Guinea’s health ministry on Tuesday launched a vaccination campaign against the Ebola hemorrhagic fever, more than a week after the resurgence of the virus in a country, reported Africa News.
The campaign began after more than 11,000 doses of vaccines from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in Conakry on Monday evening. The WHO plans to send an additional 8,500 doses from the United States soon.
“I think that in six weeks, we can be done with this disease”, said Health Minister, General Remy Lamah, who traveled with the WHO representative in Guinea, Georges Ki-Zerbo, and UN officials.
The vaccination program was launched in Gouécké, a town in the south of Guinea, where the first case of the Ebola resurgence was reported on February 13, five years after a deadly epidemic in West Africa. The launch started with the vaccination of health workers.
Lamah, who hails from Gouécké, said he had spent the day trying to persuade local leaders to overcome their resistance to the vaccine.
On Tuesday, the WHO said the vaccination program will follow the ‘ring strategy’ where all people who have come into contact with a confirmed Ebola patient will be given the vaccine, as well as frontline and health workers.
Ebola causes severe fever in the infected person and sometimes even unstoppable bleeding. The deadly virus is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids. People who live with Ebola patients are at the most risk of transmitting the virus.
Guinea has recorded four confirmed and four probable cases including five deaths in the first resurgence of Ebola since the 2013-2016 outbreak that killed 11,300 people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Earlier this month, authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo also announced the reappearance of the Ebola virus in the eastern part of the Central African country. Four confirmed Ebola cases, including two deaths have been reported so far.
