Confirmed by the Guinean Executive and the WHO

New Ebola outbreak in Guinea

photo_camera PHOTO/REUTERS - Health workers carry a coffin, of a patient suspected to have died of Ebola, in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo

The Government of Guinea (Conakry) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have confirmed the existence of a new Ebola outbreak. As of February 14, seven people have been infected and four have died from the disease. Following samples taken, health authorities have confirmed that this outbreak has appeared in the community of Gouéké, in the prefecture of NZérékoré, very close to the borders of Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire.  

The origin of the outbreak is not yet known, but the government has already started to take measures to detect and isolate possible cases. According to initial investigations, patient zero appears to be a nurse who died late last month. Of those who attended the funeral on February 1, in Gouéké, at least two have died and five others have been hospitalized. After attending the celebration, they began to show symptoms such as internal bleeding and vomiting, which are compatible with Ebola.  

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone were the three countries most affected by the Ebola crisis from 2014 to 2016, which was the largest recorded epidemic since the virus was discovered in 1976. Ebola had been eradicated in the West African area for five years. This detection of an outbreak in the area comes just a week after a case was confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This country faced an Ebola epidemic that lasted almost two years, from August 2018 to June 2020 and seemed to be over until the detection of this new case. WHO assures that after an epidemic has ended, it is normal for sporadic cases to occur without the need for a new outbreak. However, the situation in Guinea has been described as a new outbreak and has mobilized several countries and international agencies such as the WHO, which is already on the ground, the CDC and the Pasteur Institute in Senegal, which is currently carrying out a complete sequencing of the genome to identify the strain of the Ebola virus.  

Atalayar_Sanitario ébola

Despite the alarm caused by this resurgence, Guinea has the tools to deal with this new crisis. The experience of the recent outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the fact that the West African population is highly sensitized and recognizes the symptoms allows rapid detection of the virus trajectory and contagion. On the other hand, the fact that in Guinea, as in the rest of the world, there are already health measures in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic is an advantage in preventing its spread. Another tool that was not available in the last outbreak in the West African region is vaccination. WHO is supporting the procurement of the vaccine, which has already shown good results in the north of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite treatment, the mortality rate of the disease is very high.

Finally, because the outbreak has arisen in a border area, alarm has already been raised about the possibility of the virus spreading to neighboring countries, especially Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia. The other countries on alert are Sierra Leone, Mali and Senegal. In the border regions, the capacity of health centers has been reinforced to carry out screening tests.  

The last Ebola outbreak in the region began in Guinea and quickly spread to Sierra Leone and Liberia, with more than 28,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.  

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