Body count rising: Sierra Leone records 121 Ebola deaths in a single day

Sierra Leone recorded 121 deaths from Ebola and scores of new infections in one of the single deadliest days since the disease appeared in the West African country more than four months ago, government health statistics showed on Sunday. The figures, which covered the period through Saturday, put the total number of deaths at 678, up from 557 the day before. The daily statistics compiled by Sierra Leone’s Emergency Operations Centre also showed 81 new cases of the haemorrhagic fever. Ebola was first reported in Guinea in March and has since spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone in what has become the worst epidemic of the disease since Ebola was idenitifed in 1976. Smaller outbreaks in Nigeria and Senegal were brought under control. The United States last week confirmed its first Ebola case, a Liberian national who had travelled to Texas. Meanwhile, the Ugandan government says a hospital technician has died of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Kampala. The Marburg virus is one of the most deadly known pathogens. Like Ebola, it causes severe bleeding, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. The victim’s brother and one other person he was in contact with have so far “developed signs” of the disease. Like Ebola, the Marburg virus is transmitted via contact with bodily fluids and fatality rates range from 25 percent to 80 percent.

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