 cases (200 confirmed, 444 probable, and 190 suspected), including 466 deaths;
-- Nigeria, 15 cases (12 confirmed, 0 probable, and 3 suspected), including 4 deaths;
-- Sierra Leone, 848 cases (775 confirmed, 34 probable, and 39 suspected), including 365 deaths.
Affected countries have responded to the outbreak by instituting quarantine zones in high-transmission areas. While the quarantine is intended to prevent the spread of Ebola, WHO noted that "it also means that barriers to travel limit their access to food and other necessities."
The Ebola virus is spread by close contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or corpse, and typically kills up to 90 percent of its victims.