Day: June 19, 2021

The World Health Organization officially announced Saturday the end of Guinea’s second Ebola outbreak, which was declared in February and claimed 12 lives.

At 16 confirmed cases and seven probable infections, according to WHO figures, the limited size of the flare-up has been credited to experience from the 2013-16 epidemic, which killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

“I have the honor of declaring the end of Ebola” in Guinea, WHO official Alfred Ki-Zerbo said at a ceremony in the southeastern Nzerekore region, where the disease surfaced at the end of January.

International rules meant that Guinea had to wait 42 days — twice the virus’s incubation period — without a new case before declaring the epidemic over.

That wait was over Friday, weeks after the last person was declared cured on May 8, a senior health ministry official told AFP.

Health Minister Remy Lamah also declared the outbreak finished “in the name of the head of state,” President Alpha Conde.

Saturday’s event in a health ministry building was attended by around 200 people, including local religious and community leaders.

“We must also thank the communities who pitched in to overcome the disease,” the WHO’s Ki-Zerbo said.

Previous resistance

During last decade’s outbreak, reluctance and outright hostility toward anti-Ebola infection control measures led some people in Guinea’s forested southeast to attack and even kill government employees.

“Community engagement, effective public health measures and the equitable use of vaccines” had this time been key to overcoming Ebola, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.

The U.N. body said it had delivered about 24,000 vaccine doses to Guinea and that 11,000 people at high risk had received shots, including more than 2,800 frontline workers.

“We’ve beaten Ebola but let’s remain vigilant” read a banner unfurled at Saturday’s ceremony.

“We must stay alert for a possible resurgence and ensure the expertise in Ebola expands to other health threats such as COVID-19,” WHO Africa director Matshidiso Moeti said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement that genetic sequencing showed links between the previous outbreak and the latest epidemic.

This year’s outbreak could have been caused by “persistent infection in a survivor from the West Africa outbreak” back then, the CDC said, emphasizing “the necessity for strong and ongoing survivor programs,” as well as more research.

Ebola causes severe fever and, in the worst cases, unstoppable bleeding. It is transmitted through close contact with bodily fluids, and people who live with or care for patients are most at risk.

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA – African health officials are urgently appealing for vaccines to combat a third wave of COVID-19 surging across the continent.

The World Health Organization reports the number of African COVID-19 cases has exceeded 5 million and the disease has killed 136,000 people.

WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti says cases have been increasing over the past four weeks. She says new cases in the past week have risen by nearly 30% across the continent and deaths have increased by 15%.

She says five countries—South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Uganda, and Namibia—account for 76% of new coronavirus infections in Africa.

“Africa is in the midst of a full-blown third wave. The sobering trajectory of surging cases should rouse everyone to urgent action,” said Moeti. “We’ve seen in India and elsewhere how quickly COVID-19 can rebound and overwhelm health systems. Public health measures must be scaled up fast to find, test, isolate and care for patients and to quickly trace and isolate their contacts.”

Moeti says it is urgent that Africa quickly receive more vaccines as the circulation of more contagious variants across the continent is accelerating. She says the Delta variant, the most virulent strain, has been reported in 14 African countries, and the Beta and Alpha variants have been found in more than 25 countries.

She says 12 million people in Africa now are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. She welcomes the receipt of vaccine doses from the WHO COVAX sharing facility and from government donations that has made this possible.

However, she says those 12 million people represent less than 1% of Africa’s 1.3 billion population.

“At the continental level, we are seeing a rise in cases similar to the first wave peak in July 2020 and about 50% of the second wave peak in January 2021. … Africa needs millions more doses here and now to curb the third wave, and best practice approaches will be key to make the most of the available vaccines,” said Moeti.

WHO says Africa needs 200 million vaccine doses by the end of September to inoculate 10% of the population against the coronavirus. The European Union has pledged to donate 100 million doses to low-income countries and the United States has said it would provide 80 million doses to poorer countries.

Source: Voice of America