CONAKRY, Guinea – Guinea health officials confirmed on Sunday that at least three people had died of Ebola there, which was the first case since it was one of three West African countries to fight the deadliest Ebola epidemic in the world in five years. ended ago.
A further four people are confirmed with Ebola, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health. All seven positive cases attended the funeral of a nurse in Goueke on February 1 and later showed Ebola symptoms, including fever, diarrhea, vomiting, according to the ministry statement.
The government has declared an Ebola epidemic and started locating contact and isolating suspicious cases. It also sent an emergency team to support local teams in Goueke and accelerated the procurement of Ebola vaccines from the World Health Organization.
“I confirm it is Ebola. The results prove it, “Health Minister Remy Lamah told The Associated Press by telephone.
The patients have been tested for Ebola after showing symptoms of hemorrhagic fever and those who have come in contact with patients are already in isolation, officials said.
Guinea’s announcement comes a week after eastern Congo confirmed it had also had cases. The issues are not interconnected.
Guinea health experts say these latest cases could be a major setback for the impoverished country, which is already battling COVID-19 and which is still recovering from the previous Ebola outbreak, which killed 2,500 people in Guinea where it started. More than 11,300 people were killed in the outbreak that also hit neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016.
“The revival of Ebola is very worrying for what it could do for the people, the economy and the health infrastructure,” said Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, assistant professor of infectious disease medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, who was the medical, said. director of an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone during the previous outbreak.
“We still understand the effects of the (last) outbreak on the population,” she said.
To limit the spread, the government and international health organizations need to respond quickly and inform communities about what is going on, Kuppalli said.
One reason why the previous outbreak was so deadly was because the virus was not detected quickly and that local authorities and the international community acted slowly when matters first surfaced in a rural part of Guinea.
The initial patient of the epidemic, an 18-month-old boy from a small town, was allegedly infected with bats, but according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in December 2013, it was weeks before a medical warning was issued and by then the virus had already spread and it took years to end it.
The new cases announced on Sunday are in the Nzerekore region, the same place where the previous case began.
After hearing the news, residents in the capital said they were worried the country would not be able to handle another outbreak.
‘The news of the Ebola outbreak in Guinea is worrying. We already have problems with the coronavirus, and the health system will be overwhelmed by two pandemics, ‘said Mamadou Kone, a resident of Conakry.
“I do not know what this curse is the Guinean, all the pandemics are falling on us,” said Mariam Konate, a nurse. “It’s like the country was hit by a curse,” she said.
The origin of the infections is still unknown.
Health experts hope the availability of an Ebola vaccine will help control this outbreak quickly. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with body fluids of someone showing Ebola symptoms, or through corpses that were positive.
Last month, the World Health Organization said it was creating a worldwide emergency supply of about 500,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine to help ward off future outbreaks, but only 7,000 were available at the time of the statement. The Ebola vaccine that is stored is made by Merck.
‘There are tools and systems that can be quickly mobilized to address these issues. The key is speed, to ensure that suitable people and materials are where they need to be, ‘says Donald Brooks, CEO of Initiative: Eau, an American water and sanitation assistance group that has worked to respond to emergencies. to establish for public health. systems in West Africa.
“If not, and it spreads to urban centers, it could result in disastrous loss of life,” he warned.