| Wed Sep. 24, 2014 6:00 AM EDT
Last Tuesday, the White House announced
plans to send 3,000 US troops to the country to coordinate medical care
and deliver humanitarian aid. Their command center, and much of their
work, will be in Monrovia. But as the maps below show, controlling the
disease in and around the sprawling city will not be an easy task. This
first map shows the spread of the disease in the capital region as of
September 11 (areas colored in darker shades of blue have reported more
Ebola infections):
This second map shows the spread of the disease in the capital region
as of September 20—just nine days later. Note the spread of the dark
blue:
When the current outbreak of Ebola first reached Liberia, there were only two known
cases of the disease anywhere in the country. Both infections were far
from the West African nation's capital, Monrovia. But the virus spread
rapidly. In mid-June,
health workers discovered the first evidence the disease had spread to
the capital: the bodies of seven people, including a nurse and four of
her family members.
As of Sunday, 1,232 people are believed to have been infected in Monrovia's Montserrado County— more than a third of Liberia's total cases to date, according to Liberia's health ministry. The disease is believed to have killed 758 people in the county, including 33 health workers. Conditions will almost certainly get worse. On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report stating that a worst-case scenario for the disease could bring the number of infected in Liberia and Sierra Leone to 1.4 million by January 2015. http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/09/these-maps-show-ebolas-spread-in-around-liberias-capital
Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
Liberian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
As of Sunday, 1,232 people are believed to have been infected in Monrovia's Montserrado County— more than a third of Liberia's total cases to date, according to Liberia's health ministry. The disease is believed to have killed 758 people in the county, including 33 health workers. Conditions will almost certainly get worse. On Tuesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report stating that a worst-case scenario for the disease could bring the number of infected in Liberia and Sierra Leone to 1.4 million by January 2015. http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/09/these-maps-show-ebolas-spread-in-around-liberias-capital