An epidemic of Ebola virus disease (EVD) is ongoing in West Africa.

The epidemic began

in Guinea in December 2013
[5]
then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Much smaller subsidiary
outbreaks have also occurred in Senegal, Nigeria, the United States
[6]
and Spain.
[4]
As of October
2014, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention(CDC) and local governments reported a total of 8,033 suspected cases and 3,866
deaths (4,462 cases and 2,330 deaths having been laboratory confirmed),
[2]
though WHO believes
that this substantially understates the magnitude of the outbreak.
[7]

The current epidemic of EVD, caused by Ebola virus, is the most severe outbreak of Ebola since the
discovery of ebolaviruses in 1976,
[8]
and by September 2014 cases of EVD from this single outbreak
exceeded the sum of all previously identified cases.
[9]
The epidemic has caused significant mortality
with a Case Fatality Rate (CFR) reported as 70%.
[10]

Affected countries have encountered many difficulties in their control efforts. The WHO has
estimated that region's capacity for treating EVD is insufficient by the equivalent of 2,122 beds.
[11]
In
some areas, people have become suspicious of both the government and hospitals; some hospitals
have been attacked by angry protestors who believe that the disease is a hoax or that the hospitals
are responsible for the disease. Many of the areas that are seriously affected with the outbreak are
areas of extreme poverty with limited access to soap or running water to help control the spread of
disease.
[12]
Other factors include belief in traditional folk remedies, and cultural practices that involve
physical contact with the deceased, especially death customs such as washing the body of the
deceased.
[13][14][15]
Some hospitals lack basic supplies and are understaffed. This has increased the
chance of staff catching the virus themselves. In August, the WHO reported that ten percent of the
dead have been health care workers.
[16]

By the end of August, the WHO reported that the loss of so many health workers was making it
difficult for them to provide sufficient numbers of foreign medical staff.
[17]
By September
2014, Mdecins Sans Frontires, the largest NGO working in the affected regions, had grown
increasingly critical of the international response. Speaking on 3 September, the international
president spoke out concerning the lack of assistance from the United Nations member countries
saying, "Six months into the worst Ebola epidemic in history, the world is losing the battle to contain
it."
[18]
A United Nations spokesperson stated "they could stop the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 6
to 9 months, but only if a 'massive' global response is implemented."
[19]
The Director-General of the
WHO, Margaret Chan, called the outbreak "the largest, most complex and most severe we've ever
seen" and said that it "is racing ahead of control efforts".
[19]
In a 26 September statement, the WHO
said, "The Ebola epidemic ravaging parts of West Africa is the most severe acute public health
emergency seen in modern times. Never before in recorded history has a biosafety level four
pathogen infected so many people so quickly, over such a broad geographical area, for so long."
[20]