Ebola virus reaches Guineas capital Conakry Four new cases are first to be reported in capital since outbreak that has so far killed at least 63 people. Last updated:27 Mar 2014 23:04 Four cases of infection by the deadly Ebola virus have been confirmed in Conakry, Guineas Health Minister Remy Lamah said, marking the first confirmed spread of the disease from rural areas to West African states capital. The minister said on Thursday that the virus appeared to have been transmitted by an old man who showed symptoms of haemorrhagic fever after visiting Dinguiraye in central Guinea, far from the identified outbreaks of Ebola in the remote southeast. Four of the mans brothers, who attended his funeral in the central town of Dabola, started to show the same symptoms and were tested for Ebola on their return to Conakry. The four tested positive, Lamah told Reuters. They have been placed in an isolation ward in Donka hospital. The mans family has also been quarantined, the minister said. The spread of the disease to Conakry, a city of some 2 million people, marked an escalation in the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, which ranks as one of the poorest nations on earth despite rich deposits of bauxite and iron ore. As of Wednesday, 63 deaths had been reported from suspected cases of infections. Ebola had never spread among humans in West Africa before February but five deaths being investigated in Liberia, one in Sierra Leone and others still being tested could bring the total in the epidemic to above 70. The tropical virus causes severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, organ failure and unstoppable bleeding.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 08:56:48 +0000
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