The deadly viral disease Ebola has reappeared in Africa, and health officials are rushing for vaccines and other measures to stop his propagation. As of Tuesday, there have been at least 11 cases and seven deaths in two countries, including Guinea, that had a massive outbreak in 2013 which eventually left 11,000 dead. Several other African countries are now on high alert.
In Guinea, at least seven cases have been reported since early February, with three victims dead so far. It is the first outbreak in the region since the 2013-2016 epidemic that spread to West Africa and even briefly targeted countries outside Africa, including the United States. It was the largest and deadliest Ebola outbreak in recorded history, with nearly 30,000 cases. and 11,000 deaths were reported.
Elsewhere, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in Central Africa, has it reported four cases during the same time period, with two deaths so far. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has faced most outbreaks of Ebola since the virus was discovered in 1976, including an outbreak that lasted from 2018 to 2020 and caused more than 2,000 deaths (the the second largest death toll). It is not yet known if outbreaks in Guinea and the DRC are connected. But according to Reuters, DRC officials have done so confirmed through genetic analysis its current cluster can be traced back to the previous outbreak of 2018. Genetic analysis of the virus found in Guinea is still underway and should give answers soon.
Monday, Guinea officially he declared an Ebola epidemic, while the DRC had done so on 7 February. The World Health Organization has done the same now alerted six countries bordering Guinea will be pending cases, including Liberia and Sierra Leone. ThosAll three countries were the hardest hit during the 2013-2016 epidemic.
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It has changed a lot since then, that is, the development of a highly effective vaccine by the company Merck, as well as antiviral drugs (the Merck vaccine was deployed briefly at the end of the 2014 outbreak but did not see widespread use of it until 2018). But Africa, like many parts of the world, is still facing the covid-19 pandemic. The WHO said on Tuesday that stored supplies of vaccines and medicines are being sent to Guinea and nearby countries. The United Nations too announced today he will assign $ 15 million in emergency aid funds to help respond to both countries.
Ebola is a zoonotic disease, meaning the virus is found natively in wildlife (probably bats) and then pours into people. If the DRC cluster is connected to a previous outbreak, this may indicate that it was somehow started through a human survive. In humans, it spreads through close contact with the body fluids of an infected person, which can include sex. Some people are known carry the virus months after surviving its ordeal, usually in parts of the body less controlled by the immune system, such as the eyes and sperm. At this time, it is not known how either of the two outbreaks began.
Symptoms Ebola include fever, headache, and muscle pain that can progress rapidly to severe and fatal internal bleeding. The Ebola mortality rate can range from 25% to 90%, although it is usually around 50%.