The United Nations unveiled a new mobile laboratory in Liberia on Saturday (January 30) which it said will drastically cut down on waiting time when diagnosing whether or not patients have the Ebola virus – which will in turn speed up the treatment and containment of the deadly virus.
The ordinary looking shipping container is in fact a high technology mobile laboratory, especially equipped to perform the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, the most accurate way to diagnose Ebola within a few days of the onset of symptoms, UNMEER said in press release.
The lab, donated by Save the Children with funding from the government of the Netherlands, was shipped in a Dutch Navy vessel and then transported by land to Sinje in Liberia, a remote location right outside the International Organization of Migration (IOM) run Ebola Treatment Unit (ETU).
“Before the lab was opened here, the samples had to be taken to Monrovia. And before the results came back it would take 24 hours, and we are hoping to get them in about six (hours). So that’s more getting the answers to the ETU (Ebola treatment unit), so that it would speed up things,” explained Jaqueline Schelfaut, a lab technician.
The introduction of the new lab comes ahead of Sunday’s (February 1) opening ceremony of a programme marking the launch of the Ebola vaccine study, hosted by the U.S. Embassy.
The number of new confirmed Ebola cases totalled 99 in the week to Jan. 25, the lowest tally since June, the World Health Organization said on Thursday (January 29), signalling the tide might have turned against the epidemic. The outbreak has killed 8,810 people out of 22,092 known cases.
Some 27 sub-prefectures in Guinea reported at least one security incident or other form of refusal to cooperate in the week to Jan 21. Two districts in Liberia and four in Sierra Leone reported at least one similar incident, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said on Friday (January 30).
The decline in new cases should not lead to complacency, she said: “Because one unsafe burial – only one – can really create a new chain of transmission and cause other cases of Ebola.”
The Red Cross also warned that West Africa will be lucky to wipe out Ebola this year, as the local population remains suspicious of aid workers, especially inGuinea.
The virus is “flaring up” in new areas in the region and not all infections are being reported, said Birte Hald, who leads the Ebola coordination and support unit of theInternational Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
UNMEER