CONAKRY (Reuters) – Guinea declared a new outbreak of Ebola on Sunday, when tests returned positive for the virus after three people died and four became ill in the south-east – the first recurrence of the disease there from the worst outbreak in the world in 2013-2016.
Patients became ill with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a funeral in Goueke sub-prefecture. Those still alive were isolated in treatment centers, the health ministry said.
“Faced with this situation and in accordance with international health regulations, the Guinean government is declaring an Ebola epidemic,” the ministry said in a statement.
The person buried on February 1 was a nurse at a local health center and died after being transferred for treatment to Nzerekore, a town on the border with Liberia and the Ivory Coast.
The 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa began in Nzerekore, and its proximity to occupied borders has hampered efforts to contain the virus. It continued to kill at least 11,300 people, the vast majority of cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The fight against Ebola will put further pressure on Guinea’s health services, as it also fights the COVID-19 pandemic. Guinea, a country of about 12 million people, has so far recorded 14,895 coronavirus infections and 84 deaths.
The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and spreads through contact with body fluids. It has a much higher mortality rate than COVID-19, but unlike coronavirus it is not transmitted by asymptomatic carriers.
The ministry said health workers were trying to monitor and isolate contacts from Ebola cases and would open a treatment center in Goueke, less than an hour’s drive from Nzerekore.
Authorities also asked the World Health Organization (WHO) for vaccines against the Ebola virus, he said. The new vaccines have significantly improved survival rates in recent years.
“It is a huge concern to see the resurgence of Ebola in Guinea, a country that has already suffered so much from the disease,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in a statement.
Given the proximity of the new border outbreak, the WHO is working with health authorities in Liberia and Sierra Leone to strengthen surveillance and testing capabilities, the statement said.
Improved vaccines and treatments have helped efforts to end the second-largest Ebola outbreak, which was declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo in June last year, after nearly two years and more than 2,200 deaths.
But on Sunday, the DRC reported a fourth new case of Ebola in North Kivu province, where a recurrence of the virus was announced on February 7.
Written by Alessandra Prentice; Edited by Frances Kerry and David Goodman