Ebola toll in Guinea 460

Conakry, Sep 1: At least 690 Ebola virus disease cases have been confirmed in Guinea, out of which 460 people have died, the latest data released by the health ministry here shows.

A total of 143 patients were cured and discharged from treatment centres while 86 cases are still undergoing treatment in health centres, Xinhua reported citing the data.

Since the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, 45 health workers have been infected with the virus and 26 of them have died while nine others are still hospitalised.

Head of disease prevention unit at the health ministry, Sakoba Keita, said that the eight regions that were initially affected by the disease have not reported any new cases in the last one week.

He said 16 border health control posts out of the expected 41 have already been established at the country's different entry points, and this has been followed by the training of medical staff in charge of surveillance of passengers entering or leaving the country.

Regarding the first Ebola case confirmed in Dakar, Senegal, which concerned a Guinean student, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) coordinator for emergency services, Sosthene Zombre, said the affected person was a sociology student from Conakry University who contracted the virus in Forecariah prefecture near the Sierra Leonian border.

Till date, four members of the student's family have died from the disease and 75 people suspected of having had contact with him from his town are being monitored.

"Community deaths and delayed reporting of new cases constitute the major causes of the spread of Ebola virus in the country," Keita said, urging the population to collaborate with the country's health services.

IANS