What do you do when even the people trying to contain the spread of the virus are dying from it? (ABC News/Twitter)

The number of people infected and the geographic scope of the virus exceed anything on record.

The disease has spread from Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo to reach Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria, even infecting the foreign doctors who traveled to West Africa in hopes of helping to contain the virus. 

Fear of the disease expanding on a global scale has even prompted health officials in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong to begin quarantining passengers from the region who are exhibiting the flu-like associated with the virus, according to USA Today. 

People have been infected with the deadliest of the five Ebola viruses, Zaire ebolavirus, which is believed to have a 79 percent mortality rate. 

Read more here. 

Contact Deputy Editor Sara Newman here. Follow her on Twitter here.