With the addition of 52 more Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) during the past several days, it brought the total death toll in the West Africa Zaire Ebolavirus outbreak over 1,000, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa today.

Ebola virus Image/CDC
Ebola virus
Image/CDC

Between 7 and 9 August 2014, 69 new cases (laboratory-confirmed, probable, and suspect cases) of EVD and 52 deaths were reported from the four countries as follows: Guinea, 11 new cases and 6 deaths; Liberia, 45 new cases and 29 deaths; Nigeria, 0 new cases and 0 deaths; and Sierra Leone, 13 new cases and 17 deaths.

This brings the total cases and fatalities since the outbreak surfaced in the February-March time frame to 1,848 and 1,013, respectively.

In addition, WHO convened a panel of medical ethicists, scientific experts, and lay people from the affected countries to assess the role of experimental therapies in the Ebola outbreak response.

Two issues were considered:

1) Is it ethical to use unregistered interventions with unknown adverse effects for possible treatment or prophylaxis? If it is, what criteria and conditions need to be satisfied before they can be used?

And

2) If it is ethical to use these unregistered interventions in the current circumstances, then what criteria should guide the choice of an intervention and who should receive priority for treatment or prevention?

The findings of this panel will be published Tuesday. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page