On August 8, 2014, WHO declared the deteriorating situation in West Africa a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), which is designated only for events with a risk of potential international spread or that require a coordinated international response. This was the first time EVD extended out from more isolated, rural areas and into densely populated urban centers, providing an unprecedented opportunity for transmission. By July 2014, the outbreak spread to the capitals of all three countries. Weak surveillance systems and poor public health infrastructure contributed to the difficulty surrounding the containment of this outbreak and it quickly spread to Guinea’s bordering countries, Liberia and Sierra Leone. On March 23, 2014, with 49 confirmed cases and 29 deaths, the WHO officially declared an outbreak of EVD. Shortly after, the Pasteur Institute in France confirmed the illness as EVD caused by Zaire ebolavirus. The Ebola virus soon spread to Guinea’s capital city of Conakry, and on March 13, 2014, the Ministry of Health in Guinea issued an alert for an unidentified illness. After five additional cases of fatal diarrhea occurred in that area, an official medical alert was issued on January 24, 2014, to the district health officials. An 18-month-old boy from a small village in Guinea is believed to have been infected by bats. The initial case, or index patient, was reported in December 2013. The identification of these early cases marked the beginning of the West Africa Ebola epidemic, the largest in history. On March 23, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the forested rural region of southeastern Guinea. Visit the Ebola Outbreak section for information on current Ebola outbreaks. The 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa has ended.
0 kommentar(er)
