WHO warns six African countries of Ebola outbreaks

CONAKRY (Reuters) – The World Health Organization has called on six African countries to be alerted to possible Ebola infections, as Guinea reported new cases on Tuesday and the Democratic Republic of Congo said its new infections were a resurgence of a previous outbreak.

Guinea on Sunday declared a virus outbreak in the first recurrence of the disease there since the 2013-2016 outbreak, while Congo confirmed four new cases this month.

Health officials rushed to respond to cases in Guinea, eager to prevent a recurrence of the latest outbreak in West Africa, which killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, in the worst Ebola epidemic. .

“We have already alerted the six surrounding countries, including, of course, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and they are moving very quickly to prepare and be ready and look for any possible infection,” said Margaret Harris, WHO, in a statement. briefing in Geneva, Tuesday.

Guinea’s neighbors include Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Guinea has so far recorded up to 10 suspected Ebola cases and five deaths. Since the outbreak was declared on Sunday, it has identified 115 contacts of known cases in the southeastern city of Nzerekore and 10 in the capital Conakry, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

Gene sequencing of Ebola samples from both Congo and Guinea is being done to find out more about the origins of the outbreaks and to identify the strains, according to the WHO.

As a result, Congo has confirmed that its latest cases are not related to a new variant of Ebola, but are a reappearance of the tenth outbreak, the second largest, which caused more than 2,200 deaths in 2018-2020.

“As for the infection, we are not yet able to identify its origin,” said Provincial Health Minister Eugene Nzanzu Salita, referring to how the first person to fall ill in this rebirth caught the virus.

Since the devastating epidemic in West Africa, the development of vaccines and treatments has greatly improved survival rates and isolation efforts.

The further spread of the disease could paralyze the regions’ underfunded health systems, which are also fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Ivory Coast, Mali and Sierra Leone have launched plans to halt any potential spread and strengthen border controls.

The Ebola virus can cause severe bleeding and organ failure 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.