The Ebola epidemic, which has killed more than 1,500 people across west Africa, spread to a fifth country in the region on Friday with the first confirmed case of the deadly virus in Senegal.
The case marks the first time a new country has been hit by the outbreak since last month and comes a day after the WHO warned that the number of infections was increasing rapidly.
The Senegalese Ministry of Health said the country’s first Ebola patient was a young Guinean man who was immediately quarantined at a Dakar hospital, where he was in a “satisfactory condition.”
Photo: AFP
The man is believed to have been infected in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, and may have traveled to Senegal before Dakar closed its land border with Guinea on Aug. 21.
Authorities are now scrabbling to piece together where he went and who he encountered, in a bid to halt the spread of the virus.
New figures released by the WHO on Thursday revealed the massive scale of the crisis, which it said indicated a “rapid increase still in the intensity of transmission” that could cost at least US$490 million to tackle.
In a sign that affected countries are struggling to stop its spread, the UN agency said the number of cases could exceed 20,000 before the epidemic is brought under control.
Never before has there been an Ebola outbreak so large, nor has the virus — which was first detected in 1976 — ever infected people in west Africa until now. As of Tuesday, 1,552 people had been confirmed dead from Ebola in four countries — Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.
Liberia was the worst affected with 694 deaths, while 422 people have died in Sierra Leone and 430 in Guinea, where the virus emerged at the start of the year. Nigeria has now recorded six deaths.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has also confirmed two cases of Ebola, but officials there insist it is unconnected to the outbreak in west Africa.
Sierra Leonean President Ernest Koroma on Friday sacked Sierra Leonean Minister of Health Miatta Kargbo.
A presidential statement read on state television said the decision was made “to create a conducive environment for more efficient and effective handling of the Ebola outbreak.”
Nigeria’s latest death — in the southeastern oil city of Port Harcourt — was the first outside its biggest city, Lagos, and dashed hopes that the country had successfully contained the virus.
The person who died, a doctor named Ikyke Samuel Enuemo, is believed to have caught the virus from a patient he treated who traveled to the city after coming into contact with an infected Liberian-US man.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary