Guinea, a country in West Africa, announced on Sunday that the Ebola virus had become an epidemic after the deaths of three people and the hospitalization of four others, a report said.
Reuters reported that the country’s health system does not face the difficult task of responding to outbreaks of COVID-19 and Ebola. The report noted that while Ebola is much more deadly than coronavirus, it is not transmitted by asymptomatic hosts.
The latest outbreak ended up killing about 11,300. The country of 12 million people, one of the poorest in the world, is building treatment centers to deal with the potential for increasing patients. The outbreak occurred in the southeastern region of the country. Health officials believe the outbreak started at a funeral.
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Sakoba Keita, head of the National Health Security Agency, told the Washington Post that officials are trying to work quickly to track down those who may have been in contact with an infected individual.
The newspaper said the country is also fighting outbreaks of yellow fever and measles. Keita told the Post: “We are facing four epidemics at the same time.”
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Last month, the World Health Organization said it was creating a global emergency stockpile of about 500,000 doses of Ebola vaccine to help prevent future outbreaks, but only 7,000 were available at the time of the declaration. The Ebola vaccine being stored is manufactured by Merck.
“There are tools and systems that can be mobilized quickly to deal with these cases. The key will be speed, ensuring that the right people and materials are where they need to be,” said Donald Brooks, executive director of the Initiative: Eau, a humanitarian organization from USA group focused on water and sanitation, which worked on establishing public health emergency response systems in West Africa.
The Associated Press contributed to this report