Equatorial Guinea’s Health Minister Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba on Friday said more than 200 people have been quarantined after an unknown illness causing hemorrhagic fever killed at least eight people, reported Reuters.
Ayekaba said the outbreak was reported on Feb. 7, and from preliminary investigations, the deaths were linked to people who all took part in a funeral ceremony. He added that the government had sent samples to neighboring Gabon and will send others to Dakar in Senegal for further testing.
He said Equatorial Guinea’s authorities have restricted the movement of people around the two villages that are directly linked and contact tracing was ongoing. They have already quarantined over 200 people, who have not shown any symptoms so far.
“We are trying to quickly as possible rule out the known hemorrhagic fevers we know in the region such as Lassa or Ebola,” Ayekaba told Reuters in a telephonic interview.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Cameroon’s Health Minister Malachie Manaouda announced that the country has restricted movement along Equatorial Guinea’s border after the “unexplained deaths”.
In a statement, Manaouda said that his government has imposed restrictions because of the high risk of importation of the unidentified disease and in order to detect and respond to any cases at an early stage.
He added that investigations are underway and epidemiological surveillance has been strengthened with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
He confirmed to Reuters that no cases had been detected or suspected in Cameroon so far.
A WHO spokesperson said the UN health agency was supporting the testing of samples to identify what has caused the deaths and should get results within the coming days.
As per reports, some of the symptoms of the “non-identified illness” were nose bleeds, fever, joint pain, and other ailments that caused death within a few hours.
