Table II.

Outbreak Features in Selected Ebola‐Affected Countries, African Countries, November 2015

Outbreak Characteristics	Nigeria	Guinea	Liberia	Sierra Leone	Senegal	Mali	United Kingdom	United States
Country population	183,541,000	12,609,000	4,503,000	6,453,000	13,508, 715	17,600,000	64,559,135	318,857,056
Source of outbreak	Liberia by air importation	Within Guinea ?? zoonosis	Guinea	Guinea	Guinea	Guinea	Sierra Leone	Liberia
Duration of outbreak	13 weeks	One year, eight months (still ongoing)	14 months (first outbreak) and 10 weeks (second outbreak	One year, seven months	Seven weeks	11 weeks	10 weeks	12 weeks
Time from start to peak of outbreak	Three weeks	12 months	Five months	Seven months	One week	Three weeks	One week	Five weeks
Involvement of country's capital city	No––but the most densely populated state was affected	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Time taken for detection of index case/diagnosis of outbreak	Within three days	Three months	Several weeks	Several weeks	Within one week	Within three days	Within 24 hours	Five days
Number of confirmed, probable, or suspected cases	20	3,792	10,672	13,683	1	8	1	4
Number of confirmed, probable, or suspected deaths	8	2,530	4,808	3,953	0	6	0	1
No. of infected health workers	11	196	378	307	0	2	1	3
No. of health worker deaths	5	100	100	221	0	2	0	0
Infection control practices (ICPs) and preparedness practices	ICP was enhanced with available resources	Lack of resources limited ICP	Lack of resources limited ICP	Lack of resources limited ICP	Adequate resources enhanced ICP	Adequate resources enhanced ICP	Adequate resources enhanced ICP	Adequate resources enhanced ICP
Challenges with data collection and timely reporting	None	Present due to insufficient resources and Internet communication	Present due to insufficient resources and Internet communication	Present due to insufficient resources and Internet communication	None	None	None	None
Challenges with communication (phone and Internet)	Absent	Present	Present	Present	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
Basic infrastructural challengea	Moderately strong	Weak––affected transport of patients, laboratory samples, and health information	Weak––affected transport of patients, laboratory samples, and health information	Weak––affected transport of patients, laboratory samples, and health information	Moderately strong	Moderately strong	Strong	strong
Local health system responses	Good, intense contact tracing, early isolation of infected cases as polio program mobilized its resources	Difficulty with and inability to trace an isolate infected individual	Difficulty with and inability to trace an isolate infected individual	Difficulty with and inability to trace an isolate infected individual	Prompt, intense contact tracing, early isolation of infected cases	Prompt, intense contact tracing, early isolation of infected cases	Prompt, intense contact tracing, early isolation of infected cases	Prompt, intense contact tracing, early isolation of infected cases
International support and responses	Arrived early	Delayed, also met with resistance	Delayed, also met with resistance	Delayed, also met with resistance	Arrived early	Arrived early	Arrived early	Arrived early
Level of cooperation with international agencies	High level of cooperation and acceptance of support from WHO and others	History of uncooperativeness, local crises, and conflicts with international agencies and HCWs	History of uncooperativeness, local crises, and conflicts with international agencies and HCWs	History of uncooperativeness, local crises, and conflicts with international agencies and HCWs	High level of cooperation and acceptance of support from WHO and others	High level of cooperation and acceptance of support from WHO and others	High level of cooperation and acceptance of support from WHO and others	High level of cooperation and acceptance of support from WHO and others
Security challenges and noncompliance with health staff during outbreak	Absent	Present––due to traditional beliefs and practices, distrust in government and response efforts	Present––due to traditional beliefs and practices, distrust in government and response efforts	Present––due to traditional beliefs and practices, distrust in government and response efforts	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent

^aBasic infrastructural challenges include transportation, telecommunication, and road systems.