Updated 9:46 p.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) - The Ebola outbreak is still rampant in West Africa killing 3,879 people as of October 5, a report by the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
"The total number of confirmed, probable, and suspected cases in the West African epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) reported up to the end of October 5, 2014 (epidemiological week 40) is 8,033 with 3,879 deaths," the latest situation report said.
"There is no evidence that the EVD epidemic in West Africa is being brought under control, though there is evidence of a decline in incidence in the districts of Lofa in Liberia, and Kailahun and Kenema in Sierra Leone," the report said.
The report also noted that the high numbers of Ebola infections among the health-care workers "continues to be a cause of great concern," as 401 health care workers in West Africa are known to have been infected with the deadly virus and 232 have died of Ebola.
The Ebola epidemic currently taking place in West Africa broke out in Guinea, and later spread across Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Senegal.
50 people are currently at risk from exposure to Ebola in the United States. On Wednesday morning, Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan, who was the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, reportedly died at a hospital in Dallas, Texas.
According to the European director of the WHO Zsuzsanna Jakab the risk of the spread of Ebola virus in Europe remains low, but imported cases of infection are inevitable.
The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of those infected. Though there is no officially approved medication for the disease, several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan are working on developing Ebola vaccines.
