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Dakar - From Guinea's forests to Senegal's capital, via Africa's most populous nation Nigeria, here are the main developments since the haemorrhagic fever Ebola emerged earlier this year in West Africa, spreading to five countries in eight months.
The epidemic, the worst-ever since the virus was first identified in 1976, has left more than 1,500 dead in the region, according to the World Health Organisation.
Another strain has also been identified separately in Central Africa, where the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has announced its own hotspot.
-- MARCH 2014 --
- 24: Officials from Guinea's health ministry and the WHO say that from January to March 23 the country has recorded 87 suspected cases of viral haemorrhagic fever, including 61 deaths. They indicate that most cases have been reported in the forested south of the country.
Scientists studying samples in the French city of Lyon confirm it is Ebola. On the 27th it spreads to Guinea's capital Conakry.
- 31: Liberia confirms two cases of the virus.
-- APRIL --
- 5: West African countries mobilise, with medical teams deployed at Conakry airport.
-- MAY --
- 26: Sierra Leone confirms its first fatality.
-- JUNE --
- 21: The WHO says the rapid spread of Ebola in the countries concerned has occurred in part because containment efforts have been too relaxed.
-- JULY --
- 25: The virus spreads to Nigeria, as a Liberian national dies in quarantine in Lagos. The country places its ports and airports on alert.
-- AUGUST --
- 5: The World Bank earmarks up to $200 million (150 million euros) to help contain Ebola.
- 8: The WHO declares the Ebola epidemic a "public health emergency of international concern".
Nigeria follows Liberia and Sierra Leone in declaring a national emergency.
- 12: The WHO authorises the use of experimental drugs in the fight against Ebola, after an ethical debate.
- 13: Liberia receives doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine ZMapp, which has shown positive early results.
Guinea declares a "health emergency".
- 15: The WHO says the magnitude of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has been "vastly" underestimated.
- 18-21: Several countries close their borders with the affected countries.
Liberia imposes a nighttime curfew and quarantines two affected neighbourhoods.
- 22: The fight to combat Ebola will take several months, the WHO says.
- 25: The WHO says that more than 120 health workers have died of Ebola.
- 27: The last major airlines still operating in Freetown, Monrovia and Conakry suspend their flights.
- 28: At crisis talks in Accra, health ministers from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS vow to strengthen their response.
- The death toll reaches 1,552 cases, including 694 in Liberia, 430 in Guinea, 422 in Sierra Leone and six in Nigeria.
- Scientists say the first human trials of an Ebola vaccine will start in early September in the United States.
- Nigeria announces that the virus has reached its oil-producing hub, Port Harcourt.
- 29: Senegal confirms its first case, as a young Guinean tests positive.
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