An outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in west Africa has spread
to Guinea's capital and beyond its borders in an "an unprecedented
epidemic," a leading aid agency reported Monday.
A total of 122 patients are
suspected of contracting Ebola and 78 have died, Doctors Without Borders said.
Most victims have been in Guinea, but the World Health Organization reported
Sunday that two deaths in Sierra Leone and one in Liberia are suspected to have
been caused by the Ebola virus.
Cases have been identified in
three provinces in Guinea near the borders and in Conakry, its coastal capital,
said Mariano Lugli, the Doctors Without Borders coordinator there.
"We are facing an epidemic
of a magnitude never before seen in terms of the distribution of cases in the
country," Lugli said in a statement issued by the organization. Previous
outbreaks "were much more geographically contained and involved more
remote locations," he said.
"This geographical spread is
worrisome, because it will greatly complicate the tasks of the organizations
working to control the epidemic," Lugli said.
The organization, also known by
its French name Medicine Sans Frontieres
(MSF) describes Ebola as “one of the world’s most deadly diseases.” It
spreads in the blood and shuts down the immune system, causing high fever,
headache and muscle pain.
It is rare but creates panic,
because there is no cure and it's fatal in up to 90% of cases, according to
MSF. The variant seen in the Guinea outbreak is the so-called Zaire strain,
which Lugli called "the most aggressive and deadly."
No comments:
Post a Comment