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As of August 29, 2014, six countries from Africa are currently reporting confirmed Ebola cases. See map below. Democratic Republic of the Congo The DRC has reported a Zaire ebolaovirus outbreak in province unrelated outbreak in West Africa. Forty-two confirmed, probable, and suspected Ebola cases have been reported. link Situation: currently under control Guinea According to the World Health Organization (WHO) on August 28, 2014, a minimum of 648 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola have been reported from Guinea. link Situation: is not under control Liberia According to WHO as of August 28, 2014, a minimum of 1378 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola have been reported from Liberia. link Situation: is not under control Nigeria According to WHO as of August 28, 2014, 17 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola have been reported from Nigeria. All appear to have been linked to one imported case from Liberia. link Situation: currently under c...

In the past several days, the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia has announced two new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), both from the city of Dammam in eastern Saudi Arabia. One is a 69 year-old male and the other is a 52 year-old female. Neither are health care workers and both are hospitalized.  The relationship between these two cases is not reported, however, these case could signal another local MERS outbreak in Saudi Arabia. http://www.moh.gov.sa/en/CCC/PressReleases/Pages/Statistics-2014-08-25-001.aspx http://www.moh.gov.sa/en/CCC/PressReleases/Pages/Statistics-2014-08-26-001.aspx

As of August 25, 2014, at least two cases of Ebola have been identified from Équateur Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo by the Ministry of Health from among 8 tested individuals. ( link )  According to the Minister of Health Felix Kabangue Numbi, the Ebola strains identified include Sudan ebolavirus (SUDV) and a Zaire ebolavirus (EBOV)/ Sudan ebolavirus cross strain. According to Kabangue Numbi the Zaire and Sudan strains are very similar. Although there is uncertainty over the strain or strains infecting individuals in this outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it does not appear to be the same strain that has recently infected more than 2500 people in Nigeria and Western Africa. According to Kabangue Numbi, as many as 13 people have died from this Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The index case was apparently a pregnant woman who died on August 11. The husband of this woman has tested positive and a doctor, nurse, and hygienist who ...

Presently, only four countries, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone (as depicted in red on the map below) have confirmed cases of Ebola. But the outbreak is rapidly becoming out of control with more than 2400 cases reported. Several weeks ago, on August 3, the director of the Center for Disease Control in the United States, was quoted as saying that Ebola is “out of control” ( link ) at that time. Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged that they have underestimated the extent of this Ebola outbreak in Africa in a situation assessment identifying the many reasons why the current cases are underestimated. ( link ) The inability of the international health community to understand this outbreak is precisely because it is out of control in the West African nations. However this outbreak is more than an African problem. There is worldwide concern for this infectious disease. So far, no cases have yet been reported beyond the four African nations. The FluTrackers cr...

The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), organized in the 1920s, is an international organization of member countries established to promote global transparency of animal diseases, to collect scientific information relating to international animal disease control, and to develop standards for international trade of animals and animal products. The OIE is also tasked with disseminating information about emerging zoonotic diseases that have the potential for transmission to humans. Recently, the OIE provided a summary of its current understanding of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Update August 2014 - Questions & Answers on Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) . This update provides general information about the MERS-CoV, but also has a detailed discussion about potential animal reservoirs for this coronavirus. Several patterns or mode of human transmission of MERS have been identified by the World Health Organization. Human M...

The current Ebola outbreak in Africa has now grown to more than 2200 cases from four countries, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. ( link ) The map below shows the geographic distribution of Ebola cases within Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in West Africa based on recent reports. See map notes.