Researchers believe that a two-year-old boy named Emile Ouamouno is the index case of the current Ebola virus disease epidemic (New England Journal of Medicine, April 16, 2014). He died in December 2013 (date unknown) in the village of Meliandou, Guéckédou Prefecture. His mother, sister, and grandmother then became ill with similar symptoms and also died. Although Ebola represents a significant public health problem in sub-Saharan Africa and was documented in Tai Forest chimpanzees, only one case had been reported in humans in West Africa. With this background and in the context of poor public health systems, the early cases were mis-diagnosed as diseases more common to the area. Thus Ebola virus disease spread for several months before it was recognised as such. (Jump to March on the timeline for more information.)
Cases of haemorrhagic fever are reported in southern Guinea, notably in Kissidougou, Guéckédou, Macenta and Nzérékoré.
Guinean health authorities ask for MSF’s support to investigate several deaths from unknown causes in the south of the country. After several medical staff die, health authorities in Macenta and Guéckédou request MSF’s support to investigate the deaths from unknown causes.
MSF sends blood samples received from the Guinean Ministry of Health to the Pasteur Insitute in Lyon. A first MSF team, including staff with expertise in managing haemorrhagic fevers, reaches Guéckédou.
The Government of Guinea declares an outbreak of Ebola. Twenty-four MSF doctors, nurses, logisticians and hygiene and sanitation experts are already in the country, while additional staff will strengthen the team in the coming days. MSF has set up an isolation unit for suspected cases in Guéckédou, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, and is currently doing the same in the town of Macenta, also in the Nzérékoré region in the south of the country.
MSF establishes the first Ebola isolation centre in West Africa to respond to the epidemic.
MSF scales up its intervention: a 30-strong team is in the country, and MSF opens a treatment centre in the grounds of Donka hospital in Conakry. Ten patients are admitted to the centre in Guéckédou. Teams are training health staff, identifying people who have had contact with sick people, and educating local communities on the precautions to be taken.
The first cases of Ebola in Guinea's capital, Conakry, are reported.
The first two cases of Ebola are confirmed in Lofa and Nimba counties. The patient in Lofa county died on the day of her diagnosis, becoming the first death in Liberia.
MSF describes mobilising “against an unprecedented Ebola epidemic”. “We are facing an epidemic of a magnitude never seen before in terms of the geographical spread of cases in the area: Guéckédou, Macenta, Kissidougou, Nzerekore and now Conakry," says Mariano Lugli, MSF coordinator in Conakry.
