Senegal has closed its border with the western African nation of Guinea because of the killer Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak that has killed at least 70 people.  Four of the fatalities are in Guinea’s capital city Conakry.

The World Health Organization says out of eight suspected cases in neighboring Liberia, six patients have died.  Another five people died from the six suspected cases in Sierra Leone.  Both countries are on the Atlantic coast, on Guinea’s southern border, which is where the current outbreak is believed to have originated.  Senegal is Guinea’s neighbor to the north, and said over the weekend that its border crossings would be closed “until further notice”.

These are all largely poor nations that don’t have the infrastructure in place to battle an outbreak of a disease that has no vaccine and no cure.  The EU pledged almost A$750,000 to fight the outbreak after a plea from the Economic Community of West African States, which described the outbreak as a "serious threat to the region".

Ebola can be transmitted to humans from wild animals, which led Guinea authorities to ban the sale and consumption of Bats, a regional delicacy.  It’s transferred between human via bodily fluid, including blood.  Doctors With Borders warns that mourners who go to funerals, touch the bodies of the dead, and the return home – sometimes over vast distances – exacerbates Ebola’s spread.