The World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in West Africa a public health emergency of international concern, the first such declaration for a viral haemorrhagic fever.
READ: World Health Organization Declares Covid-19 a Pandemic
The outbreak, first detected in southeastern Guinea, spread through Liberia and Sierra Leone, overwhelming health systems with few isolation beds and limited protective equipment. Health workers accounted for a significant share of infections and deaths.
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Nigeria contained a separate introduction in Lagos through rapid contact tracing, an intervention widely studied afterwards. The epidemic ultimately killed more than eleven thousand people and accelerated work on an effective vaccine.
