The World Health Organization (WHO) recently confirmed two new cases of the Ebola virus infecting people from Liberia.
The virus has already killed 70 people in Guinea and caused 11 deaths in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Both of these areas share the border with Guinea's southwestern region and experts fear for the possibility of an outbreak.
The highly contagious Ebola may cause extreme cases of diarrhea, external bleeding, and vomiting. According to the WHO, they tested seven samples from adult patients from Liberia's Foya district on March 29.
"Two of those samples have tested positive for the Ebola virus,"WHO expressed in their website on March 30, as reported by Reuters. This announcement confirmed that Ebola has reached the African country.
The health organization further explained that, among the suspected cases, two deaths have already occurred. On March 21, a 35-year-old woman died because of the virus while a male patient, who died on March 27 showed negative results.
A local official of Liberia, who requested to be unnamed, said that the government knows about the Ebola virus and they are scheduled to address the public about the situation on Monday, March 31.
The spread of disease in Sierra Leone and Liberia may cause an outbreak directed towards West Africa. If that happens, health officials might have difficulties controlling the spread of the disease, since these areas have no access to efficient health systems.
In Guinea, the weekly markets selling produce from different parts of the borders were suspended to prevent the people from getting the virus. Sanitary checks were also mandated for flights travelling through Conakry, Guinea's capital and Dakar. Gambia Bird, a regional airline, has also announced that they will be delaying their flight services to Conakry in lieu of the outbreak.
However, the WHO said that they do not recommend any travel restrictions for Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.
The Ebola virus is known to have a 90 percent fatality rate and is common in the remote Central and East Africa. The virus first appeared in 1976 in the Central and West African regions. Unfortunately, there is no treatment or vaccine developed yet to combat this deadly virus.
