The number of people believed to have been killed by the Ebola
virus in Guinea has passed 100, the UN World Health Organization says. It was "one of
the most challenging Ebola outbreaks we have ever dealt with" and could
take another four months to contain, the WHO said. The virus had now
killed 101 people in Guinea and 10 in Liberia, it said.
Ebola is spread by close contact and kills between 25% and 90%
of its victims. Many West African states have porous borders, and people travel
frequently between countries. Southern Guinea is at the epicentre of the
outbreak, with the first case reported last month.
The geographical spread of the outbreak is continuing to make it
particularly challenging to contain - past outbreaks have involved much smaller
areas. "We fully expect to be engaged in this outbreak for the next two to
three to four months before we are comfortable that we are through it,"
Keija Fukuda, WHO's assistant director-general, said at a news briefing in
Geneva, Reuters news agency reports.
The WHO said 157 suspected cases had been recorded in Guinea,
including 20 in the capital, Conakry. Sixty-seven
of the cases have been confirmed as Ebola, it added. In neighbouring Liberia,
21 cases had been reported, with five confirmed as Ebola, WHO said.
Mali
had reported nine suspected cases, but medical tests done so far showed that
two of them did not have Ebola, it said. Last week, Mali said it was on high
alert because of fears of an outbreak of Ebola and it would tighten border
controls.
Saudi
Arabia has suspended visas for Muslim pilgrims from Guinea and Liberia, in a
sign of the growing unease about the outbreak. This is the first known outbreak
in Guinea - most recent cases have been thousands of miles away in the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
There
is no known cure or vaccine for Ebola.The tropical virus leads to haemorrhagic
fever, causing muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases,
organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.
Source:
BBC
No comments:
Post a Comment