Guinea battled on Wednesday to contain
an Ebola epidemic threatening neighbouring countries as fear and confusion
gripped communities under siege from one of the deadliest viruses known to
mankind.
Global aid organisations have sent dozens of
workers to help the poverty-hit west African nation combat the haemorrhagic
fever, with health officials raising the death toll by two to 63.
"On Monday, two more deaths were reported in
our area. People are really frightened," Joseph Gbaka Sandounou, a unit
manager for Plan International was quoted as saying in a statement released by
the organisation.
"They have seen people die in a matter of just
two or three days. They are constantly worried who is going to be the next
fatality."
The British-based charity said people of Guinea's
southern forests - the epicentre of the outbreak which began in February - had
been terrified by seeing neighbours bleeding severely as they were struck down
by the virus.
"People have never experienced anything like
this before. Rumours are rife among communities who are trying to come up with
their own explanations," said Sandounou.
Ebola had never spread among humans in west
Africa before February but five deaths being investigated in Liberia, one in
Sierra Leone and others still being tested could bring the total in the
epidemic to above 70.
"We are not at the end of this epidemic, we
continue every day to record a number of new cases or fatalities," said
Guinea's chief disease prevention officer Sakoba Keita, confirming the two new
deaths.
"But the daily incidence is lessening. We
believe the peak has passed."
The tropical virus - described in some health
publications as a "molecular shark" - causes severe fever and muscle
pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea, shutting down organs and causing
unstoppable bleeding in severe cases.
Other highly-contagious tropical bugs, including
the Marburg virus and Lassa fever, can lead to similar symptoms but the
authorities have not announced which other pathogens have been picked up in
test samples.
"It is not just people but also the health
workers who are extremely worried. When the epidemic broke out a number of
health workers had no clue what they were handling nor did they have the
protective gear," said Sandounou.
"As a result, a number of Ebola victims have
been health workers. We heard reports that health workers turned patients away
due to fear in some cases before the health administration swung into
action."
Sierra Leone warned on Tuesday that a 14-year-old
buried recently may have been infected in Guinea, while the deaths of four
women and a boy in Liberia are being tested for the killer virus.
Guinea has banned inhabitants of the south from
eating bats, a common feature of the local diet, as the creatures are
considered to be the natural host of the virus.
Transmission of Ebola to humans can come from
wild animals, direct contact from another human's blood, faeces or sweat, as
well as sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.
Doctors Without Borders, which is known by its
French initials, MSF, said the spread of the disease was being exacerbated by
people travelling to funerals in which mourners touch the dead person's body.
No treatment or vaccine is available for Ebola,
and the Zaire species in Guinea - first found in the Democratic Republic of
Congo 38 years ago - has a 90 percent death rate.
Guinea is one of the world's poorest nations
despite vast untapped mineral wealth, with a stagnating economy, youth
unemployment at 60 percent and a rank of 178th out of 187 countries on the UN's
Human Development Index.
Plan, MSF and other aid organisations are working
are providing treatment and sanitation facilities and relaying public health
information, especially to schools, via the media and text messages.
MSF emergency coordinator Marie-Christine Ferir
said the priority was isolating patients showing symptoms, protecting their
families and neighbours while treating them with dignity.
"We want to avoid the danger of the
population panicking and it is important to transmit all the information
necessary to understand the disease and how people can protect
themselves," she added.
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