Guinea declares first Ebola outbreak in years

PanARMENIAN.Net - Five years after it was declared Ebola-free, officials in Guinea declared an outbreak Sunday, February 14 after at least three people died in recent weeks from the Ebola virus. Four more people were confirmed to be infected, NPR reports.

Health officials have traced this latest outbreak to a funeral at the beginning of February for a nurse from a rural health facility. Six people who attended the funeral reported Ebola-like symptoms; two later died. The other four have been hospitalized.

In a statement posted to Facebook, the Guinean minister of health said officials plan to isolate all suspected cases, begin contact tracing, and work on getting doses of the Ebola vaccine from the World Health Organization.

"The government reassures the people that all measures are being taken to stem this epidemic as soon as possible," Rémy Lamah said, calling on Guinean citizens to report any Ebola symptoms to officials.

WHO officials say they are optimistic, as Guinean health workers have developed expertise in fighting the disease — not just from their country's last outbreak, but also from helping control a similar outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

News of the outbreak comes just days after reports of two Ebola deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than 2,200 people died in a separate Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020.