Four Liberian nurses contract Ebola virus while treating patients

July 2014 – LIBERIA – Four Liberian health workers have been admitted after contracting the Ebola virus while treating patients. The health workers, all nurses, were working at Phebe Hospital in Suakoko, Bong County when they contracted the virus. This comes three weeks after a Ugandan senior surgeon succumbed to the Ebola in Liberia where he had been working for three years as a specialist. Dr. Samuel Muhumuza Mutoro died at the John F. Kennedy Medical Centre, Liberia’s biggest hospital in Monrovia where he was being treated. The West Africa countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are currently battling an outbreak of Ebola which is highly contagious with a high fatality rate. According to the Liberia News Agency, the nurses had been transferred to Monrovia where they are being treated and monitored by doctors. Dr. Jefferson Sibley, the medical director of Phebe Hospital said the nurses may have contracted the virus from an unidentified patient who was admitted at the hospital.

Uganda is on alert and monitoring neighboring DR Congo where suspected cases of Ebola have been reported in Aru, in the north eastern Orientale Province. The samples were taken to Kinshasa for testing, according to Dr. Asuman Lukwago, the ministry of health permanent secretary. Ebola symptoms include fever, bleeding through body openings, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, headache, skin rash and red eyes. At the moment, there is no known cure for Ebola. The disease can be spread through direct physical contact with body fluids like saliva, blood, stool, vomit, urine and sweat from an infected person as well as linen used by a patient. It can also be spread through skin piercing instruments used by an infected person. –New Vision