Another Country Confirms Case of Ebola

Senegal says infected university student came from Sierra Leone
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 29, 2014 4:13 PM CDT
Another Country Confirms Case of Ebola
A ambulance leaves the University Hospital Fann, were a man is being treated for symptoms of the Ebola virus in Dakar, Senegal, Friday, Aug. 29, 2014.   (AP Photo/Jane Hahn)

Ebola has spread to yet another country in Africa: Senegal. Local press reported today that a university student infected with the virus had traveled from Guinea into the West African nation, CNN reports. The student, 21, has been placed in quarantine in a hospital in Dakar and is in stable condition. Senegal had tried to keep out Ebola by restricting traffic from Guinea as well as Liberia and Sierra Leone—the three most-infected countries—but the borders are porous, the BBC reports. "People will still find a way to get around," says Peter Piot, who helped discover Ebola in 1976.

Yet Dakar residents are concerned and angry about the student coming over, Reuters reports. "When you are sick, why do you leave your own country to export the disease to another?" said a local radio host. Meanwhile, Senegalese Health Minister Awa Marie Coll Seck said officials are investigating the student's journey and anyone who came in contact with him: "Now that he has been diagnosed [he's] much more cooperative and supplied all the necessary information," she said. The current outbreak has killed 1,552 and infected 3,069 in West Africa, with 40% of the cases diagnosed in the last three weeks, according to the World Health Organization. (More Ebola stories.)

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