WHO to send Ebola vaccinations to Guinea

2021-02-18 16:21:10 GMT2021-02-19 00:21:10(Beijing Time) Sina English

AFP

In this file photo taken on June 28, 2014, a member of Doctors Without Borders putting on protective gear at the isolation ward of the Donka Hospital in Conakry, where people infected with the Ebola virus are being treated.

The World Health Organization says it will be sending more than 11,000 Ebola vaccinations to the West African nation of Guinea in the coming days to combat the recent epidemic of the deadly hemorrhagic fever that has been declared in the country’s southern N’Zerekore region.

WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said on Thursday that 11,000 Ebola vaccines are being prepared in Geneva and are expected to arrive in Guinea over the weekend. 

An additional 8,600 doses will be shipped from the United States. The vaccination campaign could start as early as Monday.

“Thirty vaccination experts have already been mobilized locally and are ready to deploy as soon as Ebola vaccines arrive in the country,” she said.

The WHO has called on six African countries to be on high alert for Ebola infections after both Guinea and Congo recorded cases.

“The sub-region is on high alert and surveillance in neighboring countries is ongoing,” she said.

“Our collective, quick action is crucial to avert an uncontrolled spread of Ebola amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has already pushed health workers and health facilities to the edge.”

Guinea’s epidemic was declared after a crisis meeting on Sunday, less than a month after health officials detected suspicious cases with patients with symptoms of diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding.

The sick had participated in the burial of a nurse who had died in late January and was buried on February 1 in Gouake, in the country’s south.

Traditional funerals in which people wash and touch the body of the deceased facilitate the spread of Ebola. It usually jumps to humans from infected animals, such as bats, and then spreads between humans via bodily fluids.

As of Thursday, Guinea has recorded three confirmed Ebola cases, including one death. Health officials hope to stem the spread of Ebola in West Africa, which experienced the deadliest outbreak in history from 2014 to 2016 that killed more than 11,300 people.

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