CONAKRY (Reuters) – Guinea declared a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday when tests positive for the virus returned after three people died and four became ill in the southeast – the first resurgence of the disease there since the world’s worst outbreak in 2013-2016.
The patients became ill with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a funeral in the Goueke sub-prefecture. Those still alive have been isolated in treatment centers, the health ministry said.
“Faced with this situation and in line with international health regulations, the Guinean government is declaring an Ebola epidemic,” the ministry said in a statement.
The person, who was buried on February 1, was a nurse at a local health center and died after being transferred for treatment to Nzerekore, a city near the border with Liberia and Ivory Coast.
The outbreak of Ebola in West Africa in 2013-2016 began in Nzerekore, whose proximity to busy borders hampered efforts to curb the virus. It killed at least 11,300 people, with the vast majority falling in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The fight against Ebola will further harm health services in Guinea, as they are also fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Guinea, a country of about 12 million people, has so far recorded 14,895 coronavirus infections and 84 deaths.
The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhea and spreads through contact with body fluids. It has a much higher mortality rate than COVID-19, but unlike the coronavirus, it is not transmitted by asymptomatic carriers.
The ministry said health workers were trying to locate and isolate the Ebola cases and would open a treatment center in Goueke, which is less than an hour’s drive from Nzerekore.
Authorities also called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to vaccinate against Ebola. The new vaccines have significantly improved survival rates over the past few years.
“It is a great source of concern to see the revival of Ebola in Guinea, a country that has suffered so much from the disease,” WTO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said in a statement.
As the new outbreak is near the border, the WHO is working with health authorities in Liberia and Sierra Leone to boost surveillance and testing capabilities, the statement said.
The vaccines and improved treatments have helped end the second-largest Ebola outbreak, which was declared in the Democratic Republic of Congo in June last year.
But on Sunday, DRC reported a fourth new case of Ebola in North Kivu province, where a resurgence of the virus was announced on February 7.
Written by Alessandra Prentice; Edited by Frances Kerry and David Goodman