Ebola Deaths in Perspective

Recent events in West Africa have largely eclipsed several other ongoing outbreaks on the global stage. For example, over 780,000 cases of Chikungunya have been reported in the western hemisphere in recent months, including 1,371 cases in the United States (vs. only 4 of Ebola). Obviously, the severity of Ebola far outweighs that of Chikungunya; thus, the ratio of reported Chikungunya cases to Ebola cases (772,069 / 10,141) is 76-to-1, the ratio of Ebola deaths to Chikungunya deaths (4,922 / 118) is 73-to-1. Sadly, one ongoing epidemic which is more severe than Ebola in both disease numbers and mortality, receives little notice from the lay media. The last available publication on cholera in Haiti reported 780,541 cases (8,562 fatal) as compared to 10,041 (4,922 fatal) of Ebola. As of October 28, cases of both diseases had been reported in nine additional countries. The following graph illustrates mortality figures for some ongoing Infectious Disease outbreaks (I’ve added SARS for historic impact). The lower row records the number of countries which reported cases originating in the outbreak epicenter.
Source: GIDEON blog - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Epidemiology Events General Outbreaks ProMED Ebola Influenza SARS Source Type: blogs