When the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak in Western Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) earlier this month, there were only about 1,700 people infected and about a thousand of them have died from the disease. Today, BBC reports that about 2,615 people have been infected in the Western African Region, and about 1,400 of them have not survived the illness.

Following these reports, Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa, has decided to shutdown its schools until October 13 in an effort to protect its children from the widespread virus outbreak in the region. The education minister for Nigeria, Ibrahim Shekarau, has ordered the schools' temporary closure while they train school staff in effectively handling suspected Ebola cases. Shekarau stated that the schools from both the public and private sectors alike must have at least two of their staffs properly trained by health workers in handling people suspected of having contracted the deadly virus.

On a side note, classes in the country were supposed to resume Monday.

The country's first Ebola case involves a man who flew to the country after contracting the virus in Liberia, one of the first countries to experience the Ebola outbreak on the African continent. The countries affected by the Ebola outbreak in the region so far include Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria; while nearby Congo has reported that it has also found Ebola cases within its borders.

Recently, the government of France has requested one of the country's airliners, Air France, to temporarily suspend flights to Sierra Leone. This happened despite calls from both the World Health Organization and the African Development Bank (AFDB) to other countries about not banning international travel to affected countries to avoid economic setbacks.