Ebola virus disease – An Overview of the 2014 Outbreak in West Africa (up-to-end of 7 December 2014)

In this article presented are the basic known findings on Ebola virus disease (EVD) from the current outbreak in West Africa 2014. As per World Health Organisation (WHO) data, from the first reported cases on 23 March 2014 in Guinea up to the end of 7 December 2014, the total number of reported EVD cases is 17,942 (confirmed, suspect and probably) with 6,388 deaths. The three most affected countries are: Guinea, SierraLeone and Liberia reported 17,908 with 6,373 deaths. Over the four decade - from the first described Ebola virus diseases - EVD (formerly Ebola haemorrhagic fever) in two parallel outbreaks: first in Southern Sudan, subsequently in northern part of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (formerly Zaire) 1976, there have been 23 outbreaks of Ebola virus disease in humans across Africa. The viruses isolated from the patients in the current West Africa outbreak most likely diverged from central African lineages around 2004, crossed from Guinea to Sierra Leone in May 2014, and has exhibited sustained human-to-human transmission subsequently, with no evidence of additional zoonotic sources. The WHO Ebola Response team concluded that the clinical course of infection according to clinical characteristics of patients in the previous EVD outbreaks is similar. There is currently no specific vaccine or medications (such as antiviral drugs) that have been proven to be effective in treating Ebola, but two vaccine candidates currently being tested in humans. Key words: Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemiology, outbreak, clinical features, diagnostics, treatment, prevention, control measures