At least nine people have died after an Ebola outbreak in Guinea.
The outbreak, which is the first since 2016, is thought to be caused by a ‘sustained’ human source, the WHO said today.
According to the Daily Star, at least 18 people have been infected so far.
The human source may have contracted the virus during the last outbreak, which began in 2013 and lasted for three years.
Guinea confirmed an Ebola outbreak in February 2021 after five years of the country was clear due to hemorrhagic fever.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The cases are the first to be confirmed after the most recent outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia killed 11,000 people, the worst outbreak recorded in history.
Top bosses at the World Health Organization have expressed concern after the virus lingered for such a ‘remarkable’ period, prompting further research.
In a press conference on Friday, March 12, WHO’s chief emergency officer, the doctor, said: ‘This (outbreak) is unlikely to be based on genetic sequencing that will be linked to a fresh zoonotic reservoir and that it is much more likely will be linked to persistence or latency of infection in a human subject.
“As far as we now understand, we are not dealing with the species barrier.”
He urged those who survived Ebola not to panic, saying “more studies are needed”.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Dr Ryan added: “Let me say it again: the vast majority of people who survived Ebola removed the virus from their system, and they recovered within six months.
“An even smaller percentage of people may carry the virus, they are not contagious to other people except in very specific circumstances, and a small proportion of them may relapse and become ill again.”
Dr. Bruce Alyward, a senior official of the World Health Organization, said at the same press conference: “The biggest mistake we can make is to come to a conclusion about what it means about the outbreak and its evolution.”
Ebola, which is one of the deadliest viruses known to mankind, can be transmitted from bats or monkeys to humans.
The virus can survive in or on parts of the body of survivors who are now healthy, for example the eyes, testicles and breasts and can also be transmitted through sperm.
Shortly after the news broke, Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security, addressed her Twitter page, saying, ‘It’s really shocking to me, too. no idea how it happens mechanically and it’s just going to show how much we still need to learn about Ebola. ‘
She added that the world should make ‘our efforts to strengthen Ebola vaccines to people in affected communities, including survivors’, but noted that there is a limited amount of vaccines.
Currently, three thousand people have been vaccinated in Guinea, and the World Health Organization has a total of 30,000 doses.