Category: Health

{Woman caring for earlier victim identified as second patient in less than a week raising worries of further cases.}

A carer for a woman who died of Ebola in Sierra Leone has now been infected with the virus, heightening fears of a fresh flare-up just days after West Africa was declared officially free of the disease.

The second case to be identified in less than a week is a 38-year-old woman who had helped to care for last week’s victim, Mariatu Jalloh, health ministry spokesman Sidi Yahyah Tunis said according to a report by Reuters news agency.

WHO on Thursday also confirmed the second Ebola case in Sierra Leone, saying new patient was Jalloh’s aunt.

The 38-year-old woman “was a primary caregiver during the young woman’s illness,” WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told the AFP news agency in an email, adding that she had developed symptoms of the deadly virus on Wednesday while she was being monitored at a quarantine facility.

“The patient is being treated now,” Jasarevic said.

Jalloh, a 22-year-old student who died from the disease on January 12, tested positive for Ebola after her death, which marked a further setback in efforts to end a two-year epidemic that has killed more than 11,300 people across West Africa.

The new cases come as reports emerge that fear and suspicion in the country, which had been declared Ebola-free in November, were hampering attempts to stop the spread of the virus.

According to Reuters, internal health reports showed that at least 50 people linked to Jalloh – who were potentially exposed to the virus – have gone missing.

At least a dozen of them are considered at high risk of infection.

“Community very uncooperative and unwilling to direct us to the missing contacts”, one of the health reports said.

They also referred to “great resistance” to a programme to vaccinate locals who were potentially exposed to the virus in the Northern Province, a remote area near the Guinean border where Jalloh had travelled before falling ill.

Health sources familiar with the reports, who asked for anonymity, told Reuters that the number of total contacts had increased to more than 200 people, from 109 quarantined last week.

The reports also showed that suspicion towards health officials, one of the aggravating factors in the disease’s early spread nearly two years ago, was still obstructing attempts to end the epidemic.

Some observers say such incredulity is understandable given the apparent failure of local officials to follow basic health protocols at the height of the outbreak.

Sierra Leone was supposed to be in a 90-day period of “heightened surveillance”, but Jalloh was examined by an official without protective clothing.

‘Ongoing risk’

The World Health Organization had declared the West African region Ebola-free on January 15, but stressed the need for vigilance in the months to come.

“While this is an important milestone and a very important step forward, we have to say that the job is still not done,” Rick Brennan, WHO director of emergency risk assessment and humanitarian response, said at the time.

“That’s because there is still ongoing risk of re-emergence of the disease because of persistence of the virus in a proportion of survivors.”

In Sierra Leone alone, about 4,000 people have died of Ebola.

This is not the first time that new cases emerge after a country is officially declared Ebola free. In May, two new Ebola cases were diagnosed in neighbouring Liberia after it was declared free of the virus.

Source:Al Jazeera:[Ebola in Sierra Leone: New case spreads community fear->http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/01/fear-sierra-leone-ebola-case-confirmed-160121055559943.html]

{Health officials in Sierra Leone have confirmed a death from Ebola, hours after the World Health Organization declared the West Africa outbreak over.}

The country was declared free of the virus on 7 November, and the region as a whole was cleared when Liberia was pronounced Ebola-free on Thursday.

But two tests conducted on a person who died in northern Sierra Leone proved positive for the virus, an Ebola test centre spokesman told the BBC.

The death occurred earlier this week.

Ebola test centre spokesman Sidi Yahya Tunis told the BBC that the patient had died in the Tonkolili district. He had travelled there from Kambia, close to the border with Guinea.

The tests were conducted by British health experts. The BBC’s Umaru Fofana in the capital Freetown said health officials were now urgently seeking those who had come into contact with the victim.

Close to 4,000 people have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone, and 11,000 people across the region, since December 2013.

In declaring West Africa clear after the recent outbreak on Thursday, the WHO warned that the area was susceptible to small flare-ups of the virus.

Liberia was the last country to see the end of active transmission of Ebola. But it had been declared clear twice before, only for the infection to re-emerge.

A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time.

Source:BBC:Ebola virus: [New case emerges in Sierra Leone->http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35320363]

{Nigerian health authorities have announced the death of a Lassa fever victim in Abuja, the first fatality in the nation’s capital since the latest outbreak in November 2015.The minister of health, Isaac Adewole, made the announcement Wednesday evening at the National Hospital, the press director, Boade Akinola, at the health ministry, said in a statement.}

The medical director of the hospital, Jack Momoh, who briefed the minister, said the patient was brought in unconscious from a private hospital in Kubwa, a suburb of Abuja, where he had been admitted for eight days.

The 33-year-old newly married lived in Jos, Plateau State, but travelled to see a family member in Kubwa because of his illness. He however died within 24hours of presentation at the national hospital.

The statement said the minister had directed that all primary and secondary contacts of the victim, including the staff of the private hospital in Kubwa, an Abuja suburb, where the deceased was first managed for one week before referral to National Hospital, be tracked.

He also advised that family members should report at the nearest hospital if anyone has fever for more than two days.

The minister, however called on the residents of Abuja not to panic but to maintain high level vigilance and present themselves for test if they feel unhealthy or they feel symptoms of Lassa fever which include high fever, stooling, tiredness, vomiting, etc., adding that self-medication should be avoided at this period.

The latest death from Lassa fever brings the total number of deaths to 43 in the country (from 10 states).

The government said on Tuesday that Lassa fever, an acute viral illness, had claimed 41 lives from 93 reported cases in 10 states of the country.

The first case of the current outbreak was reported from Bauchi in November 2015.
Mr. Adewole said at a news conference on Tuesday that the government had raised a four-man expert committee, chaired by Michael Asuzu, a professor, to visit Kano, Niger and Bauchi, the three most endemic states.

“The committee will embark on a fact finding mission, assess the current situation, document response experiences, identify gaps and proffer recommendations on how to prevent future occurrences,” Mr. Adewole, a professor, said.

The minister assured the public the task of the committee was not to apportion blame but rather to document lessons learnt for better planning of an affective responsive.
According to Mr. Adewole, part of the long term response is to establish an inter-ministerial committee to deliver a final blow on Lassa fever and other related diseases.

The committee comprises the ministers of Education, Agriculture and Natural Resources, Environment, Information and Culture as well as Health.

He advised communities to improve on their hygiene, including food hygiene and food protection practices.

He also urged the public to avoid contact with rodents as well as food contaminated with rat’s secretions and excretions.

According to him, the affected states are Bauchi, Nasarawa, Niger, Taraba, Kano, Rivers, Edo, Plateau, Gombe and Oyo.

“The public is hereby assured that government and other stakeholders are working tirelessly to address the outbreak and bring it to timely end,” said the minister.
He said the ministry had ordered for the immediate release of adequate quantities of “ribavirin”, the specific antiviral drug for Lassa fever, to the affected states for prompt treatment of cases.

Mr. Adewole said Nigeria had the capability to diagnose Lassa fever, adding that “all the cases reported so far were confirmed by our laboratories”.

Source:Premium Times:[Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, records Lassa fever death->http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/196722-breaking-nigerias-capital-abuja-records-first-lassa-fever-death.html]