CONTAGIOUS #3 EBOLA

Researchers believe that a 2-year-old boy, later identified as Emile Ouamouno, who died in December 2013 in the village ofMeliandou, 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 25 March, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that Guinea's Ministry of Health had reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in four southeastern districts, with suspected cases in the neighbouring countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone being investigated. 

In Guinea, a total of 86 suspected cases, including 59 deaths had been reported as of 24 March.By late May, the outbreak had spread to Conakry, Guinea's capital, a city of about two million inhabitants.On 28 May, the total number of cases reported had reached 281 with 186 deaths.

In Liberia, the disease was reported in four counties by mid-April and cases in Liberia's capital Monrovia were reported in mid-June. The outbreak then spread to Sierra Leone and progressed rapidly. By 17 July, the total number of suspected cases in the country stood at 442, overtaking the number in Guinea and Liberia.By 20 July, additional cases of the disease had been reported in the Bo District and the first case in Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital, was reported in late July

The first death in Nigeria was reported on 25 July: a Liberian-American with Ebola flew from Liberia to Nigeria and died inLagos soon after arrival.As part of the effort to contain the disease, possible contacts were monitored – 353 in Lagos and 451 in Port Harcourt. On 22 September, the WHO reported a total of 20 cases, including eight deaths. The WHO's representative in Nigeria officially declared Nigeria Ebola-free on 20 October after no new active cases were reported in the follow up contacts