Ebola in Guinea

I came across an interesting article about ebola from February 21, 2015. Since ebola was a well-known topic this past year when it came to Africa, I thought it would be an interesting blog topic. The subtitle of the article is "To end the outbreak in west Africa, Ebola must be snuffed out where it began." The article states that there have been over 9,300 deaths in western Africa caused by ebola. 

Above is a map of where ebola has occurred in Africa. 

The darker the color, the more cases that have been identified. 

Since cases of ebola have spread throughout Africa, it has made it a lot more difficult to end the epidemic. Just in the week that this article was written, (February 21) there had been 128 new confirmed cases, and over 800 in the fall of 2014. Most of the cases were in Sierra Leone, but according to the article, they are more worried about Guinea because most of the cases there were people who health workers did not even suspect having ebola. In order for ebola to be contained, those with the virus must be isolated, but if these people are not even known to health workers, then it is almost impossible for the virus to be ended. While people in Liberia and Sierra Leone have begun to take caution and changing their behavior in order to stop the spread of ebola, people in Guinea have not taken that sort of care. There, they kiss and shake hands, unafraid of catching ebola.

The article states that the longer the virus continues, the harder it will be to completely stop it. Since there have been so many cases that healthcare workers did not even know about, it makes it very difficult to end the virus.