Fighting Ebola: On the front lines
The Ebola virus has infected more than 6,000 and killed roughly 3,000 in a Western Africa epidemic this year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 1,940 cases were reported in Sierra Leone, about 600 of them fatal, the CDC said.
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- Medical staff members of the Croix Rouge NGO put on protective suits before collecting the corpse of a victim of Ebola, in Monrovia, on September 29, 2014. Of the four west African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak, Liberia has been hit the hardest, with 3,458 people infected — more than half of the total number of cases. Of those, 1,830 have died, according to a WHO count released on September 27. (Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Liberian burial team wearing protective clothing loads the body of a 60-year-old Ebola victim after retrieving him from his home on August 17, 2014 near Monrovia, Liberia. The epidemic has killed more than 1,000 people in four African countries, and Liberia now has had more deaths than any other country. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
- Workers prepare the new Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Ebola treatment center on August 17, 2014 near Monrovia, Liberia. The facility initially has 120 beds, making it the largest such center for Ebola treatment and isolation in history, and MSF plans to expand it to a 350-bed capacity. Tents at the center were provided by UNICEF. The Ebola epidemic has killed more than 1,000 people in four African countries, and Liberia now has had more deaths than any other country. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
- Nroh Nah listens as local UNICEF health workers speak about Ebola prevention at the entrance to her home on August 18, 2014 in New Kru Town, Liberia. UNICEF is canvasing communities in and around the capital, going house to house and urging residents to wash their hands to help prevent the spread of the epidemic, which is spread by bodily fluids. The virus has killed more than 1,000 people in four African countries, and Liberia now has had more deaths than any other country. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
- A burial team from the Liberian Ministry of Health unloads the bodies of Ebola victims onto a funeral pyre at a crematorium on August 22, 2014 in Marshall, Liberia. The Ebola epidemic has killed at least 1,350 people in West Africa and more in Liberia than any other country. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
- A health worker, wearing a protective suit, conducts an ebola prevention drill at the port in Monrovia on August 29, 2014. The World Health Organization said yesterday that the number of Ebola cases was increasing rapidly and could exceed 20,000 before the virus is brought under control, as the death toll topped 1,500. (Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images )
- Medical staff members of the Croix Rouge NGO put on protective suits before collecting the corpse of a victim of Ebola, in Monrovia, on September 29, 2014. Of the four west African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak, Liberia has been hit the hardest, with 3,458 people infected — more than half of the total number of cases. Of those, 1,830 have died, according to a WHO count released on September 27. (Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images)
- A school official takes a pupil’s temperature using an infrared digital laser thermometer in front of the school premises, at the resumption of private schools, in Lagos September 22, 2014. Nigeria and Senegal, two of the five countries affected by the world’s worst ever Ebola outbreak are managing to halt the spread of the disease, the World Health Organization said on Monday, although the overall death toll rose to 2,793 out of 5,762 cases. (Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)
- A medical staff member of the Croix Rouge NGO disinfects inside a house after collecting the corpse of a victim of Ebola, in Monrovia, on September 29, 2014. Of the four west African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak, Liberia has been hit the hardest, with 3,458 people infected — more than half of the total number of cases. Of those, 1,830 have died, according to a WHO count released on September 27. (Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images)
- Medical staff members of the Croix Rouge NGO carry on a stretcher the corpse of a victim of Ebola, after collecting it from a house in Monrovia, on September 29, 2014. Of the four west African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak, Liberia has been hit the hardest, with 3,458 people infected — more than half of the total number of cases. Of those, 1,830 have died, according to a WHO count released on September 27. (Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images)
- A Liberian Army soldier, part of the Ebola Task Force, beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine on the West Point slum on August 20, 2014 in Monrovia, Liberia. The government ordered the quarantine of West Point, a congested seaside slum of 75,000, on Wednesday, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus in the capital city. Liberian soldiers were also sent in to the seaside favela to extract West Point Commissioner Miata Flowers and her family members after residents blamed the government for setting up a holding center for suspected Ebola patients to be set up in their community. A mob overran and closed the facility on August 16. The military also began enforcing a quarrantine on West Point, a congested slum of 75,000, fearing a spread of the epidemic. The Ebola virus has killed more than 1,200 people in four African nations, more in Liberia than any other country. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
- A fire brigade paramedic wearing a sealed protective suit is reflected in a special fire brigade ambulance, as he carries medical equipment into the vehicle during a drill for the crew, in Frankfurt August 21, 2014. The special ambulance is equipped to treat patients suffering from ebola and other highly infectious diseases. Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. It has no proven cure and there is no vaccine to prevent infection. The rigorous use of quarantine is needed to prevent its spread, as well as high standards of hygiene for anyone who might come into contact with the disease. (Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)
- A woman stands at a pharmacy next to a poster displaying a government message against Ebola, at a maternity hospital in Abidjan August 14, 2014. The world’s worst outbreak of Ebola has claimed the lives of 1,069 people and there are 1,975 probable and suspected cases, the vast majority in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to new figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Ivory Coast has recorded no cases of Ebola. (Luc Gnago/Reuters)
- Ward physician Thomas Klotzkowski stands in a sick unit at the quarantine station for patients with infectious diseases at the Charite hospital in Berlin August 11, 2014. The isolation ward at the Charite is one of several centres in Germany equipped to treat patients suffering from ebola and other highly infectious diseases, the clinic’s doctor for tropical medicine Florian Steiner said. Ebola is one of the deadliest diseases known to humanity. It has no proven cure and there is no vaccine to prevent infection. The most effective treatment involves alleviating symptoms that include fever, vomiting and diarrhea. The rigorous use of quarantine is needed to prevent its spread, as well as high standards of hygiene for anyone who might come into contact with the disease. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
- An actor, playing the role of a vaccine against the Ebola, performs in front of students during an awareness campaign against the virus at Anono school in Abidjan September 25, 2014. (Luc Gnago/Reuters)
- Medical staff working with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) prepare to bring food to patients kept in an isolation area at the MSF Ebola treatment centre in Kailahun July 20, 2014. Sierra Leone now has the highest number of Ebola cases, at 454, surpassing neighbouring Guinea where the outbreak originated in February. Picture taken July 20, 2014. (Tommy Trenchard/Reuters)
- A pregnant woman suspected of contracting Ebola is lifted by stretcher into an ambulance in Freetown, Sierra Leone September 19, 2014 in a handout photo provided by UNICEF. Sierra Leone’s army has “sealed off” the borders with Liberia and Guinea in a bid to halt the spread of Ebola, the army spokesman said on September 23, 2014. The spokesman told Reuters that troops had been sent to all border crossing points. (Bindra/UNICEF/Reuters)
- Health inspection officers help a mock patient (C) get into a negative pressure isolation stretcher, during a drill to demonstrate the procedures of transporting an Ebola victim, at Shenzhen Entry-exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, in Shenzhen, Guangdong province August 14, 2014. China’s quarantine authority has intensified inspections at customs to prevent the deadly Ebola virus, which killed over 1,000 people in Africa, from entering the country, Xinhua News Agency reported. Picture taken August 14, 2014. (Reuters)
- Health workers remove the body of Prince Nyentee, a 29-year-old man whom local residents said died of Ebola virus in Monrovia September 11, 2014. (James Giahyue/Reuters)
- Police stand guard as officers test the body of a man for the Ebola virus, which according to police is standard protocol when bodies are discovered, in Monrovia September 27, 2014. (James Giahyue/Reuters)