Show Posts
authorities in Senegal confirmed their first Ebola case on Friday as the worst outbreak on record continued to spread in West Africa.
The patient is a university student from neighboring Guinea, where the outbreak was first detected in March, Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck told reporters in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. [link in French]
Comparing total Ebola cases and cases from past 21 days
Guinea informed the country on Wednesday that a young man who had been under surveillance there disappeared three weeks ago and may have traveled to Senegal, she said.
The student was located at a hospital in Dakar, where he had presented himself the previous day without disclosing that he had had close contacts with Ebola victims in his home country.
Tests confirmed the man was infected with the Ebola virus and he remains under quarantine, the minister said. She appealed for calm and strict adherence to hygiene measures, including hand washing with soap and water.
Related Ebola cases in West Africa may be vastly under-reported, WHO says
AFRICA
Ebola cases in West Africa may be vastly under-reported, WHO says
SEE ALL RELATED
8
More than 3,000 suspected and confirmed Ebola cases have been reported in West Africa, and more than 1,500 people have died of the virus, according to figures released by the World Health Organization. A separate outbreak has killed at least 13 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa.
Most of the Ebola deaths have been in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, but at least six people have died in Nigeria.