The World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday pledged emergency assistance to Guinea as the country entered an Ebola epidemic situation with seven new confirmed cases, including three deaths, reported France 24.
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) also confirmed a fourth Ebola case in North Kivu province.
“Very early this morning, the Conakry laboratory confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus,” Sakoba Keita, head of the National Agency for Health Security, said after an emergency meeting in the capital.
Keita said one person had died in late January in Gouécké, south-east Guinea, near the Liberian border. He added that the person was buried on February 1 and some of the people who took part in the funeral began to show symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding, and fever a few days.
Keita said the blood samples tested by a laboratory set up by the EU in Guéckédou, located in the same region, revealed the presence of Ebola in some of them on Friday. He added that with a total of seven cases and three deaths, Guinea was in an “Ebola epidemic situation”.
The infected patients have been isolated in treatment centers, the health ministry confirmed on Sunday.
“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 latest cases marked the first known resurgence of Ebola in West Africa since the 2013-16 epidemic that began in Guinea and resulted in the death of more than 11,300 people across the region. The virus was first detected in 1976 in Zaire, now the DRC.
A WHO representative in Conakry said the agency would send help quickly. He said the WHO is on full alert and is in contact with the vaccine manufacturer to ensure the necessary doses are made available as quickly as possible to help fight back.
