Ivory Coast: a first case of the Ebola virus detected in the country
Nursing staff in full coveralls at the epidemic treatment center in Nzérékoré, Guinea.
(Photo illustration).
© RFI / Carol Valade
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The WHO says it is "
extremely concerned
".
A case of the Ebola virus was reported on Saturday August 14 in Côte d'Ivoire.
It has been thirty years since the virus appeared in the country.
The detected case is a young girl from Guinea.
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According to Pierre Dimba, Ivorian Minister of Health, the young girl left the town of Labé, in central western Guinea, and arrived in Abidjan by road on August 12.
Her case was diagnosed the next day and the patient was placed in isolation at the University Hospital of Treichville.
While in Côte d'Ivoire the virus had not been detected since 1994, neighboring Forest Guinea recently faced a resurgence of the epidemic.
According to the WHO representative in Côte d'Ivoire, the strain detected in Abidjan is the same as that circulating in Guinea, until last June.
WHO considers that it is therefore a single epidemic in Guinea as in Côte d'Ivoire.
A joint response in preparation
Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire are preparing a joint response.
After an agreement between the two governments, 5,000 doses of vaccines will be sent from Guinea to Abidjan.
The Ivorian economic capital, 4 million inhabitants, could be an epidemic center "
extremely worrying
", according to the WHO.
The World Health Organization, which will assist the two countries in preventing the crisis, believes, however, that Côte d'Ivoire remains one of the countries best prepared to manage a possible epidemic.
As evidenced by, she explains, the system put in place, following the detection of the case.
The front-line health staff, the patient's immediate contacts as well as the security forces at the border points will be vaccinated, from this Sunday, August 15.
Tonight, the Ivorian government will hold an emergency meeting to implement emergency measures.
It is a surveillance process of more than a month and a half that began this Sunday until the virus was gone.
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Ivory Coast
Ebola