Global Ebola outbreak deaths exceed 4,000 – WHO

The number of deaths attributed to the Ebola outbreak has risen above 4,000, the World Health Organization says.

The latest figures show there have been 4,024 confirmed or suspected deaths in the worst-affected West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Eight deaths are linked to the haemorrhagic fever in Senegal and one in the US.

In total, there have been 8,399 confirmed or suspected cases, mostly in West Africa.

The news comes as Liberian MPs refused to grant the president additional powers to deal with the Ebola crisis.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has already declared a state of emergency that allows her to impose quarantines. One parliamentarian, Bhofal Chambers, warned that creeping extra powers could turn Liberia into a “police state”.

The UN says more than 233 health workers working in West Africa have now died in the outbreak, the world’s deadliest to date.

A nurse in Spain is being treated for the virus after becoming infected from an Ebola patient who had been repatriated from Liberia – the country most badly hit by the disease with 2,316 confirmed or suspected deaths.

Source: BBC