page_title: Western African Ebola virus epidemic
section_title: Outbreak
hierarchical_section_title: Western African Ebola virus epidemic / Epidemiology / Outbreak
caption_attribution_description: English: Continuation of the moribund map located at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Ebola_Outbreak_-_1_October_2014.svg
context_page_description: The Western African Ebola virus epidemic was the most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history—causing major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The first cases were recorded in Guinea in December 2013; later, the disease spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone, with minor outbreaks occurring elsewhere. It caused significant mortality, with the case fatality rate reported which was initially considerable, while the rate among hospitalised patients was 57–59%, the final numbers 28,616 people, including 11,310 deaths, for a case-fatality rate of 40%. Small outbreaks occurred in Nigeria and Mali, and secondary infections of medical workers occurred in the United States and Spain. In addition, isolated cases were recorded in Senegal, the United Kingdom and Italy. The number of cases peaked in October 2014 and then began to decline gradually, following the commitment of substantial international resources.
context_section_description: It is generally believed that a one or two-year-old boy, later identified as Emile Ouamouno, who died in December 2013 in the village of Méliandou, Guéckédou Prefecture, Guinea, was the index case of the Western African epidemic. Scientists have deduced that bats are involved in the spread of the virus, and, incidentally, the boy's home was in the vicinity of a large colony of Angolan free-tailed bats, according to media reports. His mother, sister, and grandmother, per media reports later became ill with similar symptoms and also died; people infected by these initial cases spread the disease to other villages. There was knowledge of Tai Forest virus in Côte d'Ivoire, which had resulted in one human transmission in 1994. Thus, these early cases were diagnosed as other conditions more common to the area and the disease had several months to spread before it became recognised as Ebola.
  On 25 March 2014, the WHO indicated that Guinea's Ministry of Health had reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in four southeastern districts, and that suspected cases in the neighbouring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone were being investigated. In Guinea, a total of 86 suspected cases, including 59 deaths, had been reported as of 24 March. By late May, the outbreak had spread to Conakry, Guinea's capital—a city of about two million people. On 28 May, the total number of reported cases had reached 281, with 186 deaths.
  In Liberia, the disease was reported in four counties by mid-April 2014 and cases in Liberia's capital Monrovia were reported in mid-June. The outbreak then spread to Sierra Leone and progressed rapidly. By 17 July, the total number of suspected cases in the country stood at 442, surpassing those in Guinea and Liberia. By 20 July, additional cases of the disease had been reported by the media in the Bo District, while the first case in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, was reported in late July.
  As the epidemic progressed, a small outbreak occurred in Nigeria that resulted in 20 cases and another in Mali with 7 cases. Four other countries (Senegal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America) also reported cases imported from Western Africa, with widespread and intense transmission.
  On 31 March 2015, one year after the first report of the outbreak, the total number of cases was in excess of 25,000—with over 10,000 deaths.
  As the epidemic waned, following international control efforts, the edition of 8 April 2015 of the WHO's Ebola Situation Reports stated that a total of 30 cases were reported and in 29 July 2015, the WHO weekly update reported only 7 cases—the lowest in more than a year.  In October 2015, the WHO recorded its first week without any new cases, and while the large-scale epidemic appeared to have ended by late 2015, sporadic new cases continued to be reported.
  On 14 January 2016, after all the previously infected countries had been declared Ebola-free, the WHO reported that "all known chains of transmission have been stopped in Western Africa", but cautioned that further small outbreaks of the disease could occur in the future. The following day, Sierra Leone confirmed its first new case since September 2015.
caption: Ebola outbreak worldwide  Widespread outbreak  Limited outbreak  Isolated cases  Medically evacuated cases
exif: {}