Guinea records first Ebola deaths since 2016

Caption: Guinea records first Ebola deaths since 2016 Credit: Getty

Guinea has declared a new Ebola outbreak after at least three people died from the virus. 

In total, seven patients fell ill with diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a burial in Goueke sub-prefecture. 

Tests then confirmed It was the first resurgence of the disease since the world’s worst outbreak in 2013-2016.

The four survivors have been isolated in treatment centres, the health ministry said.

It was not clear if a person buried on February 1 had also died of Ebola. 

She was a nurse at a local health centre who died from an unspecified illness after being transferred for treatment to Nzerekore, a city near the border with Liberia and Ivory Coast.

‘Faced with this situation and in accordance with international health regulations, the Guinean government declares an Ebola epidemic,’ the ministry said in a statement.

The 2013-2016 outbreak in West Africa started in Nzerekore, whose proximity to busy borders hampered efforts to contain the virus. 

It went on to kill at least 11,300 people with the vast majority of cases in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Fighting Ebola again will place additional strain on health services in Guinea as they battle the coronavirus. 

Guinea, a country of around 12 million, has recorded 14,895 coronavirus infections and 84 deaths.

It was the first time Ebola had been detected since 2016 (Getty)

The Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea and is spread through contact with body fluids. 

It has a much higher death rate than Covid-19, but unlike coronavirus it is not transmitted by asymptomatic carriers.

The ministry said health workers are working to trace and isolate the Ebola cases’ contacts and will open a treatment centre in Goueke, which is less than an hour’s drive from Nzerekore.

The authorities have also asked the World Health Organization (WHO) for Ebola vaccines, it said. 

The new vaccines have much-improved survival rates in recent years.

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