Guinea’s neighbors have reacted to quell the spread of the disease. Reuters reports Senegal closed its land border with Guinea on Saturday, and halted the operation of weekly markets in the area. Senegal has also implemented sanitary checks on flights between its capital Dakar and Conakry, while West African airline Gambia Bird has delayed the launch of a new route to Guinea’s capital.
Ebola is spread primarily through contact with infected bodily fluids. It’s a highly contagious and regularly lethal disease — 68 percent of all recorded cases in the past have been fatal — that has killed more than 1,500 people since its first recorded transferal to humans in 1976. The confirmed cases in Guinea and Liberia are particularly notable because they are the first to be recorded in the west of the continent — prior to this outbreak, every known case of fatal Ebola infection (excluding laboratory accidents) took place in south and central Africa. Should the outbreak continue to gather pace, it could stretch West African health providers to the limit.