CHARITIES FEAR EBOLA RESURGENCE AFTER SPIKE IN CASES

Ebola cases have increased in Sierra Leone and Guinea, with charities afraid they are ‘back to square one’. Photograph: Michael Duff/AP
More people diagnosed with deadly virus in Sierra Leone and Guinea weeks after WHO reports 10-month low in new infections

A rise in Ebola cases on the border of Sierra Leone and Guinea has sparked fears that efforts to rid the countries of the deadly virus are “back to square one”.

The spike in infections comes weeks after the World Health Organisation reported a 10-month low, with just nine cases in both countries in the week ending 10 May.

But, since then, the WHO has said: “Both the intensity and the geographical area of Ebola virus disease transmission have increased.”

In its latest situation report, it said 31 confirmed cases of the virus had been reported in the week ending 7 June -16 cases in Guinea and 15 in Sierra Leone.

“This is the second consecutive weekly increase in case incidence, and the highest weekly total number of cases reported from Sierra Leone since late March,” it said.

International Medical Corps says the new hot spots on the coastal border region are demoralising for all, particularly as Liberia, on the opposite border, was declared Ebola free on 9 May.

“It feels like we are back to square one. The world has moved on, but it is still a very real problem here. With Liberia Ebola free, we thought we were not far behind, but that isn’t the case,” said a spokesman. “Guinea is a problem and as long asGuinea has Ebola, Sierra Leone will continue to struggle. The border is meaningless, with families straddling both countries,” he added.

The Red Cross in Guinea said there were 16 new cases in the past week in six prefectures, four of them on the border with Sierra Leone. In Sierra Leone, there have been cases in Kambia, the coastal district bordering Guinea, Port Loko, a district to the south, and Freetown.

A spokesman for the charity said in the last two months the virus had moved from the country’s forested areas to lower Guinea for the first time, with communities expressing the fear and denial seen during the 18-month battle against Ebola elsewhere in the region.

There have also been several reported incidents of violence directed at field staff during the last week, the WHO has said.

A summit between the two countries’ presidents last Friday identified surveillance of border trade and traffic as one of their biggest challenges.

Some of the new cases have only been diagnosed after postmortem testing, making contact tracing of relatives and friends who have been in touch with the victim challenging. Alarmingly, one of the cases was a stillborn child, born to a woman who had survived Ebola and was carrying antibodies.

“Deaths in the community, postmortem diagnosis and new cases without links to old ones all indicate there are undetected chains of transmission present in the country,” said International SOS.

“There are 56 entry points between the two countries, this makes the surveillance work very difficult,” said a Red Cross spokesman.

The spike has also been blamed on not just porous borders but a return totraditional burials, which had been banned after they were identified as one of the key factors in the spread of Ebola earlier in this epidemic. The disease has killed 11,147 people since the first reported case in March 2014, with more than 27,000 people infected.

On Monday, the G7 nations said they would work together to combat future epidemics with promises of disease detectives on standby. But medical charities have said this is not enough.

Florian Westphal, general director of Médecins Sans Frontières Germany, said the leaders had done little to ensure epidemics would not spiral out of control in future.

“No concrete measures have been decided to strengthen emergency response, meaning the world is no better prepared to face major health crises and save thousands of lives,” he said.

Oxfam was also disappointed, saying fighting pandemics like Ebola required “more than simply putting the emergency services on standby”.

Meanwhile, an Italian nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone with medical charity Emergency has been cured and has left hospital, Italy’s health ministry said on Wednesday.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN