EBOLA CASE CONFIRMED IN COTE D'IVOIRE
Press Release
H/2887
EBOLA CASE CONFIRMED IN COTE D'IVOIRE
19951208 GENEVA, 8 December (WHO) -- On 6 December the World Health Organization (WHO) was informed of suspected case of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Cote d'Ivoire.The patient is a 25 year-old man from a village in neighbouring Liberia. He was admitted to a hospital in the Tabou Prefecture (south of the Tai National Park), last week. At the moment, the man appears to be recovering from the illness.
The diagnosis of Ebola infection was confirmed by serological tests carried out at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.
Within 24 hours a WHO team, including an expert from the Institut Pasteur, flew to Abidjan. They are now investigating the case on site and are working in close cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Cote d'Ivoire, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), Epicentre (Paris) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The WHO team has ensured that the patient is properly isolated in the hospital and that all precautions have been taken to prevent spread of the infection. Members of the team will determine if any other cases have occurred in the same hospital. All contacts of the patient will be traced and thoroughly investigated. So far no other cases of the disease have been identified.
Last year one case of Ebola hemorrhagic fever was registered in Cote d'Ivoire. A Swiss technician contracted the infection after carrying out necropsy examinations of chimpanzees who had died of hemorrhagic fever. She recovered from the disease.
In order to study the epidemiology and ecology of the virus, the WHO is at present organizing an international study which will be carried out in the Tai forest region of Cote d'Ivoire. It is still unknown which animal or insect acts as the reservoir or vector of the Ebola virus in nature.
* *** *