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Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The government of Guinea in West Africa declared that Ebola had returned to the country on Sunday (2/14/2021). At least three deaths have been recorded from the virus.
The patients were reported to become ill with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a funeral in the Goueke sub-prefecture. Currently, those who are still alive have been isolated in the health center.
“Faced with this situation and in accordance with international health regulations, the Guinean government declared an Ebola epidemic,” the ministry said in a statement. Reuters, Monday (2/14/2021).
Within the funeral group, the body buried 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.
Nzerekore itself is one of the places where the virus was first suspected, given its location on the border.
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 has so far recorded 14,895 coronavirus infections and 84 deaths.
The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and is spread by contact with bodily fluids. This virus has a much higher mortality rate than Covid-19.
Unlike the coronavirus, Ebola is not transmitted by an asymptomatic (no symptoms) carrier. The ministry said health workers were trying to track down and isolate contacts for Ebola cases and would open a treatment center in Goueke, which is less than an hour’s drive from Nzerekore.
Meanwhile, on another occasion, the World Health Organization (WHO) expressed concern about the return of Ebola.
“It is very worrying to see the resurgence of Ebola in Guinea, a country that has suffered greatly 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 increase surveillance and testing capacity, according to the statement.
Ebola first appeared in 1976 in the South Sudan region. The virus was recorded to have a fairly high mortality rate, up to almost 90%.
Regarding vaccines, the development of the first Ebola virus vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV, was successfully resolved in December 2019. However, so far the vaccine has only been injected into 100,000 people.
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