Vaccines are due on Sunday and the vaccination campaign could start on Monday.
More than 11,000 Ebola vaccines are expected to arrive in Guinea’s capital, Conakry, on Sunday after the country declared an Ebola outbreak last week.
World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, told reporters on Thursday that in addition to the 11,000 jabs expected to land in Geneva, another 8,600 will be sent from the United States.
Speaking to reporters at the same press conference, Mohamed Lamine Yansane, senior adviser to Guinea’s Minister of Health, said the vaccines would be distributed immediately to start the vaccination campaign as early as Monday.
“We are strongly supported by the experience accumulated during the first wave of the Ebola epidemic,” said Yansane, referring to the 2013-16 outbreak.
Guinea declared an Ebola epidemic on February 14, after seven people fell ill with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a funeral in Goueke, near the border with Liberia. So far, five people have died from the disease.
International authorities and organizations are moving quickly to help Guinea prevent a further spread of the disease, with more than 100 specialists expected to be in place by the end of the month, according to Moeti.
The UN health expert also emphasized that “it was not likely” that Guinea would experience a situation similar to that of the previous Ebola outbreak, thanks to the country’s response capacity built from the past and rapid coordination with other African countries.
The current outbreak is the first since a 2013-2016 epidemic – which started in Guinea – left 11,300 dead across West Africa. Most cases occurred in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
As the first case detected was in a border area, Moeti said that neighboring countries are on high alert for possible cross-border infections.
On Sunday, Liberian President George Weah ordered health officials to increase the country’s surveillance and preventive activities after the outbreak in his neighboring country.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone has sent workers to guard border entry points in coordination with Guinea officials, a ministry of health spokesman said.
The outbreak in Guinea was declared a week after the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reported a resurgence of the virus in Butembo, the epicenter of an earlier outbreak declared last June. The country started an Ebola vaccination campaign on Monday.
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, said Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance in January.