# 9178
The ECDC has produced another of their data and graphic rich epidemiological updates on the Ebola outbreak, which includes a listing of all cases evacuate to the United States & Europe, the most recent stats, and a listing of key events in this outbreak since it first made headlines last March.
Follow the link below for the full update, including an impressive selection of maps and charts.
Epidemiological update: outbreak of Ebola virus disease in West Africa
10 Oct 2014
Chronology of events – key dates
22 March 2014: the Guinea Ministry of Health notified WHO about a rapidly evolving outbreak of EVD [1]. The first cases occurred in December 2013. The outbreak is caused by a clade of Zaïre ebolavirus that is related but distinct from the viruses that have been isolated from previous outbreaks in central Africa, and clearly distinct from the Taï Forest ebolavirus that was isolated in Côte d’Ivoire from 1994–1995 [2-4]. The first cases were reported from south-eastern Guinea and the capital Conakry.
May 2014: the first cases were reported from Sierra Leone and Liberia [5,6] to where the disease is assumed to have spread through the movement of infected people over land borders.
End of July 2014: a symptomatic case travelled by air to Lagos, Nigeria, where he infected a number of healthcare workers and airport contacts before his condition was recognised to be EVD.
8 August 2014: WHO declared the outbreak a Public Health Event of International Concern (PHEIC) [7] and confirmed on 22 September that the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa continued to constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
29 August 2014: the Ministry of Health in Senegal reported a confirmed imported case of EVD in a 21-year-old male native of Guinea.
18 September 2014: the United Nations Security Council recognised the EVD outbreak as a 'threat to international peace and security' and unanimously adopted a resolution on the establishment of an UN-wide initiative which focuses assets of all relevant UN agencies to tackle the crisis [8].
23 September 2014: A study published by the WHO Ebola response team forecasted more than 20 000 cases (5740 in Guinea, 9890 in Liberia, and 5000 in Sierra Leone) by the beginning of November 2014 [9]. The same study estimated the doubling time of the epidemic at 15.7 days in Guinea, 23.6 days in Liberia, and 30.2 days in Sierra Leone.
30 September 2014: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the first imported case in US of Ebola linked to the current outbreak in West Africa.
3 October 2014: In Senegal, all contacts of the imported EVD case have completed a 21-day follow-up period. No local transmission of EVD has been reported in Senegal.
6 October 2014: The Spanish authorities reported a confirmed case of Ebola virus disease (EVD) of a healthcare worker who participated in the treatment in Spain of the second Spanish patient with Ebola infection repatriated to Spain.
Epidemiological update
Situation in West Africa
Since December 2013 and as of 5 October 2014, 8 032 cases of EVD, including 3 865 deaths, have been reported by WHO (Figure 1) [10].
The distribution of EVD cases by affected countries is as follows and is presented in figure 1:
- Guinea: 1 298 cases and 768 deaths as of 5 October 2014;
- Liberia: 3 924 cases and 2 210 deaths as of 4 October 2014;
- Sierra Leone: 2 789 cases and 879 deaths as of 5 October 2014;
- Nigeria: 20 cases and 8 deaths, with last confirmed case in Lagos on 5 September 2014 (30 days as of 5 October 2014) and in Rivers State on first September 2014 (34 days as of 5 October);
- Senegal: 1 case, no deaths, confirmed on 28 August 2014 (38 days as of 5 October). All contacts have completed 21 days of follow-up.
