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 There have been 29 confirmed deaths from the
hemorrhagic fever among 59 people killed by a mysterious illness in
southeastern Guinea since early February, international medical
charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said.
U.N. health officials have expressed concern that the disease, which
has a fatality rate of 90 percent and has not been recorded in the
West African state before, may spread to Sierra Leone after cases
showing similar symptoms, including diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding,
were reported there.
At least five of the dead in Guinea have been medical officials,
including the head of the regional hospital in Macenta, at the heart
of the crisis, some 800 km (500 miles) from Guinea's capital
Conakry.
"We must increase the levels of protection for all those looking
after the patients by providing kits for hospital personnel," said
government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara.
MSF has flown tons of medicine, isolation units and protection kits
for health workers to Guinea. On Sunday they began trucking the
equipment to the southeast.
A health official working in the affected region said that suspected
Ebola cases were being isolated and monitored outside hospitals
where other patients were being treated.
"CLEARLY SOME PANIC"
Camara said authorities were trying inform people in the area on
steps they could take to avoid spreading the disease.
Sakoba Keita, head of the preventative diseases department in
Guinea's ministry of health, said that residents had been banned
from burying their dead if they had shown any symptoms that might
link them to the fever.
Around 80 people have fallen ill with fever-like symptoms since
February 9. At least 59 of these have subsequently died.
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Gemma Dominguez, head of MSF-Switzerland in Guinea, told Reuters on
Sunday that the medical group was aware of 29 confirmed deaths from
Ebola among these.
There have not been any confirmed cases in Conakry, but news of
the disease was unnerving residents.
"There is clearly some panic," Dominguez said.
Ebola is introduced into the human population through close contact
with infected animals including chimpanzees, gorillas, fruit bats,
monkeys, forest antelope and porcupines, according to the WHO.
Guinea is rich in minerals but remains one of the least developed
nations on earth, having been crippled by decades of corruption and
political instability.
Its health system is stretched at the best of times.
"We need to find a solution now as all is not well in Guinea ... We
don't know this disease. We need to find a solution before it
arrives in Conakry, otherwise it would not be good," said Mohamed
Diaby, a resident of the sprawling, rubbish-strewn seaside capital.
(Writing by David Lewis; editing by Tom Heneghan)
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