Global Ebola outbreak deaths exceed 4,000 - WH

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A group of volunteers in Freetown, Sierra Leone, is on a mission to end the Ebola outbreak - Tulip
Mazumdar reports
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Ebola outbreak

Why Ebola is dangerous

Year of Ebola

Mapping the outbreak

The basics
The number of deaths attributed to the Ebola outbreak has risen above 4,000, the
World Health Organization says.
The latest figures show there have been 4,024 confirmed or suspected deaths in the
worst-affected West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Eight deaths are linked to the haemorrhagic fever in Nigeria and one in the US.
In total, there have been 8,399 confirmed or suspected cases, mostly in West Africa.

Spain's 'crisis' committee

The news comes as Liberian lawmakers refused to grant the president additional powers
to deal with the Ebola crisis.

Warning messages about Ebola have appeared in public places in Spain

Ebola is taking a particularly heavy toll in Liberia

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has already declared a state of emergency that allows
her to impose quarantines.
One parliamentarian, Bhofal Chambers, warned that creeping extra powers could turn
Liberia into a "police state".
The UN says more than 233 health workers working in West Africa have now died in the
outbreak, the world's deadliest to date.
A nurse in Spain is being treated for the virus after becoming infected from an Ebola
patient who had been repatriated from Liberia - the country most badly hit by the disease
with 2,316 confirmed or suspected deaths.

Ebola deaths: Confirmed, probable and suspected

Source: WHO
Note: figures have occasionally been revised down as suspected or probable cases are
found to be unrelated to Ebola. They do not include one death in the US recorded on 8
October.

Teresa Romero is said to be gravely ill but stable, and is being treated in a hospital in
Madrid.
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday set up a special committee to deal with
the impact of Europe's first case of Ebola.
He admitted that the situation was "complex and difficult", but stressed that the
government had a clear plan for what needed to be done.
He was speaking as seven more people in Spain were being monitored in hospital for
suspected Ebola. They include two hairdressers who came into contact with Ms Romero.

Experimental serum

Meanwhile, a senior health official told the BBC that leading global experts in the field
had not anticipated the scale of the Ebola outbreak.
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WHO's Dr Chris Dye: We didn't anticipate this outbreak was going to be this big

Chris Dye from the WHO said the international response was helping, and the important
thing now was to look forward.
"We've asked for a response of about $1bn (618m); so far we have around $300m
(185m) with more being pledged, so a bit less than half of what we need but it's
climbing quickly all the time," he said.
In April, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned of the potential
spread of the virus, but at the time the WHO played down the claims, saying that Ebola
was neither an epidemic, nor was it unprecedented.
On Friday MSF reported a sharp increase of Ebola cases in the Guinean
capital, Conakry, dashing hopes that the disease was being stabilised there.
Meanwhile in Mali, an experimental serum is being tested on volunteer health workers.
The trial spans several countries, and the results will be sent to experts to determine
whether it can protect against Ebola.
In other developments:

The Ebola crisis has resulted in the activation for the first time of the International
Charter on Space and Major Disasters. Its normal role is to provide satellite imagery to
make damage and hazard-assessment maps

Liberia's senate elections due next week have been postponed to help reduce
the risk of voters spreading the virus

Nigeria's military has confirmed that more than 1,300 Nigerian peacekeeping
troops have been quarantined in Liberia after coming into contact with a Sudanese man
who later died of the disease. It had earlier denied such reports

Passengers at some British airports will be screened for Ebola

The US begins its programme of enhanced screening this weekend at five of
its major airports, including JFK
How not to catch Ebola:

Avoid direct contact with sick patients

Wear goggles to protect eyes

Clothing and clinical waste should be incinerated and any medical equipment
that needs to be kept should be decontaminated

People who recover from Ebola should abstain from sex or use condoms for
three months