Ebola fever strikes Guinea and endangers the nearby nations

International health agencies warned, on Monday, that the Ebola fever has killed at least 59 people and may be spreading into nearby countries!

Guinea’s Health Ministry said most of the 80 known cases of the disease were in border areas near Sierra Leone and Liberia. The dead include some workers who treated early cases.

Most Ebola outbreaks have been encountered in Central African countries. The most recent, in 2012 in Uganda, is thought to have killed almost 50 people.

The outbreak in Guinea has origins in Zair, a country wich has a 90 percent mortality rate! Death is caused by fever and internal bleeding.

The Ebola fever usually infects hunters who eat the carcass of an ape that died of Ebola! Or fruits contaminated by bats, which are the virus’s natural reservoir.

Dr. Sprecher said that habitants of the affected villages in Guinea also eat bats, “so it’s possible for it to skip the apes and go straight from bats to people”. Once humans are infected, the virus spreads easily in bodily fluids from the sick or the dead.

For treating them it is required to wear gloves, masks, goggles, hazardous material suits and other barriers against infection.

Medical teams also take over burials, since some traditional practices, like washing bodies by hand, can lead to infection.

Some people panic and take off, during outbreaks, which can lead to carrying the virus from town to town. There is no cure, but many patients survive with supportive care.

Unicef has also sent supplies, including intravenous fluids, oral rehydration solution and bleach, said Dr. Mohamed Ag Ayoya, a Unicef representative in the country.

The outbreak was confirmed on Friday, “and the government has taken leadership and cognition”, he added.

Sierra Leone is the only one of the three nations with a laboratory that can test for Lassa fever, a lethal tropical disease that requires a similar containment response. And “you have to step it up for Ebola”, Dr. Sprecher said.