Senegal has recorded its first case of Ebola in an
outbreak that is ravaging its West African neighbors, the Ministry of Health
said today. The infected person is a young man from Guinea, Health Minister Awa
Marie Coll Seck told reporters.
Guinean health services had reported on Wednesday “the
disappearance of a person infected with Ebola who reportedly travelled to
Senegal”, Senegalese health minister Awa Marie Coll-Seck said.
She said the infected patient was a young Guinean man who
was immediately quarantined at a Dakar hospital, where he was in a
“satisfactory condition”.
The minister said “plans were being reinforced to prevent
the disease from spreading from this major case”.
The patient is a university student in Conakry who had
disappeared three weeks ago from the Guinean capital. Authorities are trying to
piece together where he went, and all the people he encountered.
It is the first case of Ebola in Senegal, which has
claimed more than 1,500 lives in four other west African nations — Sierra
Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.
The World Health Organization has warned that the
outbreak is worsening and offered new evidence of its acceleration Friday,
saying the past week has seen the highest increase of cases since the outbreak
began.
The U.N. health agency has warned that the disease could
eventually infect 20,000 people, and unveiled a plan Thursday to stop
transmission in the next six to nine months.
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