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Health workers donned protective gear before entering an Ebola quarantine zone at a Red Cross facility in the eastern Sierra Leone town of Koidu on December 19, 2014. / Reuters
Health workers donned protective gear before entering an Ebola quarantine zone at a Red Cross facility in the eastern Sierra Leone town of Koidu on December 19, 2014. / Reuters
Guinea declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday when tests came back positive for the virus after three people died and four fell ill in the southeast, the first resurgence of the disease there since the world’s worst outbreak in 2013-2016.
The patients became ill with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a funeral in Goueke sub-prefecture. Those who are still alive have been isolated in treatment centers, the Health Ministry said.
“Faced with this situation and in accordance with international health regulations, the Guinean government declares an Ebola epidemic,” the ministry said in a statement.
The person buried on February 1 was a nurse at a local health center and died after being transferred for treatment to Nzerekore, a city near the border with Liberia and the Ivory Coast.
The 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa began in Nzerekore, whose proximity to busy borders hampered efforts to contain the virus. It then killed at least 11,300 people, with the vast majority of the cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The fight against Ebola will again put additional pressure on the health services in Guinea, as they are also fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Guinea, a country of about 12 million people, has so far recorded 14,895 coronavirus infections and 84 deaths.
The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and is spread through contact with body fluids. It has a much higher mortality rate than COVID-19, but unlike the coronavirus, it is not transmitted by asymptomatic carriers.
The ministry said health workers are trying to trace and isolate contacts for Ebola cases and will open a treatment center in Goueke, which is less than an hour’s drive from Nzerekore.
A French Red Cross team picks up a suspected case of Ebola in the center of Forecariah, Guinea, on January 30, 2015. / Reuters
A French Red Cross team picks up a suspected case of Ebola in the center of Forecariah, Guinea, on January 30, 2015. / Reuters
Authorities have also asked the World Health Organization (WHO) for Ebola vaccines, he said. New vaccines have greatly improved survival rates in recent years.
“It is a great concern to see the resurgence of Ebola in Guinea, a country that has already suffered so much from the disease,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in a statement.
Given how close the new outbreak is to the border, WHO is working with health authorities in Liberia and Sierra Leone to strengthen surveillance and analysis capabilities, according to the statement.
Improved vaccines and treatments aided efforts to end the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, which was declared over in the Democratic Republic of the Congo last June after nearly two years and more than 2,200 deaths.
Sierra Leone activated the health emergency response system
Sierra Leone activated its Health Emergency Response System at level two on Sunday after seven confirmed cases of Ebola in neighboring Guinea. The country’s Health Ministry said in a statement that it has all the structures in place during the 2014-15 Ebola response.
“We will use our experience and knowledge to mount a robust response that not only prevents the introduction of Ebola into the country, but, should the virus be introduced, has a strong system that protects the lives of all Sierra Leoneans and disrupts the transmission of the virus. “, the statement said.
With the border with Guinea currently closed, health authorities and local stakeholders in the districts bordering Guinea have received support to increase Ebola surveillance and improve community awareness, including appropriate preparedness measures, the statement added. .
Sierra Leone first saw an Ebola outbreak in 2014, which killed more than 3,000 residents.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has confirmed a fourth case of Ebola in North Kivu province, where a resurgence of the virus was announced on February 7, provincial Health Minister Eugene Nzanzu Salita said on Sunday.
(With input from Xinhua, Reuters)
