The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history is happening right now

 

Updated by Susannah Locke on June 26, 2014, 10:00 a.m. ET @susannahlockesusannah@vox.com

The deadliest Ebola outbreak in recorded history is happening right now. The outbreak is unprecedented both in the number of cases and in its geographic scope. And so far, it doesn't look like it's slowing down.

THE CURRENT OUTBREAK HAS KILLED 367 PEOPLE AND INFECTED ABOUT 600

The outbreak has now hit three countries: Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. And the virus — which starts off with flu-like symptoms and often ends with horrific hemorrhaging — has infected about 600 people and killed an estimated 367 since this winter, according to the numbers on June 26 from the World Health Organization.

On June 23, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders sent out a distress call. As the only aid organization treating people with Ebola, the groupsaid it was "overwhelmed," that the epidemic was out of control, and that it couldn't send workers to new outbreak sites without getting more resources.

Ebola is both rare and very deadly. Since the first outbreak in 1976, Ebola viruses have infected roughly 2,400 people and killed about one-third of them. Symptoms can come on very quickly and kill fast: