In Guinea, four people have died of Ebola in a resurgence of the disease that emerged five years ago, the country’s health minister said Saturday.
Remy Lamah told the AFP news agency that officials were “deeply concerned” about the Ebola deaths, the first since the 2013-2016 pandemic – which began in Guinea and saw 11,300 deaths from the disease across the country. of the department.
One of the newest victims in the West African country was a nurse who developed symptoms in late January and was buried on February 1, the head of the National Health Security Agency Sakoba Keita told local media.
“Among those who took part in the funeral, eight people showed symptoms: the diarrhea, vomiting and swelling,” Keita said. “Three of them and four others died at the hospital.”
The four deaths from Ebola hemorrhagic fever occurred in the southeastern region of Nzerekore, the health official said.
Keita told local media that one patient had “escaped” just until he was later found, and then returned to the hospital.
WHO Ebola warning
The World Health Organization (WHO) has viewed every new Ebola crisis since 2016 with great concern, treating the latest uprising in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as a global health crisis.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that the DA health agency had been notified of two suspected cases in Guinea.
“A pilot test is underway,” Tedros said, adding that WHO “supports readiness and response efforts.”
DR Congo has been involved in several outbreaks of the disease, with the WHO on Thursday confirming a three-month recovery after authorities announced the country’s latest epilepsy.
In November last year, the central African country announced that the six-month epidemic was coming to an end. This was the 11th revolution reported by DR Congo in total, with 55 people dying from 130 reported cases.
Vaccination support
Extensive use of vaccines, given to more than 40,000 people, has helped prevent outbreaks.
The 2013-2016 epilepsy impacted the development of the Ebola vaccine, with the collection of an international emergency stockpile of 500,000 doses expected to deal swiftly with a future outbreak, the GAVI vaccine alliance said in January.