The Ebola virus is continuing to spread in Guinea. Now, the fever has claimed the lives of 84 people out of the 134 infected with the sickness. As the death toll continues to rise, authorities are desperately attempting to contain it.
The virus first emerged in 1976. Since then, it's killed about 1,600 people. Yet this latest outbreak is the worst in seven years, according to health officials. The virus causes hemorrhagic fever, which leads to muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhea and, in severe cases, organ failure and external bleeding. There is currently no cure for Ebola, and it spreads through contact of bodily fluids or by handling the bodies of those who have died from the illness. Unfortunately, it kills about 90 percent of patients.
In order to curb the spread of the epidemic, the government has set up medical isolation centers in the affected regions and has started disinfecting homes where suspected patients have died, according to the Business Standard. The main problem, though is that many individuals may not know that they have the disease until they've already spread it to another individual; that makes containing the virus all the more difficult.
That said, there is some hope when it comes to an eventual cure for the virus. A Canadian company, called Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp., began its first human trials of TKM-EBOLA, which is a treatment for the virus, according to International Business Times. In fact, some have wondered whether deploying this treatment to Guinea may help the current situation yet because it's still in the trial stage, some have warned against it.
"My impression is that it's not advanced enough to use on a compassionate basis," said Anthony S. Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, in an interview with the International Business Times. "I'm not 100 percent on that though."
For now, it seems as if officials will have to continue trying to contain the virus as it spreads. Hopefully, the outbreak will be able to be contained.
