The UN health agency on Tuesday disclosed that a second suspected case of infection by the deadly Ebola virus has been detected in Ivory Coast, expressing fear of contagion.
The World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said that as of Monday, there had been one confirmed and one suspected case, with nine contacts identified so far. No deaths have been reported.
He said the WHO was ‘very concerned’ about the ability of the virus to spread in the West African country’s economic hub Abidjan.
Ebola, which is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.
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The confirmed case has been identified as an 18-year-old from Guinea who travelled overland, arriving in Abidjan on August 11 aboard a bus. When she left Guinea, she was already exhibiting symptoms that continued to intensify.
She was admitted to a hospital on August 12 with a fever and is currently receiving treatment.
‘Preliminary investigations and genomic sequencing to identify the strain show that it is likely the Zaire strain of the virus,’ Jasarevic told newsmen.
‘Further investigations are required to confirm these early results.’
That strain was behind a four-month-long Ebola outbreak that claimed 12 lives in Guinea earlier this year, which was declared over on June 19.
The same strain killed more than 11,300 people mostly in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone between 2013 and 2016.
The Ebola case in Ivory Coast is the third this year after the Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea.
It is the first known case of Ebola in Ivory Coast since 1994.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
