Ivory Coast tests woman for coronavirus

Health officials in Ivory Coast are responding to a suspected case of coronavirus, the country’s health minister has announced.

A 34-year-old woman, who has not been named, is undergoing further tests after returning from Beijing with flu-like symptoms. If confirmed, it will be the first case of the deadly virus in Africa.

The woman, a student who has lived in China for the past five years, had shown flu-like symptoms before boarding the plane to Abidjan. 

Ivory Coast’s health ministry have said that “her general state is satisfactory” and that results are expected on Sunday evening. 

The virus first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has so far infected over 2,000 people and killed 81. It is understood to be a new strain of coronavirus similar to Sars and had not previously been identified in humans.

The virus causes fever, followed by a dry cough and, a week later, shortness of breath, causing some patients to need hospital treatment. Currently one in four cases are thought to be severe.

Since the outbreak began, several African countries have introduced extra screening on flights arriving from China. 

The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak an emergency in China but has not extended that warning to an international public health emergency, as it did with swine flu and Ebola. 

Photo credit: EPA