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Guinea launched an Ebola vaccination campaign on Tuesday after a new outbreak of the deadly disease struck the country this month, and authorities hope to eradicate the virus in six weeks.
The country reported new Ebola cases on February 13, the first in West Africa since a 2013-2016 epidemic that killed more than 11,300 in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The latest outbreak emerged near the town of Gouecke, in the forested Nzerekore region of southeastern Guinea, and has already killed five people.
However, no new cases have been confirmed for a week.
Ebola causes severe fever and, in worst cases, unstoppable bleeding.
It is spread through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are at higher risk.
Health workers began administering Ebola vaccines in Gouecke on Tuesday, after more than 11,000 doses arrived in Guinea the day before.
Guinea’s Minister of Health, Remy Lamah, as well as Georges Ki-Zerbo, representative of the World Health Organization in the country, traveled to the city to kick off the launch.
The WHO plans to send about 8,000 more doses to Guinea, the UN health agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
Health Minister Lamah told AFP: “I believe that in six weeks we can end this disease.”
During a ceremony outside a health center in Gouecke, local government officials were beaten in front of a crowd of several dozen people. An imam and a preacher also encouraged people to get vaccinated.
Lamah, who hails from the region, said he had spent the day trying to persuade local leaders to overcome their resistance to the vaccine.
Contact tracking
Ki-Zerbo said the jabs will be administered primarily to those who have been in contact with people known to be infected, potentially followed by a second circle of people to break the chain of transmission.
The vaccination campaign also started in Dubreka, on the outskirts of the capital Conakry, said Dr. Halimatou Keita, who works at a hospital there.
On Wednesday, the deployment will continue in Nzerekore, located about 40 kilometers from Gouecke.
A total of 385 people have been identified as contacts linked to the initial case and the relatives of that person, said Bouna Yattassaye, deputy director of the National Health Security Agency.
The vast majority of them are being monitored and will be among the first to be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, in central Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has also experienced a new Ebola outbreak.
Authorities said on Sunday that four people had died as they warned that people were resisting measures to contain the highly contagious disease.
