Ebola has killed 4,922 people, or about 50 percent of 10,141 confirmed, probable and suspected cases, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, according to the U.N.'s World Health Organization. Here are some facts about the deadly disease that you should know
There is no vaccine or cure for Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever. In past outbreaks, fatality rates have reached up to 90 percent. Ebola causes fever, flu-like pains, bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea.
Pharmaceutical companies are working on experimental Ebola vaccines and antiviral drugs, but a significant number of doses will not be available until at least the first quarter of 2015. Ebola is not airborne. It is transmitted through blood, vomit, diarrhea and other bodily fluids.
Ebola
symptoms generally appear between two and 21 days after infection,
meaning there is a significant window during which an infected person
can escape detection, allowing them to travel. However, they are not
considered contagious until they start showing symptoms. Ebola patients have been treated in the United States, Spain, Germany, France, Norway and the United Kingdom. The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that the number of infections
could rise to up to 1.4 million people by early next year without a
massive global intervention to contain the virus. The United States, Britain,
France, China, Cuba and international organizations are pouring funds,
supplies and personnel into the affected parts of West Africa. Ebola's suspected origin is
forest bats. The virus was first identified in 1976 in what is now known
as Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Source:- World Health Organization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
