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Ebola
cases have increased in Sierra Leone and Guinea, with charities afraid they are
‘back to square one’. Photograph: Michael Duff/AP
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More people diagnosed with deadly virus in
Sierra Leone and Guinea weeks after WHO reports 10-month low in new infections.
A rise in Ebola cases on the border of Sierra Leone and Guinea has sparked
fears that efforts to rid the countries of the deadly virus are “back to square
one”.
The
spike in infections comes weeks after the World Health Organization reported a
10-month low, with just nine cases in both countries in the week ending 10 May.
In
its latest situation report, the WHO said “both the intensity and the
geographical area of Ebola virus disease transmission have increased”.
International
Medical Corps says the new hot spots on the coastal border region are demoralizing
for all, particularly as Liberia, on the opposite border, was declared Ebola
free on 9 May.
The Guardian UK report continues:
“It
feels like we are back to square one. The world has moved on, but it is still a
very real problem here. With Liberia Ebola free, we thought we were not far
behind, but that isn’t the case,” said a spokesman. “Guinea is a problem and as
long as Guinea has Ebola, Sierra Leone will continue to struggle. The border is
meaningless, with families straddling both countries,” he added.
The
Red Cross in Guinea told the Guardian there were 16 new cases in the past week
in six prefectures, four of them on the border with Sierra Leone. In Sierra
Leone, there have been cases in Kambia, the coastal district bordering Guinea,
Port Loko, a district to the south, and Freetown.
A
spokesman for the charity said in the last two months the virus had moved from
the country’s forested areas to lower Guinea for the first time, with
communities expressing the fear and denial seen during the 18-month battle
against Ebola elsewhere in the region.
There
have also been several reported incidents of violence directed at field staff
during the last week, the WHO has said.
A
summit between the two countries’ presidents last Friday identified
surveillance of border trade and traffic as one of their biggest challenges.
Some
of the new cases have only been diagnosed after postmortem testing, making
contact tracing of relatives and friends who have been in touch with the victim
challenging. Alarmingly, one of the cases was a stillborn child, born to a
woman who had survived Ebola and was carrying antibodies.
“Deaths
in the community, postmortem diagnosis and new cases without links to old ones
all indicate there are undetected chains of transmission present in the
country,” said International SOS.
“There
are 56 entry points between the two countries, this makes the surveillance work
very difficult,” said a Red Cross spokesman.
The
spike has also been blamed on a return to traditional burials, which had been
banned after they were identified as one of the key factors in the spread of
Ebola earlier in this epidemic. The disease has killed 11,147 people since the
first reported case in March 2014, with more than 27,000 people infected.
On
Monday, the G7 nations said they would work together to combat future epidemics
with promises of disease detectives on standby. But medical charities have said
this is not enough.
Florian
Westphal, general director of Médecins Sans Frontières Germany, said the
leaders had done little to ensure epidemics would not spiral out of control in
future.
“No
concrete measures have been decided to strengthen emergency response, meaning
the world is no better prepared to face major health crises and save thousands
of lives,” he said.
Oxfam
was also disappointed, saying fighting pandemics like Ebola required “more than
simply putting the emergency services on standby”.
Meanwhile, an Italian nurse
who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone with medical charity
Emergency has been cured and has left hospital, Italy’s health ministry said on
Wednesday.
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