Image: Youssouf Bah/Associated Press
The deadly Ebola virus â€" for which there is no cure or vaccine â€" has killed more than 250 people in west Africa since March in one of the worst outbreaks in years, with Doctors Without Borders calling it an "unprecedented" epidemic.
The current Ebola outbreak started in Guinea; it quickly spread throughout the country, and then to neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone. The outbreak doesn't seem to be slowing down, despite the intervention of international health authorities, including the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"This is worse than expected," Robert Garry, a Tulane University virologist currently in Sierra Leone, told NBC News. "I am fearful that it could get much worse."
On Tuesday, health officials said seven people died in Monrovia, Liberia's capital; they were the first deaths reported in the city.
The chart, below, shows the total number of reported cases this year, the number of deaths and the "case fatality ratio" â€" the proportion of deaths within the total number of infections â€" for each country where there have been reported cases of Ebola, according to WHO data as of June 10 .
The current Ebola outbreak is the first major one since 2007, when 187 people died in an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The chart, below, summarizes the past outbreaks in Africa since 1976.
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