Ebola outbreak update: WHO says over 5,000 people have died

Since the first Ebola case was reported back in March in Guinea this year, there have been 5,000 people that have died from the contagious virus, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday.

The startling statistics make this Ebola outbreak the largest that has ever been reported in the history of mankind. Ebola has killed at least 5,160 people out of at least 14,098 infected since March, predominantly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the WHO said in its latest status report from Geneva.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and aid organizations have frequently pointed out that the real count of cases and deaths could be much higher, with infections hidden from the authorities skewing the statistics.

In Mali, there are now four confirmed and probable Ebola deaths, according to the WHO. One of them contracted the virus after visiting the imam in the hospital. Meanwhile Liberia is the country that has been the hardest hit of all with 2,836 deaths out of 6,822 cases.

US Army General Gary Volesky, who is heading up the US military Ebola effort in Liberia, told a Pentagon telephone briefing that fewer U.S. troops were needed there than initially expected because the military had discovered greater-than-anticipated local capacity for building treatment centres.

Despite the epidemic, the United Nations is not seeing signs of deteriorating security in Liberia.

Ebola, for which there is no cure, is spread through contact with bodily fluids. About 70 percent of people who get Ebola have died in this outbreak.