Ebola enters Senegal, first case confirmed

Ebola enters Senegal, first case confirmed
Senegal has recorded its first case of the deadly Ebola virus disease making it the fifth West African country to be affected by the outbreak.

The Senegalese Health Minister, Awa Marie Coll Seck told the BBC on Thursday that the first case was a Guinean national who arrived Senegal recently.

The man was immediately quarantined, she added.

The deadly virus first broke out in Guinea in March this year and has killed more than 1,500 people across the region.

At least 3,000 people have been infected with the virus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned it could get much worse and infect more than 20,000 people.

Senegal had previously closed its border with Guinea in an attempt to halt the spread of Ebola, but its frontiers are porous.

It had also banned flights and ships from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – the three worst-hit countries.

But the Guinean health services reported on Wednesday “the disappearance of a person infected with Ebola who reportedly travelled to Senegal,” according to Senegal’s health minister.

A young Guinean student later turned up at a hospital in the capital, Dakar, said Ms Seck, but he did not reveal that he had had contact with Ebola patients in his own country.

Senegal, a major transit hub for aid agencies, has a large Guinean population.

Separately on Friday, residents of Guinea’s second largest city, Nzerekore, rioted after its main market was sprayed with disinfectant in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus.

The exact cause of the riot is not clear – some people reportedly feared the spray would spread Ebola. Police responded by firing tear gas.

A 24-hour curfew is currently in place in the city, which is the capital of the Forest Region, where the Ebola epidemic has its epicenter.