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The 2014 Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>08/2014
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of General Virology
Issue number8
Volume95
Number of pages6
Pages (from-to)1619-1624
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date2/05/14
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

On the 23rd March 2014, the WHO issued its first communiqué on a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) which began in December 2013 in Guinée Forestière (Forested Guinea), the eastern sector of the Republic of Guinea. Located on the Atlantic coast of west Africa, Guinea is the first country in this geographical region in which an outbreak of EVD has occurred, leaving aside the single case reported in Ivory Coast in 1994. Cases have now also been confirmed across Guinea as well as in the neighbouring Republic of Liberia. The appearance of cases in the Guinean capital, Conakry, and the transit of another case through the Liberian capital, Monrovia, presents the first large urban setting for EVD transmission. By 20th April 2014, 242 suspected cases had resulted in a total of 147 deaths in Guinea and Liberia. The causative agent is now identified as an outlier strain of Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV). The full geographical extent and degree of severity of the outbreak, its zoonotic origins and its possible spread to other continents are sure to be subjects of intensive discussion over the next months.