Researchers Reveal The Source Of Current Ebola Outbreak

This outbreak of Ebola, which is so far the largest in history was likely started by a 2 year old boy in a remote village in Guinea according to researchers. The boy, called Patient Zero in this outbreak, died on December 6th 2013 after suffering from fever, black stool & vomiting. That illness has now been found to be Ebola

Before he died, he infected his mother, his 3 year old sister, his grandmother and a mid wife who was caring for him when he was ill. His mum and sister died before the end of December 2013 after suffering bleeding symptoms. His grandmother died January 1st. The mid-wife died by February 11th but before dying, she had passed the virus to her family members who died the following month in March 2014. 

The virus spread from the Southern Guinea village to other parts of Africa after villagers from Sierre Leone and Liberia, who share a border with the village, attended the grandmother’s burial. Two of the funeral attendees fell ill and the virus spread from their families to their villages and to health care workers and family members taking care of patients. It was brought into Nigerian by a Liberian official, the famous Patrick Sawyer.


How the child became infected is a biggest mystery as scientist who have traced the the outbreak this time say they don’t know how the toddler got infected.

So far, 960 people have died from the virus while 1,779 people have been infected.

Source: Linda Ikeji

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