Guinea Struggles To Contain Ebola Outbreak

Late last month, villagers in Guinea's remote south-eastern region of Nzérékoré were greeted by a sight so alarming that many barricaded themselves indoors. A group of doctors dressed in protective suits and helmets were visiting the centre of an Ebola epidemic that has raged for six weeks.

International organisations fear it could sweep across a region with weak public health services. "Prevention is the only way to contain the Ebola spread and we are desperately trying to get the message across. Posters, leaflets, radio, text messages and TV spots – we are resorting to every possible method to reach communities far and wide," said Berenger Berehoudougou, west Africa director of the aid organisation Plan International.

Officials from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention travelled to Guinea this week to offer help, after a scare in Canada when a citizen returning from Liberia fell ill and was initially thought to have been infected.

There have been five suspected Ebola fatalities in Sierra Leone. In Liberia, where a state of emergency has closed the border with Guinea, the government said this week that the latest of its nine victims had no known links to Guinea. "We have a case in Tapeta where a hunter who has not had any contact with anyone coming from Guinea got sick," the chief medical officer, Bernice Dahn, told AFP. "He was rushed to the hospital and died 30 minutes later. He never had any interaction with someone suspected to be a carrier of the virus and he has never gone to Guinea. This an a isolated case."

Described by virologists as a "molecular shark", Ebola is passed on through bodily fluids and causes extensive internal and external bleeding. The fruit bat, a delicacy in Guinea and Liberia, is a host of the virus. The World Health Organisation believes that the virus spread from Guinea's forested regions to the densely populated capital, Conakry, through one man who travelled 200 miles from the central town of Dobala.

"Unfortunately, this one person infected both family members and healthcare workers when he went to Conakry for medical attention and died," said a WHO spokesman, Gregory Hartl. Six of the man's relatives and two other people exposed to him are being kept in isolation at a hospital.

Already struggling with a measles epidemic that has infected 1,500 people since November, Guinea's health system – which ranked last in a 2011 World Bank study of beds per capita – has struggled to cope with the outbreak. Although Guinea is the world's top exporter of bauxite, mineral riches have failed to translate into prosperity. The government – recovering from almost five decades of dictatorship – took more than a month to identify the epidemic, which appeared in early February. The Brazilian mining firm Vale has pulled its international staff from the country.

The latest infections have been passed on among family members or carers, said Sakouba Keita, a health ministry official. In one case, 10 people in one family died. "A lot of people are fleeing towns once they have any sign of a fever or headache. That's where we are psychologically today."

Last week the Senegalese music star Youssou N'Dour cancelled a concert in Conakry, fearing that a large crowd could spread the disease.Senegal's borders remain closed. 

Moussa Cissé, a rice trader in Senegal's southern town of Kédougou, said: "It has made things a bit difficult for us here because the weekly markets in [frontier towns] have completely shut down. People are just staying at home and trying to make ends meet."

Other countries have put in place preventive measures. Morocco has implemented strict travel controls, and Saudi Arabia has suspended visas for an estimated 10,000 Muslim pilgrims from Guinea and Liberia. Dauda Souaré, who organises Mecca pilgrimages from Conakry, said: "It's really a massive disappointment to be placed under this kind of collective measure."culled