Cameroon has restricted movement along its border with Equatorial Guinea following “several unexplained deaths” from hemorrhagic fever, the government said on Friday. Cameroon said 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. The news will raise concerns of another Ebola outbreak, the last of which left 55 people dead in Uganda in 2022. The World Health Organization told the Telegraph on Friday that it doesn’t yet know if the cases are Ebola, but it is “not taking any chances”. It added that it will have test results back by Saturday. Malachie Manaouda, Cameroon’s health minister, said that the restrictions were imposed in view of “the high risk of importation of this disease and in order to detect and respond to any cases at an early stage.” The symptoms of the “non-identified illness” include fever, nose bleeds, vomiting blood and diarrhoea. Health experts are now racing to trace contacts of those affected and increase epidemiological surveillance efforts. Cameroonians were told, in an official statement by the health minister, that the cases are “not a mystical phenomenon or witchcraft”.
They were told to call a hotline to record any deaths in the area, and to report anyone with bleeding from any orifice, or those experiencing fatigue, headache and fever. The World Health Organization and the Atlanta Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are involved in the investigations, and a team has been sent to take samples that were sent to a regional WHO lab for testing. A woman and her two children were taken to hospital, where they recovered after receiving mild treatment, the statement added.
