The deadly viral disease Ebola has resurfaced in Africa, and health officials are rushing vaccines and other measures to be spreadLast Tuesday, there were at least 11 cases and seven deaths in two countries, including Guinea a massive outbreak in 2013 ultimately resulting in 11,000 deathsSeveral other African countries are now on high alert.
At least seven in Guinea have fallen reported since the beginning of February, with three victims having died so far. It is the first outbreak in the region since the 2013-2016 epidemic that engulfed West Africa and even briefly made its way to countries outside Africa, including the U.S. It was the largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, with nearly 30,000 cases and 11,000 deaths have been reported.
Elsewhere, the Democratic Republic of the Congo – located in Central Africa – has reported four cases in the same period, with two deaths so far. The DRC has faced most of the Ebola outbreaks since the virus was first discovered in 1976, including an outbreak that ran from 2018 to 2020 that left more than 2,000 deaths (the second largest death toll ever). It is not yet known whether the outbreaks in Guinea and the DRC are related. But according to Reuters, DRC officials do confirmed through genetic analysis that their current cluster can be traced back to the previous outbreak in 2018. Genetic analysis of the virus found in Guinea is ongoing and should provide answers shortly.
Monday officially Guinea declared an Ebola epidemic, while the DRC had done so on February 7. The World Health Organization now has that too warned six countries bordering Guinea to look for cases, including Liberia and Sierra Leone. ThosThe three countries were most affected during the 2013-2016 epidemic.
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A lot has changed since then, namely the development of a highly effective vaccine by the Merck company, as well as antiviral drugs (Merck’s vaccine was deployed briefly at the end of the 2014 outbreak but only saw wide use in 2018). But Africa, like many parts of the world, is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic. The WHO said Tuesday that stockpiles of vaccines and medicines are being sent to Guinea and nearby countries. The United Nations too announced today it will assign $ 15 million in emergency relief funds to support the response in both countries.
Ebola is a zoonotic disease, meaning that the virus occurs naturally in wildlife (probably bats) and beyond overflows with people. However, if the DRC cluster is connected to a previous outbreak, that could indicate that it was somehow started by a human survivor. In humans, it is spread through close contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids, including sex. Some people are known to carry the virus for months after surviving their ordeal, usually in parts of the body less controlled by the immune system, such as the eyes and sperm. At present, it is not known how either outbreak started.
Symptoms from Ebola include fever, headache, and muscle pain that can rapidly progress to severe and fatal internal bleeding. The death rate from Ebola can range from 25% to 90%, although it usually hovers around 50%.