Guinea steps up measures to curb spread of Ebola virus disease
Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - About 115 contacts of the Ebola virus disease have been identified in Nzérékoré, about 1,000 km south of the Guinean capital, Conakry, where 10 other contacts have been detected, the National Health Security Agency (ANSS) said in a note sent to PANA on Tuesday.
These suspected cases were recorded between 15 January and 14 February, when three cases were confirmed and five deaths had already been recorded.
A first emergency humanitarian flight arrived in Nzérékoré on Monday with technicians from the Ministry of Health and the United Nations system.
The emergency fact-finding mission has been dispatched to support local teams in Gouéké where the first cases were discovered. Inter-sectoral coordination structures have been reactivated and a centre for the management of detected cases has been opened in Gouéké.
The government, which has acknowledged that the expiry of the stockpiled Ebola vaccine, announced WHO's decision to rapidly send vaccines to the country.
On Monday, the government banned, among other things, weekly markets and gatherings at funerals in the sub-prefecture of Gouécké. The Ebola virus disease epidemic, which began in 2013 in West Africa, broke out in the south-east of Guinea before spreading to Liberia and Sierra Leone where it claimed more than 30,000 lives.
-0- PANA AC/JSG/BBA/AR 16Feb2021
