Save Africa End Ebola

The West African Ebola outbreak, centred on Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, is the worst in history. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday it is an international health emergency that will likely continue spreading for months. The disease has put a severe strain on the health systems of affected states and governments have responded with a range of measures, including the declaration of national emergencies in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, which confirmed seven cases of Ebola in Lagos A man's temperature is measured before he is allowed into a business centre, as fear of the deadly Ebola virus spreads through the city of Monrovia, Liberia. (Abbas Dulleh/ Associated Press) Ebola has reaped a high toll on health workers who have acted as first responders. Liberia alone has lost at least three doctors to the virus and 32 health workers. Sierra Leone's Health Ministry said a senior physician had contracted the disease at the Connaught referral hospital in the capital, Freetown. Dr. Modupeh Cole contracted the disease "after treating a patient ... who was later proved to have the virus and died," said ministry spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis. Cole was taken to an Ebola treatment centre in eastern Kailahun district, run by medical charity Doctors Without Borders, Tunis said. He is the latest Sierra Leonean medical practitioner to contract the virus. The country's leading Ebola doctor, Shek Umar Khan, died of the disease last month and several nurses have died. Suspected cases around the world The WHO said on Friday 961 people have died during the outbreak and 1,779 have been infected. The infections and deaths have led to tests on suspected Ebola cases around the world. Authorities in Ghana said they were testing samples from a man from Burkina Faso who died while being transported to hospital in the Upper East region.   Ebola has a death rate of about 50 per cent and has so far killed at least 932 people. (Tarik Jasarevic/WHO/Reuters) "He had fever and was bleeding from the nose so we are testing him for Ebola because we don't want to take chances," Yaw Manu, medical head at Bawku Presbyterian Hospital, said by telephone. Ghana has previously conducted about 20 Ebola tests, though none has proved positive.     Nigeria health officials wait to screen passengers at the arrival hall of the international airport in Lagos. (Sunday Alamba/Associated Press) In past outbreaks, national health departments and aid organizations, especially Doctors Without Borders, would go in, and the homes of infected individuals or sometimes an entire village would be placed under quarantine and Ebola would soon die out. Ebola is spread by bodily fluids but only when the infected person displays symptoms, which include fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Over half the people who get the disease die.