By Umaru Fofana
The authorities in Guinea have confirmed the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus disease in the country which has so far killed four people.
A press release signed by the health minister, Dr Col Remy Lamah says some of the people who participated in the burial of a nurse from the Goueké health center in the district of N'Zérékoré, fell ill. The nurse died on 28 January 2021 and was buried on 1 February in Goueké.
She had fallen ill with diarrhoea and bleeding and was taken to hospital in Nzerekore where she died.
The statement says that preliminary investigations were carried out on four men and three women, all over 25 years old. Three of them, two women and a man, have also died. They had all participated in the nurse's funeral.
The statement says the first three samples sent to laboratories in Gueckedou and Conakry returned a POSITIVE Ebola result for them all and the authorities have therefore declared an Ebola outbreak in the southeast region of N’Zérékoré.
A crisis meeting was held yesterday 14 February chaired by the health minister, with technical and financial partners, local and international, and they adopted a raft of measures. They include isolating and investigating all suspected cases and putting a massive contact-tracing underway.
An emergency team is also to be dispatched to support the local teams on the ground in Gouecké while a treatment center is to be opened for cases detected there.
Five people are now in isolation in Nzerekore and one infected person has been isolated in Conakry.
Both health minister Dr Col Rémy Lamah and the head of the national health agency, Dr. Sakoba Keita are urging caution and insist that further testing is needed.
Gueckedou is in the Forest Region of Guinea, where the first Ebola case was detected in December 2013 leading to the deadly west Africa outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between 2014 and 2015. Understandably there has been concern across Sierra Leone since news filtered through over the weekend about the situation in Guinea. But the difference this time around is that there is a vaccine for Ebola, with a global emergency stockpile of 500,000 doses said to be ready to respond quickly to any outbreaks as announced by the vaccine alliance GAVI. But increasing the numbers at a time when vaccine makers are busy producing Covid19 jabs may be a tall order.
Guinea’s health minister Lamah has expressed concern about the deaths which are the first since the epidemic ended in west Africa in 2016.
The head of the National Health Security Agency, Sakoba Keita says that one patient "escaped" but has been found and hospitalised in the capital Conakry.
Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio has instructed the health ministry to take immediate action.
In a statement, his new health minister, Dr Austin Demby – who was here with the US CDC during the last Ebola outbreak – has announced some measures. He said the country’s health emergency response system has been increased to level II which will ensure enhanced surveillance, active case finding and robust community engagement.
The statement says the health authorities and local stakeholders in districts that border Guinea have been supported to heighten Ebola surveillance.
National rapid response teams are said to be on the way to provide additional support to the district health management teams and a promise to work closely with their Guinean counterparts.
The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says they are aware of the situation in Guinea.
He said his organisation, already struggling with the ongoing COVID19 global pandemic, was collaborating with partners and the Guinea health ministry to carry out confirmatory tests.
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