Guinea declares new Ebola outbreak
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Feb 14, 2021 • 22 hours ago • 2 minute read
(FILES) In this file photograph taken on September 30, 2014, Liberians wash their hands next to an Ebola information and sanitation station, raising awareness about the virus in Monrovia. - Liberian President George Weah on February 14, 2021, put the country's health authorities on heightened alert after four people died of Ebola in neighbouring Guinea, the first resurgence of the disease in five years. Weah "has mandated the Liberian health authorities and related stakeholders in the sector to heighten the country's surveillance and preventative activities in the wake of reports of the emergence of the deadly Ebola virus disease in neighbouring Guinea," his office said in a statement (Photo by Pascal GUYOT / AFP) (Photo by PASCAL GUYOT/AFP via Getty Images)
In this file photograph taken on September 30, 2014, Liberians wash their hands next to an Ebola information and sanitation station, raising awareness about the virus in Monrovia. PHOTO BY PASCAL GUYOT /AFP via Getty Images
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CONAKRY — Guinea declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday, as tests came back positive for the virus after at least 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 seven patients fell ill with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a burial in Goueke sub-prefecture. Those still alive have been isolated in treatment centers, the health ministry said.
It was not clear if the person buried on Feb. 1 had also died of Ebola. She was a nurse at a local health center who died from an unspecified illness after being transferred for treatment to Nzerekore, a city near the border with Liberia and Ivory Coast.
“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 2013-2016 outbreak of Ebola in West Africa started in Nzerekore, whose proximity to busy borders hampered efforts to contain the virus. It went on to kill at least 11,300 people with the vast majority of cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Fighting Ebola again will place additional strain on health services in Guinea as they battle the coronavirus. Guinea, a country of around 12 million, 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 death rate than COVID-19, but unlike coronavirus it is not transmitted by asymptomatic carriers.
The ministry said health workers are working to trace and isolate the contacts of the Ebola cases and will open a treatment center in Goueke, which is less than an hour’s drive from Nzerekore.
The authorities have also asked the World Health Organization (WHO) for Ebola vaccines, it said. The new vaccines have greatly improved survival rates in recent years.
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Very concerned by reports of 4 suspected Ebola deaths in Guinea. @WHO is ramping up readiness & response efforts to this potential resurgence of #Ebola in West Africa, a region which suffered so much from Ebola in 2014. pic.twitter.com/9eyMLeZutK
— Dr Matshidiso Moeti (@MoetiTshidi) February 14, 2021
“WHO is ramping up readiness & response efforts to this potential resurgence of #Ebola in West Africa, a region which suffered so much from Ebola in 2014,” the WHO’s Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said on Twitter.
The vaccines and improved treatments helped efforts to end the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, which was declared over in Democratic Republic of Congo last June after nearly two years and more than 2,200 deaths.
But on Sunday, DRC reported a fourth new case of Ebola in North Kivu province where a resurgence of the virus was announced on Feb. 7.
CONAKRY — Guinea declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday, as tests came back positive for the virus after at least three people died and four fell ill in the…
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