The World Health Organization has announced that ivory coast has recorded its first case of Ebola since 1994.
The statement issued on August 14, 2021, states that it the country’s first recorded case in the past 25 years.
This came after the Institute Pasteur in Ivory Coast confirmed the Ebola Virus Disease in samples collected from a patient, who was hospitalized in the commercial capital of Abidjan, after arriving from Guinea,” the WHO said in the statement.
Health Minister Pierre Dimba also confirmed it on national television on Saturday that it was an isolated case of an 18-year-old girl who travelled from neighboring Guinea.
WHO said initial investigations found that the patient had travelled to Ivory Coast by road and arrived in Abidjan on August 12.
First case of Marburg virus has earlier been detected in Guinea and its highly infectious haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola.
But WHO said there was no indication the current case in Ivory Coast is linked to the outbreak in Guinea earlier this year.
It said further investigation and genomic sequencing will identify the strain and determine if there was a connection.
The WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, tweeted that a team of WHO experts would arrive in Ivory Coast shortly to help with contact tracing and treatment.
By Annie Wharton Savage.