Guinea sees first Ebola deaths in 5 years

CONAKRY – Four people have died of Ebola in Guinea, in the first resurgence of the disease in five years, said the health minister yesterday.

Remy Lamah told AFP that officials are “really concerned” about the deaths, the first since a 2013-16 epidemic – which began in the country – left 11,300 dead across the region.

One of the latest victims in Guinea was a nurse who fell ill late last month and was buried on February 1, National Health Security Agency head Sakoba Keita told local media.

“Among those who took part in the burial, eight people showed symptoms: diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding.

“Three of them died, and four others are in hospital.”

The four deaths from Ebola haemorrhagic fever occurred in the southeast region of Nzerekore, he said.

Keita also told the press that one patient had “escaped”, but has since been found and hospitalised in the capital here.

He confirmed the comments to AFP without giving further detail.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has eyed each new outbreak since 2016 with great concern, treating the most recent one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an international health emergency.

Early today, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that the United Nations health agency has been informed of two suspected cases of the deadly disease in Guinea.

“Confirmatory testing under way,” he tweeted, adding that WHO’s regional and country offices are “supporting readiness and response efforts”.

DR Congo has faced several outbreaks of the illness, with WHO on Thursday confirming a resurgence three months after authorities declared the end of the country’s latest outbreak.

The country had declared the six-month epidemic over last November. It was its 11th Ebola outbreak, claiming 55 lives out of 130 cases.

The widespread use of vaccinations, administered to more than 40,000 people, helped curb the disease.

The 2013-16 outbreak sped up the development of a vaccine against Ebola, with a global emergency stockpile of 500,000 doses planned to respond quickly to future outbreaks, said the vaccine alliance Gavi last month. – AFP, February 14, 2021