Find the first Ebola-infected patient

Researchers suspect that the first person infected with Ebola in West Africa is a two-year-old boy, who died on December 6 last year, just days after falling ill in a village in Gueckedou, southeastern Guinea.

A week later, the boy's mother, three-year-old sister and grandmother all died. All had symptoms of fever, vomiting and diarrhea, however, the cause was not determined.

Two people attended the funeral of the little boy who brought the virus to their village. A medical officer passed the virus to another village, where he and his doctor later died. These two people infected their relatives living in other towns.

Health workers buried the body of Ebola patients in Monrovia, Liberia on August 6.(Photo: EPA)

Until the Ebola epidemic was officially confirmed in March, dozens of people died in eight neighborhoods in Guinea and many suspected cases appeared in Liberia and Sierra Leone. These are three of the poorest countries in the world, recovering after years of political instability and civil war.

Dr. Kalissa N'fansoumane, director of a hospital in Gueckedou, said the sense of fear was covering the area, he had to convince the staff to come to work.

While most of the previously recorded Ebola outbreaks began in remote areas, this outbreak in West Africa broke out in the border area, where traffic was improved and crowded back and forth. . Therefore, the virus has spread strongly before medical staff can detect it.

In addition, the Ebola epidemic has never appeared in the African countries mentioned above. The medical staff here cannot detect the disease, and are not trained and equipped with tools to prevent infection for themselves and other patients. Hospitals in the area often lack of faucets and gloves, accidentally becoming a fertile environment for disease outbreaks.

There are 1,779 cases of infection, including 961 Ebola deaths. The situation out of control is getting worse when the epidemic has spread to Nigeria. Epidemiologists predict that it will take months or more to control the epidemic. A spokesman for the World Health Organization WHO said the fight against Ebola needed thousands more health workers to join.