Senegal closes land border with Guinea in bid to contain Ebola outbreak

HEALTH

Ebola outbreak: Senegal closes border with Guinea

The Associated Press Published Sunday, March 30, 2014 3:44PM EDT Last Updated Sunday, March 30, 2014 4:33PM EDT

Senegal closes border over Ebola outbreak concerns

In this photo provide by Doctors without Borders, healthcare workers react as they prepare isolation and treatment areas for their Ebola, hemorrhagic fever operations, in Gueckedou, Guinea, on Friday, March 28, 2014. (AP Photo/Kjell Gunnar Beraas, MSF)

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DAKAR, Senegal -- Senegal has closed its land border with neighbouring Guinea to prevent the spread of the Ebola outbreak, which has killed at least 70 people.

Senegal's Interior Ministry announced the border closure Saturday. It also said officials in the southern region of Kolda closed a weekly market which draws thousands of people from the neighbouring West African countries of Guinea, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.

Guinea confirmed last week that several victims of hemorrhagic fever in the country's southern region had tested positive for Ebola. Eight cases have been confirmed in Guinea's capital, Conakry, and in neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone authorities are also investigating suspected cases.

The hemorrhagic fever's initial symptoms can mimic malaria, but as the disease progresses it can lead to grisly deaths as patients bleed both internally and externally.