Cameroon Restricts Movements with Equatorial Guinea after Unknown Hemorrhagic fever deaths

By Boris Esono Nwenfor & Sonita Ngunyi Nwohtazie [caption id="attachment_104267" align="alignnone" width="1242"] Cameroon says around 20 deaths had been recorded in a short space of time in Equatorial Guinea's Kie-Ntem province, which borders Cameroon's Olamze district. Photo by REUTERS-Sylvain Andzongo[/caption] Cameroon’s public Health Official on Friday, February 10, restricted movement along its border with Equatorial Guinea after an unknown hemorrhagic fever outbreak led to “unexplained deaths,” in Equatorial Guinea. According to Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health Manaouda Malachie, investigations are underway and epidemiological surveillance has been strengthened with the support of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Minister Manaouda Malachie, said the cases are “not a mystical phenomenon” but that, the restrictions were imposed given "the high risk of importation of this disease and to detect and respond to any cases at an early stage.” “At the current stage… there is no reason to be worried,” Malachie said. The outbreak was reported on Feb. 7, and from preliminary investigations, the deaths were linked to people who all took part in a funeral ceremony, Equatorial Guinea's Health Minister Mitoha Ondo'o Ayekaba said. "We are trying to quickly as possible rule out the known hemorrhagic fevers we know in the region such as Lassa or Ebola," Ayekaba told Reuters by telephone. Equatorial Guinea said on Wednesday that it had registered the "unusual epidemiological situation" over the past weeks in Kie-Ntem province's Nsok Nsomo district that caused nine deaths in two adjacent communities over a short period. [caption id="attachment_104268" align="alignnone" width="1217"] Cameroon's Minister of Public Health Manaouda Malachie in a Tweet says everything is now under control[/caption] The symptoms of the "non-identified illness" were nose bleeds, fever, joint pain and other ailments that caused death within a few hours, the head of health for the district, Ngu Fankam Roland, said in a statement. The World Health Organization told the Telegraph on February 10 that it doesn’t yet know if the cases are Ebola, but it is “not taking any chances”.