Guinea is on high alert. Already 59 of the 80 people who contracted Ebola hemorrhagic fever have died. And the death toll from the Ebola virus could rise. It extends at great speed.
Appeared in the south of “the deadly hemorrhagic fever quickly spread from the prefectures of Macenta, Guéckédou and Kissidougou (South)”, notes UNICEF in a press release.
Suspicions of Ebola fever in the capital Conakry have finally been ruled out. It would be another hemorrhagic fever. “For the moment, there is no Ebola fever in Conakry, but a hemorrhagic fever whose nature remains to be determined”, declared to AFP Dr. Kéïta who spoke on the basis of the first results. of analyzes carried out at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar overnight from Sunday to Monday. “The three cases of haemorrhagic fever that caused the death of two people in Conakry are not due to the Ebola virus,” he said.
Rush of fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, fatigue and sometimes bleeding. The symptoms spotted in southern Guinea are typical of the Ebola virus. The epidemic was diagnosed and confirmed by a laboratory in Lyon.
This is the first time that Guinea has faced Ebola fever. This is usually reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda or Gabon. This emergence is all the more worrying for the NGOs present in the field. They fear contamination of all of Guinea and neighboring countries such as Sierra Leone. “In Guinea, a country whose health infrastructure is already weak, a disease like this can be devastating”, alarmed Mohamed Ag Ayoya, representative of Unicef in Guinea, quoted by AFP.
NGOs such as Doctors Without Borders and Unicef are hard at work trying to contain the disease. 5 tonnes of medicines and medical treatments were brought to the site to protect medical personnel and treat the sick.
No vaccine
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is one of the most virulent known in humans, recalls the World Health Organization (WHO). Once contracted, the chances of recovery are slim: the mortality rate is around 90%. There is no treatment or vaccine for this disease.
The virus was first identified in 1976 in a province of Sudan and in a neighboring region of northern Zaire (DRC today). This fever is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids or tissues of infected individuals. Handling sick or dead wild animals can also promote it.
