Recent confirmed cases of an Ebola outbreak have resulted in an epidemic being declared, with governments and health organisations racing to prepare.
After an emergency meeting Sakoba Keita, head of Guinea’s National Health Security Agency, stated: “Very early this morning, the Conakry laboratory confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus.”
In late January, one person had died in Gouécké, near the Liberian border. The victim was buried on 1 February “and some people who took part in this funeral began to have symptoms of diarrhoea, vomiting, bleeding and fever a few days later”, Keita said.
Laboratory testing of samples revealed the presence of Ebola in some of them on Friday, said Keita. He added that, with a total of seven cases and three deaths, Guinea was now in an “Ebola epidemic situation”.
WHO representative Alfred George Ki-Zerbo said in a press briefing: “We are going to rapidly deploy crucial assets to help Guinea, which already has considerable experience [treating the disease]. The arsenal is stronger now and we will take advantage of that to contain this situation as fast as possible.
“The WHO is on full alert and is in contact with the manufacturer [of a vaccine] to ensure the necessary doses are made available as quickly as possible to help fight back.”
Ebola is also flaring up outside of Guinea. On Thursday, the WHO announced a resurgence of Ebola in the DRC, only three months after the outbreak there was declared over. In Guinea’s neighbour Liberia, health authorities have been put on high alert even though no cases have as yet been detected there.
The deadly Ebola outbreak of 2013-2016 prompted the creation of a global stockpile of 500 000 vaccine doses, which can be drawn upon whenever an outbreak of the disease occurs.
Source: The Guardian
