Ebola hits Guinea again

Conakry – Four people have died of Ebola in Guinea in the first resurgence of the disease in five years, the country’s health minister said on Saturday.

Remy Lamah said officials were “really concerned” about the deaths, the first since a 2013-16 epidemic – which began in Guinea – left 11 300 dead in the region.

One of the latest victims in Guinea was a nurse, who fell ill late last month and was buried on 1 February, National Health Security Agency head Sakoba Keita told local media.

“Among those who took part in the burial, eight people showed symptoms: diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding,” he said. “Three of them died and four others are in hospital.”

The four deaths from Ebola hemorrhagic fever occurred in the southeast region of Nzerekore, he said.

Keita also told local media that one patient had “escaped” but had been found and hospitalised in the capital Conakry.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has eyed each new outbreak since 2016 with concern, treating the most recent one in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) as an international health emergency.

Early yesterday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that the United Nations health agency had been informed of two suspected cases of the deadly disease in Guinea.

“Confirmatory testing underway,” the tweet said, adding that WHO’s regional and country offices were “supporting readiness and response efforts”.

The WHO last week confirmed a resurgence in the DR Congo.