Why Is This Ebola Outbreak Spreading?
The deadly virus emerged in Guinea and spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Can it be stopped?
At least 60 people have died from an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea. This particular outbreak has moved from the jungle to Guinea's capital city, Conakry, and reportedly crossed into Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The virus is transmitted by blood or other body fluids. Victims bleed internally and externally. The fatality rate can reach 90 percent, according to the World Health Organization. To learn more, we spoke to Ian Lipkin, the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.
The original source is likely to be an affected animal—a bat or sometimes a primate. In the preface to human outbreaks, we see the loss of
