It is the first epidemic of the deadly disease of DRC origin in West Africa.
The Ebola virus has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of haemorrhagic fever that is believed to have killed nearly 60 people in southern Guinea Conakry on the border with Sierra Leone, the BBC cited government officials as explaining over the weekend.
A medical officer in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, warned that the country was at considerable risk from the disease because "about 80 per cent of goods on the Liberian market come from Guinea." A Guinean Health Ministry official, Dr Sakoba Keita, said confirmation of the epidemic was given on Friday, March 21, 2014, after initial tests were conducted in Lyon, France.
Radio France Internationale, RFI reported yesterday, March 23, 2014 that the Chief Medical Officer of Macenta Hospital and three of his staff were also killed by the disease. In the mean time, Medical aid charity, Doctors Without Borders, announced on Saturday, March 22, 2014 that it was strengthening its team in Guinea by flying in 33 metric tonnes of drugs and isolation equipment from Belgium and France.
Ebola, one of the world's most virulent diseases, was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, in 1976 and the country has since had eight outbreaks. The most recent between May and November 2012, infected 62 people and left 34 others dead. Recent years have also seen epidemics in Uganda. Outbreaks of Ebola occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests, the World Health Organisation, WHO says. Analysts suggest it has never been recorded in Guinea Conakry before.
To date, no treatment or vaccine is available for Ebola. Symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting. According to the WHO, it kills between 25 and 90 per cent of those who fall sick, depending on the strain of the virus. The disease is transmitted by direct contact with blood, faeces or sweat, or by sexual contact or unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.
