First case of Ebola detected in Cote d'Ivoire after 25 years

Cote d'Ivoire's Ministry of Health has confirmed the first case of Ebola in its territory since 1994. This was after a patient tested positive for the virus in Abidjan, a city of more than 4 million people.

Speaking on national television on Saturday, Pierre Dimba, Cote d'Ivoire's health minister, said this was an isolated case of an 18-year-old woman who traveled from neighboring Guinea. The patient, now undergoing treatment in Abidjan, had arrived on Thursday by bus.

"The Ivorian health authorities have been informed by the Pasteur Institute of a case of Ebola virus disease after examination of the samples taken Friday from an 18-year-old girl of Guinean nationality", Dimba said.

In a statement released on Saturday, the WHO said there is no indication that the current case in Cote d'Ivoire is linked to the earlier outbreak in Guinea. Further investigation and genomic sequencing will identify the strain and determine if there is a connection between the two outbreaks. Guinea experienced a four-month long Ebola outbreak, which was declared over on June 19.

Commenting on the outbreak, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO director for Africa, said WHO staff are helping the ministry investigate the case. In addition, a team of WHO experts will arrive shortly to support all key areas of the response, including contact tracing and treatment.

"However, much of the world's expertise in tackling Ebola is here on the continent and Cote d'Ivoire can tap into this experience and bring the response to full speed. The country is one of the six that the WHO has supported recently to beef up their Ebola readiness and this quick diagnosis shows preparedness is paying off," Moeti said.

Dimba said Cote d'Ivoire has vaccines against Ebola and will carry out the vaccination of target groups, like nursing staff or people who have been in direct contact with the patient, and the security forces who are at the borders.

"An emergency inter-ministerial meeting was held late Saturday afternoon under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Patrick Achi. Among the measures taken are the reactivation of the Ebola virus surveillance and response system set up during the last epidemic in Guinea," Dimba said.

The WHO said it is helping to coordinate cross-border Ebola response activities and 5,000 Ebola vaccine doses, which the organization helped secure to fight the outbreak in Guinea, are now being transferred to Cote d'Ivoire, following an agreement between the ministries of health of Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea.

"WHO staff based in Cote d'Ivoire is supporting the investigation into the case. In addition, a multidisciplinary team of WHO experts covering all key response areas will be deployed rapidly to the field. They will help with ramping up infection prevention and control of health facilities, diagnostics, contact tracing, treatment and reaching out to communities to ensure they take a key role in the response," the WHO said in the statement.

Ebola, a severe and often fatal illness affecting humans and other primates, has case fatality rates that varied from 25 to 90 percent in past outbreaks. There is now effective treatment available and if patients receive treatment early, as well as supportive care, their chances of survival improve significantly.