GUINEA: Ebola kills 80

Guinea: Ebola Outbreak Claims Over 80 Lives
2 May 2014 , Source: CISA
Conakry
The deadly Ebola outbreak in Guinea has so far led to the death of 84 people, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.

The rise in death toll comes even after WHO said the outbreak remains in a "limited geographic area" adding that it was neither an epidemic or unprecedented and cautioned against any imprecise characterization of the spread of the virus.

"We need to be very careful about how we characterize something which is up to now an outbreak with sporadic cases," WHO spokesman Mr Gregory Hartl told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland.

WHO further stated that cases of Ebola in the capital Conakry which has a population of two million people and neighbouring Liberia can be traced to the south-east of Guinea where the outbreak began in the forest region where bats, a local delicacy are believed be carriers of the virus; their sale and consumption have since been banned since the outbreak.

Sierra Leone another neighbour to Guinea has also reported five suspected cases, none of which has yet been confirmed leading to other countries bordering the West African nation to take up measures in order to try and contain the spread of the virus; Senegal has since closed its land border with Guinea.

On Tuesday April 01, Saudi Arabia suspended visas for Muslim pilgrims from Guinea and Liberia as a result of the outbreak in what as reported by state news agency SPA, the Saudi health ministry termed "preventive" measures carries out "due to the danger of the disease and its highly contagious nature."

The tropical virus is named after Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), where one of the first outbreaks occurred in 1976. Ebola spreads by close contact and kills between 25% and 90% of its victims. It leads to haemorrhagic fever, causing muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.

Meanwhile the Chief Administrator of the Lutheran Church-operated Curran Hospital in Zorzor District, Lofa County in Liberia is seeking support from government and international partners to pre-position needed equipment and supplies to make the hospital more effective in combating the Ebola virus.

Mr Peter Flomo said the hospital currently needs an additional ambulance, washable mattresses, and protective garments, among other essentials, to be used in isolated rooms for the treatment of Ebola patients.

Mr Flomo pointed out that the Curran Hospital serves as a referral hospital for people in Zorzor and Salayea Districts, as well as some towns in neighboring Guinea, and stressed the need for additional logistics to enhance the performance of health workers at the hospital in combating the Ebola disease.

In related development, Mr Flomo has disclosed that health workers in Salayea and Zorzor districts, in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee, have begun an awareness campaign on the Ebola virus, to educate citizens of the area about the dangers of Ebola and preventive measures to avoid contracting the deadly virus.

He said the awareness campaign began since the outbreak of the disease in the county about two weeks ago.