Ivory Coast confirms Ebola case; starts vaccination
A case of Ebola virus has been confirmed in Ivory Coast for the first time in 25 years, the country’s Ministry of Health has confirmed.
Health Minister Pierre Dimba said that it was an isolated case of an 18-year-old girl who had travelled to Ivory Coast by road from neighbouring Guinea and arrived in Abidjan on August 12.
The Hea Ministry of Health said investigators are rushing to trace contacts but did not specify how many people are thought to have interacted with the young patient.
Ivory Coast last faced Ebola in 1994, when a scientist investigating primate deaths in the Tai Forest caught the virus after conducting an autopsy on a chimpanzee according to CDC.
The WHO said further genetic sequencing of a virus sample would determine whether the case was linked to a recent flare-up in neighbouring Guinea.
“It is of immense concern that this outbreak has been declared in Abidjan, a metropolis of more than 4 million people,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said in the statement.
Ebola causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding. It is transmitted by coming into contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials.
The death rate varies from 25 to 90 per cent, according to past outbreaks, although the chance of survival rises significantly if the disease is spotted at an early stage.
Ebola vaccines
Ivory Coast has launched Ebola vaccination of high-risk populations, including health workers and first responders in Abidjan
From stretcher-bearers to medical professors, dozens of health personnel received doses of the vaccine during the event, which took place at the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Cocody, a district of Abidjan.
“Health workers, close relatives and contacts of the victim” were the first to be vaccinated, getting jabs from 5,000 doses sent from Guinea, spokesman Germain Mahan Sehi said.
Guinea has also deployed five vaccination experts and provided monoclonal antibody treatments.
WHO is deploying experts to join their country-based counterparts to help ramp up infection prevention and control, diagnostics, contact tracing, treatment, community mobilization and cross-border surveillance. The Organization is also assessing whether additional vaccines will be needed to curb the disease.