GENEVA (Reuters) – The World Health Organization has warned six countries to be wary of potential Ebola cases following new outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Guinea announced a new Ebola outbreak on Sunday in the first resurgence of the disease since the 2013-2016 outbreak, while the Democratic Republic of Congo reported a resurgence of the virus on Feb. 7.
“We have already warned the six surrounding countries, including of course Sierra Leone and Liberia, and they are moving very quickly to prepare and be ready and look for a possible infection,” Margaret Harris of WHO told a report. briefing in Geneva. She did not mention the other countries.
Harris added that health authorities had identified nearly 300 Ebola contacts in the outbreak in the Congo and about 109 in Guinea.
Gene sequencing of Ebola samples from both Congo and Guinea to learn about the origins of new outbreaks and identify the strains was underway, she said.
“We don’t know if this is due to Ebola persisting in the human population or if it is just moving away from the animal population, but the genetic sequence in progress will help with that information,” she said.
Reporting by Emma Farge and Emma Thomasson; Editing by Alison Williams