CONAKRY: Health officials into Guinea on Sunday it confirmed that at least three people have died from Ebola there, the first cases to be named since it was one of three West African countries battling the deadliest Ebola epidemic in the world which ended five years ago.
Five more people have tested positive for Ebola in the town of Gueckedou in the countrysouth, according to Dr. Sakoba Keita, head of the Guinea National Health Security Agency.
“ I’m confirming it’s Ebola. The results confirm it, ” Health Minister Remy Lamah told the Associated Press by phone.
Patients were tested for Ebola after showing signs of hemorrhagic fever and those who came in contact with the sick are already on their own, officials said.
Guinea’s news comes a week after the East Congo He confirmed he had issues too. The issues are not connected.
Health experts in Guinea say these latest issues could be a major obstacle for the poor country, which is already fighting COVID-19 and is still recovering from the war. out a former Ebola, who killed 2,500 in Guinea where it started. More than 11,300 people died in that uprising that struck nearby countries in Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2016.
“ Ebola recovery is very worrying for what it could do for the people, the economy, the health infrastructure, ” said Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, a professor of medicine for infectious diseases at the University of Carolina Medical Center. Right, who was the medical director of an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone during the previous uprising.
“ We still understand the impact of the (final) uprising on the population, ” she said.
To contain the spread, government and international health agencies need to respond quickly and educate communities about what is going on, Kuppalli said.
One reason is that the previous uprising was so deadly that the virus was not detected quickly and local authorities and the international community were slow to take action when things first appeared in part. rural of Guinea.
The first patient with epilepsy, an 18-month-old boy from a small town, was believed to have been caught by bats, but after the outbreak was reported in December 2013, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it was weeks before a medical warning had been issued and by that time the virus had already spread and it took years to complete.
The new cases announced Sunday are in the Nzerekore district, the same place where the previous one began.
After hearing the news, the townspeople said they were worried that the country would not be able to cope with another uprising.
“ The news of the Ebola uprising in Guinea is worrying. We already have problems dealing with the coronavirus, now two pandemics are overrunning the health system, ” said Mamadou Kone, a Conakry resident.
“ I don’t know what this curse is on the Guineans, all the pandemics are falling on us, ” said Mariam Konate, a nurse. “It’s like a curse on the country,” she said.
The origins of the diseases are not yet known.
Health experts hope the Ebola vaccine will help control this outbreak quickly. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with body fluids from someone who is showing signs of Ebola, or from positive bodies.
Last month, the World Health Organization said it was creating a global emergency collection of about 500,000 doses of the Ebola vaccine to help stop a future outbreak, but only 7,000 were available. available at the time of the report. The collected Ebola vaccine is manufactured by Merck.
“ There are tools and systems that can be moved quickly to deal with these issues. Speed is the key, making sure people and materials are fit where they need to be, ” said Donald Brooks, chief executive of Enterprise: Eau, a U.S. aid agency focused on water and sanitation, which has been working on public health emergencies to establish response systems West Africa.
“If it doesn’t and it spreads to cities, it could be a catastrophic loss of life,” he warned.