A woman has died of the Ebola virus in Liberia and hundreds of people in Guinea are to be given an experimental vaccine to help contain an outbreak.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), which last week declared that the international emergency was over, says more than 1,000 people in Guinea’s southern prefectures of Nzérékoré and Macenta who may have been in contact with eight people infected with the virus are being placed under medical observation.
Almost 800 have been vaccinated with the VSV-EBOV vaccine, which was trialled by Guinea’s Ministry of Health, WHO and partner agencies last year, and has so far been effective in preventing Ebola infection.
There have been eight cases of Ebola and seven deaths in Guinea since late February.
Meanwhile, WHO has revealed that a 30-year-old Liberian woman died on Thursday (31 March, 2016) while being transferred to a hospital in the capital Monrovia – the third flare-up of Ebola virus disease since its original outbreak was declared over on 9 May, 2015.
Infection prevention and disease control measures, including a public awareness campaign and other health promotion and community engagement activities, are taking place in the affected areas.
Tests from blood samples of the confirmed cases indicate that this latest cluster of Ebola stems from a known transmission chain and not a new chain introduced by the animal population.
WHO has warned flare-ups of the disease are likely in the coming months and that the three countries affected – Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia – must remain on high alert and ready to respond.
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