Ebola Kills Over 270 Persons, 11 Doctors, 34 Health Workers in Liberia

An Ebola outbreak virus currently has no cure and has a fatality rate of up to 90 percent. The aggregate number of cases; confirmed, probable and suspected in Liberia has now exceeded 500 with about 271 cumulative deaths, with 32 deaths among health care workers. The death rate among citizens, especially among health workers is alarming.

An Ebola outbreak that has killed more than 980 people in Africa is now taking a toll on doctors and health care workers battling the deadly disease, including two Americans. While It said 300 new cases were detected over those four days, taking the total number of confirmed and likely infected cases from the outbreak so far to 1,323.

So far an Ebola outbreak has killed over 270 people in Liberia, died earlier this month. The current outbreak has claimed the lives of 319 in Guinea and 224 in Sierra Leone. Over the last three days, the deaths of 57 more people from Ebola in West Africa have pushed the overall fatality toll from the epidemic to 826 up to date, latest reports have revealed.

According to reports, the 57 deaths were recorded between last Thursday and Sunday last week in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the UN health agency said in a statement.

The deadly Ebola virus which becomes widespread is now taking a toll on doctors and health care workers in the country, taking away the lives of several top medical doctors in Liberia, while other have falling prey to the virus.

Dr. Sam Mutooro Muhumuza, a Ugandan national was the first senior medical doctor to be killed by the deadly virus. He was a surgical doctor assigned at the Redemption Hospital in New Kru Town.

Following doctor Muhumuza was Dr. Samuel Brisbane, former Medical Advisor to ex President Charles Taylor. He was a senior Medical Doctor working at Liberia’s leading referral hospital, the John F. Kennedy (JFK).

Third on the list is Mr. Patrick Nshairndze, Chief Administrator and a Dispenser at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Hospital in Monrovia. According to report, he died on Saturday, having contracted the deadly Ebola ; he was 57.

Dr. Nshamdze, who preferred to be called “Bro. Patrick”, was from Cameroon and a member of the Catholic Community—Brothers of St. John of God. Bro. Patrick was one of the missionaries assigned at the St. Joseph Catholic Hospital in Congo Town. He was one of those very reliable medical practitioners, who kept the hospital intact and running.

Mr. Patrick Sawyer, Coordinator of the ECOWAS National Unit at the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. He was not a doctor, he holds American citizenship.

Other victims include two American doctors from the North Carolina-based aid organization Samaritan's Purse. They are Kent Brantly, 33, and Nancy Writebol. However, Dr. Brantly was over the weekend flow to America for advance medical treatment while Nancy Writebol, the second America is expected to be flow out today, Tuesday.

Another leading Sierra Leone's doctor fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record died from the virus last Tuesday. He is Sheik Umar Khan, who was credited with treating more than 100 patients.

an American doctor who has been working in Liberia since October for, is receiving intensive medical treatment after he was infected with Ebola, according to a spokeswoman for the group.

"Both Brantly and Writebol of them tonight are in stable condition," Ken Isaacs, Samaritan Purse's vice president of programs and government relations, said Sunday. "But they are not out of the woods yet."

A Liberian government official said Sunday that one of that country's highest-profile doctors has died in what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls the largest recorded outbreak of the disease.

The Ebola epidemic in the West African nations of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea has caused more than 820 deaths and more than 1,000 infections, according to the WHO.

Ebola is a severe illness with a fatality rate of up to 90%, is one of the world's most virulent diseases, according to the WHO. It is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people.

Over the weekend, health officials in Nigeria raced to stop the spread of Ebola after a man sick with the disease arrived on a flight in Lagos, Africa's largest city with 21 million people. He later died.

The man's ability to board an international flight raised new fears that other passengers could carry the disease beyond Africa because of weak passenger inspection and the fact that Ebola's initial symptoms can resemble those of other illnesses.

Isaacs said in an interview that "where it gets really scary" is that the disease, which was previously seen only "in very remote, small villages in Africa" is now being contracted by people in the capital cities of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. "Now the disease has been introduced into the big urban areas with millions of people," he said. "In the big cities, people can get on an airplane and fly out."

Isaacs does not believe this outbreak his peaked. "I think the worst is yet to come," he said. "I hope I'm wrong." The first Liberian doctor to die of the disease was identified as Samuel Brisbane. He was working as a consultant with the internal medicine unit at the country's largest hospital, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Medical Center in Monrovia.

Brisbane, who once was a medical adviser to former Liberian President Charles Taylor, was taken to a treatment center on the outskirts of the capital after falling ill with Ebola and died there, said Tolbert Nyenswah, an assistant health minister.

He said another doctor who had been working in Liberia's central Bong County also was being treated for Ebola at the same center where Brisbane died. The situation "is getting more and more scary," Nyenswah said.

Isaacs said doctors and health care workers in West Africa often lack information about the disease, how it's spread and what to do if infected. Those medical professionals are often the first infected and spread the disease to their other patients. On Friday, he said, Samaritan's Purse staff saw 12 new Ebola cases; of those, eight were medical providers.

He is urging the USA, Canada and the European Union to pour resources into those countries to help them educate health care workers. "If Ebola is not fought and contained in West Africa, it will be fought somewhere else," he said.

Meanwhile, the Peace Corps said Wednesday that it was temporarily removing 340 volunteers working in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea because of the virus's spread. Two corps volunteers were placed in isolation and under observation—though they aren't symptomatic—after coming in contact with an individual who later died of Ebola, a spokeswoman said.

Sierra Leone's president called in the army Thursday to quarantine Ebola-stricken neighborhoods and conduct house-to-house searches for people exposed to the virus. WSJ's Drew Hinshaw reports on the latest from Lagos, Nigeria.

One of the worst Ebola outbreak in history has prompted Liberian officials to close their borders, as the governments in several West African countries raced to convince many of their citizens that Ebola is a real disease.

Two U.S. faith-based organizations that are helping to treat Ebola patients in Liberia and have had American staff infected said they were evacuating nonessential personnel due to the spread of the virus, as well as security issues. Another U.S. citizen and a top doctor from Sierra Leone have died.

The developments highlight the risks for foreigners as well as for health staff treating Ebola patients. And they underscore the gravity of the evolving crisis in a poor corner of West Africa where government authorities and international health workers have struggled to bring the deadly outbreak under control.

"This is a growing crisis of proportions that will cost, we think, thousands of lives and maybe more," said Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA, a Charlotte, N.C., missionary group, one of the groups helping Ebola patients in Liberia. "The international community has the resources and people to respond, but they need to respond."

While organizations are pulling out nonessential personnel, he said more funds and health-care workers are needed on the ground to fight the resurgence of the disease in the three African countries.