"Thousands of children have been infected, killed or orphaned by the virus. About one in five people infected with EVD [Ebola Virus Disease] is a child. The mortality rate for children under the age of 5 is 80 per cent, meaning four out of five children in that age group who have been infected have died. For children under 1 year of age, the mortality rates are as high as 95 per cent," the report, published on Tuesday, says.
According to UNICEF, more than 24,200 people have been infected with Ebola since the start of the epidemic. A total of 9 million children live in Ebola affected areas and over 5,000 of them have been infected with the virus.
Apart from dramatic figures, the report also concentrates on progress and encouraging trends in virus protection.
For instance, in Liberia about 72 percent of people believe those infected with Ebola will receive better care at treatment centers, which is "significant because many used to keep Ebola victims at home," the report says.
Amid the Ebola epidemic, UNICEF and its partners have immunized thousands of children in West Africa against other wide-spread deadly diseases like measles and have improved school healthcare services.
A massive Ebola outbreak started in West Africa in late 2013. Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea are the most affected countries. The total number of people who died from Ebola is at least 10,000, according to the World Health Organization's (WHO) most recent reports. WHO estimates that 8.5 million children and youth under 20 years old live in Ebola-affected areas. Of them, 2.5 million are under the age of five.
A vaccine or cure for the deadly disease has not been officially presented so far, but several nations, including Russia, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada, are working on potential cures.
