Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia
A map of Liberia
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| Cases contracted in Liberia | 10,675 (as of 7 April 2016[update]) |
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| Deaths | 4,809 (as of 7 April 2015[update]) |
An epidemic of Ebola virus disease occurred in Liberia from 2014 to 2015, along with the neighbouring countries of Guinea and Sierra Leone. The first cases of virus were reported by late March 2014. The Ebola virus, a biosafety level four pathogen, is an RNA virus discovered in 1976.
Before the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic the country had 50 doctors for its population of 4.3 million. The country's health system was seriously weakened by a civil war that ended in 2003.
Researchers generally believe that a two-year-old boy, later identified as Emile Ouamouno, who died in December 2013 in the village of Meliandou, Guéckédou Prefecture, Guinea, was the index case of the current Ebola virus disease epidemic. His mother, sister, and grandmother then became ill with similar symptoms and also died. People infected by those initial cases spread the disease to other villages. Although Ebola represents a major public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa, no cases had ever been reported in West Africa and the early cases were diagnosed as other diseases more common to the area. Thus, the disease had several months to spread before it was recognized as Ebola.
On 30 March 2014, Liberia confirmed its first two cases of Ebola virus disease in the country.
By 23 April thirty-four cases and six deaths from Ebola in Liberia were recorded. By 17 June sixteen people had succumbed to the disease in the country. The initial cases were thought to be malaria, an extremely common disease in Liberia, and thus leading to doctors being infected with the Ebola virus.
By 17 June the first deaths occurred in Monrovia from Ebola when seven patients died from the disease. Among them were a nurse along with other members of her household. At the time there were about 16 cases reported in Liberia in total. The nurse was treated at Redemption Hospital, a free state-run health care facility in New Kru Town west of Monrovia.
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