Ebola Outbreak 2014 News Update, Watchlist & Death Toll: Over 5,000 Dead; US Nurses Protest

At least 5,160 people out of the 14,098 infected have been killed by the deadly Ebola virus since March of this year, according to a latest status report from the World Health Organization or WHO, Reuters reported.

The worst outbreak of the disease is in West Africa, particularly in the countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia, with the latter being hit the hardest, Reuters added.

Just recently, a 25-year-old nurse in Mali, who succumbed to Ebola, prompted the quarantine of more than 90 people whom the nurse has been in contact with. According to Reuters, the people are quarantined in Bamako, Mali's capital city, and "[includes] about 20 United Nations peacekeepers being treated at the capital's Pasteur Clinic, where the nurse worked."

"The U.N. peacekeepers, who were at the clinic for injuries sustained while serving in Mali's turbulent north, were quarantined as a precaution, the U.N. mission said, without specifying their nationalities," Reuters added.

The Ebola-infected nurse died after treating a man in Guinea who was also carrying symptoms of the virus, Reuters noted. A doctor in the Pasteur Clinic is also being monitored for the disease.

U.S. Nurses in Protest Rallies and Strikes

About 19,000 nurses across the United States went on strike against California health care facilities over the lack of protection for nurses who treat patients infected with Ebola. The two-day strike was organized by National Nurses United and will affect nearly 90 California hospitals and clinics, majority of which are owned by Kaiser Permanente, according to another report from Reuters.

"The nurses are pressing hospitals to buy hazardous materials suits which leave no skin exposed, as well as powered air-purifying respirators, to properly protect them from exposure, and they are seeking more training to handle patients suspected of having Ebola," Reuters noted.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC have stated that $2.7 million worth of personal protective equipment were ordered for the health workers caring for Ebola patients. But union officials insist that the amount is not enough, according to Reuters.

National Nurses United Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro stated that aside from California, protests also took place in Chicago, Oakland, and outside the offices of some state gorvernors, Reuters added.

In a statement quoted on Time, Kaiser Permanente stated that the nurses' strikes are counterproductive in the U.S. hospitals efforts against Ebola.

"There is never a good time for a strike. Calling one now, just as we are entering the flu season, and when the nation and our members are concerned about the risk of Ebola, seems particularly irresponsible," Kaiser Permanente stated, as reported by Time.