WHO warns countries near Guinea on Ebola virus, ‘very high’ risk

World Health Organization (WHO) officials said the risk of Ebola spreading out of Guinea to its neighbors was “very high.” They also raised concerns about the unpreparedness of some nearby countries for future revolutions or immunization campaigns. Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, WHO Guinea’s representative, said at a virtual intelligence meeting so far that 18 cases of Ebola virus have been identified and four have died.

Guinea’s neighboring countries unprepared for Ebola

Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo said 1,604 people have so far been vaccinated against Ebola in Guinea. Officials said Guinea’s neighbors such as Senega, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia are not ready for the Ebola outbreak. Abdou Slaam Gueye, WHO Regional Emergency Director said in a video conference, WHO had assessed the willingness of Guinea’s neighboring countries but none of the countries were fully prepared for Ebola. He said the countries did not have enough vaccines to prevent people from getting this virus.

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Abdou Slaam Gueye said that the neighboring countries have agreed on cross-border cooperation to control the outbreak of the virus. WHO Dr Michel Yao, Executive Director of Strategic Health, said, “We are dealing with very fragile health systems including a lack of capacity to deal with many public health challenges and so it is a It is still a challenge to tackle both COVID and Ebola. ”Guinea reported 17 new cases of Ebola Virus yesterday while 8 deaths due to virus were reported. 579 calls were identified of which 93 per cent were reported. Last month, the WHO sent 11,000 doses of Ebola vaccines to Guinea after a group of Ebola cases were reported by the country’s health officials. According to WHO, the Ebola virus causes severe injury and diarrhea and is spread through contact with body fluids.

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