In its latest report, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the number of cases in the word's worst EBOLA outbreak has now exceeded 10,000 with 4,922 deaths. As EBOLA slowly began to spread around the world, increasing fears are expected.
The whole world now dreads the continuing emergence of EBOLA causing the worst outbreak ever experience globally.
The EBOLA epidemic in West Africa is considered to be the largest outbreak of the deadly virus with rapidly increasing fatalities in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. There have also been reported cases in other West African nations, Spain and the United States.
In a latest situation report by the WHO, Liberia remains the worst affected nation with 2,705 recorded deaths. Sierra Leone has had 1,281 fatalities and in Guinea, there have been 926. Nigeria also recorded eight deaths while there have been one in Mali and the United States.
According to BBC News, only 27 of the cases occurred outside the three worst-struck West African nations: Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. And those three countries account for all but 10 of the reported deaths.
As the outbreak continues to spread, the number of infected people also rises. As per the WHO report released Saturday, the data showed over 10,000 people have now been affected by EBOLA.
As reported by ABC News, the UN health agency said the number of confirmed, probable and suspected cases has risen to 10,141. However, WHO said the figure could be much higher. On the latest number of cases, 4,922 people have already died. The latest report shows that almost 200 new cases have been added since the last report which was just four days ago.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, authorities confirmed that the dreaded EBOLA outbreak had spread to Mali, the sixth West African nation affected by the virus. And on the same day a new case was also confirmed in New York. In Mali, a two-year-old girl was the first reported case while in New York, a doctor who recently returned from Guinea.
The New York doctor is now placed in isolation in a hospital in Manhattan. However, The New York Times reported Mali's little girl who was infected with EBOLA and became its first case has died after a bud journey across two countries. Officials reported Friday afternoon that there have been likely dozens of people exposed to the deadly virus.
After the death of the two-year-old girl was announced, WHO cautioned that the child had been bleeding from the nose when her grandmother picked her up in Guinea for a trip across hundreds of miles to Mali. Health officials said the trip poses a significant risk for both nations particularly Mali, which has now become the sixth West African country to record an EBOLA case.
"W.H.O. is treating the situation in Mali as an emergency," the agency stated through a press release Friday afternoon. "The child's symptomatic state during the bus journey is especially concerning, as it presented multiple opportunities for exposures - including high-risk exposures - involving many people."
Mali is one of the poorest countries in one of the world's most impoverished regions. It is ill-prepared to contain EBOLA as its neighboring nations already fighting the disease. And Mali is now considered to be potentially exposed to an extensive EBOLA outbreak.
To help fight EBOLA, the UN humanitarian flight service flown about 1 ton of medical supplies to Mali late Friday. According to the World Food Program, an organization that runs the flight, the seats of the plane were detached to give space for the cargo that included hazard suits, surgical gloves, face shields and buckets.
"Speed is of the essence in this Ebola crisis. Agencies such as WFP and WHO are working every hour to confront together the virus as a matter of priority," UN food agency's West Africa Regional Director Denise Brown stated.
The World Health Organization continues to warn that those dreadful tolls are likely just an underestimate to the threat that the EBOLA virus can bring. And though an extensive global response to the outbreak is being rolled out, tens of thousands more people are still at risk.
