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Ivory Coast has recorded a first case of Ebola, the health minister announced late Saturday, the first occurence of the deadly disease in its nearly three decades.
Officials at the Institut Pasteur had confirmed the case after testing samples taken from an 18-year-old Guinean woman, Health Minister Pierre N’Gou Demba said on RTI state television.
She had left the city of Labe in Guinea by road, arriving in Ivory Coast on Wednesday, he added.
“This is an isolated and imported case,” he said, adding that the patient was currently being treated in intensive care in Abidjan.
Ivory Coast already had doses of the vaccine against Ebola, which go to anyone who had been in contact with her, such as the medical staff treating her.
Prime Minister Patrick Achi had chaired an emergency interministerial meeting earlier Saturday, the minister added.
Appealing for calm, he said the authorities had already activated an emergency plan which included the identification and surveillance of anyone who had come into contact with the patient.
According to the World Health Organisation, this is the first case of Ebola in Ivory Coast sinced 1994.