WHAT CAUSES EBOLA AND HISTORY?

Ebola can be caught from both humans and animals. It is transmitted through close contact with blood, secretions, or other bodily fluids.

Healthcare workers have frequently been infected while treating Ebola patients. This has occurred through close contact without the use of gloves, masks or protective goggles.

In areas of Africa, infection has been documented through the handling of infected chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats, monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines found dead or ill in the rain forest.

Burials where mourners have direct contact with the deceased can also transmit the virus, whereas transmission through infected semen can occur up to seven weeks after clinical recovery.

It is estimated there had been over 1,800 cases of Ebola, with nearly 1,200 deaths, before this latest outbreak in 2014.

The current emergency MSF has seen more than 1,200 reported cases and 670 deaths. MSF has over 550 staff on the ground to tackle the worst Ebola outbreak in history.

Ebola is one of the world’s most deadly diseases. It is a highly infectious virus that can kill up to 90 percent of the people who catch it, causing terror among infected communities.

Ebola is so infectious that patients need to be treated in isolation by staff wearing protective clothing. MSF has over 550 staff on the ground and we have brought in more than 40 tonnes of equipment and supplies to help fight the epidemic.

The Ebola virus was first associated with an outbreak of 318 cases of a haemorrhagic disease in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in 1976. Of the 318 cases, 280 died — and died quickly.

That same year, 284 people in Sudan also became infected with the virus, killing 156.

The risk of Ebola spreading to the UK is minimal, but to minimize it even further we need more resources to bring the outbreak under control in West Africa according to MSF.

Before this outbreak, MSF has treated hundreds of people affected by Ebola in Uganda, Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Sudan, Gabon and Guinea. In 2007, MSF entirely contained an epidemic of Ebola in Uganda.