Physical Wellness

Ebola's Patient Zero: Two-Year Old From Guinea

By Peter R | Update Date: Oct 29, 2014 10:37 AM EDT

Who is patient 'Zero' in the current Ebola outbreak? A two-year old who succumbed to the virus about a year ago in a remote village in Guinea.

CNN reported that the first person to be infected due to unknown causes was Emile Ouamouno, a toddler in a rainforest called Meliandou in Guinea. He presented Ebola symptoms including black stools and fever in early December, only to die four days later. His sister and his mother contracted the virus and died of it.

"Emile liked to listen to the radio and his sister liked to carry babies on her back," said Emile's father Etienne, according to Unicef. After three members in the family died, the virus spread rapidly leaving nearly 14 people of the village dead in its wake.

The village which lies close to borders of Sierra Leone and Liberia is now said to be virus free but more than 9,000 people have been infected, and nearly 5,000 killed.

In Ebola related news, Fox News reported that the US government plans to bring in non-US citizens to the country for treatment. On the basis of material sourced from Capitol Hill, the memo was quoted as, "State and DHS devise a system for expeditious parole of Ebola-infected non-citizens into the United States as long as they are otherwise eligible for medical evacuation from the Ebola affected countries and for entry into the United States."

The memo reportedly states that the US needs to show leadership and act as it was asking others to act by admitting non-US citizens.  

However the administrations had denied such plans. Instead it maintained that the US was contemplating to allow other countries to use US plans for evacuation of their patients or others.

"There are absolutely no plans to MEDEVAC non-Americans who become ill from West Africa to the United States," an official was quoted saying by Fox News. 

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