The health situation is worrying in Côte d’Ivoire. In fact, a case of Ebola has been detected in the economic capital of Abidjan. This is the first since 1994, almost two months after the announcement of the end of the 2021 epidemic in neighboring Guinea, which is “extremely worrying,” according to the WHO.
The Ivorian health authorities “were informed today (Saturday) by the Pasteur Institute of a positive case of Ebola virus disease after examining a sample taken” on Friday “from an 18-year-old girl of Guinean nationality. “Health Minister Pierre Demba told RTI national television. He specified that this young woman had left the town of Labé in Guinea by road and had “arrived in Côte d’Ivoire on August 11”.
“This is an isolated and imported case,” he said, adding that the patient is “currently isolated and cared for at the Treichville University Hospital treatment center for highly epidemic diseases” in Abidjan. According to the minister, Côte d’Ivoire has vaccines against Ebola and “will carry out the vaccination of target groups, front-line health personnel, immediate patient contacts, security forces on our borders.” The WHO, for its part, specified that “5,000 doses of Ebola vaccine” obtained “to combat the epidemic in Guinea” would be sent to Côte d’Ivoire.
An emergency inter-ministerial meeting was held in Abidjan on Saturday afternoon under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister of Côte d’Ivoire, Patrick Achi. Among the measures adopted are the reactivation of the surveillance and response system to the Ebola virus implemented during the last epidemic in Guinea, the organization “of the follow-up of all the contacts identified, the search for strict compliance with the barrier measures enacted against the Covid-19, which remain valid for the Ebola virus disease ”and the“ intense cross-border collaboration with Guinea ”.
“It is extremely worrying that this epidemic has broken out in Abidjan, a metropolis of more than four million people,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa. “However, most of the global experience in fighting Ebola virus disease is found here on the continent, and Côte d’Ivoire can use this experience to accelerate the response,” he said. Guinea and the WHO officially announced on June 19 the end of the second Ebola epidemic in this country, a few months after the reappearance of this rapidly defeated disease thanks to the experience accumulated in 2013-2016 when it had caused thousands of deaths.