The shots are expected on Sunday and the vaccination campaign can start on Monday.
More than 11,000 Ebola vaccines are expected to arrive in Guinea’s capital Conakry on Sunday, after the country announced an Ebola outbreak last week.
World Health Organization regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, told reporters on Thursday that in addition to the 11,000 jabs expected to land from Geneva, an additional 8,600 will be shipped from the United States.
At the same press conference, Mohamed Lamine Yansane, a senior adviser to Guinea’s Minister of Health, told reporters that vaccines will be distributed immediately to start the vaccination campaign as early as Monday.
“We are strongly supported by the experience of the first wave of the Ebola epidemic,” said Yansane, referring to the outbreak that lasted from 2013-2016.
Guinea declared an Ebola epidemic on Feb. 14 after seven people became ill with diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding after attending a funeral in Goueke, near the Liberian border. So far, five people have died from the disease.
Authorities and international organizations are moving quickly to help Guinea prevent further spread of the disease. More than 100 experts are expected to be on site by the end of the month, says Moeti.
The UN health expert also stressed that it is “not at all likely” that Guinea would experience a similar situation to the previous Ebola outbreak, thanks to the country’s past response capacity and rapid coordination with other African countries.
The current outbreak is the first since a 2013-2016 epidemic – which started in Guinea – that killed 11,300 in West Africa. Most cases were in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Since the first detected case was in a neighboring area, Moeti said neighboring countries were extra vigilant about possible cross-border infections.
Liberia’s president, George Weah, on Sunday ordered health authorities to step up surveillance and preventive activities in the country following the outbreak in the neighboring country.
Meanwhile, Sierra Leone, in consultation with Guinea authorities, has sent workers to guard the border posts, a health ministry spokesman said.
The Guinea outbreak was declared a week after the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reported a resurgence of the virus in Butembo, the epicenter of an earlier outbreak declared last June. The country started a vaccination campaign against Ebola on Monday.
The 2013-2016 spread accelerated the development of the Ebola vaccine, with a global emergency supply of 500,000 doses planned to respond quickly to future outbreaks, Gavi said, The Vaccine Alliance said in January.