Ebola Epidemic Spreads, Worsens

As the Ebola virus continues its deadly march through West Africa, keeping track of developments can be a challenge. Here's a roundup of the latest news this week:

The Toll

The World Health Organization updated figures Wednesday. The total number of cases — including those considered confirmed, probable or suspected — now stands at 1,711. This includes 932 deaths.

To put that into perspective: Until this year, the world had recorded 1,640 deaths from Ebola since the virus was discovered in 1976. Now more than a third of all people known to have died from the virus, in history, have died in the current outbreak.

There's also worrisome evidence that the outbreak's strength is growing. More than 100 of the cases this year, or about 6 percent of the total, were reported between Saturday and Monday. And 20 percent of all cases were reported over the last week, from Monday, July 28 through Monday, August 4.

The Locations

Nearly all cases have been in the three West African countries at the epicenter of the crisis: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. New cases have been roughly divided between the latter two.

But in another alarming development, the WHO is now nine cases in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has also reported a second death from Ebola — a nurse who treated the first person to die there, a Liberian-American man, named Patrick Sawyer.

Sawyer apparently contracted Ebola in Liberia and then boarded a plane for Nigeria's capital, Lagos, a city with more than 20 million people. He died soon after in a Lagos hospital.

Nigerian officials had initially stated that Sawyer was identified as a possible Ebola patient at the airport and immediately isolated. But the Lagos state health commissioner conceded Tuesday that, in fact, more than 24 hours had passed before hospital staff recognized Sawyer might have Ebola and took precautionary measures, the Associated Press Wednesday.

Five other people who came into contact with Sawyer are now sick with Ebola, Nigerian officials added. And they're following up with others who were exposed to Sawyer.

Saudi Arabia is also testing for a possible first case: a Saudi man who fell ill after returning from Sierra Leone, Reuters . He died Wednesday.

Liberia's Minister of Internal Affairs said a Liberian man died of Ebola in Morocco last month. However, the Moroccan government has that the man died of a heart attack, and that tests confirmed he never had Ebola.

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