According to a recent UNICEF study,  more women than men are contracting the disease.  The study reveals the main reason for this phenomenon: Women traditionally are expected to care for ill family members, making them susceptible to be infected.

We may never know how many people will be infected by the current Ebola outbreak, but experts believe it may ultimately infect as many as 20,000 people and a disproportionate number of those cases will be women.

A woman infected with the Ebola virus is escorted by a paramedic to a nearby clinic

This burden of caring for the sick, however, is the one that women have to bear. Men don’t take care of the women as compared to them taking care of the men.

Two women pray outside an Ebola treatment center in West Africa

The Ebola virus has no proven cure or vaccine, but new studies have revealed how the virus disables a body’s immune response, making it so deadly. However, researchers believe that in order to prevent this epidemic to spread to the entire world, both men and women in the affected African countries must be more open to getting treated at clinics and hospitals instead of traditional home care.