After killing over 1,200 people in remote areas in the region, the dreaded Ebola virus is gradually moving into the continent's crowded cities as this year's outbreak in West Africa is considered the deadliest in history.

According to reports, death tolls have topped 1,200 deaths since the initial outbreak in February, prompting international communities to join together in battling its spread in West African countries including Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, and Nigeria.

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However, recent reports indicate that instead of being contained in quarantined areas, the virus seems to be spreading further, reaching even the most crowded cities such as Sierra Leone's Freetown, with 1.2 million residents at risk.

A children's hospital recorded Freetown's first ever Ebola patient, a 4-year-old boy who was admitted three days before he was diagnosed with the illness.

The boy died of the disease, sparking fear among residents and forcing the country's only pediatric center, Ola During hospital, to close its steel gates.

30 medical personnel who made contact with the boy while treating him have been placed under isolation for the 21-day incubation period, in hopes that they have not yet been infected.

The World Health Organization has predicted the number of confirmed Ebola cases to escalate up to 20,000 in West Africa as it threatens denser towns like Freetown and Monrovia.

The current Ebola case record of 3,000, including 240 medical personnel, in the four countries affected have been isolated in remote provinces where containment is easier, compared to the teeming cities, because of geographic location.

"We have never had this kind of experience with Ebola before. When it gets into the cities, then it takes on another dimension," U.N. Ebola coordinator David Nabarro stated while he was visiting Freetown last week.

So far, the Ebola hemorrhagic fever has no cure nor there is a vaccine for it. Detection can be difficult because it has similar symptoms to typhoid or malaria, though it is deadlier due to a 50-50 survival rate.

Ebola virus can be transmitted via contact with an infected person's bodily fluids, putting medical personnel at higher risk of contracting the disease.

TagsWest Africa, outbreak, Freetown, Monrovia, WHO, Virus