With seven confirmed cases in the West African country, including three deaths, the authorities declare a new Ebola outbreak.
Guinea declared an Ebola epidemic after three people died and four others tested positive for the virus in the south-east of the country.
The seven people fell ill with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a funeral in Goueke, near the border with Liberia. The infected patients were isolated in treatment centers, the health ministry said on Sunday.
“In view of this situation and in accordance with international health regulations, the Guinean government declares an Ebola epidemic,” the ministry said in a statement.
One of the victims was a nurse who fell ill in late January and was buried on February 1, the head of the National Health Security Agency, Sakoba Keita, told local media.
“Some people who attended this funeral started to show symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding and fever a few days later,” he said.
Health Minister Remy Lamah said officials are “really concerned” about the deaths, the first since a 2013-2016 epidemic – which started in Guinea – left 11,300 dead across West Africa. The vast majority of cases occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Combating Ebola will again put additional pressure on Guinea’s health services during the coronavirus pandemic. The country of about 12 million has so far registered 14,895 coronavirus infections and 84 deaths.
The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and is transmitted by 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.
A second round of tests is being carried out to confirm the latest diagnosis of Ebola and health professionals are working to track and isolate case contacts, said the state health agency ANSS.
He informed that Guinea would contact the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international health agencies to purchase vaccines against Ebola. Vaccines have greatly improved survival rates in recent years.
“WHO is stepping up readiness and response efforts to this potential resurgence of #Ebola in West Africa, a region that suffered so much from Ebola in 2014,” said agency regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti on Twitter.
‘Response efforts’
WHO sees every new outbreak since 2016 with great concern, treating a recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as an international health emergency.
On Sunday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that the agency had been informed of suspected cases of the deadly disease in Guinea.
“Confirmation tests in progress,” said the tweet, adding that WHO regional and national offices were “supporting preparedness and response efforts”.
Meanwhile, in Liberia, President George Weah has put his country’s health officials on high alert.
Weah “ordered Liberian health officials and related stakeholders in the sector to intensify the country’s surveillance and preventive activities following reports of the emergence of the deadly Ebola disease in neighboring Guinea,” his office said in a statement.
The DRC neighborhood has faced several outbreaks of the disease, with WHO confirming a resurgence on Thursday three months after authorities declared the end of the country’s last outbreak.
The DRC, which declared the end of the six-month epidemic in November, confirmed a fourth case in North Kivu province on Sunday.
The widespread use of Ebola vaccines, administered to more than 40,000 people, helped to contain the disease.
The 2013-2016 spread accelerated the development of the Ebola vaccine, with a global emergency stockpile of 500,000 doses planned to respond quickly to future outbreaks, the Gavi vaccine alliance said in January.