The story appears on

Page A9

August 30, 2014

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » World

Senegal reports first Ebola case as uni student enters from Guinea

A man infected with Ebola traveled to Senegal, becoming the first recorded in the country of an outbreak that has hit four other West African countries and killed more than 1,5000 people, the Ministry of Health said yesterday.

The infected person is a university student from Guinea who sought treatment at a hospital in Senegal’s capital, Dakar, this week, Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck said. The young man said he had been in contact with Ebola patients while he was in Guinea and was immediately put under quarantine, she said.

Tests from the Institut Pasteur have confirmed that he has Ebola, and the World Health Organization has been alerted.

The Ebola outbreak ravaging West Africa began last year in Guinea. Since then, it has spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. At least 3,000 people have contracted the disease, which is spread by bodily fluids and for which there is no known cure.

The arrival of the dreaded disease in Senegal, which is a tourist destination and whose capital is a major transport hub for the region, underscores that the outbreak is not under control, despite efforts by the WHO, Doctors Without Borders and other organizations.

The WHO yesterday said last week saw the highest increase of cases — more than 500 — since the outbreak began.

It is not clear how or when the young man went to Senegal, which has closed its border with Guinea. But Seck said this week that an epidemiological surveillance team from Guinea alerted Senegalese authorities that they had lost track of a person who had been in contact with the sick. The team said the person might have gone to Senegal.

Seck said authorities have determined that the young man now in quarantine is the one who fled.

The WHO, which is the United Nations health agency, has warned that the disease could eventually infect 20,000 people, and on Thursday unveiled a plan to stop transmission in the next six to nine months.

But a top official from Doctors Without Borders, which is running many of the treatment centers, said the agency wasn’t doing enough.

“The WHO can’t handle” the outbreak, Mego Terzian, its president for France, said. “I don’t see how with the current measures we can control the outbreak.”

He called for a greater response from the global community, saying the UN Security Council should take up the matter.

In a detailed report yesterday, the WHO said more than 500 cases were recorded over the past week, by far the worst toll of any week so far. The week before, about 400 new cases were reported.

Most new cases were in Liberia, but the agency said it was also the highest number of cases in a week for Guinea and Sierra Leone.

“There are serious problems with case management and infection prevention and control,” the report said. “The situation is worsening in Liberia and Sierra Leone.”




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend