Ebola virus in humans may be here to stay; fatality rate is 71%

...In order to stop the epidemic, researchers say the rate of transmission would have to be cut in half. This would be equivalent to vaccinating 50% of the population.
Several experimental vaccines are under development, and -- if they prove to be effective -- won't be available in large quantities for months.
Study authors made the following observations on the effects of the outbreak.

• The average age of a person infected with Ebola is 32, and 49.9% of patients are male, researchers said. The age group that has been most affected by the virus makes up 44% of the total population.
• The most common symptoms reported by patients included fever (87.1%), fatigue (76.4%), loss of appetite (64.5%), vomiting (67.6%), diarrhea (65.6%), headache (53.4%), and abdominal pain (44.3%).
• Although the disease is infamously known for causing bleeding, "specific hemorrhagic symptoms were rarely reported (in less than 1% to 5.7% of patients)," authors wrote. "Unexplained bleeding" however was reported in 18% of cases.
• People age 45 or older faced a significantly greater threat of death, as did those who suffered a number of the following symptoms: diarrhea, conjunctivitis, difficulty breathing or swallowing, confusion or disorientation and coma, unexplained bleeding, bleeding gums, bloody nose, bleeding at injection sites and bleeding from the vagina. http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-ebola-may-be-endemic-in-people-20140922-story.html

"The risk of continued epidemic expansion and the prospect of endemic EVD in West Africa call for the most forceful implementation of present control measures and the rapid development and deployment of new drugs and vaccines," the authors concluded.