Ebola outbreak in Guinea 'unprecedented' - MSF

**Loki** · 03-31-2014, 06:15 PM

Ebola outbreak in Guinea 'unprecedented' - MSF

The Ebola outbreak that has killed 78 people in Guinea is "unprecedented", a medical charity has said.

An official with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said the spread of the disease across the country made it very difficult to control.

The West African state is facing a battle to contain the outbreak after cases were reported in areas that are hundreds of kilometres apart.

Ebola is spread by close contact and kills between 25% and 90% of victims.

"We are facing an epidemic of a magnitude never before seen in terms of the distribution of cases," Mariano Lugli, a co-ordinator in Guinea for the aid group said.

"This geographical spread is worrisome because it will greatly complicate the tasks of the organisations working to control the epidemic," Mr Lugli added.

The outbreak of Ebola had centred around Guinea's remote south-eastern region of Nzerekore but it took the authorities six weeks to identify the disease.

It has now spread to neighbouring Liberia, as well as Guinea's capital, Conakry, which has a population of two million people.

Senegalese singer Youssou Ndour cancelled a concert in Conakry on Saturday because of the outbreak.

Although he had already travelled to the city, he told the BBC it would not be a good idea to bring hundreds or thousands of people together in an enclosed area.

Figures released overnight by Guinea's health ministry showed that there had been 78 deaths from 122 cases of suspected Ebola since January, up from 70.

Of these, there were 22 laboratory confirmed cases of Ebola, the ministry said.

Liberia has recorded a total of seven suspected and confirmed cases, including four deaths, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

Liberia's Health Minister Walter Gwenigale on Monday warned people to stop having sex because the virus was spread via bodily fluids.

This was in addition to existing advice to stop shaking hands and kissing.

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, says residents are increasingly concerned and many supermarket workers are wearing gloves as a precaution.

The first two Liberians confirmed as dying from Ebola were sisters, one of whom had recently returned from Guinea.

Sierra Leone has also reported five suspected cases, none of which have been confirmed yet, while Senegal, another neighbour of Guinea's, has closed its land border.

Outbreaks of Ebola occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests, WHO says.

**wvwvw** · 04-02-2014, 11:47 AM

A terrifying fight against the deadliest virus on Earth: Medic reveals true horror of Ebola outbreak as incurable disease liquifies victims from the inside
Naoufel Dridi, 41, works with humanitarian charity Médecins Sans Frontières
Medic describes suffering of patients and the difficulty facing aid workers
Number of suspected cases in Guinea has now reached 122
80 people are believed to have died from the tropical virus in the country
Highly contagious virus has no cure, and there is no vaccine
By LUCY CROSSLEY
PUBLISHED: 05:11 GMT, 2 April 2014 | UPDATED: 09:35 GMT, 2 April 2014

A medic has spoken of the horrific scenes witnessed by emergency doctors and nurses in the fight against the deadly Ebola outbreak in Guinea.

Naoufel Dridi, who works with humanitarian charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), described the suffering by patients struck down by the tropical virus, and the difficulties facing aid workers as they attempt to treat those suffering.

French Mr Dridi, 41, has been helping coordinate the charity's relief work in the West African country and said that in his 13 years working with MSF he had never had to cope with the number of deaths in such a short space of time.

Battle: Health specialists work in an isolation ward for patients at the Médecins Sans Frontières facility in Guekedou, southern Guinea

The number of suspected cases in Guinea has now reached 122, and at least 80 people are believed to have died.
'You can be helping somebody by getting them a juice, or a glass of cold water, or whatever he wants because you know really he has very little chance to survive, and then less than an hour later he is dead,' Mr Dridi told the Daily Telegraph.

'Then when you are putting his body in the bag, another one behind you has died. Then another one.'
Ebola is passed onto humans from animals - especially fruit bats - and often breaks out near rainforests in central and western Africa.

Ben Neuman, a virologist at the University of Reading, also said it was a real worry that the virus had spread from sparsely populated forest zones to Conakry, where population density was close to 10,000 per square kilometre.

'An Ebola outbreak there could lead to a humanitarian disaster,' he said.

The outbreak of one of the world's most lethal infectious diseases has alarmed a number of governments with weak health systems, prompting Senegal to close its border with Guinea and other neighbours to restrict travel and cross-border exchanges.

Guinea, the hardest hit by the outbreak, had the lowest ratio of hospital beds per capita in a World Bank survey of 68 nations in 2011, with just 0.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

In Liberia, there were seven suspected or confirmed cases, of whom four have died.
Liberia's Senate on Tuesday agreed that the government should declare a state of emergency that would lead to the closure of the country's borders.

'Liberia should close her borders with all the three countries which are sharing borders with us - Guinea, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast,' said Senator Sando Johnson.
Liberia's lower house of parliament is expected to debate the proposal on Thursday. If passed, it will be sent for approval to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
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