In the West African state of Ivory Coast, the first case of life-threatening Ebola disease has been registered in more than a quarter of a century. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Sunday night. According to the health organization of the African Union (Africa CDC), the infected person is an 18-year-old who traveled by land from Labé in Guinea to the economic metropolis of Abidjan and treated there in hospital on August 12 after a fever attack became. She has now been isolated. It is the first Ebola case in Ivory Coast since 1994, according to the WHO.
"It is extremely worrying that this outbreak was explained in Abbdjan - a metropolis of more than four million people," said WHO Regional Director Matshidiso Moeti.
She announced a team of WHO experts to help authorities in Ivory Coast with contact tracing and treatment.
The Africa CDC also agreed to support.
According to their information, the government discussed further steps in a crisis meeting.
Ebola infection often results in a high fever and internal bleeding.
A connection with an earlier outbreak in neighboring Guinea, which only declared itself Ebola-free on June 19, is considered unlikely.
Twelve people had died there from the Ebola virus since February 14.
Almost a week ago, Guinea also announced the first death from Marburg fever in West Africa.
The Marburg virus belongs to the same family as the Ebola virus, causes high fever and muscle pain and can be accompanied by heavy bleeding from the eyes and ears.
An Ebola outbreak in West Africa between 2014 and 2016 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone infected 28,000 people and killed more than 11,000.
In the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, an outbreak with around 2,300 deaths was declared over in June 2020 after almost two years.
The Ivory Coast, with around 25 million inhabitants, was a French colony until 1960.