Ivory Coast on Monday begun vaccinating health workers against Ebola in Abidjan after a case of the deadly virus was confirmed over the weekend, reported News 24.
An 18-year-old woman was tested positive for Ebola on Saturday after she traveled by bus to Abidjan from Guinea. It is Ivory Coast’s first confirmed Ebola case in 25 years. The case has been detected about two months after Guinea declared the end of the latest Ebola outbreak that killed 12 people in the country this year.
The Ivory Coast’s health ministry said workers at the hospital in Abidjan where the woman was admitted were the first to receive vaccinations. It revealed that the country currently has 5 000 vaccine doses available.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the health authorities have identified nine people who came into contact with Ebola-infected woman, including three family members and six hospital staffers. It said that the woman and one suspected Ebola case are in hospital.
The WHO said genetic sequencing of a virus sample would determine whether the case detected in Ivory Coast was linked to the recent Ebola outbreak in neighboring Guinea. The UN health body said the fact that it had occurred in a region of more than four million people was of immense concern.
“It is of immense concern that this outbreak has been declared in Abidjan, a metropolis of more than 4 million people,” Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, said in a statement.
She added that much of the world’s expertise in tackling Ebola is already present on the African continent. The WHO has sent five experts from Guinea to help train several dozen health workers in Ivory Coast in using the vaccines.
Ebola is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are most at risk.
