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Senegal’s Ministry of Public Health and Social Affairs has provided the WHO with details of a confirmed case of Ebola virus disease (EVD).
The case is a 21-year-old male native of Guinea, who travelled by road to Dakar, arriving on 20 August. The individual is reported to have stayed with relatives at a home in the outskirts of the city. The government have launched an emergency investigation and are undertaking urgent contact tracing, at this stage he is not known to have travelled elsewhere.
The individual sought medical care for symptoms including fever, diarrhoea, and vomiting on 23 August 2014. He received treatment for malaria, but did not improve and left the facility. On 26 August, he was referred to a specialised infectious diseases facility and was hospitalised.
(Via WHO Global Alert and Response - accessed 03/09/14)
The risk of travellers becoming infected or developing Ebola haemorrhagic fever is extremely low, unless there has been direct contact with blood or bodily fluids of dead or living infected persons or animals. Healthcare workers are at particular risk, although practising appropriate infection control should effectively prevent transmission of disease in this setting.
Travellers returning from tropical countries should always seek rapid medical attention if they develop flu-like symptoms (such as fever, headache, diarrhoea or general malaise) within three weeks after return, and be reminded to mention to their health care provider that they have recently travelled.
