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WHO confirms first Ebola case in Senegal
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WHO has confirmed a case of Ebola virus in Senegal in a 21-year-old native of Guinea who arrived Aug. 20.
He sought care on Aug. 23 for fever, diarrhea and vomiting and was treated for malaria. He left the facility despite no improvement in his symptoms. He continued to reside with relatives at a home in the outskirts of Dakar, the capital of Senegal. On Aug. 26, he was hospitalized in a specialized facility for infectious diseases.
Officials in Conakry, Guinea, issued an alert Aug. 27 to inform medical services that a close contact of a confirmed patient with Ebola had escaped the surveillance system, according to the WHO report. The Senegal government immediately launched an investigation of the patient upon receipt of this alert. Testing and confirmation of Ebola was conducted at an Institut Pasteur laboratory in Dakar. Officials have initiated contact tracing.
“WHO is treating this first case in Senegal as a top priority emergency,” according to the WHO report. “Key operational personnel were dispatched to Dakar on Aug. 30 and others will follow. The government of Senegal has informed WHO of the urgent need for epidemiological support, personal protective equipment and hygiene kits. These needs will be met with the fastest possible speed.”
As of Aug. 28, there have been 3,069 cases of Ebola and 1,552 deaths throughout Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. WHO confirmed that an Ebola outbreak reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not linked to the outbreak in West Africa.