Guinea sees spurt of Ebola cases; Sierra Leone has 1
Lisa Schnirring
CIDRAP News
May 15, 2015
Sierra Leone yesterday reported its first confirmed Ebola case in 8 days, as the virus flared in a new hot spot in Guinea, tempering the encouragement from a report earlier this week that both countries were making progress toward zero cases, the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) reported today.
In other developments, two new genetic studies showed reassuring signs that the outbreak strain isn’t gaining changes to make it a bigger threat, and responders reported some of their activities in Liberia.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said in an update today that the three countries have had 26,763 confirmed, probable, or suspected cases and that 11,074 deaths have been reported. The totals include cases reported in Guinea and Sierra Leone as of May 13. No new cases or deaths have been reported in Liberia in several weeks, and the country was declared free of the virus on May 9.
Guinea finds 15 cases
Sierra Leone’s new case-patient is from the Moa Wharf area near Freetown where two of the country’s most recent cases were reported, in a mother and her 10-year-old daughter. UNMEER said the patient left the area and was missing for about 2 weeks. It said surveillance teams took the patient to a treatment center and are looking for people who may have had contact with the individual.
Guinea reported 15 new cases in the first 3 days of this week, including 9 from an outbreak of in Dubreka district, UNMEER said. All of the patients are from Tanene subdistrict. None were registered contacts, but investigations after the illnesses were detected found links to other cases. Several contacts of a confirmed case in Boke had fled to Tanene using public transportation while showing symptoms of the disease, UNMEER said.
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