Ebola in West Africa: Two-year-old Mali girl succumbs to Ebola

By: Editorial Team | | Published: October 25, 2014 12:54 pm

Mali has confirmed its victim of Ebola, a two-year-old girl. The World Health Organisation (WHO) informed that the baby girl travelled by a bus coming from Guinea via Mali and showed symptoms of the disease, BBC reported. Also Read - Ganesh Chaturthi 2020: 4 reasons an eco-friendly Ganesha is good for you

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The girl was being treated in Kayes town, after arriving at a hospital Wednesday. The child had travelled over 1,000 km from Guinea through Bamako to Kayes. Over 40 people known to have come into contact with her have been quarantined. Also Read - New experimental drug can protect against all forms of Ebola

‘The child’s symptomatic state during the bus journey is especially concerning, as it presented multiple opportunities for exposures, including high-risk exposures, involving many people,’ the WHO said.

The girl’s mother died in Guinea a few weeks ago and the child was then brought by her relatives to Mali.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have seen most of the 4,800 Ebola deaths.

Mali has now become the sixth West African country to be affected by the outbreak, although Senegal and Nigeria have since been declared virus-free by the WHO.

The WHO has three experts in Mali evaluating its ability to cope with Ebola and will send at least four more experts over the next few days, spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said.

Early signs of Ebola

Fever: Increase in body temperature is the first defence mechanism that the body uses to kill any foreign particle invading the body. When Ebola infects the body, it causes a release of various compounds like cytokines and histamines that pass on the signals of increasing body temperature. In fact, Ebola virus disease is also called the Ebola haemorrhagic fever, where the temperature can go above 38.6 C or 101.5 F. (Read: What is the Ebola virus disease survival rate?)

Headache: It is the most common symptom of Ebola infection after fever, present in almost 96 percent of the cases. Nausea and headache along with fever present a typical case of common cold and flu. At this stage, the symptoms can be confused with other common infections. (Read: Ebola virus causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis and prevention)

Stomach pain: A few viral particles invade the liver and starts destroying the hepatocytes. New virions start damaging the intestinal cells causing abdominal pain.

With inputs from IANS

Image source: Getty Images

Published : October 25, 2014 12:54 pm

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