On Sunday, Health officials in Guinea confirmed that at least three people have died from Ebola.
What We Know:
- According to U.S. News, there are seven people total who have contracted Ebola. A statement from the Ministry of Health reports that all seven positive cases stemmed from a funeral for a nurse in Goueke. The funeral took place on February 1st.
- Each person who tested positive for the deadly virus showed symptoms including a fever, diarrhea, and vomiting. These are the first cases in Guinea since the Ebola epidemic of 2016. Although the two are not believed to be connected, Guinea’s announcement comes one week after eastern Congo confirmed it also had Ebola cases.
- Assistant professor of medicine for infectious diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina and the medical director of an Ebola treatment unit in Sierra Leone, Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, said, “The resurgence of Ebola is very concerning for what it could do for the people, the economy, the health infrastructure.” More than 11,300 people died in the first outbreak between 2014 and 2016.
- According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ebola virus’s origins are still unknown. However, the first positive case was confirmed to be an 18-month-old boy from a small village who was believed to have been infected by bats. A weeks-long delay in a medical alert to be issued about the spreading virus cost authorities precious time to eradicate the virus quickly.
- As the virus spreads through bodily fluids and the corpses of positive cases, the government has declared another Ebola epidemic and has started contact tracing and isolating suspected cases. An emergency team has been sent to Goueke to help local health practitioners accelerate the distribution of Ebola vaccines brought in from the World Health Organization.
With the country’s health officials battling the coronavirus and now Ebola, one nurse said, “I don’t know what this curse is hitting the Guineans, all the pandemics are falling on us.”
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