Unsafe burials increase in Ebola-hit countries: WHO

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Thu, 2015-02-19 09:49 — mike kraft

AFP Feb. 19, 2015

Geneva - Ebola-hit Sierre Leone and Guinea saw an increase in the last week in unsafe burials that risk spreading the disease, the World Health Organization reported.

A specialized team bury the body of an Ebola victim in Mananeh, Sierra Leone on October 6, 2014 (AFP Photo/Florian Plaucheur)

In Guinea, there were 39 unsafe burials and in Sierre Leone, there were 45 reported in the week to February 15, WHO said in a report late Wednesday.

WHO also warned that more than 40 new confirmed Ebola cases in the two countries had been identified only after the infected people had died in their communities, and not in treatment facilities.

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WHO Ebola Situation Report - 18 February 2015

...over 40 new confirmed cases were identified only when testing was carried out on samples from individuals after they died in the community, away from treatment facilities. Not only have these individuals not received potentially life-saving treatment, but other members of the community have been put at greater risk of exposure to EVD than they would have been had those individuals been isolated when they first showed symptoms.

Contact tracing also relies on the cooperation of affected communities; when this cooperation is not secured, the vital task of tracking chains of transmission becomes much more difficult. Recent success in engaging with communities in the eastern Guinean prefecture of Lola enabled responders to trace cases and contacts related to an unsafe burial, and rapidly bring a localised outbreak under control. Similar breakthroughs must now be made in the remaining areas of transmission....

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