Description of the situation
16 January 1997
Disease Outbreak Reported
As of 15 January 1997, 59 cases, including 44 deaths and 15 cases who have recovered, have occurred since the beginning of the Ebola outbreak in late July 1997 in the Booué area. There is no hospitalized case either in Booué or Libreville. The last case died on 8 January 1997.
Libreville: 14 cases, including 10 deaths. Forty-eight contacts within the city are still being followed up. The geographic distribution of the contacts were the areas of Okala, Owendo, Nzeng-Ayong, Gros Bouquet, Plaine Orety, Casepga and Melen hospital (5 healthy contacts, including 3 children admitted for closer follow up).
Booué area, including Makokou: 44 cases, including 33 deaths. Currently 54 contacts are being followed up in Makokou, Booué, Lolo I, Lolo II, Djidji, SHM sawmill, Lassio, Ndjole and Matora.
Lambarene: 1 case who died. Four contacts are currently being followed up.
All contact subjects under follow-up are visited daily for temperature checks. Three quarters of them will be discharged from follow-up early next week as their follow-up period will have reached the maximum incubation period (i.e. 21 days). The epidemiological situation remains stable with no evidence of transmission in Libreville other than the episode which involved a Gabonese physician who flew to South Africa last October. Next week, the team of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) currently in Libreville will visit the Booué area. WHO Headquarters remains in daily contact with the Ministry of Health of Gabon and is also regularly kept informed of the situation through other channels including the French Cooperation in Libreville, MSF, and the Gabonese Red Cross.