The World Health Organization reports today:
Between 31 July and 1 August 2014, a total of 163 new cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD; laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) as well as 61 deaths were reported from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Three of these cases are in Nigeria and include two new probable cases — one in a health-care worker and one in a Nigerian who travelled to Guinea — and suspected case in a nurse.
Current totals:
Confirmed, probable, suspected cases of Ebola: 1,486
Deaths from Ebola: 790
Fatality rate: 53%
The American doctor who is now hospitalized in Atlanta, and the American missionary who is on her way, both appear to be improving clinically after reportedly being treated with a secret potion:
The experimental Ebola treatment administered to two Americans who contracted the virus in Africa was made by a California company called Mapp Biopharmaceutical, a National Institutes of Health spokeswoman said Monday.
The company and the NIH did not identify the treatment, but Mapp has collaborated on a medical cocktail called ZMapp, derived in part from tobacco plants, that has shown promise in tests on monkeys. It had not been evaluated on humans.
I’m sure there are 696 West Africans (at least) who’d be willing to be clinical test subjects for this experimental tonic.