World Health Organization says Ebola has killed more than 1,200

8/19/2014

In this undated handout photo provided by Medecins Sans Frontieres, Cokie van der Velde, a British sanitation specialist for Doctors Without Borders is seen in head-to-toe protective gear in Guekedou, Guinea. Normally, she spends her days in Yorkshire, tending to her garden and looking after her grandchildren. Van der Velde has worked on two previous Ebola outbreaks _ she gets paid a salary and stipend _ and says she does this kind of work because she believes in justice and equality. She said the need is overwhelming in this outbreak because of the heavy toll Ebola has taken on health workers; many of those sickened and killed have been doctors and nurses. That has sparked fear among many local staffers and led to strikes and resignations. (AP Photo/MSF)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

GENEVA — The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 1,200 people since it began in December 2013, the World Health Organization said today.

More than 2,200 have been sickened, according to the U.N. health agency’s latest numbers.

Authorities have struggled to contain the outbreak, which started in Guinea and has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. There are quarantines and travel restrictions for the sick and those in contact with them, sometimes including whole villages and counties, but officials warned that the restrictions have sometimes hampered food deliveries.

The U.N. World Food Program has said that it is preparing to deliver food to 1 million people over the next three months.

“I think now there is a high vigilance in all countries,” Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for WHO, told reporters in Geneva. “I can’t remember the last time we fed 1 million people in a quarantine situation.”