Issued on:
The World Health Organization on Sunday pledged first aid to Guinea after the country’s health agency said it was seeing a new ‘Ebola epidemic’, including the first deaths from the disease since 2016. The Democratic Republic of Congo also has a fourth case of Ebola in North confirmed. Kivu Province.
The head of Guinea’s health agency said on Sunday that the country was in the midst of an “epidemic situation” of Ebola, with seven cases confirmed in the West African country, including three deaths.
“Very early this morning, the Conakry laboratory confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus,” Sakoba Keita said after an emergency meeting in the capital.
Health Minister Remy Lamah had earlier spoken of four deaths. It was not immediately clear why the toll was reduced.
The cases were the first known revival of the virus in West Africa since a 2013-2016 epidemic that began in Guinea, leaving more than 11,300 dead across the region.
A representative of the World Health Organization said he would send help quickly.
Keita, head of the National Agency for Health Safety, said one person died at the end of January in Gouecke, near the Liberian border.
The funeral took place on February 1 in Gouecke “and some people who attended this funeral had symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding and fever a few days later,” he said.
The first samples tested by a laboratory set up by the European Union in Gueckedou in the same region revealed the presence of the Ebola virus in some of them on Friday, Keita said.
He added that Guinea was now in an “Ebola epidemic situation” with a total of seven cases and three deaths.
(AFP)