At least six people have died including a doctor and a nurse in a new outbreak of viral hemorrhagic fever in Jinka town, South Omo Zone in southern Ethiopia, local health authorities disclosed.
Selamu Tadesse, medical director of Jinka General Hospital, Thursday told local reporters that the two health workers who died had been treating patients with similar symptoms, highlighting the risk of transmission through close patient contact.
Tadesse confirmed that the cause of the illness remains unidentified, but early clinical signs point to a severe fast-progressing infection. Patients’ illnesses include high fever, headache, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea.
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the Ministry of Health and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) confirmed that eight suspected cases have been identified so far.
Many patients reportedly reached the hospital only after their condition had become critical, with some dying shortly thereafter.
WHO in a statement said on Thursday that the WHO team of 11 experts will be deployed to help bolster surveillance, testing, infection control, and clinical care efforts in response to the suspected outbreak, a.
The WHO is providing essential supplies, including personal protective equipment, infection-prevention materials, a deployable isolation tent, and additional technical support, and has released $300,000 from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies to aid the East African nation’s response.
Symptoms included persistent fever, gastrointestinal distress, and in some cases, bleeding —all clinical markers consistent with viral hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola, Marburg, or Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, though none have yet been confirmed.
MG/as/APA