EBOLA: RAINY SEASON HAMPERING EBOLA RESPONSE IN WEST AFRICA

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on June 3 reported increase in the intensity and geographic area of Ebola transmission in Guinea and Sierra Leone and warned that the onset of rainy season will make field operations more difficult.

Peter Graaff, Acting Special Representative and Head of United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) has told UN News Service that the rainy season, "creates problems because it will bring other diseases like malaria that often show similar symptoms as Ebola. It makes things more complicated because for the time being people showing those symptoms will have to be dealt with as if they are potentially Ebola patients therefore have to be tested".
As a result Graaff warned that the number of people to be tested for Ebola will go up dramatically over the next few weeks.
Report from WHO says that for the week ended May 31st, 25 new cases of Ebola were reported accross 7 different areas in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Some of the new cases had no known link to Ebola patients and occurred in areas that had not reported new cases for weeks indicating undetected chains of transmission persist in both countries.
Community resistance in affected areas in Guinea continue to pose challenges.