Second Ebola outbreak officially over in Guinea, announces WHO
In its first deadly wave in 2013-2016, the Ebola outbreak killed 11,300 people in West Africa's Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The second Ebola outbreak in Guinea is officially over, the World Health Organization announced on Saturday. The disease outbreak had erupted in the west African state on February 14.
Marking the end of disease outbreak, WHO official Alfred Ki-Zerbo on Saturday said, "I have the honour of declaring the end of Ebola", reported news agency AFP. Zerbo was addressing a ceremony in the southeastern Nzerekore region where the disease surfaced at the end of January.
In its first deadly wave in 2013-2016, the Ebola outbreak killed 11,300 people in West Africa's Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The country is set to announce an end to the Ebola epidemic in the West African state this weekend, the health minister Remy Lamah said on Saturday.
Lamah, on Thursday, credited the speed of the health response for getting the outbreak under control.
Lamy confirmed the viral epidemic will be declared over on Saturday -- barring the discovery of new cases. The health minister was addressing a webinar hosted by the WHO.
The outbreak was officially confirmed in Guinea this year on February 14, sending waves of panic and reminders from the deadly first outbreak.
Ebola is a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever that causes a range of symptoms including fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, generalized pain or malaise and in many cases internal and external bleeding.
The disease is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are most at risk.
In the second wave, at least 16 people were infected by the disease and five died since February in Guinea, the WHO said. The disease is known to have made a comeback in the forested Nzerekore region in the southeast of the impoverished nation.
New outbreaks of the deadly Ebola virus disease in the two African countries are sending fresh jitters to Africa as the continent is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Soon after the disease reappeared, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March called on all African countries to enhance their cross-border surveillance efforts by mapping population movements to identify all potential crossing points where there is a risk of disease spread.
