Ebola, Killing Scores in Guinea, Threatens Nearby Nations
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Version 0 of 1. The first outbreak of Ebola fever in the West African nation of Guinea has killed at least 59 people and may be spreading into nearby countries, international health agencies warned on Monday. Guinea’s Health Ministry said most of the 80 known cases of the disease were in border areas near Sierra Leone and Liberia; early reports of three cases in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, were unfounded, experts said. There were reports of patients with symptoms in both Sierra Leone and Liberia, but no laboratory-confirmed cases, said Dr. Armand Sprecher, an Ebola expert with the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders. The dead include some workers who treated early cases. Most Ebola outbreaks have been in Central African countries. The first, in 1976 in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo, killed 280 people. The most recent, in 2012 in Uganda, is thought to have killed fewer than 50. The outbreak in Guinea is of the Zaire strain, which has a 90 percent mortality rate. Death is caused by fever and internal bleeding. Human outbreaks usually start after hunters eat the carcass of an ape that died of Ebola — possibly after eating fruit contaminated by bats, which are the virus’s natural reservoir. But inhabitants of the affected villages in Guinea also eat bats, “so it’s possible for it to skip the apes and go straight from bats to people,” Dr. Sprecher said. Once humans are infected, the virus spreads easily in bodily fluids from the sick or the dead. Outbreaks are contained by isolating the ill and making sure that those treating them wear gloves, masks, goggles, hazardous material suits and other barriers against infection. Medical teams also take over burials, since some traditional practices, like washing bodies by hand, can lead to infection. Searching for the sick and educating the public about the danger are also crucial measures, because some people panic and flee during outbreaks and may carry the virus from town to town. There is no cure, but many patients survive with supportive care. Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization both have teams in Guinea working with the Health Ministry to contain the outbreak. Unicef has also sent supplies, including intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solution and bleach, said Dr. Mohamed Ag Ayoya, a Unicef representative in the country. The outbreak was confirmed on Friday, “and the government has taken leadership and cognition,” he added. The countries threatened by the outbreak are among the world’s poorest and cannot mount large public health efforts on their own. Sierra Leone is the only one of the three nations with a laboratory that can test for Lassa fever, a lethal tropical disease that requires a similar containment response. And “you have to step it up for Ebola,” Dr. Sprecher said. |