Ebola update: Death toll rises, American returns home

West Africa's Ebola outbreak has now caused 932 deaths

Published August 6, 2014 2:53PM (EDT)

Scanning electron microscopic image of Ebola virions                                                         (Public Library of Science)
Scanning electron microscopic image of Ebola virions (Public Library of Science)
According to the World Health Organization, there have now been 932 deaths from Ebola, with 1,700 cases on record. The WHO reports 363 deaths in Guinea, 282 in Liberia, 286 in Sierra Leone and one in Nigeria. In a statement released on Wednesday, the WHO reported that the number of Ebola cases in West Africa has risen by 108 from Aug. 2-4, with 45 more people dying in the same period.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

They included a man in Saudi Arabia who was suspected to have Ebola and died Wednesday morning when his heart stopped and attempts to resuscitate him failed, the Saudi Ministry of Health said. And they included a nurse in Nigeria who died from Ebola, while five other hospital workers have been confirmed as infected with the virus, the country's Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu said, escalating the epidemiological toll from a single airline passenger.

Meanwhile, the second American  infected with Ebola (missionary Nancy Writebol) returned to the U.S. on Tuesday morning. She is receiving treatment in isolation in Atlanta and is showing signs of recovery. "A week ago we were thinking about making funeral arrangements for Nancy," husband David Writebol said in a statement read at a news conference. "Now we have a real reason to be hopeful."

More related news:

  • Sierra Leone has deployed hundreds of troops and police officers to ensure that patients and potentially infected family members remain isolated.
  • The World Bank has pledged $200 million to contain the spread of the disease.
  • A patient is in isolation at New Jersey's CentraState Medical Center with flu-like symptoms after returning from West Africa.
  • The use of the experimental serum on infected Americans is raising red flags among medical experts.
  • At the Guardian, James Ball argues that we are worrying about the wrong disease: We should be more stressed out about the flu.

By Joanna Rothkopf

MORE FROM Joanna Rothkopf


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Ebola Ebola Outbreak Update West Africa