Liberia steps up border surveillance over Ebola outbreak

Health authorities are stepping up surveillance at the border ports with Côte d'Ivoire following the first reported case of Ebola in that country in nearly 30 years.

Chief Medical Officer Francis Kateh speaking on the State Radio on Tuesday morning said the government has a "strong level of surveillance systems" in place to curb spillover of the Ebola virus from Côte d'Ivoire.

Kateh said health authorities in Liberia are being briefed daily by the Ivorian health ministry on the situation in that country.

"We're being briefed daily by counterparts from the Ivory Coast with regard to the situation there, and based on the concerns, we have begun to raise the alert levels," Kateh said.

He stated that the government is serious about monitoring the situation, because the virus is deadly and spreads through contact.

A system, according to him, is in place, and what the government is doing is working with local county health authorities, and also educating people along the border ports, and towns, about the outbreak.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage of the Ivory Coast disclosed on Monday that the country has launched Ebola vaccination for high-risk populations, including front-line health workers, and first responders in Abidjan, where the Ebola outbreak was declared on Aug 14.

The country was able to swiftly begin vaccinations on Aug 16 with the Ebola vaccine manufactured by Merck, as the vaccine doses that the World Health Organization (WHO) helped secure to fight a four-month-long outbreak in Guinea were sent quickly by Guinea to Cote d'Ivoire.

However, the WHO country office in Cote d'Ivoire has revealed that in addition to the confirmed case, one suspected case and nine contacts have been identified and are being monitored, as no deaths have been reported.

WHO added that there is no indication that the current outbreak in Cote d'Ivoire is linked with the one that occurred in Guinea, adding that further analysis and genomic sequencing will help determine any connection.

Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea were badly hit during the 2014 to 2016 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa, which killed more than 11,000 people.