A total of 122 patients
are suspected of contracting Ebola and 78 have died, Doctors Without
Borders said. Most victims have been in Guinea, but the World Health
Organization reported Sunday that two deaths in Sierra Leone and one in
Liberia are suspected to have been caused by the Ebola virus.
Cases have been
identified in three provinces in Guinea near the borders and in Conakry,
its coastal capital, said Mariano Lugli, the Doctors Without Borders
coordinator there.
"We are facing an
epidemic of a magnitude never before seen in terms of the distribution
of cases in the country," Lugli said in a statement issued by the
organization. Previous outbreaks "were much more geographically
contained and involved more remote locations," he said.
"This geographical spread
is worrisome, because it will greatly complicate the tasks of the
organizations working to control the epidemic," Lugli said.
The organization, also known by its French name Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) describes Ebola as "one of the world's most deadly diseases." It spreads in the blood and shuts down the immune system, causing high fever, headache and muscle pain.
It is rare but creates
panic, because there is no cure and it's fatal in up to 90% of cases,
according to MSF. The variant seen in the Guinea outbreak is the
so-called Zaire strain, which Lugli called "the most aggressive and
deadly.
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