 |
Reuters / China Daily
|
As Senegal becomes the region's fifth
country to confirm a case of the deadly Ebola virus that has killed more than
1,500 people, WHO warns that five more states are at risk for spread
of the outbreak, RT reports.
A university student from neighbouring Guinea first
asked for medical treatment in Dakar on Tuesday but gave no sign of Ebola,
Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told reporters. The student was quarantined
the next day after scientists in Guinea notified Senegalese authorities that
they are unaware of whereabouts of one person who had had contact with sick
people, Seck said.
Seck told the press that the student's condition is “satisfactory,”
after being tested positive with the deadly virus, but it is still unclear when
or how the new victim came to Senegal after the country sealed off its border
with Guinea last week. The World Health Organization has been alerted of the
new case.
Meanwhile, some 160 people are being monitored in
Nigeria’s Port Harcourt after a doctor died from the virus on Thursday.
The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa began last
year in Guinea. Since then, the disease has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and
Nigeria and now Senegal. Five more countries were identified as at risk of
contracting the virus, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.
“The
following countries share land borders or major transportation connections with
the affected countries and are therefore at risk for spread of the Ebola
outbreak: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and
Senegal,” the agency said, adding it will aid the new states
with “surveillance, preparedness and response plan.”
 |
|
Reuters / Misha Hussain
|
The Ebola Response Roadmap Situation
Report 1 is the first update issued by the WHO following Thursday's release of
an Ebola response roadmap that aims to stop the spread of the virus within six
to nine months. According to the latest UN statistic almost 40 percent of the
reported cases have occurred within the past three weeks, and warned that
eventually 20,000 people could be infected.
“There are
serious problems with case management and infection prevention and control,” the report said. “The situation is worsening in Liberia and Sierra
Leone.”
As individual African states battle
the virus, the health minister Miatta Kargbo of Sierra Leone has been dismissed
by the country's president “to create a conducive environment for efficient and
effective handling of the Ebola outbreak,” that has killed more than 400 people
in that country alone.
The latest official number of Ebola cases in
Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone stands at 3,069, with over 1,552
deaths, making this the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded, WHO said.
 |
|
Image from un.org
|
The head of French Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF), Mego Terziam, believes the WHO doesn’t have enough resources
to stop Ebola from spreading.
“I am extremely
pessimistic if there is not a substantial international mobilisation,” Terziam said. “Organisations like the WHO and MSF will be not
capable to mobilise additional human resources, additional logistics in order
to control the epidemic.”
In order to get ready for the worst
possible scenario and help those already suffering, researchers are moving
forward with trials of experimental Ebola vaccines, but the first results are
unlikely before the year end.
 |
|
This map shows
the availability of the six interventions that are necessary to control Ebola
in the countries with most intense transmission. Work is ongoing to fully
assess the coverage and quality of each intervention in the affected areas.
Credit: WHO
|
With the spread of Ebola, the WHO
has deemed it ethical to try out experimental drugs that show promise in curing
the decease, as there are no approved Ebola vaccines or treatments.
No comments:
Post a Comment