The Ebola Epidemic as of February 4, 2015
Total Suspected/Confirmed Cases – 22,495
Total Deaths – 8,981
COUNTRIES MOST AFFECTED
Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea
Others Countries Affected: Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, the UK and the United States of America
Visit Operation Ebola to learn more and to Donate to our Ebola response.
See the World Health Organization’s latest Ebola Situation Report which includes total numbers affected by the Ebola epidemic.
OLDER NEWS
OCTOBER 20 – Nigeria has been declared officially free of Ebola after six weeks with no new cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
OCTOBER 10 – The BBC reports “The number of deaths attributed to the Ebola outbreak has risen above 4,000, the World Health Organization says.”
OCTOBER 1 – The Los Angeles Times reports that five elementary, middle and high school students had contact with a man diagnosed in Dallas with Ebola and are being monitored.
SEPTEMBER 30 – A Dallas hospital diagnoses the first patient with Ebola in the US. The man left Liberia Sept. 19 and arrived in the USA the next day but had no symptoms when leaving Africa or arriving here, said Thomas Frieden, the CDC director. (USA Today)
SEPTEMBER 23 – From the New York Times: the CDC releases worst-case scenario if the disease keeps following its current trajectory, without effective methods to contain it – Liberia and Sierra Leone could have 21,000 cases of Ebola by Sept. 30 and 1.4 million cases by Jan. 20.
SEPTEMBER 23 – The HHI Advance Team arrives safely in Liberia, the epicenter of the Ebola Outbreak.
SEPTEMBER 21 – The Advance Team for Heart to Heart International departs for Liberia. They’ll coordinate with relief agencies and other groups to lay the groundwork for deployment of volunteer teams of doctors and nurses into the Ebola hot zone.
SEPTEMBER 16 – President Barack Obama on Tuesday called West Africa’s deadly Ebola outbreak a looming threat to global security and announced a major expansion of the U.S. role in trying to halt its spread, including deployment of 3,000 troops to the region. (Reuters)
SEPTEMBER 12 – The number of new Ebola cases in West Africa is growing faster than authorities can manage them, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, renewing a call for health workers from around the world to go to the region to help. (Reuters)
SEPTEMBER 11 – Op-ed in the New York Times by Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, paints a grim picture of the Ebola epidemic if major action is not taken now. Article sums up the ‘why’ Heart to Heart International has launched OPERATION EBOLA.
SEPTEMBER 9 – A fourth patient with Ebola virus disease has arrived in the USA for treatment. The patient arrived at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, after being flown from West Africa in an air ambulance, according to hospital officials. (USA TODAY)
SEPTEMBER 8 – The World Health Organization issues a dire Ebola warning about Liberia, saying that the number of afflicted patients was increasing exponentially, that nearly all the country has confirmed cases and that all new treatment facilities were overwhelmed. (NY Times)
SEPTEMBER 8 – First shipment of 18 pallets packed with thousands of gloves, masks, needles and syringes leave the HHI Global Distribution Center bound for Liberia. Read more and watch a video of the supplies being loaded and leaving.
SEPTEMBER 4 – Heart to Heart International launches OPERATION EBOLA: a multi-phase relief operation to combat the spread of Ebola in West Africa through multiple shipments of critical aid and supplies to front line health workers & will send an Ebola Assessment Team to pave the way for teams of medical volunteers. First shipment of 18 pallets of aid (pictured) is packaged & ready to ship.
SEPTEMBER 4 – WHO releases new numbers of Ebola-affected people – Cases rise above 3,500; Deaths approach 2,000.
SEPTEMBER 3 – A 3rd American doctor has contracted Ebola in Liberia after returning to the country after other Americans were sickened. The doctor was not caring for Ebola patients, but was delivering babies in a maternity ward.
AUGUST 29 – The Ebola virus has spread to a 5th west African country, Senegal. This comes a week after Senegal closed its borders with Guinea.
AUGUST 27 – “It’s even worse than I’d feared,” Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday of the Ebola outbreak rampaging through West Africa. “Every day this outbreak goes on, it increases the risk for another export to another country.” (from CNN)
AUGUST 26 – The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday it had shut a laboratory in Sierra Leone after a health worker there was infected with Ebola, a move that may hamper efforts to boost the global response to the worst ever outbreak of the disease. (from Reuters)
AUGUST 25 – The WHO releases new numbers of medical staff infected with Ebola. In the four countries – more than 240 health workers infected, half have died.
AUGUST 24 – NEW OUTBREAK – As many as 13 people have died of Ebola in The Democratic Republic of Congo, a separate outbreak from the one raging in West African nations.
AUGUST 18-22 – HHI’s staff begins building its first relief shipment at the Global Distribution Center; Planning begins on expanding relief effort to possibly include personnel on the ground.
AUGUST 18 – The Wall Street Journal publishes a story highlighting the devastating effect Ebola continues to have on health workers and the healthcare system in the Ebola outbreak zone due to a lack of basic medical supplies like gloves and other personal protection.
AUGUST 15 – Two companies based in the Kansas City Metro – Lathrop & Gage, LLP and CBIZ, Inc. – hold a Wear Your Jeans to Work Day to raise funds to support HHI’s Ebola Response.
AUGUST 13 – Heart to Heart International launches a response to the West Africa Ebola Outbreak, coordinating with long-time partner, the International Medical Corps, to begin providing the protective medical supplies needed by health workers on the front lines in the fight against the Ebola Virus.
AUGUST 12 – The world becomes aware of the toll on health workers in the outbreak areas as the WHO releases numbers of Ebola cases. It becomes clear that without protective medical gear doctors, nurses and other health workers can’t protect themselves and treat Ebola patients.
AUGUST 8, 2014 – The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the continuing Ebola Outbreak to be an international public health emergency. The news of no immediate end in sight to this current outbreak sends a chill through the humanitarian aid world.
DECEMBER 2013 – Ebola outbreak in West Africa is reported to have begun in the country of Guinea in December 2013, where a 2-year-old child is believed to have contracted the disease. The virus spreads to neighboring countries of Liberia & Sierra Leone, as well as Nigeria.