Last Saturday, June 19, the World Health Organization declared that the second Ebola outbreak in Guinea is officially over. The outbreak was recorded in February this year which claimed 12 lives but infected a total of 16 people and seven probable infections.
The health agency credited the limited size of the infections this year to the country's experience from a previous Ebola outbreak that happened from 2013 to 2016, killing 11,300 people in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
"I have the honor of declaring the end of Ebola" in Guinea, said WHO official Alfred Ki-Zerbo, as quoted by Science Alert.
International rules of declaring the outbreak was over means that guinea had to wait for 42 days. twice the incubation period of Ebola, without any new cases before they are declared to be Ebola-free. That wait ended last week on Friday, June 18, weeks after the last person was declared cured on May 8.
Second Ebola Outbreak in Guinea
The first Ebola cases in Guinea were identified in late January, while it was only on February 13, an outbreak was declared, The Scientist reported.
The Ebola virus is known to linger in the body of the cured person, which could trigger a spread of the disease it is reactivated. The longest interval that had been recorded was 500 days in Guinea.
Taking inspiration from the first Ebola outbreak that happened five years ago, scientists thought that the second outbreak might have also originated from animals.
Three separate studies sequence the genome of the Ebola virus from the current and the 2013-2016 outbreaks. One of the findings, published in virological.org, stated that the samples shared several mutations, although it is unlikely that the 2021 Ebola outbreak is due to a new spillover from the animal reservoir. Instead, the 2021 Ebola outbreak is linked to human cases in 2013-2016 West Africa Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
Infectious disease expert Eric Delaporte of the University of Montpellier said that a new outbreak that started from the latent infection five years ago after an epidemic is scary and new.
Second Ebola Outbreak in Guinea is Officially Over, Who Declares
In a news release by WHO, it declares the official end of the second Ebola outbreak in Guinea, which was first detected in the rural community of Goecke, a place in southern N'zerekore prefecture, where the first outbreak also started spreading.
Shortly after the infections were detected, Guinea's health authorities mounted a swift response with the help of WHO and its partners. Tapping into the previous experience from the first outbreak, they were able to fight the recent outbreak in the country.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said that he commends everyone in their efforts that put an end to the outbreak. Based on the shared experience during the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak, the country's rapid and coordinated response efforts and community engagement made the public health measures effective.
Also, the equitable use of vaccines helped Guinea to control the outbreak and prevent it from spreading to other regions beyond its borders. Dr. Ghebreyesus promises that WHO's work continues to support the survivors to access post-illness care.
The health agency helped in the distribution of 24,000 Ebola vaccines and supported the vaccination of almost 11,000 people who are identified as high-risk and also frontline healthcare workers.
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