Ebola mortality rate expected to rise as outbreak runs its deadly course

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Ebola mortality rate expected to rise as outbreak runs its deadly course

By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - The death rate so far in the world's worst outbreak of Ebola is not as extreme as recorded in the past, but experts expect it to prove no less virulent in the end, once more victims succumb and the grim data is tallied up. Latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO) record 1,603 cases of Ebola in the West African outbreak and 887 deaths - giving a death rate of just over 55 percent. Experts say death rates for Ebola outbreaks can rise as the disease runs its course, which is what they now expect. "This is partly a statistical thing about collecting death events, and also partly about the maturity of the outbreak," said Derek Gatherer, a virologist at Britain's University of Lancaster who has been following the outbreak since it started in February.

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