Health officials from Guinea declared an Ebola outbreak in the southeast area of the country. Seven people had been affected by this outbreak, and three of them died. More precisely, the scourge is occurring in Gouéké in N’Zerekore prefecture. The event marks the first time Ebola was found on Guinea’s territory since 2016.
The sad news is brought by arsTECHNICA, also mentioning that six people got ill after attending a funeral.
“It’s a huge concern”
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, who’s the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, declared:
It’s a huge concern to see the resurgence of Ebola in Guinea, a country which has already suffered so much from the disease,
However, banking on the expertise and experience built during the previous outbreak, health teams in Guinea are on the move to quickly trace the path of the virus and curb further infections.
Health officials are already prepared to work for tracing contacts, vaccinate suspected contacts, and mobilize health resources.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared during a conference:
The outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are completely unrelated, but we face similar challenges in both,
Both outbreaks are occurring in areas that have recent experience with Ebola and are benefiting from that experience… But both outbreaks are also in hard-to-reach, insecure areas, with some mistrust of outsiders.
Guinea was one of the most affected countries by the 2016 outbreak of Ebola. Hopefully, the country won’t have to deal with something similar this time.
According to the World Health Organization, there were 3804 cumulative cases of Ebola in Guinea in 2016 and 2534 cumulative deaths caused by the virus. The first symptoms of Ebola are sore throat, fever, headaches, and muscular pain. The next symptoms are usually rash, vomiting, diarrhoea, and decreased function of kidneys and liver.
