121 people die from Ebola in a single day in Sierra Leone

(NaturalNews) The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa is becoming more deadly by the day, as the nation of Sierra Leone -- one of the three suffering the most -- announced recently that 121 people had died from the disease in a single day.

Worse, according to the nation's health officials and those from the global community, Sierra Leone also recorded "scores of new infections in one of the single deadliest days since the disease appeared in the West African country more than four months ago," Reuters reported.

Those figures, which covered the outbreak period through October 4, the newswire reported, put the total number of Ebola-related deaths at 678, up from 557 just a day earlier. The daily figures being compiled by Sierra Leone's Emergency Operations Centre showed an additional 81 cases of infection as well.

The disease was first reported in Guinea in March; since then, it has spread to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as the U.S. and even Spain. It is the worst epidemic of Ebola since it was first discovered in 1976.

When smaller outbreaks occurred in Nigeria and Senegal, those were brought under control and contained. The U.S. case came from a Liberian national who had traveled to Dallas.

Response was slow but is now picking up

Overall, the death toll from the current outbreak has reached 3,439 from a total of 7,492 reported cases; some health officials on the ground in West Africa have said they believe that the rates could be much higher, as scores are infected every hour.

Initially, the global response to the epidemic was slow, but now, Reuters reports, supplies are streaming steadily into the worst-hit areas of West Africa. Also, the U.S. has sent 4,000 troops assigned to AFRICOM -- U.S. Africa Command -- to the region to build hospitals and help treat victims. Most of those are headed to Liberia, the hardest-hit nation thus far.

"Britain and China have sent personnel to Sierra Leone. Cuba dispatched a 165-member medical team, including specialists and nurses, to Sierra Leone last week," Reuters stated.

As reported by Britain's The Guardian newspaper, as many as 1.4 million people could be infected by the virus by January, based on figures released earlier this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There is bound to be under-reporting

"The costs of delay are significant," CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said during a media briefing on the predictive model. "That's why the response we're seeing from the US and others is incredibly important, because every day counts."

The model included data through the end of August; predictions were made using data from Sierra Leone and Liberia. Since then, of course, the outbreak has widened and the death rate has quickened.

The CDC model essentially predicted that there might be about 550,000 reported cases; correcting for under-reporting, the model boosted the number to 1.4 million.

The disease has a 60-90 percent mortality rate, depending upon where treatment is received and how quickly. Health systems in West Africa were quickly overwhelmed by the disease once the outbreak began to spread.

Natural News editor Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, says the world is not being told the truth about the seriousness of the outbreak, one of "five lies" he said are as rampant as the disease:

All the disinformation being spread about Ebola by the U.S. government and the complicit mass media will unfortunately make the Ebola pandemic far worse. That's because the public isn't being told the truth about how Ebola spreads and how individuals can help prevent transmission of the disease.

Read his full report here.

Sources:

http://af.reuters.com

http://www.theguardian.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://science.naturalnews.com

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