Africa

Cameroun restricts Eq Guinea border activity over fever deaths

 Cameroun has restricted move­ment along its border with Equatorial Guinea following “sev­eral unexplained deaths” from an unknown illness that caused hem­orrhagic fever, Minister of Public Health, Mala­chie Manaouda, said on Friday.

The restrictions were imposed in view of “the high risk of importation of this disease, and in order to detect and respond to any cases at an early stage,” he said in a statement.

Investigations are underway and epidemi­ological surveillance has been strengthened with the support of experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

“At the current stage … there is no reason to be worried,” Malachie said.

Equatorial Guinea said in a statement on Wednesday that it had registered an “unusu­al epidemiological situation” over the past weeks in its Nsok Nso­mo district, Kie-Ntem province that caused nine deaths in two adja­cent communities over a short space of time.

A crisis commission set up by the health ministry reported a tenth death on Thurs­day.

The symptoms observed were fever, weakness, vomiting blood and diarrhoea. A team was sent to isolate contact cases and take samples that were sent to a regional WHO lab for testing. A woman and her two children were taken to hospital, where they recovered after receiving mild treatment, the statement added.

A WHO spokesper­son said the agency was supporting the testing of samples to identify what has caused the deaths and should get results within the com­ing days. —Aljazeera

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