Patient Zero: Blog 3

         The New England Journal of Medicine believe that 2 year old Emile Ouamouno was the first person to contract Ebola in the recent outbreak, starting over a year ago. No one had ever heard of this small boy until now, where across the world he is now known as Patient Zero. Living in Guinea it is unsure how the toddler contracted this disease, but afterwards it was easily spread to his 4 year old sister, grandmother, and his own mother. Starting in December, Emile had symptoms including a high fever, irregular colored stool, and extreme vomiting. Emile died December 6th, later following his mother on December 13th, his youngest sister on December 29th, suffering the same exact symptoms, and his grandmother on January 1st. After several villagers of Meliandou attended the grandmothers funeral, the disease began to spread aggressively. Four months after the death of Patient Zero, 14 members of the village died. In the village many animals including goats and chicken roam from house to house, leading many to believe that that is how the virus was contracted in the first place. Though today, the village of Meliandou is still financially effected. The people of the village made their living by selling foods like rice, corn, and bananas to neighboring cities and towns, but being known as the village of which Ebola originated, no one is purchasing anything. Who would? Out of fear of contracting the disease many residents burned their possessions, leaving the village poorer than the had ever been.


Source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/28/health/ebola-patient-zero/index.html?iref=allsearch