The death toll from the West African Ebola outbreak has jumped to 337 with the reporting of new cases, and new theaters in which health officials are battling a viral disease with no vaccine and no cure.  And doctors are unsure as to how they are going to continue.

Deaths have spiked, going from 208 lives lost at the beginning of June to 337 today.  That’s a 60-percent increase in two weeks, and the deadliest outbreak since the 1970s.  More than 500 cases have been reported in three West African countries:  Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

“There are many villages in the eastern part of Sierra Leone that are basically devastated,” said Tulane University virologist Robert Garry.  “We walked into one village, and we found 25 corpses.  One house with seven people – all in one family – were dead.”

The outbreak was first reported in southeast Guinea, where dozens of new cases were reported.  But other cases are in the town of Boffa, hundreds of kilometers to the northwest.  Officials in Liberia said the virus jumped the border in that country, with four deaths in the densely populated capital city Monrovia.

Ebola disease is easily spread through contact with body fluids, and that means any bodily fluids, tears, sweat, feces et al.  That’s why caregivers, doctors, and nurses often fall victim.  Officials aren’t sure why it’s spreading so quickly, but there’s probably more than one reason.  West Africa has never had an outbreak before and was ill-prepared to deal with it.  Past outbreaks have happened in remote villages in Central Africa, which were easier to quarantine than the West’s sprawling cities.  Travel is easier in the west, which might account for why the disease keeps popping up in new areas.