Advertisement

Updated March 5th, 2021 at 21:46 IST

WHO warns Guinea's neighbouring countries on Ebola virus, say risk 'very high'

World Health Organization(WHO) officials said the risk of Ebola outbreak spreading from Guinea to its neighbours was "very high."

Reported by: Apoorva Kaul
WHO
| Image:self
Advertisement

The World Health Organization (WHO) officials said that the risk of Ebola outbreak spreading from Guinea to its neighbours was "very high." They also raised concern over the unpreparedness of some neighbouring countries for an outbreak or future vaccination campaigns. Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo, WHO's Guinea representative in a virtual briefing said that so far 18 cases of Ebola virus have been identified and four of them have died. 

Guinea's neighbouring countries unprepared for Ebola

Georges Alfred Ki-Zerbo added that until now 1,604 people have been vaccinated against Ebola in Guinea. Officials said the neighbours of Guinea like Senega, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Liberia are not prepared for Ebola cases. Abdou Slaam Gueye, the WHO's Regional Emergency Director in video conference said, WHO had conducted an assessment of the readiness of Guinea's neighbouring countries but none of the countries was completely ready for Ebola. He said that the countries did not have enough vaccines to prevent people from getting infected with this virus.

guinea
guinea

Read: Guinea Declares Ebola Epidemic After At Least Four Deaths And Seven Cases

 

Read: Guinea: 3 Dead, 5 Hospitalised As Ebola Virus Resurges, Experts Concerned

Abdou Slaam Gueye added that the neighbouring countries have agreed on cross-border cooperation to control the virus outbreak. WHO's Dr Michel Yao, Director of Strategic Health Operation said, "We are dealing with quite fragile health systems including lack of capacity to address many public health challenges so dealing with both COVID and Ebola remains a challenge." Guinea reported 17 new cases of Ebola Virus yesterday while 8 deaths were reported due to virus. There were 579 contacts that were identified of which 93 per cent of them were reported. Last month, WHO shipped 11,000 doses of Ebola vaccines to Guinea after a cluster of Ebola cases were reported by the country's health officials. According to WHO, the Ebola virus causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea and is spread through contact with body fluids.

Read: Congo Reports New Case Of Ebola Virus Months After Ending Previous Outbreak

 

Read: 'Disease X': Doctors Fear 'new Diseases' More Contagious Than Ebola And COVID-19

 

Advertisement

Published March 5th, 2021 at 21:46 IST

Your Voice. Now Direct.

Send us your views, we’ll publish them. This section is moderated.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Trending Quicks

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Whatsapp logo